9 minute read
The Wandering Jew
The Wandering Jew Gdansk
By Hershel Lieber
Iknow Michal Samet from the many times we were together at the Lauder Summer Retreats in Poland. We also met at times in Warsaw.
Michal is the leader of the small Jewish community in Gdansk, Poland. Whatever is related to Jewish life in that historic city and the neighboring towns of Gdynia and Sopot is due to the efforts of Michal. There are between 100 and 150 Jews in that area and the one synagogue that functions rarely has a minyan, but there are constant activities organized around holiday themes and occasional lectures about Judaism. The budget is supported by the Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Poland with the active involvement of Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Michal had asked me many times to come for a few days including a Shabbos to Gdansk. He wanted me to give lectures and lead the Shabbos davening and meals for the community which rarely has a chance to meet and interact with religious Jews.
The opportunity presented itself in May of 2009. There was a planned unveiling across the railway station of a multi-figured sculpture depicting the Kinder-transport which allowed 124 children from the city to leave in the summer of 1939 to England, thereby saving them from the Holocaust. I was invited to the unveiling ceremony and was asked to sing the “E-l Moleh” during the service. This occasion would be perfect time to spend a few days with that lonely kehillah.
A little history is now in order. The city’s history is complex, with periods of Polish, Prussian and German control.
The city was multi-ethnic, and between the wars, its status was an independent city state under the League of Nations largely under Polish control. Gdansk, which was called Danzig in German, had majority of Germans and a very small minority of Poles. The Nazi regime created a lot of tension to force the return of control of Danzig to Germany. In fact, the first German attack in September 1939 was on the Polish army positions in Wester-
platte at the city’s edge.
After World War II, the city was restored to Polish rule, and the remaining Germans were expelled. Jewish history records that from the nearly 12,000 Jews that were there in the late ‘30s, most left, and there were less than 2,000 Jews left when the Germans arrived. Of those, most were killed during different stages during the Holocaust.
After arriving in Gdansk on Tuesday evening, I was put up in a hotel right across the railway station, where the ceremony was to take place. There were many activities planned for Wednesday, and many personalities arrived for this special event. Among the guests were Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich; President of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Poland Piotr Kadlcik; Zvi Rav Ner, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland; the Vice Chairwomen of the German Parliament; and Simcha Keller, the leader of the Jewish Community in Lodz. The most important guests were the seven individuals who were part of the 124 children that were shipped out of Poland on the Kinder-transport, which saved their lives.
There were about two hundred people who attended the ceremony which began with the unveiling of the sculpture and the reading of a Psalm by the Roman Catholic Bishop. Speeches by the mayor of Gdansk, Rabbi Schudrich, and the representatives of Germany and Israel followed. Afterwards, Simcha sang “Shir Hamalos,” and I closed the program by chanting a version of the “E-l Moleh” which memorialized those Jews who were sadly unable to escape. The ceremony was mainly solemn, but it also celebrated the rescue of those children that were able to join the Kinder-transport.
From the ceremony, the group walked over to a nearby catering hall, which served a luncheon in honor of the seven individuals and their families that came from all over
the world to celebrate their passage to freedom at the place where it all began. Regrettably, the dinner was not kosher, and I could not have anything but a glass of mineral water. There were emotional speeches given at the dinner mostly in the form of memories from the individuals who were saved and from their families. From the luncheon, we boarded a bus that took us to the 250-yearold Jewish cemetery where I chanted the “E-l Moleh” again, near the newly erected matzeivos of two great rabbonim, Rabbi Elchonon Ashkenazi (Sidrei Taharah) and Rabbi Meir Posner (Beis Meir). At the cemetery,
I met Rav Elyakim Schlesinger from London, who was instrumental in having these matzeivos put up.
