 |
Afternoon arrival in Warsaw. Upon arrival meet and greet by Mazurkas Travel tour escort and
transfer to the hotel.Check-in formalities and time to relax. Orientation walk along the Warsaw’s Old
Town with its beautiful tenement houses, galleries and restaurants.
Welcome dinner at a local restaurants located in the Old Town. | |
 |
Historical
background:
About 300,00 Jews
lived in Warsaw in 1939; they made up one third of the city’s
population. Generations of Jewish plutocrats, and intelligentsia
lived here, as did industrialists, traders, craftsmen, and workers.
Warsaw was the hub of the vibrant political, social, and cultural
life of Polish Jews. There was rich cultural life: several Jewish
theatres, three major temples and several smaller synagogues, as
well as over three hundred houses of prayer.
·
Nozyk Synagogue - devastated during the occupation and renovated
after the war, serves all believers to this very day;
·
Okopowa Jewish Cemetery – the largest one in Warsaw founded at the
beginning of the 19th century. Many beautiful, richly
ornamented, gravestones display lions, deer, plant life, and trees.
Several eminent politicians are buried at this cemetery. This
cemetery also has a section with graves of Jewish officers and
enlisted men who lost their lives in the defense of Warsaw in 1939;
·
Warsaw Ghetto area – including the site of the bunker on Mila
Street, the place where the chief staff of the Jewish Combat
Organization committed suicide, the monumental memorial of the
Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto located on the square which was once the
site of one of the main bunkers of the Jewish Combat Organization
and the Umschlagplatz.
·
Jewish Historical Institute - the only institution in Poland focused
entirely on the study of the history and culture of Polish Jews. It
is the largest depository of Jewish-related archival documents,
books, journals, and museum objects
Optional special visits and meetings:
1.
A meeting with a specialist in Jewish sites, Mr. Janusz
Jagielski, who works for the Jewish Historical Institute.
2.
A meeting with the Mr. Przemyslaw Isroel Szpilman, Director
of the Okopowa Jewish Cementary, who will tell about its history
3.
Tickets to a performance at the The Ester Rachel Kaminska and
Ida Kaminska Jewish Theater in Warsaw (needs to be confirmed and
depends on the theater’s program for June 2010 not yet available).
4.
Meetings at the Jewish Historical Institute with:
a.
the Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, Mrs.
Eleonora Bergman
b.
one of the Institute’s scientists, Mr. Jozef Chajn, who will
lead a special tour around the Institute
5.
A meeting at the Beit Warszawa - Jewish Cultural Association
co-founded in 1999 by Severyn Ashkenazy, his son Adrian and five
Polish and expatriate American Jews who wished to practice Judaism
in a more liberal way than that offered by the only other Jewish
spiritual center in Warsaw – the Orthodox Synagogue. Beit Warszawa
takes into account that a vast majority of Jews living in Poland is
only starting to discover their roots. Consequently, the
association’s main goal is to familiarize them with the Jewish
religion, history, tradition and thought. |
 |
Morning departure for Bialystok.En route visit to Treblinka (half way between Warsaw and Bialystok), the site of
the former Nazi concentration camp, where 800.000 Jews perished, a monument –
mausoleum and a symbolic cemeteryWe continue to Tykocin near Bialystok to see a beautifully restored early
Baroque masonry synagogue, typical example of Jewish religious architecture, now
a Museum of Judaics.
Overnight in Bialystok. |
 |
Morning departure for Lublin, a place where Jewish community appeared in the
mid-14th century, and grew so rapidly that some 200 years later the
town had the third-largest Jewish population in Poland after Krakow and Lviv. In
the mid-18th century Jews formed half of the city’s inhabitants. Visits will include:
· the
synagogue where you will see a modest exhibition of old photographs, books in
Hebrew and ritual objects.
· the
old Jewish cemetery established in the first half of the 16th century
with 30-odd readable tombstones. The oldest tombstone dates from 1641.
·
the new Jewish cemetery founded in 1828, where, until 1942, about
52 000 Jews were buried
· stop in Majdanek, a third largest concentration camp after
Treblinka and Auschwitz. Tens of thousands of people were shot here,
gassed with Zyclon B, and incinerated; most were Jews. The tragic
history of this camp is presented in a museum.
Another death camp to be visited, Belzec, located in the same
province closer to the city of Zamosc, has a monument commemorating
half a million Jews murdered by the Nazis who eradicated all traces
of their crimes there.
The same is true for the camp in Sobibor (closer to Lublin), where
250,000 Jews from many countries were killed; this camp also has a
monument.
Return to Lublin for overnight. |
 |
Morning departure for
Lodz
En route stop in Kazimierz Dolny, a picturesque town,
a considerable tourist attraction and one of the most beautifully situated
little towns in Poland. It enjoyed its greatest prosperity in the 16th century
and the first half of the 17th century, due to grain trade conducted along the
Vistula River. It has become an economic backwater after that trade declined,
and this halt in economic development enabled the town to preserve its
Renaissance
urban plan and appearance. From the
19th century
it has become a popular holiday destination, attracting artists and summer
residents. The history of Kazimierz Dolny is intimately linked with Jewish culture. From
the town’s beginnings, Jews formed an important and expanding part of the
community, becoming the majority during the 19th century. Before
World War II they formed over half the town’s population.Overnight in
Lodz. |
 |
Tour of Lodz – one of the largest Jewish centers in Poland until the outbreak of
World War II. Manufacturers of Jewish origin determined the character of 19th
century Lodz. Their presence is recorded in the history of the city and its
industry. Several large textile mills were in the hands of Jewish
industrialists: the Poznanskis, Kohns, Ejtingons, Wislickis families.There is rich and beautiful
architecture from this period. Its characteristics are magnificent Jewish
palaces, which decorations were of fashionable extravagance.
