Thursday was a day filled with travel and synagogues. We started our day by traveling to the Temple Synagogue in Krasnik, where we davened shacharit in the old, run down synagogue.
After a moving service where we brought Judaism back to a town where there were no Jews left, we headed on a 4 hour drive to Krakow. On the ride, we watched the moving movie Schindler’s List, which recounts the heroics of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi who saved the lives of some 850 Jews in Krakow by working them in his factory, exchanging his fortune for their lives. We later would get to see his factory in person.
Upon arriving, we walked through the Krakow ghetto to the Izaak Synagogue, named for Izaak Jakubowicz, also called Isaac the Rich, the donor and also a banker to King Władysław IV. We learned about the history of the synagogue, and I had the opportunity to teach Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s Krakow Niggun. The power of being able to bring back a melody to its place of origin, in a beautiful acoustic inside of an ancient synagogue, was extremely moving. Others who were visiting the synagogue stopped to listen, and some even recorded it on their phones.
We visited a few more synagogues (see pictures below) and headed to our hotel for the night.
We wrapped up the day with Ma’ariv and subgroups, where we had private journal time.
More pictures to come.
