July 9, 2012
Today was a transit day. Thanks to Magda who arranged our
train from Krakow to Warsaw, met us at our hotel, arranged taxis, and sat with
us on the train to ensure that we knew which Warsaw station to disembark.
Marci, Shayna, Magda
We have one night in the very fancy Bristol Hotel in
Warsaw.
Free gourmet chocolates. I'll take 7, please.
We grabbed a quick sushi lunch, which was a treat. We’ve resisted sushi so far, fearful about
how far the nearest ocean might be..
When we saw that this restaurant was charging $8 per sushi, we knew it
was the real deal. Expensive but really
good.
Helise met us and we walked to her offices, learning about
the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, the destruction of WWII and its
reconstruction.
The Warsaw Ghetto border
On the left, Helise's office (former site of the Great Synagogue.) On the right, the Jewish archives.
The Jewish Archives, Warsaw
Helise's office
We encouraged Helise to
read the blog and told her that we mentioned her a lot. Just in case we haven’t: Helise.
Helise. Helise. Helise.
Helise’s husband, Yale (and that does count for another
Helise mention) runs the genealogy center and we spent some time with Anna who
worked the computerized records of Jewish residents to locate the name,
birthday, and birthplace of Marci’s great great grandfather. This was very exciting….not only because it
was a brand new generation (of old) that we’ve identified but also because I
learned how to search eastern European Jewish records on the web. So much for all those other projects on the
list. Good news: we located another
ancestral town. Bad News: Its in Ukraine
and we just left Ukraine. Good News: Its
on the other side of Ukraine (with two towns from the Dollinger side) so we
wouldn’t be able to visit anyway. Helise
said we’d just have to visit on our next trip.
Helise then toured us to the construction site of the new
Museum of the History of the Jews of Poland, an INCREDIBLE building with
stunning architectural design that fills nearly an entire city block. It will open next year and will be a critical
cultural and historical institution in Warsaw civic life, not to mention Polish
Jewish life.
Helise in front of images of the Museum
As if that wasn’t enough, Helise and Yale hosted us for a
wonderful dinner at Rambam, Warsaw’s kosher restaurant. We met Helise and Yale’s daughter, Nitzan, one of the community’s rabbis, as well as a USY youth tour traveling from
Poland to Israel, as well as….well….just a whole lot of Jewish people, most of
whom are Orthodox, who gather there to eat just as it quickly becomes a social
center for Warsaw’s Jewish community.
Tomorrow….Bialystok, home of my Zadie’s family, by way of
Treblinka concentration camp….what a day!
I just returned from Poland (May 20, 2013.) When hearing this,your father, Malin, was kind enough to contact you so that I could visit your blog.The Museum of the History of the Jews of Poland in Warsaw is now open. It is as stunning on the inside as the architecture appears on the outside.Still a work in progress,it details the long history of the Jews in Poland with multiple exhibits,including a reconstructed synagogue. Much of the museum is interactive and geared towards children. The interior is still not complete, but serves as yet another reason to re-visit Poland in the future. Thank you for sharing your blog with me!
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