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Twice weekly for the duration of IST 2005 Daniel Bennett, CAJE Executive Director will share IST information and commentary with you. Daniel has been to Israel 13 times, led the IST trip three times over the last twenty years, and enjoys sharing his reflections with you. All of his entries will be preserved on this web-link, with the most recent appearing first. Index to Updates:
Wednesday, July 27, 2005Six weeks ago I shared with you that the day our teenagers began their CAJE IST journey was one of the two most exciting days for us. Yesterday, with G-d’s help, they returned safely – and that’s our other favorite day! On reunification day at DIA the parents headed home with their exuberant, exhausted teenagers whose lives have been changed, forever. Yesterday for CAJE means we have completed the task of introducing these Jewish teenagers to their homeland, to their Judaism and to themselves in a brand new way, that we've equipped them with a very important toolbox that will serve them throughout their lives as adults and as Jews. We are proud of their families and of them for choosing this experience, and CAJE is honored to have provided it again to the community. As we stood in front of the DIA fountain and witnessed the faces of each young man or women as they emerged, witnessed the hugs the teenagers had both for friends and parents and for each other, heard their tales, felt their excitement - we knew that these were souls who had taken a sacred step. (Their bodies, on the other hand, took each step only with the aide of adrenaline – and I know that they will sleep well for a few nights, at least.) As each individual entered the loving embrace of friends and family, each was returning to a world they left six weeks ago that will never look quite the same to them. Most will begin the long reunion schedule of formal and informal post-IST events; most will voluntarily return to CAJE Hebrew High, despite demanding senior-year schedules – some will return for the academics, all for the connections. And we will smile and weep with them at their CAJE Hebrew High graduation ceremony next spring because we will know that thanks in part to the journey of CAJE IST 2005 the Jewish world will be in loving, committed, confident, and capable hands in this next generation. CAJE is honored to run the Israel Study Tour, made strong in part because of the ongoing partnership with the synagogues and the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado. I've very much enjoyed writing to you these last two months, and I hope I've helped you feel closer to the experiences of our teenagers. Please call us or e-mail me (dbennett@caje-co.org) with questions or feedback. I hope to see you at CAJE’s 7th annual dinner celebration honoring Gene Kay and Rabbi Ray Zwerin on August 31st, 2005. Your ongoing support for CAJE means that CAJE will be able to continue providing experiences like CAJE IST 2005. May the remainder of your summer (which is going far too quickly!) be filled with love, blessings and growth. L:’shalom! Daniel Monday, July 25, 2005With joy and tears I write my final communiqué before the kids return to us tomorrow. I always write an additional communiqué after they return, but for now the excitement of Israel in the present tense remains; what a past few days! What a great and challenging culmination to a wonderful, emotional summer. Last week one of our CAJE ISTers, Ben Einhorn, headed home early from Israel to be with his critically ill mother who passed away in Denver shortly after he arrived here. What a difficult and emotional passage for him and for his new friends who came to understand deeper than many what it feels like to grieve. Before Shabbat when the group planted trees - for decades a JNF symbol of life – in Jerusalem’s forest, they did so in Stephanie Einhorn’s memory and also in memory of Rachel Small, an ISTer from 2001 who they never knew. We often speak of Israel as a mixture of challenge and blessing, of sorrow and rejoicing; seldom do we feel those polar opposites as strongly as we have this last week of CAJE IST 2005. But in challenge a group bonds even more strongly! They dedicated the final talent show to Ben, walked the Temple tunnels and marveled at the archaeological feats that enable 21st century American Jewish kids to feel such a deep connection to the Jerusalem of Temple times! When they discovered that several group members had money stolen from them while in Eilat last week, they took up a collection without the staff even knowing to replace the lost shekels, and they made plans to stay connected to each other next year. We know from experience that many of them will stay connected to Israel and to each other for decades more… This morning as the teenagers ventured on one final Jerusalem shopping expedition, gazed at the Kotel through