A good place to find out how the barons of industry lived in Lodz, before World
War II, is the “Ksiezy Mlyn” residence, awarded a honorary medal of the Europe
Nostra Organization for the excellent reconstruction.Jewish contribution to the Polish culture was immense. The city’s most famous
sons were: Aleksander Tansman, the world famous composer, the pianist Artur
Rubinstein and the poet Julian Tuwim. Strongly represented is a Jewish painter
Jakiel Adler. Finally we will visit Jewish „cemetery palaces” situated in the Jewish
cemetery, the largest Jewish graveyard in Europe.
Afternoon departure for Cracow. |
 |
Tour of Krakow’s Old Town with the Main Market Square with its magnificent
houses and palaces. There is a Cloth Hall in the middle of the Market Square,
built before 1349 and altered in the 16th century. There are many shopping
stalls inside the Cloth Hall. There is also a National Museum located on the
first floor of the Cloth Hall, which has a collection of Polish sculptures and
paintings from the 18th to the 20th century. Another characteristic element of
the architecture on the Market Square is the magnificent extensive Gothic Church
of Our Lady with its famous wooden altar created by Wit Stwosz.During the tour we invite you to a lecture with slides entitled: “Polish Jews
before and after World War II”. The tour also includes a visit to Kazimierz - a former Jewish district town
with its own Market Square, Town Hall and thriving culture. Watch a short movie
about Kazimierz district in the of Center for Jewish Culture.See a magnificent Gothic Old Synagogue and the Remuh Synagogue with adjoining
Renaissane cemetery. Visit the newest, renovated Tempel Synagogue built for
progressive Jews, decorated with stuccoes, paintings and stained glass.
Optional special visits and meetings:
1.
A meeting with representatives of the Tzulent Society - an
independent association of young Jewish men and women. Most of the
members are still students. The youngest members are in high school
and the oldest already have their own families and children. The
basis of the membership in the Tzulent Society is Jewish identity,
which, for them, means identifying with Jewish culture, tradition,
history or religion.
2.
A guided tour of the Kazmierz district (full day guide
available)
3.
A meeting with a specialist in Jewish sites, Mr. Robert Gadek,
a former director of the Jewish Cultural Center, who now is one of
the organizers of the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow.
4.
A visit to the Galician Museum and a meeting with its
director
5.
Visit to the Museum in the former Oscar Schindler’s Factory |
 |
We invite you to a lecture given by former Director of the Center for Jewish
Culture in Krakow, Mr Robert Gadek, entitled:
“History of Galician Chassidism”, a movement for religious renewal that had its
genesis on Polish land under the leadership of the legendary Baal-szem-tov. Afterwards we recommend a field trip
to the places connected with Oscar Schindler, including his factory and Plaszow
death camp where the Nazis relocated many Jews. Most of the events portrayed in
the film “Schindler’s List” took place there. We will also visit the moving
museum called "Pharmacy under the Eagle". It’s located in the Podgorze district
of Cracow, the actual site of Jewish ghetto during Nazi occupation. The museum
tells the story of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Polish pharmacist who chose to remain
in the ghetto for several years, dispensing free medicines to the suffering
Jewish community. Heartfelt letters of gratitude sent after the Second World War
and chilling photographs of ghetto life are interspersed with the mortar,
pestles and vials of his pharmacy.Afterwards, transfer to Oswiecim to see the largest death factory in the history
of humanity. The site of the camp now houses the Oswiecim State Museum, which
displays exhibits and documents concerning Nazi crimes. See a short documentary
movie.We will also visit the Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oswiecim. The New York-based
Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Inc, established in 1995, and the
Polish-based Fundacja Zydowskie Centrum Edukacyjne, founded in 1996, share the
same mission: to establish and support a cultural center in Oswiecim that
provides all visitors with an opportunity to memorialize victims of the
Holocaust through the study of the life and culture of a former Jewish town. The
Auschwitz Jewish Center is a place of understanding, education, memory and
prayer. Together with Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue, it offers opportunities
for study, discussion, and archival research. Overnight in Krakow.
Optional special visits and meetings:
1.
A meeting with a Holocaust survivor, Mr.Kazimierz Smolen, at
the Galician Museum or in the Auschwitz Museum
2.
A visit to a special exhibition of works of the Auschwitz
prisoners |
 |
Morning transfer to Tarnow to visit an old Jewish district and the Jewish
Cemetery that dates from the 17th century and features about 3000
tombstones. The original gate to the cemetery is now on display at the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Continue to Rzeszow where we will see the 18th century New Town
Synagogue, now an art gallery and the 17th century Old Town
Synagogue, now the city’s registry and a center for studies on the history of
local Jews. Travel onwards to Lancut, where you will see the biggest and the most beautiful
synagogue in Poland built in 1760’s. It has retained much of its decoration and
has been opened as a museum.
Return to Krakowfor the farewell dinner.
Overnight in Krakow. |
 |
Departure transfer. |
|
|
