The past two days we have been in the city of Krakow. Personally, Krakow is a lot more interesting, mainly because of the architecture and the atmosphere. Yesterday, we spent a few hours walking around the Jewish Quarter of Krakow and looking at how the Jews lived before the war. Most of the buildings are older, unlike in Warsaw where most of the city had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed during the war. The contrast between the two cities is interesting because Krakow was mostly not destroyed and therefore looks very different from Warsaw.
For me, never having been to Europe before, Krakow was interesting because I actually felt like I was in another country, where as in Warsaw, it felt like it could have been another American city--besides everything being written in Polish.

We had a few hours to walk around on our own in a section of Krakow yesterday. There was a market there and a lot of little shops. It was a beautiful day, and there were tons of pigeons walking/flying around in the square! It was interesting to walk around and look at the different shops and actually use the Polish currency we converted. The zloty is worth only about 33 cents in America, so all the prices were a lot higher than we are used to seeing in America, so we had to keep in mind that it was different, and we were constantly figuring out how much American money it actually cost.

We went to an Orthodox synagogue for Friday night services which was interesting because I have only ever been in one Orthodox temple before. This synagogue was architecturally inspired by a lot of Christian churches and was very big with a lot of details in the woodworks. After that we went to dinner and then back to the hotel for the night.

Today we got to walk around the part of Krakow that was the ghetto during the war. We then had free time before going for a walk along the river. We had a chance to talk to two Polish girls. One of them had lived in Israel for 9 years, and they are both living in Amsterdam now, but were in Poland for the summer. They had stories to share with us about their parents and grandparents who come from mixed families and the kinds of things they have experienced and what it is like to live in Krakow and go to school here. It is always interesting to hear things from multiple perspectives and not assume that something is one way just because you hear it from one person, because there are always more sides of the story.

We have had a couple of lighter days, but we are preparing to go the Auschwitz tomorrow. It is impossible to explain everything that goes on in a single day at one time because we are constantly seeing new things, but we are all doing our best to take in everything, take tons of pictures and remember as much as we can in order to get the most out of our experience and share what we have learned from others.

(Nahoma Presberg)

Friday
Well this trip has showed me the true side of the world. Poland and Polish people despise Jews or have a negative feeling towards them because of the holocaust. when I first showed up to Poland I was surprised of the looks of the civilians. After I obtained my luggage I went through the exit and their was a crowed of people for a welcome home people but it wasn’t for us and that they gave mean stares and jesters. When we showed up to the 3 graves I thought of what happened than put images through my head and realized that my family could have been there. When I showed to the concentration camp I was scared and nervous because I new what I was going to see and I saw it in movies but the real thing of the barracks and cremation and the gas chambers terrified me giving the same memories or scenarios that I had at the three graves. When I was upset I realized that this trip is not just friends or random people we are a growing family. A family that everyone should have to lean on. This trip is growing and I now no that being hear I feel like im putting my dead holocaust relatives to peace and to rest.
Theodore Wolfley.

Today we went to a forest. It was shady, sunny, and mossy. I sat down in this forest and experienced. I experienced how the moss easily came off the ground, revealing the soft, moist dirt that sticks easily entered and stood. I experienced birds chirping nonchalantly from mysterious places (but since the birds were infinitely less important than their chirping, where they were was ultimately unimportant). The sun made the forest warm and the breeze made it a comfortable heat. The trees were gathered about each other so that one could only see 100 or so yards away before the trees walled in his vision, giving an enclosed and safe feeling.

A more ignorant forest-experience would not have known that less than 70 years ago, a group of Jews from a nearby shetetle were marched here for their humiliation and death and then dumped into a pit and buried like a pile of refuse.

Knowing this, what struck me most was not that this happened but that it was inconceivable that a forest was beautiful and serene as this one had been witness to such a horrific scene. If not for the monument at the mass grave site and the memory of the tragedy, it would have been like it never happened at all.