different eyes than they did in June - for they are, indeed, changed young women and men, and attended the final banquet, many of us were at the Hebrew Educational Alliance with the Einhorn family saying goodbye to Stephanie. Ben was with the group in spirit as they were with him in strength. As I write these words our teenagers are in the air on their overseas flight back to the States, and will complete the final leg to Denver tomorrow morning. And I’ll be back with some final thoughts later in the week. I’ll tell you about the excited hellos at DIA and the impact of these past six weeks. And when they aren’t visiting each others’ homes to relive and hold on, our teenagers will be sleeping and sleeping and sleeping. We can’t wait… Daniel Thursday, July 21, 2005CAJE IST has departed from the sun and fun of Israel’s south and arrived at the Dead Sea Region, the world’s lowest geographic location. On their way they met and rode some accommodating camels, dined in a Bedouin camp, and experienced a part of Middle Eastern culture that is vanishing rapidly. But no trip to Israel is complete without the Dead Sea, Masada, and Ein Gedi. For many teenagers this one day is a highlight of the entire summer. After a few hours’ sleep at the mountain's base, our teens climbed the Roman ramp - an artificial mountain built to conquer Masada - and watched the sun rise over the Dead Sea. I've found few views in my life more spectacular, peaceful, spiritual. Looking down from Masada’s summit fuses our Jewish past with Israel’s present reality in a way few other moments can capture. "Masada shall not fall again,” became the informal slogan of the Jewish State by the 1960's. The barren mesa in the Dead Sea Region had been fortified by King Herod in the first century to protect him from enemies both real and imagined. And when Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 C.E., a small band of zealots retreated to the fortress and taunted the Romans from the top. Josephus, the historian tells us that they poured water over the side to taunt the soldiers who were dehydrated in the sun below. But the Romans used slave labor - mostly Jewish slave labor - over the next three years to build their infamous “ramp,” to bring their war machines to the palace walls. What they found were corpses, Jews who chose to die by their own hand rather than submit to torture and slavery. Much of CAJE IST’s tour of the Masada’s ruins was completed before the sun was overhead – the Dead Sea region is beyond scorching in the summer time. Our teenagers visited the massive ruins of Herod's palaces, spent time in the remains of one of the first synagogues ever built, relaxed in a cistern the size of our Federation building(!!), and worked to integrate the history of that transformative period of Jewish history twenty centuries ago. When they descended from the summit, they still had the whole day in front of them, including the annual Dead Sea experience (read a paper, try to swim, keep the water out of your eyes, and take pictures) and a magnificent hike in Nahal David, a location that echoes with both stories from King David’s time and the sound of great waterfalls, too. Ask the teenagers when they return what, “Masada shall not fall again,” means to them in light of the last five decades of Israeli history and in light of the last five years of intifada and terrorism. We are all grateful that there have been few terrorist incidents in Israel during our visit, but what does the future hold? One of our main goals is to challenge our young people to ask the hard questions, and the answers are never clear. All Israelis agree that Masada must not fall again, and they wonder - as do we - what combination of strength, negotiation, compromise, determination, and courage today will best achieve that result. Monday’s communiqué will be my final one before the group leaves Israel Mixed feelings for all of us, of course… Daniel Monday, July 18, 2005The Republic of the Negev doesn’t exist, but in many ways Israel's south seems like a different county, a land far away from the Israel we read about in our newspapers and hear about on CNN, a place filled with sea and sand and sun and sun and sun and sun. Not that we in Colorado don’t know something about sun and heat this summer, too. And not that our teenagers need a special invitation to enjoy things like snorkeling, sunbathing, and free time shopping on Eilat's seaside promenade. Since CAJE and Shovalim staff consist of overprotective parents and teachers, we adhere to the strictest of security provisions and do not allow our teenagers too much free time in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; so the opportunity to shpatzir and shop in Eilat was a welcome one for our group. I can predict with confidence that many of you will receive gifts from your children purchased this week in Eilat. CAJE ISTers work hard