by RabbiOlivier | May 24, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, Greater Community, Holocaust, Poland, Prague, Shoah
Treblinka is an impossibly beautiful memorial. Absolutely nothing is left of the camp that once stood there. It is hard to imagine it being the case, but we have to remember that the Nazis were masters of deception and made a point of dismantling these camps to allow...
by RabbiOlivier | May 22, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, General, Greater Community, Holocaust, Poland, Prague, Shoah
Warsaw is a city straddling several worlds and several eras. It encompasses, displayed in its make-up, the whole history of Europe. What is striking about its architecture is the mix of century old buildings (some original to their era, some rebuilt), communist era...
by RabbiOlivier | May 21, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, Greater Community, Holocaust, Poland, Prague, Shoah
Krakow is a gorgeous city, especially the old-city and—as a separated quarter within it—the district of Kazimierz where the Jews lived from the middle-ages. This is the region of Galicia in Poland, the birth place of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidism in the...
by RabbiOlivier | May 19, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, Events, Holocaust, Poland, Prague, Shoah
There is no way for me to talk about visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. I would only say that if one is able, it is important to travel and be there to bear witness. Nothing can replace walking these sacred grounds, no book, no movie, no conversation. All I can do, I feel,...
by RabbiOlivier | May 17, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, Events, General, Greater Community, Holocaust, Poland, Prague, Shoah
I have been sitting in front of my keyboard for a while now, starting and erasing, starting and erasing whatever I begin to write. How can one summarize visiting a place like Terezin, a concentration camp where thousands of Jews died and from which tens of thousands...
by RabbiOlivier | May 16, 2015 | Adult Learning, Community, Events, General, Poland, Prague, Shoah
We took a lovely walk to a nearby park mid-morning in sunny Prague for our meditation today. Some sat on benches others on the grass near a gorgeous fountain. There is something to be said about meditating outdoors, feeling into the sensations of the sun on your face,...