Yaron Adar


Today we went to a small shetetel. We saw the synagogue, which was amazing. We learned that all the walls had prayers painted on them so that one didn’t need a siddur to follow a service. The writing was truly beautiful. We then followed the path of the jews of this village on their march to their death in the forest. It was a quiet, grim walk in the silent forest. When we arrived at the site, we saw three different mass graves where the bodies of an entire jewish community was buried. Different from my experience in the mass grave in the cemetery in the Warsaw Ghetto, the graves were a blotch in the beautiful scenery of the forest. In the cemetery, the mass graves actually seemed to be a welcoming sight among the intimidating headstones and weeds. Afterwards, we rode to Treblinka, stopping for lunch along the way. Treblinka was a very different experience from what I was expecting,as it was mostly monuments rather than actual landscapes of the time. It was disturbing to know that 870,000 jews walked the same path I did on their way to a horrifying death in Treblinka’s gas chambers. The monuments at this site could not do the massive loss suffered there justice. Despite this, I feel that it is better that there is some remembrance rather than none. Afterwards, we all rode back to the hotel.

Cyrus Sussman

Today was the first full day in Poland, and I guess I’m writing on behalf of everyone for today. Um… I guess that the graveyard was probably most shocking out of today. It was the second oldest one in the country, and it was placed in a forest so it was as if the graves were kind of… growing. Not to mention the mass grave at the end, where its depth in the ground was far deeper than anyone could’ve really expected. Or at least that I could’ve really expected. In addition, today we toured the ghetto and heard Asher’s survivor story. But the Polish food sucks.

Mitchell Atkin

Today was our first full day in Poland. Being in Poland was unlike any other foreign country I have ever been in, mainly because you could feel the terribleness that went on there. For example, we were given a picture of Jews being round up to be sent to concentration camps in one of the streets in Warsaw. It turned out that we were standing on the very street that the Jews stood on over 60 years ago. Poland is going to be extremely powerful experience for our group.

Zoe Duberstein

JFI 3 Takes Off!

ATTENTION!!!!!!!! WATCH OUT NYC, POLAND AND ISREAL! HERE WE COME!!!!! This is the first official blog EVER for JFI 2009! Oh my goodness we are so excited! Right now I am sitting in the JCC in my home town, Rochester NY। We are waiting for the bus that is, unfortunately very very late। :/
We arrived at exactly 10:30 pm and had a nice Havdalah service. J it was so nice to sing in a circle with all 29 JFI-ers and our Rochester families. Having May at my house has been so so so so SO awesome. We have the absolute best time together. We’re like best friends already, and its only been a week!!! So enough about that though….. लेट's see, this week started when our Israeli partners arrived J we were so excited. All the Rochester people were at the airport holding signs with our partners names on them. When we saw them coming down the escalator (an hour or so late may I add) we were all cheering and screaming. We must’ve looked so stupid to all the other people in the airport. Hahahah hmmm and then the next day, we went to Niagara falls, that was so cool because we got to go on the maid of the mist and we were SOAKING wet. I’ve never been on that boat tour before so that was a cool experience. :P
Hmm I cant even remember what we did the rest of the week! We were so busy! The whole time we were here in Rochester though, we had such a great time. I cant wait until we get to ny…..and Poland……and Israel! Okay well I gotta go and let someone else blog! I love you (whoever you are that is reading this) and I miss you too! J

love, briell giancola

Wow what a whirlwind of a day we have had. 7 hours on the bus through the night we traveled arriving exactly on time (if you can believe it) at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. We got out signs out and walked straight onto the Today Show. According to some of the parents I talked to I know Yoni made it on TV. From there we took a 15 block walking tour as we made our way down 5th avenue towards the Empire State Building. As we reached the top of the city and looked out on to the 5 mile view of the city we could see the island of Manhattan from tip to tip, we could see the cruise ships at their dock, Woolworths golden top and even make out the outline of the statue of liberty. From there we took the short trip and flew over New York City with the ESB IMAX experience the Skyride. From there we sat down for some amazing New York style pizza and then moved to time square for some free time and shopping. After shopping we made our way to the famous Broadway to see the Lion King. The music the costumes the art and the dance nothing could of capped our day in New York like this show. From there we stopped to pick up dinner and then straight to the airport. So ends our very long day in New York City

Josh Boress