learning, touring, growing, even shopping - but they play hard, too! Eilat offers swimming and snorkeling in the Red Sea, and an evening disco boat cruise in the gulf. All in all, Eilat earned its reputation as Israel's favorite port-of-call. And now, a cautious disclaimer: You know all this already. With teenagers it is important to set limits - but not too many. So IST has a clear expectation about really important things, like rules concerning alcohol and other drugs and regulations concerning safety and group dynamics. I am proud to tell you that our staff reports very few concerns in any of these areas! I also must tell you that although we strongly discourage the practice of tattooing and piercing, we do not set rules in this area, and some see this as an IST rite of passage. So, while most of your children were mere spectators, we understand that the body-artists in Eilat are counting their profits this evening. As a step-dad of two young men who are both former CAJE ISTers, I’m available to commiserate… CAJE IST’s Eilat visit always culminates with the Mt. Zefahot hike. We fully expected the teenagers to complain loudly as we awoke them before sunrise to climb it. But they gasped as they watched the sun rise in the east over Saudi Arabia, gazed on Egypt to the west and Jordan to the north. The Gulf of Eilat stretched out to the south, its waters flowing past Sinai’s shores to the Red Sea. After appreciating not only on the beauty and the majesty - but how much Israel is truly bound by her geography: our neighbors are really very near by! – we descended to bid farewell to the Negev and have some breakfast. So, for us in Colorado, let’s ask ourselves, “what did we do before breakfast today?” Daniel July 14, 2005Tonight our teens are sleeping deeply in Tel Aviv, the quintessential Israeli city. While Jerusalem captures our soul, Tel Aviv captures the pulse of modern Israel: fast-paced, culture-packed, modern, high-tech, fashion-conscious, and culturally-diverse. Conceived and built from the sand dunes up by Israelis over the last century, more Israelis live here and in its suburbs than anywhere else in the country. IST visits for the culture, for the experience…and mostly for the history – an understanding of how Israel came to be less than 60 years ago. From the old city of Jaffa with its quaint art galleries to Independence Hall where Ben Gurion declared Israel’s independence after the UN resolution in 1948, our teens followed metaphorically the path the pioneers of Israel’s past traveled. It’s amazing that a nation as small as Israel is not only so geographically diverse but also so culturally diverse. Standing in the heart of Tel Aviv only the Hebrew street and store signs reveal one’s location: this could be any modern European city! So, as important as a taste of Tel Aviv is for our teenagers, we have decided that more of our programming time is spent each summer in areas that are uniquely Israeli. And for the purpose of seeing and feeling the country, much of our time is spent in nature, away from urban life. We were fortunate to be no where near this week’s terrorist attack in Netanya, but as our Israeli staff always does, we moved quickly to reassess our movements and change some planned program locations. It’s important to carry on, but we always err on the side of safety and caution. A exciting word about this upcoming Shabbat: CAJE IST will follow the tradition of the summer of 2004 and create their own Shabbat experiences – teens and staff members - in small groups at selected kibbutzim and moshavim around the country. From soup to nuts the teens will plan, shop, cook, pray, and celebrate a Shabbat of their own design. I suggest you remind them of the cooking, cleaning and shopping when they return to errands during their senior year in Colorado! And the way the summer is flying by, that won’t be long! L’Shalom, Daniel Monday July 11, 2005Shalom! Welcome to CAJE IST 2005 Options Week! As I’ve stressed before, group building and group identity is a strong value of this summer’s trip. But so is individual development and choice. And so, annually, our teens choose which experience they like to have during the summer’s fourth week. Our largest contingent this year, as usual, selected Gadna, always popular among our teenagers. I remember my own step sons telling me that they could never imagine volunteering to spend a regimented three days in a paramilitary environment at home, but somehow it feels natural to do so on CAJE IST. Participating in Israel Defense Force training our teenagers gladly rose with the dawn, exercised hard every day, and learned to accept even arbitrary discipline. Honest! Kitchen (KP) duty, long hikes in poorly-fitting army fatigues – I’m sure they’ll be picturesque tomorrow morning after their army overnight. For many the experience was a way to come to know what their peers in Israel will