After we returned to the hotel in Krakow to wash up and have a nice communal Shabbat Dinner, we joined the local Progressive Synagogue - Beit Krakow - for Kabbalat Shabbat. Here is that posting:
After Auschwitz, a Tuba?
By Ira J. Wise
Friday morning we took the bus from our hotel in Krakow to
Birkenau/Auschwitz. It was a very emotional day as you might expect. After
touring both camps, punctuated by a series of shared survivor testimonies read
by participants and a ceremony to honor and remember the dead, we were all
pretty drained, emotionally Dinner.
We returned to the hotel for a shower and Shabbat and tried
to return to the land of the living. Who knew all we needed was an accordion, a
baritone tuba and a hammer dulcimer?
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| Rabbi Segal is on guitar at left. And yes, that is a tuba! |
Following dinner we traveled to Beit Krakow – a Progressive
congregation which holds services at the Galicia Museum. The Galicia is in a
building in the Kazimirz, the old Jewish community of Krakow. It is filled with
art produced by local Jewish artists and photographers and has a book shop and
coffee shop. The museum is celebrating its 10th anniversary this
year.
Beit Krakow held services in a large open space in the back,
amid exposed brick and more another rt exhibit. The room was filled with
people – over 160 of us with NFTY – plus
more than 100 members of the community and visitors in town for the annual Jewish
Festival.
Services were led by Rabbi Tanya Segal. She was joined by
three musicians, One played what appeared to be a hammer dulcimer as well as a
flute. Another had and accordion and the third played a baritone tuba! Most of
the tunes were familiar to most of our teens – especially those who attended
our camps or are part of NFTY youth groups. The phrasing was a little
different, but it was a joyful noise! Some our teens and madrikhim got up to
dance in the side exhibit hall.
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| Beit Krakow's Logo |
I grew up singing Cantor Steve Sher’s Dodi Li. It is one of
my favorites. It sounded fabulously different with accordion and tuba! It was
the same and different all at once. The way Rabbi Segal led the service was a
bit different than what most of us are accustomed to. Yet realizing that we had
spent the day quite literally in the valley of the shadow of death it was
amazing to see how Polish Jewry is coming back to life!
If you have the opertunity to make the pilgrimage we have to
Birkenau/Auschwitz, I highly recommend you make arrangements to spend Kabbalat
Shabbat with Beit Krakow! – it will soothe your soul after the turmoil of the
visit to the camps!
