Poland Trip Application
Our Student Mission is led by one of the premier educators of Yad Vashem, Mrs. Hazy Flint. 2 security guards will be traveling with us at all times.
Poland Trip Sample Spring Itinerary
THURSDAY
- Meeting at Ben Gurion Airport
- Departure from Tel Aviv LOT
- Arrival in Warsaw
- Tour of the Warsaw Ghetto, Umschlagplatz Plaza, Mila-18, Ghetto Wall, Story of the Uprising
- Lunch in Warsaw
- Bus to Treblinka Extermination Camp
- Night in Lublin
FRIDAY
- Tour of Maidanek Concentration Camp
- Grave of Hasidic Master Reb Elimelekh of Lezansk
- Bus to Krakow
- Arrival in Krakow
- Pre-Shabbat Lchaims, Prayer Services, Friday Night Dinner, and Oneg Shabbat
SATURDAY
- Optional Shabbat Morning Services
- Kazmierz Jewish Quarter Tour
- Lunch
- Krakow Ghetto, Market Square/Wawel
- Dinner and Havdala
- Special Nighttime Activity, Preparation for Auschwitz/Birkenau
- Overnight in Krakow
SUNDAY
- Bus to Auschwitz/Birkenau Concentration Camp & Special Ceremony
- Dinner & Closing Session
- Departure from Krakow LOT to Warsaw
- Departure from Warsaw LOT to Tel Aviv
MONDAY
- Arrive Tel Aviv
POLAND MISSION Sample FALL Itinerary
WEDNESDAY
- Meet at Ben-Gurion Airport
- LOT Airlines to Warsaw
- Visit Remnants of the Warsaw Ghetto Wall
- Umshlagplatz – deportation center of Warsaw Jews to Treblinka from July 1942
- The Route of the Heroes and Martyrs – tracing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (incl. Mila 18)
- Lunch in Warsaw
- Bus to Treblinka Extermination Camp
- Dinner & Overnight in Lublin Hotel Victoria
THURSDAY
- Breakfast & Luggage on to the Bus
- Maidanek Concentration Camp
- Bus to Belzec Concentration Camp
- Visit to the city of Lizansk and the revered Chasidic master Reb Elimelekh for a Tish
- Visit to restored Lancut Synagogue
- Dinner & Overnight in Tarnow Hotel Tarnovia
FRIDAY
- Breakfast & Luggage on to the Bus
- Tarnow Ghetto
- Tour of the Krakow Ghetto, Apteka,
- Drive by Krakow Ghetto Wall and Schindlers Factory
- Visit to Rema Synagogue & Cemetery
- Preparation for Shabbat
- Spirited Friday Night Prayers & Shabbat Dinner/Oneg
- Overnight in Krakow Hotel Ester
SHABBAT
- Optional Morning Prayers
- Kiddush & Breakfast
- Tour of Kazmierz – the Jewish Quarter
- Shabbat Lunch
- Explore the beautiful Wawel Castle & Marketplace Square
- Havdala
- Dinner, Preparation for Auschwitz, and Special Program
- Overnight in Krakow Hotel Ester
SUNDAY
- Breakfast & Luggage onto the bus
- Tour of Auschwitz I and Museum
- Lunch
- Tour of Birkenau (Auschwitz II)
- Dinner and Closing Session in Krakow
- Bus to Krakow Airport
- LOT to Warsaw
- LOT Flight 151 to Tel Aviv
Poems By Taylor Freeman
After her visit to Poland
2 Poems
I think about my future constantly
I think about the man I am going to marry
I think about my career
I think about my home
I think about children
And I think about children innocence, and their hopes and aspirations
I think about their free spirit and curiosity
Today, as I stood in a forrest in the middle of Krakow,
I thought about these children
Yet they are no longer with us
No longer with innocence, and hopes, and aspirations
No longer free spirits, no longer curious
They were not allowed the chance to be or to do
And the trees stood silent, but the stories roared
And the shofar roared
And the mothers roared
All louder than the gunshots
We are louder than gunshots
We are louder than ghettos, and concentration camps, and selections
We are louder. We are resilient. We are forever.
