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OCTOBER 29, 2020 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2020 | The Jewish Home
The Wandering
Jew
A Tale of Three Cities and a Hurricane Part I By Hershel Lieber
Havdalah
A
bout eight years ago, in late October 2012, I participated in Limmud Polska. The Polish version of this international Jewish learning program brought together about eight hundred participants for a three-day weekend of educational, cultural, and religious events. The assortment of guests ranged from those with zero knowledge about Judaism to those with a fair amount of understanding, from the secular to the religious, from the Orthodox to the Reform, and from Halachic Jews to those with some Jewish ancestry. The event was held over a Shabbos, and both Shabbos and kashrus requirements were adhered to during all communal happenings. Shabbos regulations during smaller events and workshops were applied according to the level of observance of the presenters and lecturers, most whom were not Orthodox. Food preparation, which was entirely vegetarian, was supervised to conform with kashrus and hilchos Shabbos according to Or-
Limmud Polska participants on Motzei Shabbos
thodox standards to allow maximum participation at this gathering. I accepted the invitation to give lectures at this event with full knowledge that I would be only one out of four Orthodox teachers (Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, Jonathan Weber and I) among
following a life based on Torah and mitzvos and to show that it is compatible with living in a secular society. I arrived from Warsaw on Friday afternoon to a beautiful, large suburban hotel with just a small amount of time to unpack, shower, and get dressed for Shabbos. I lit candles in
I realized, based on the news reports, that I would not be leaving Europe for quite a while.
dozens of other lecturers from Reform, Conservative, and secular backgrounds. I felt that it was important to show a Torah true perspective to a program that promotes the study and understanding of Judaism. I wished to promote a traditional approach in
my room and rushed down to the Orthodox minyan. I was honored to daven kabbolas Shabbos, which I conducted in the Carlebach style, with lots of singing and dancing. We had about seventy to eighty participants, our competition being the Reform/
Conservative services. Most participants did not join either group, rather they used the time to socialize in the various lobbies. The Shabbos meals were held in a large banquet hall where we sang Shalom Aleichem in unison, which was followed by kiddush by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, former director of the Ronald Lauder Foundation in Poland, whom I have known for years. I washed for the meal and had some salads. I sat with Professor Jonathan Weber from Oxford University, who is a member of the International Auschwitz Council, and his wife and had a short conversation. The general atmosphere of the Shabbos seudah was clearly not Shabbosdik. Most people were quite removed from Yiddishkeit, and the huge ballroom made it difficult to connect to the enormous crowd without the use of a microphone. I then rushed up to my room to finish the seudah with some cold cuts and unheated kugel by the glow of