experience when they graduate high school in just one short year. For others it is a chance to try on a foreign way of life, and struggle with the question, "could I ever do this?" May the day come soon when military realities are no longer a major part of Israeli society, when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation." Our other group selected to spend their three days in Ramat Negev, Colorado’s partnership region. Our community has already established some wonderful exchange programs with that community, and our teens added their mark to this frontier region of Israel’s developing society. Availing themselves of home hospitality, they have experienced the best the Negev has to offer: meals in Bedouin tents, jeep rides through the most deserted wilderness landscapes, paintball at midnight (not sure what that has to do with Israel’s Negev frontier, but it sounds fun!)…Most importantly, the teens took time to perform community service, to give back to the community by cleaning up the neighborhood of unwanted items and trash. Try to get them to do that at home… Which reminds me: CAJE IST is a program designed to connect our kids to Israel. But we strive to connect them to a real nation as well as the spiritual ideal. We often forget that the ills of society – pollution, domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness – do not escape Jewish communities; and it’s important to work hard to affirm that these problems exist among us in order to help those in need of intervention. Ben Gurion dreamed of a normal society for the Jews, one where even the garbage collectors and prostitutes were Jewish. For all its good and bad, such a society we now have. And as partners with G-d in Tikkun Olam it is our responsibility to keep our eyes open to reality and lend a helping hand. Our options groups will rejoin each other on Wednesday. They'll catch up on stories and get a good night's sleep (defined as more that 4 hours!) before touring Tel Aviv, experiencing small group Shabbatot, and then traveling south. More to follow! Daniel Thursday, July 7, 2005I’m amazed to realize that this week CAJE IST reaches its half way point! We spend an entire year recruiting, worrying, working with over one hundred families and their teenagers, planning. We spend countless hours counseling individual families, securing the best staff available, and working with our Israeli partners. But now as the teenagers prepare to complete their stay in Israel’s north time seems to accelerate. It won’t be long before the teens greet us at DIA as different young men and women than those who departed on June 16th. Each group, each CAJE IST trip, has its own unique personality: some groups we describe as curious, searching; others as dynamic, determined; still others as willing to push each other to grow. This year’s group is the best of each, personified by its experience with the forest fire, a natural event that Risa Buckstein characterizes as doing for our teens what no outward-bound program could do. This is truly a group in the best sense of the word, responsible, fully present and punctual in a way that has eluded other CAJE IST groups. Our prayer for them is that they continue to push themselves to see beyond their former ways of seeing themselves and the world; we have continued confidence that this will be so. All of this makes them fantastic ambassadors for Colorado and North America in Israel. Steve Glickman has now returned to CAJE, leaving the teenagers in the highly capable hand of our trip leaders and staff – American and Israeli. The American staff is assembled by CAJE, and our Israeli staff by former Denverite and Jerusalem resident Steve Zerobnick. The bonding of the two staff’s into one is a critical factor in a successful summer for the kids, and once again through hard work we see that bond beginning to strengthen. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Steve Zerobnick, CAJE's Israeli partner, the founder and director of Shovalim, the former Israel Studies Institute (ISI) in Jerusalem. Steve is truly our partner, worrying about sick teens as much as we do, concerned about security as much as we all are. Year after year Shovalim’s staff is the best assembled for any teen tour, and Steve's intuition and programmatic skills are invaluable. Shovalim staff love our children and feel the responsibility for their safety as strongly as we do. Indeed, without a partner like Shovalim on the ground in Israel I'm not sure CAJE IST would be as successful year after year. Meanwhile the Alyn bike ride (raising $3,000 for the hospital!), an expensive visit to the Naot sandal factory, swimming in the Kineret, more hiking, and Shabbat in the 19th century city of Zichron Ya’akov will usher in Options’ Week. But that’s next week, after our 3d Shabbat in Israel. May yours be as restful as I know CAJE IST’s will be. Daniel