The complexities of Polish-Jewish relations
On the bitterly freezing day when we were on the market in Karzimierz, Daniel pointed me to a table of souvenirs with a curious collectible set:
This was a replica of a seal used in the Lodz ghetto. The text reads: “Der Aeltester der Juden. Litzmannstadt” (The Chair of the Judenrat. Lodz ghetto). I’ve seen a lot of Polish tchatchkes in my time, but I found this collectible to be especially painful. As I was wheeling myself away from the table, I reached a bump in the concrete path and had trouble going further. One of the souvenir sellers, a… Read More
And we are off…
After 20 hours of travel and a quick stop over in London we have arrived to Berlin! After crossing the international date line we entertained ourselves with games of ninja and airport yoga and snacked on fish and chips while passing the time in Heathrow.
Yvonne shares with us some of her first impressions:
So, today was the flight….10 hours is a doozy, but the time went by fast due to all our adventures. For dinner we had our introduction to a kosher airlines meal which meant somehow nearly all our food came out frozen, but who after all doesn’t… Read More
The site of Auschwitz-Birkenau
The wooden barracks, stretching off into seeming infinity as the gaps between them are shrouded in a thick white fog, the layers of barbed wire fence with pencil-trunked trees and green grass just beyond the environs of the camp. The atmosphere here is just as I’d seen it in the recurring bad dreams I’d had when I first was taught about Auschwitz-Birkena through viewings of the film Night and Fog. Though I understand that this documentary isn’t used any more, it was the educational tool in my generation; and as we enter the galleries with the grotesque piles of… Read More
Protected: Test Intake Form Hillel
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JFCS: Centuries of Pioneering
JFCS published the “Centuries of Pioneering” book in 2010. It tells the story of the Jewish people in the Bay Area and their work to help others since 1850.
The year 1850 is significant for the Bay Area. California became a state, San Francisco was incorporated, and one of the oldest social service agencies in the country—now known as Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties (JFCS)—was established by a group of Bavarian Jews who had immigrated to San Francisco at the time of the California Gold Rush.
This exciting time in history… Read More