I am about to embark on my twenty-third trip to Poland. This is a special journey because it involves so many elements. Elements of deep loyalty to old friends in troubled times, primal connections to fellow Jews, and a duty not to despair have marked my journeys to Poland. I am traveling with my son, […]
Poland Travel Log by Andrea White
POLAND 2023
Why Poland?
Scanning the travel brochures that arrive in the mail or the Sunday Travel sections in our newspapers, we noticed that few itineraries include Poland. Perhaps Krakow, perhaps Warsaw, perhaps the German death camps, but nothing very thorough. So we thought we would like to look more carefully at the country that produced Nicolaus Copernicus, Fryderyk Chopin, the three Singer siblings, Arthur Schopenhauer and Günter Grass (both born in Danzig, Germany/now Gdansk, Poland), Pope John Paul II, Leck Wałęsa, Ignacy Paderewski, Isaac Stern, Joseph Conrad , Maria Salomea Sklodowska (Marie Curie), Czeslaw Milosz- to name only the most obvious – and decide for ourselves. The first thing we had to get our heads around was that Poland is a relatively new country, having only lately emerged from totalitarianism. World War II only ended for Poland in 1989; after six years of the protracted horrors of the Nazi German occupation and then over forty years of Soviet Russian control, the country, newly democratized and independent, occupied once again the center of Europe’s map, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Czech Republic.
Trip to Poland 2025
A Unique People-Centered Journey Through Poland
Join members of the Rabbi Michael A. Signer Clergy Cabinet of Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland for a trip to Poland this May 14 thru May 22, 2025 (May 13th travel day). This Poland experience invites the group to gain a view of Poland’s historic significance, its memorial importance, as well as its contemporary Jewish communities. Our journey will speak to the challenge of Progressive Jewish values as we meet with leaders in Poland.
Shabbat with Professor Susannah Heschel
Susannah Heschel is the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Her scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of biblical scholarship, modern European anti-Semitism, and European Jewish scholarship on Islam.