W. Bennett Tuesday, July 05, 2005CAJE IST is spending a wonderful week in Israel’s north, a region that invites the teenagers to connect both spiritually and physically with Israel. Today’s communiqué offers a window into each. Spiritual: In this fast-paced world of ours, many of us yearn to discover truly spiritual experiences, ones that propel us to transcend our normal daily existence. Last Shabbat in the Israeli city of Tzefat, watching the sun set over the ancient hills ranks up there among the best. Centuries ago those hills were filled with the spirit that brought Judaism Kabbalah, our mystical tradition. And as Shabbat descended on our IST teenagers this past Friday night, they were all a part of that tradition, together singing L’cha Dodi as they looked out over the ancient stone city. Winding north from the Sea of Galilee toward Tsfat (also called Zefat or Safed), driving through groves of mountain pines, feeling the crisp mountain air, one can almost taste Colorado. But there the similarities end. Our teenagers toured ancient synagogues, visited modern art galleries and a candle factory, worshipped in synagogues in continuous use for centuries. It’s hard to visit any site in Israel without feeling like you are part of our people’s history. In Colorado, a two hundred year-old building is preserved as historic; many of the six hundred year-old buildings in Tsfat are still in use. Physical: Our connection to the physical land of Israel, and the natural world in Israel is wonderful, indeed, and that connection is one we emphasize throughout the summer. Water is a constant theme in Israel: there is so little, and with the building boom and population increase its importance is magnified. Sound familiar? But the days are hot and the tour days are long, so we get the teens to water as often as possible. Traveling in Israel’s north is a marked contrast to the teens’ wilderness experience of a few short days ago. This small country is amazingly diverse in its topography, its climate. The hikes in the north are green and lush – we call them water hikes – and they follow the Jordan River’s tributaries; indeed, he water Israelis drink in Tel Aviv flows from these northern streams. Our hikes include some natural pools for swimming (can’t pass those up), a refreshing waterfall (can’t pass up getting really wet there, either), and a lookout point worth a few photographs. But Colorado’s summer dryness is mirrored by Israel’s: forest fires are a reality of life. Thank G-d that our hike through Nahal Devorah this week left all of our teenagers healthy and with a great story to tell! While we in Colorado watched fireworks and savored American independence and all the gifts and responsibilities that freedom brings, our ISTers escaped a close call with a forest fire, a CAJE IST first! On both sides of the ocean Coloradoans savored safety and freedom without getting burned! I’ll look forward to sharing with you IST’s additional northern adventures in my next message prior to this coming Shabbat. Daniel Thursday, June 30, 2005After a three-day wilderness experience and some much needed shopping time in the Druze village of Mukchraka (the wonderful native bronze and wool craftwork and other items necessary to survival in the western world have left lightened many an ISTer’s wallet), our kids sleep deeply in one of Israel ancient holy cities, Tzfat. It will be a time for reflection, a time for spiritual connections of a new kind. We've now finished the most psychologically demanding part of CAJE IST (Poland) and the most physically demanding part of the tour (the wilderness experience in the Northern Negev.) One highlight was a hike through terrain that included dry river bed or wadis and barren hills. Israelis call the hills “mountains,” but that's because they've never seen Pike's Peak... The Negev for our teenagers has been formidable, and we’ve watched them bond through their challenges: they helped each other carry heavy packs, shared water (even when we told them that wasn't the healthiest practice), sang songs to lift their spirits, doctored each other through scrapes, bug bites, twisted ankles, minor dehydration and bruises, and cheered each other on when the road seemed too long. And they did it all without indoor plumbing and toilets! The wilderness experience helps each individual to realize quickly that he or she is capable of accomplishing much more than they originally thought – which is an integral part of IST. The IST tour has a breakneck pace: we want our teens feel Israel in every pore of their bodies. And it’s hard to convince teenagers to take advantage of the precious few sleeping hours they do have. Mix in physical challenges, those shared water bottles we talked about above, new germs, close quarters…and illness and injury is a fact of life on all of our IST tours, especially in the beginning. Fortunately this year our