We are Jewish.
– Taylor Freeman
UPENN
Today, I stood in a gas chamber
And I didn’t cry
I saw the ovens
And I didn’t cry
I stood aside graves
And I didn’t cry
We sung next to 7 tons of ashes
And I didn’t cry
I don’t know why I didn’t
I hear large numbers: 6 million Jews, 870,000 at Treblinka, 18,000 in one day at Majdanek
I think comprehension is impossible
When numbers are no longer statistics
But mothers gone, and children separated, and cousins shot dead, and neighbors gassed
And I don’t think I will ever understand
But I think later
I will weep
– Taylor Freeman
UPENN
Jeff Seidel – Poland Trip May 2019
Today, I stood in a gas chamber
And I didn’t cry
I saw the ovens
And I didn’t cry
I stood aside graves
And I didn’t cry
We sung next to 7 tons of ashes
And I didn’t cry
I don’t know why I didn’t
I hear large numbers: 6 million Jews, 870,000 at Treblinka, 18,000 in one day at Majdanek
I think comprehension is impossible
When numbers are no longer statistics
But mothers gone, and children separated, and cousins shot dead, and neighbors gassed
And I don’t think I will ever understand
But I think later
I will weep
– Taylor Freeman
UPENN
Jeff Seidel – Poland Trip May 2019
2 Poems
I think about my future constantly
I think about the man I am going to marry
I think about my career
I think about my home
I think about children
And I think about children innocence, and their hopes and aspirations
I think about their free spirit and curiosity
Today, as I stood in a forrest in the middle of Krakow,
I thought about these children
Yet they are no longer with us
No longer with innocence, and hopes, and aspirations
No longer free spirits, no longer curious
They were not allowed the chance to be or to do
And the trees stood silent, but the stories roared
And the shofar roared
And the mothers roared
All louder than the gunshots
We are louder than gunshots
We are louder than ghettos, and concentration camps, and selections
We are louder. We are resilient. We are forever.
We are Jewish.
– Taylor Freeman
UPENN
Today, I stood in a gas chamber
And I didn’t cry
I saw the ovens
And I didn’t cry
I stood aside graves
And I didn’t cry
We sung next to 7 tons of ashes
And I didn’t cry
I don’t know why I didn’t
I hear large numbers: 6 million Jews, 870,000 at Treblinka, 18,000 in one day at Majdanek
I think comprehension is impossible
When numbers are no longer statistics
But mothers gone, and children separated, and cousins shot dead, and neighbors gassed
And I don’t think I will ever understand
But I think later
I will weep
– Taylor Freeman
UPENN
Jeff Seidel – Poland Trip May 2019
George Deek is an Arab-Israeli diplomat. In 2018, Deek was appointed Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan. He is the first Israeli Arab Christian to become an ambassador. Deek grew up in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family in the Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa, in a building where the other tenants included Muslims, Catholics, Jews and a Catholic priest of Jewish ancestry.[2][3] His father, who worked as a tax advisor,[3] was one of the leaders of the Christian community in Jaffa who served as chairman of the Orthodox Association, and was considered a well-known and popular figure in the city until in 2015 a square was inaugurated in his memory in Jaffa in the presence of Mayor Ron Huldai.[4] According to Deek, his grandparents fled to Lebanon for safety when the 1947–1949 Palestine war, having been told that the Jews would slaughter them if they remained in their homes, but expecting to return home once Arab armies defeated the Jews.[3] According to Deek, when the war ended, his grandparents felt that they had been “deceived”, and decided to return illegally to their home in Jaffa rather than remaining in Lebanon as refugees. Since reentering the country was illegal, Deek’s grandfather, an electrician, was arrested and jailed.