Following our ceremony at the cemetery, there was a reception in the Kehilla building honoring a few local Poles who were involved in saving Jews during the War replete with speeches and a slideshow. Afterwards, there was a concert given by Simcha Keller and me. We each sang a number of songs and then sang together. I taught the audience one of my favorite Carlebach tunes, “Hinei lo yonum v’lo yishon Shomer Yisrael,” and the unified singing by all present was exhilarating! This was truly a jam-packed day, very meaningful, and exciting.
The next day, Thursday, was a lot more relaxing. I moved to a hotel which was closer to the shul where all the Shabbos activities would take place. After a private reception with Michal and Israeli Ambassador Zvi Rav Ner and his wife at the shul in the morning, I was taken to the neighboring town of Sopot by another Michal and Kasia.
This beach resort was basically empty at this time of the year but we walked the almost one-mile-long wharf that extends into the Baltic Sea. We took a two-hour walk around the interesting Old Town of Gdansk and especially the main street, Ulica Dlugy, as Kasia and Paulina narrated the city’s multi-faceted history. It was so enchanting that I made a mental note to come back alone the next day. The final tour of the day was to the shipyards of Gdynia where the Solidarity Movement of Lech Walensa began. What started out as a labor union strike became the harbinger for the fall of communism in Poland and all the neighboring countries, including the Soviet Union.
On Friday morning, after a short time at the kehillah with Michal Samet, I took a taxi to the center of Gdansk. I was so enchanted with the old town atmosphere of this Hanseatic City that I wandered around for over five hours exploring every nook and cranny. The best way to visualize the historic houses, the marketplace, the charming streets and squares are by visiting them or at least seeing them in photographs. One has to spend considerable time immersed in the charm before one’s eyes to be
The sculpture representing the Kindertransport Delivering E-l Moleh at the ceremony
The synagogue in Gdansk able to appreciate the city’s magnificence. I also took a mock pirate ship tour to Westerplatte to see where World War II began. We also passed the famous dockyards where Polish shipbuilding industry originated. I made it back to my hotel just in time to get ready for Shabbos.
We did not have a minyan for davening, but about twenty men, women and children joined Michal and me in welcoming in the Shabbos Queen. After candle lighting and an abridged davening, we sang Shalom Aleichem and I made kiddush. The seudah was augmented with explanations from many sources about Shabbos traditions, foods, songs and thoughts on the parsha. I also told stories from my mother’s teenage years in Krakow and of her wartime experiences. The people were captivated and completely engrossed with her story. We ended the evening by singing both traditional zemiros and songs that they were familiar with. It was way past midnight when I put my head on the pillow, and I immediately conked out.
Shabbos morning, we only had four people during davening. I still gave them my complete attention, and we said the main tefillos in unison and sang some of the sections. I taught them portions of the parsha, and then we had our seudah together. Just before the seudah, a professor walked in with seventeen of his students to see the inside of a Jewish synagogue. After asking me a few questions, I offered to explain all the furnishings of a synagogue to his pupils. The lecture covered the aron kodesh, the bimah, the amud, the menorah, the wall hangings, the Torah scroll, the prayer books, etc. They were fascinated by what they learned about the synagogue, in particular, and the Jewish religion, in general, in such a short time span. I enjoyed the opportunity to share and make others aware of the beauty of Judaism and the treasure that we possess.
I returned later in the afternoon to daven Mincha and eat shalosh seudos with Michal and Kasia. After Havdalah, we said our goodbyes, since my return flight through Warsaw was in the wee hours of the morning.
My four-day excursion to Gdansk was an experience that I would not have wanted to miss. There was a certain degree of sadness about the loneliness of a small and weak kehilla trying to maintain a semblance of Jewish identity against so many odds. I hoped that my contribution, no matter how small, gave them some hope and faith for a better future.
Before boarding the pirate ship
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Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis. 513 Chestnut St. · Cedarhurst, NY 11516 | 516-295-1300 921 49th St. · Brooklyn, NY 11219 | 718-283-8456 hearingsolutionsli.com