kids’ illnesses and injuries have been minor. Just in case, our staff always includes army-trained medics and on-call doctors. Teenagers are resilient, and once they recover they step right back into the swing of things. But it is hard to be sick or injured far from home! In Israel CAJE gives them lots of TLC and from Denver as Shabbat approaches we send them all love and kisses. Soon they will awaken and join in the rhythm of the northern mystical city of Tsfat as it prepares for Shabbat. First, some more shopping! Tsfat is so special on so many levels…but let’s leave that for my next communiqué. Daniel Monday, June 27, 2005Dear Friends: We won’t return for another Jerusalem Shabbat until our last week in Israel, but the memory of this one will remain for some time. Even a concert by Israeli rock-star-with-Denver-connections Yehudah Katz after Havdalah, a Sunday journey back 2,000 years on an archaeological dig on Mount of Olives, and a well-deserved dip in the cool waters of the Mediterranean Sea have not dimmed the Shabbat lights. Sunset, two candles, sun rise, sunset again, and another candle: the glow of a sacred city during a sacred moment remains. But there are other special Israel scenes already etched in our teens’ memories… If you've ever stood on a windswept rock ledge in the Negev wilderness with the sun setting behind you as you looked down on the hills of Jordan to the east - perhaps you can picture what our ISTers saw. If your adventure followed a dawn to dusk uphill hike during a three-day wilderness experience -you might know what they were thinking. But you'd have to be a seventeen year old Colorado ISTer standing on that ledge with 44 friends to have any understanding of what they felt. For those of you who were lucky enough in your youth to attend summer camp or go on a teen tour, you know that the pace is packed and intense, that each day seems like a week, each week a month. Friendships are created quickly, and deep bonds with physical places are made quickly and usually sustained. Add to that a challenging desert experience that we've found to be the best medium for group building and personal accomplishment, and you begin to appreciate the magic of IST. Israel’s Negev is a wonderful wilderness, seemingly barren but filled with plant and animal life. It is dry, but look out for flash floods during the winter months. And all signs of civilization disappear five minutes from the road. What better place to explore one's spirituality than the Israeli wilderness? What better place to do some serious group building than the very place where 3200 years ago Joshua and Caleb told Moses and the community that with G-d's help we can do anything? Our teenagers may have asked themselves the same questions Moses’ twelve scouts asked as they set out to do a reconnaissance of the land: is the journey going to be safe? what are the people who live there really like? is this place really the land for me? will I really be able to call Israel "home?" For now CAJE IST provides more questions that answers; we are proud that the framework for each ISTer to find those answers is being built as you read these words. L’Shalom, Daniel Thursday, June 23, 2005With the dreary skies of Poland in our rear view mirror, our 45 ISTers and staff arrived in Israel tired, reflective, and mostly excited. We are grateful to the Colorado community that supports our teens’ Poland experience; it is critical for all of us to understand who we are as Jews. But we are equally grateful to leave that experience behind. Our teenagers are beginning a journey as Abraham and Sarah did almost four thousand years ago. First: Jerusalem, city of gold! Our sages taught us that there are two Jerusalems: a heavenly Jerusalem in our hearts and souls, one that represents our fondest dreams and aspirations; and an earthly Jerusalem where our work is to bring healing and blessing to our world, where the daily work of repairing the world is formidable. That dichotomy will repeat itself throughout this summer. A new chapter in the lives of our 17-year olds has begun as they walk the Judean hills among the sacred stones where for four millennia the history of our people has been forged. Like Abraham and Sarah’s journey, the value of our teens’ experience this trip will be directly proportional to their choices this summer; so far we have reason to be very optimistic. Steve Zerobnick, an ex-Denverite runs the Israel Studies Institute (ISI), has been our tour provider and partner in Israel for as many summers as we can remember. When I’m asked to explain why CAJE IST is once again one of the largest community-based teenage group from North America in Israel this summer, I always include in my answer our relationship with ISI and with Steve. We joke that his staff is really CAJE’s eastern branch, and in many ways it is true: not only are they among the finest educators