Impostermom asks, how about telling us about a memory from your youth? Good, bad, monumental, you pick.
32 Jewish teenagers, from all over America, spent a summer touring the concentration camps in Poland and visiting Israel. 32 Jewish teenagers, and I was one of them. When people ask me why my Jewish identity is so strong, even though I married a non-jew, it is because of that summer, the summer before my senior year of high school.
I stood in the courtyard of Auschwitz that Elie Weisel wrote so eloquently about. I saw the rooms of hair, shoes, and suitcases, some with my maiden name on it. I saw the wreckage of what was once Treblinka. I boarded a cattle car, and to this day, will swear, I heard a scream.
This trip was the defining moment of my life. It taught me that no matter where I am, where I live, who I marry, I am a Jew. A Jew first, everything else second.
It gave me one of my best friends. My best friend, who became a rabbi. Who performed my wedding ceremony, and presided over Michael's Bris. She is the only one who understands what that trip was like, and it changed us in ways both tangible and intangible.
I do not know what happened to the other 30 people on that trip. But I know no matter what, we all share a bond. No one else knows what it is like to stand in a bunker in Auschwitz and see a survivor who was housed there look at where she used to sleep. Who said she had to do this trip to come "full circle."
I've wanted to blog about this trip for a while. It's always in the back of my consciousness. But I wasn't sure how to make it relevant to this blog. It's really not.
But it is, because it will always be so much a part of who I am. My boss once find a correlation to that trip and my job. From that trip, I learned about disenfranchised populations. I learned that someone has to be looking out for the little guy.
I learned about my history. I came into my own.
"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
-Rabbi Hillel
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting this. In 1992 I went on the March of the Living to Poland and Israel. I agree with everything you said in your post. It was a huge turning point in my life and it is a huge part of what I have become.
Thanks for posting this. In 1992 I went on the March of the Living to Poland and Israel. I agree with everything you said in your post. It was a huge turning point in my life and it is a huge part of what I have become.
Thanks for posting this. In 1992 I went on the March of the Living to Poland and Israel. I agree with everything you said in your post. It was a huge turning point in my life and it is a huge part of what I have become.
Thanks for posting this. In 1992 I went on the March of the Living to Poland and Israel. I agree with everything you said in your post. It was a huge turning point in my life and it is a huge part of what I have become.
My grandmother made that trip – her father was the only member of her family who ever made it out of Poland – and even at the very end when she thought she was 21 she still remembered taking that trip in her 60s. I think there must be something about that experience that those who have never had it can’t possibly understand.
My grandmother made that trip – her father was the only member of her family who ever made it out of Poland – and even at the very end when she thought she was 21 she still remembered taking that trip in her 60s. I think there must be something about that experience that those who have never had it can’t possibly understand.
My grandmother made that trip – her father was the only member of her family who ever made it out of Poland – and even at the very end when she thought she was 21 she still remembered taking that trip in her 60s. I think there must be something about that experience that those who have never had it can’t possibly understand.
My grandmother made that trip – her father was the only member of her family who ever made it out of Poland – and even at the very end when she thought she was 21 she still remembered taking that trip in her 60s. I think there must be something about that experience that those who have never had it can’t possibly understand.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this story. So very powerful, Jodi.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this story. So very powerful, Jodi.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this story. So very powerful, Jodi.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this story. So very powerful, Jodi.
Wow. Just wow. While visiting Dauchu was tough for me I was visiting as a non-Jew without the personal connection. Well, there was that basic human connection.
We should mistreat each other. Period.
Thanks for writing this down.
Wow. Just wow. While visiting Dauchu was tough for me I was visiting as a non-Jew without the personal connection. Well, there was that basic human connection.
We should mistreat each other. Period.
Thanks for writing this down.
Wow. Just wow. While visiting Dauchu was tough for me I was visiting as a non-Jew without the personal connection. Well, there was that basic human connection.
We should mistreat each other. Period.
Thanks for writing this down.
Wow. Just wow. While visiting Dauchu was tough for me I was visiting as a non-Jew without the personal connection. Well, there was that basic human connection.
We should mistreat each other. Period.
Thanks for writing this down.
Wow. I imagine no matter what a person’s background, a trip like that would be life-changing. But of course, I see the significance for you. One of my stepmom’s patients (my stepmom is a geriatric nurse, so this woman was in her 80s), who actually lived with us for a while, was in a concentration camp as a girl/teen. She had a faded tattoo on her arm, I think. She had some bad stories I don’t want to repeat. And yet she was always pleasant, and with her accent she sounded just like Dr. Ruth.
Wow. I imagine no matter what a person’s background, a trip like that would be life-changing. But of course, I see the significance for you. One of my stepmom’s patients (my stepmom is a geriatric nurse, so this woman was in her 80s), who actually lived with us for a while, was in a concentration camp as a girl/teen. She had a faded tattoo on her arm, I think. She had some bad stories I don’t want to repeat. And yet she was always pleasant, and with her accent she sounded just like Dr. Ruth.
Wow. I imagine no matter what a person’s background, a trip like that would be life-changing. But of course, I see the significance for you. One of my stepmom’s patients (my stepmom is a geriatric nurse, so this woman was in her 80s), who actually lived with us for a while, was in a concentration camp as a girl/teen. She had a faded tattoo on her arm, I think. She had some bad stories I don’t want to repeat. And yet she was always pleasant, and with her accent she sounded just like Dr. Ruth.
Wow. I imagine no matter what a person’s background, a trip like that would be life-changing. But of course, I see the significance for you. One of my stepmom’s patients (my stepmom is a geriatric nurse, so this woman was in her 80s), who actually lived with us for a while, was in a concentration camp as a girl/teen. She had a faded tattoo on her arm, I think. She had some bad stories I don’t want to repeat. And yet she was always pleasant, and with her accent she sounded just like Dr. Ruth.
As you can tell I am way, way behind on my reading. Forgive?
I’m so glad you told this story and glad that I could ask the question that resulted in it. I am not Jewish but I can remember going to the museum in DC and being overwhelmed by what I saw there. By the sheer magnitude of what can happen when others simply turn the other cheek.
What a profound experience for you, thanks again for sharing.
As you can tell I am way, way behind on my reading. Forgive?
I’m so glad you told this story and glad that I could ask the question that resulted in it. I am not Jewish but I can remember going to the museum in DC and being overwhelmed by what I saw there. By the sheer magnitude of what can happen when others simply turn the other cheek.
What a profound experience for you, thanks again for sharing.
As you can tell I am way, way behind on my reading. Forgive?
I’m so glad you told this story and glad that I could ask the question that resulted in it. I am not Jewish but I can remember going to the museum in DC and being overwhelmed by what I saw there. By the sheer magnitude of what can happen when others simply turn the other cheek.
What a profound experience for you, thanks again for sharing.
As you can tell I am way, way behind on my reading. Forgive?
I’m so glad you told this story and glad that I could ask the question that resulted in it. I am not Jewish but I can remember going to the museum in DC and being overwhelmed by what I saw there. By the sheer magnitude of what can happen when others simply turn the other cheek.
What a profound experience for you, thanks again for sharing.