Returning to Israel from Poland

Returning back to Israel from Poland was one of the most interesting experiences of Year Course. Our flight landed in Tel Aviv at around 4 a.m., and from there we immediately drove to Jerusalem to go the Kotel.

 It was still dark when we got there, and to be honest no one was really into it. People were done with the stress of the week, and just wanted to go back to their regular Year Course lives. Our guide, teacher, mentor, and father Allen stopped us at the Zion gate, and explained to us “that if this were any other trip we would just go back to our normal lives, but after the week we just had, we have the responsibility to bring all the stories of the lost soles to Israel”.

Walking down to the Kotel I started narrating in my head what it would be like for someone who had lived through the holocaust dreaming of maybe coming to Jerusalem one day, and was now doing just that. Every step was special. Seeing an Israeli soldier with long payot and a hefty M-16 for the first time almost made me laugh. For a whole week we saw pictures of Jews being murdered, while at the same time we ourselves didn’t feel entirely secure in Poland, with drunk guys pointing at our keepot and so on. All of the sudden it was just the opposite; a Chasid Jew holding a gun. Hitler(May his name be obliterated) would turn over in his grave if he could see that.

    

We all stood motionless in a circle in the Kotel promenade, Israeli flags waving all around us. Choking back tears the director of Year Course Adam told us how he had just met his old friend from the army, and that this moment was one of the most Zionistic moments of his life. After one week of seeing many sad things and never shedding a teardrop, hot tears rolled down my face. I was crying because a gigantic chunk of my people were murdered, and now their memories were with me. I walked to the Kotel and put my face to the 2,000 year old stones as so many Jews of do, and felt the future of the Jewish people on my shoulders. European Jewry was essentially wiped out in WWII. Now the focus is on Israeli Jewry, and of course American Jewry as well. It’s up to me; I’m it. Six million people are depending on me. The future of the Jewish people is in my hands.