and role models in Israel, but they love our children and value their safety as much as we do. I hope many of you will have an opportunity to meet them in the future. Our group is really beginning to come together, from providing comfort to one another in Poland to sharing excitement as they read their Kotel letters – the words of wisdom their loved-ones wrote for them weeks ago. Our counselors report that it was a very special moment, sprinkled with a variety of emotional responses. Students approached the Wall in awe, spent some private moments, and sang and danced to the music of a fellow visitor who brought his guitar. It was a special and spontaneous time for our IST'ers! We are settling in for a 5-day stay in Jerusalem which will end when the group heads to the wilderness to discover…well, that’s the next communiqué’s story. Today they are visiting the ancient city of David, the Jewish quarter of the old city, and walking a lot. And talking a lot, as well, about what “disengagement” and the peace process might mean for the ancient/new land they will grow to love. Tomorrow they will witness as Jerusalem prepares for Shabbat – and they
will realize why. Like Abraham and Sarah’s sojourn, ours holds the
possibility of new discovery and spiritual awakening. Shalom, shalom, Daniel Monday, June 20We never know whether the press will cover CAJE IST’s annual departure, and we took it as a good sign that no press joined our ceremony at DIA last Wednesday: it meant that for the news media Israel travel is again approaching normalcy. Normalcy for us means tearful and expectant goodbyes by parents, wise words and prayers from our rabbis and synagogue representatives, excitement from the kids and long lines for baggage screening. But there is never anything ordinary about taking Jewish teenagers on an adventure sure to change them as young men and women, connect them with one another and themselves, and cement their lifelong ties to Israel and the Jewish People. The flights were uneventful, and our group of 45 is already moving through its unforgettable Poland experience – a physically and psychologically difficult way to begin a six-week journey. But there is great wisdom in beginning by experiencing a land that gave birth and death to so much of the 20th century Jewish vision. Our staff has been joined by Rabbi Levi Cooper, who has been a treasure again this year; he is an historical guide and storyteller who mesmerizes the teens with his Hasidic stories and historical anecdotes. Poland was the center of world Jewry just sixty-five years ago, and our walking tour of Warsaw included visits to a museum, a theater, and the Warsaw memorials at the site of the old ghetto and uprising in 1944. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, a place so vast and rich in history one enters in gates and is transported to another world… Shabbat included worship in this ancient land where we can still hear the echoes of the millions of Jews who walked before us, a festive dinner and a program where the participants shared their family ties to Poland and Europe, and a walking tour of old town Warsaw - an area that was rebuilt from scratch following the devastation of WWII. Then the inevitable - the camps. Majdenek is still intact, and is so powerful an image that speaking aloud is difficult. We walked silently through barracks, showers, crematoria. Then we walked in awe through an enormous grassy field called Treblinka. In stark contrast to Majdenek no remnant of the death camp there remains, but sculpted railroad tracks and monuments – some large and some very small - remind us of each Jewish community destroyed by genocide. Each visit leaves questions and reminds us that human cruelty can be unsurpassed. We are also reminded that each of us has the capacity to bring healing to the world or - given the right set of circumstances – to become monsters and succumb to our darkest inclinations. The real message of the Holocaust, perhaps, is that our job is to flood that dark part of each other and ourselves with light so that it never becomes empowered. The American and Israeli staff speaks highly of our teenagers – already. The bond between the counselors and the kids is a vital part of the trip’s success, and Poland provides an important opportunity for bonding and mentorship. CAJE IST Poland is a deeply emotional experience marked by sadness, anger, and finally resolve. How can one visit camps of destruction and witness what happened without being forever changed? CAJE feels so honored every year to provide this life-changing Jewish Poland experience for our community’s teenagers – but we can’t wait until they are in Israel – soon! I’ll report back shortly. Please check the website for updates I will write every Monday and Thursday, or call CAJE 303-321-3191 x228 for voice updates. |
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