This Shabbat was one of the most unique ones I’ve ever experienced. Spending Shabbat in the heart of the old Jewish community of Krakow allowed me to both see and, to some extent, experience the thriving Jewish life that was destroyed by the Shoah. We took in Shabbat at 3:52 before heading off to Chabad to Daven Mincha and Ma’ariv. As I walked into Chabad, I felt as if I was crossing a bridge from the post-Holocaust world into the past. Sitting in the women’s section, singing Lecha Dodi with strangers gave me phantom memories of a life in Krakow. I could hear the Jews of the past 600 years singing with me. After Shul, we headed to the Galicia Jewish Museum for dinner. We sang and shared דברי תורה. We headed back to our hotel where we held a Tisch. The following morning, we went back to Chabad for Shachrit. We came back to the hotel for a light lunch, before going on a walk around Krakow to visit the various Shuls. We saw the Alte Shul, a shul that was built over 600 years ago. We passed the Haicha (tall) Shul, and went inside The Temple, and a Shul that had been converted to a treif restaurant. We then went to the first בית יעקב, where Sarah Schenirer created a method of giving formal education to women. Standing in front of this school with my מדרשה allowed me to truly appreciate how revolutionary Sarah Schenirer’s ideas were, and how much I owe to her. After our walk, we had some time to ourselves before Seudat Shlishit. We ended Shabbat as we started it, with song and דברי תורה. We had a beautiful Havdalah before going out to see the Ghetto of Krakow. We walked the perimeter of the ghetto in under 15 minutes. The Ghetto housed 20,000 people. Here, we were able to see the only remaining Ghetto wall. A small unassuming white stone wall separated the dying, starving masses from their former neighbors. The wall can be found in the backyard of a school. As we went back to the Galicia Jewish Museum, I kept seeing images of the Jews of Krakow. Here, in the city almost devoid of one of the major influences of its past, I could feel the empty void left where the Jews of Poland should be. At the Galicia Jewish Museum, there was a Melava Malka. We filled the empty streets with Nigunim, echoing our דברי תורות throughout Krakow. We had spent the past week seeing Death Camps and Jewish Cemeteries, but on Shabbat we cried out that despite everything, we are still here.
Rachel Berkowitz
