In just over 24 hours so far in Poland, I have visited dozens of sites that attest to both the majestic Jewish civilization that flourished here for hundreds of years, and its brutal annihilation over a few short months.
In Treblinka, I walked the same steps hundreds of thousands of Jews from across Europe walked on their way to the gas chambers. Just a few hours away, in Lublin, we toured the grand Art Deco-style Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, an impressive institute for learning that trained Jewish scholars from 1930 until the Nazis desecrated it and sent its students to their deaths a decade later. Today, the yeshiva is still a synagogue and Beit midrash (as well as a hotel and kosher restaurant).
But perhaps the most moving visit so far was to Tiktin (Tykocin), a small town in northeast Poland with a Jewish community dating back to the early 16th Century. In August 1941, Nazis, aided by Polish police, rounded up the towns 1,400 Jews and massacred them in the forest – the largest single massacre by shooting of Jews during the war.
Among the victims were many family members of our own Michael Zaransky, may their memories be a blessing. I learned a Hebrew term I didn’t know before: קבר אחים means “mass grave” but translates literally to “grave of siblings” – an appropriate description.
Here I am pictured in the newly restored synagogue in Tiktin with JUF Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi Yehiel Poupko and Chief Public Affairs Officer (and CBS friend) Dan Goldwin.
And pictured here we are at the memorial site at the mass grave, where I am reading from a Yizkor book listing the victims names, including many Zarenskys.
It is a blessing to be here, despite the heaviness. I’ll share more soon.
With blessings
Rabbi David Chapman