notes* from
Ramah Seminar Summer 2014
*notes include:
texts from Noam; daily updates from Seminar staff;
and a few email exchanges
June 23
Today has consisted of two days.
That's more days than a person
should have to endure without
much sleep. Regardless, with a
little sleep, I've been on two very, very long flights and an extensive
layover (And led tfilat haderech). Then we got to Poland and
everything just kinda worked out. We started by visiting the Jewish
cemetery of Warsaw, then saw korczek's orphanage. We briefly looked
at a piece of a wall from the Warsaw ghetto. Perhaps the most
intriguing moment so far was seeing the tombstone of Reb soleveichik,
which actually takes the form of a small house. The food is sub par, the
weather is inconsistent, the people on my bus are wonderful, and this
trip has been remarkable so far.
June 24
It was a full day of travels and historical sites. After a very
polish breakfast and packing four sandwiches, we headed
over to a small shtetle with a very polish name that I can't
remember. We did Shacharit in the shul, which had the
tfillot written on the walls because of the lack of books.
Soon after, we were told the jews of the shtetle and then
visited the Forrest they went into to be killed. After that,
we took a very overwhelming trip to Treblinka.
It's true—treblinka is absolutely majestic.
The number of memorial stones just
overtakes me. The only named person
there is korczek. It appropriately began to
rain. On our very extensive bus ride to
our hotel, I decided to satisfy milken's
social sciences department and ask myself
whether I'm an American Jew or a Jewish
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