Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored nor endorsed by the trip provider, RootOne, or any other business/organization. All opinions are the author’s own.
This past summer, I was given an incredible opportunity to travel to Central Europe and Israel for the first time. This post series aims to create a “time capsule journal thing” so I can share what I’ve learned and experienced with everyone.
In order for this to work, The series is divided into two sections. The Europe posts, then the Israel posts.
The travel provider will not be explicitly named until the very last post in this series. But maybe alluded to beforehand. Not so because I care about its privacy, but because the story of the organization in the present can be seen in what I have to say in these posts.
Ah, who am I kidding they totally shot themselves in the foot.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Background Information
Jewish teens from all over the world have been traveling to Israel for as long as the State has existed in order to get a taste of what their ancestral homeland is. This year was my time to go as last year I went around the USA.
Most teens go through a coordinated program. These include overnight camps, youth movements, and more. I went through a middle group that aligns itself with the Masorti/Conservative movement. While not ultra-religious, I did do a fair amount of religious activity daily and it was egalitarian.
Most trips are around 3-4 weeks long. But many groups offer extended trips that also go to other destinations prior to arriving in Israel. This usually means Europe. That was the trip I did. My trip started in Prague before going to Berlin, then Poland before flying to Israel.
In terms of the participants: there were 40 people including me. 25-28 (not disclosing the exact number) went to a specific overnight camp in the Midwest in years prior that had a gap year for this particular summer. (Crazy coincidence am I right?) Another 5-9 went on the same cross-country program that I went on last year, and the rest truly did not know anyone.
You can likely imagine how the first few weeks went in terms of community building.
Finally, it’s important to note that my trip was partially funded by RootOne. Whose $3,000 “donation” generously went towards my travel and allow me to write this post series. I am not at liberty to say more as I’m genuinely terrified to get a lawsuit with my name on it from them.
Enough about that: let’s get started on the actual trip!
This post will be on Prague through the end of my time in Berlin. With the next Europe post covering all of Poland. Also: I may call the Holocaust the "Shoah" (Catastrophe) as that is a more relevant term in Hebrew for what occurred. So be advised.
The First Leg of the Trip:
From Boston to Prague
The trip began with not one, but three flights for me. The first took me from Boston to New York, where I met up with the group and had a daily mental crisis with the drastic vibe changes from what I was used to.
Following that, I proceeded to take an overnight flight to Warsaw, Poland on LOT Polish. Not because we were going to Poland, but because it was the cheapest option available. Following the heinous meal and pondering my life existence for 8 hours, I entered the European Union and took another flight to Prague.
On a side note: the Warsaw Airport, while modern by American airport standards, had a sense of creepiness that was hard to describe.
To say that Prague is beautiful is an understatement. The city's architecture kept impressing me minute after minute. Our first major activity was walking around the City Center of Prague and learning about the historic Jewish community that once lived there. Before the Shoah, there were at least 70,000 Jewish people inhabiting Bohemia and Moravia. Now? Less than 2,500. Truly saddening.
During my time in Prague, I got to enjoy authentic European food... oh wait no that's a lie. To say that the food was delicious is an overstatement. I essentially kept myself nourished by paying out of pocket for additional food since the thousands of dollars I already paid didn't cover that. The one European food that I did have often was chicken schnitzel. In addition, in Prague, I was able to try a few delicious macarons from a bakery right by the Town Square. It made the whole trip up until that point worth it!
After a day of rest brought to us by religious customs, I had to leave Prague and head north to Berlin. Before making it to Berlin. We made a stop at Theresienstadt (Terezin, Czechia) in order to learn more about what Nazi Germany did with Jewish people who were already deported from their homes but did not quite yet make it to the death camps.
That is not to say that they did live well. Everyone living in Theresienstadt Ghetto lived horrible lives. With barely enough food to subsist and harsh work conditions, it was not a surprise to hear that tens of thousands often died within months.
However, there was a glimmer of courage in this troubling place. A Rabbi who was forced into the ghetto managed to create a hidden synagogue that the Nazis never found. Only being discovered publicly after Czechoslovakia was dissolved in the 1990s.
Words cannot fully describe the eeriness and general vibe of the place. Considering that there were worse places to be seen later on.
The Tale of a Once-Divided City
Following... that, we continued our drive north and made it to Berlin, Germany. Where we had dinner and then went to sleep following an evening program that went on for too long.
Our major activity of the following day was touring Jewish Berlin, and visiting the numerous memorials and monuments that were erected in Memorium for what the Germans did. Some memorials were better than others. But each allegedly had a purpose and we explored those more in depth.
However, there was some good. I was able to visit a museum of a workshop that used Jewish employees as a way to keep them out of trouble. In addition: it was in a true hippie section of Berlin. So it was interesting to see Berlin in some form of actually good glory.
The next day saw we visit the old train tracks that took hundreds of thousands of Jewish people out East to the death camps to be murdered. In case that was not depressing enough: we visited the House of the Wanesse Conference. This was the place where high-ranking Nazi Party officials determined who would be classified as "Jewish" enough to be killed in the camps. Basically: millions of lives were determined here.
Concluding our educational element of Berlin was a few hours in the Topography of Terror Museum. Which was built on the old site of the SS' headquarters (Read here if you don't know who the SS were.) Even though there were few historical artifacts to be seen: reading the stories that survivors had was just as mind-numbing as seeing the real thing.
Finally, because we were all "good" participants (debatable but sure), our tour guide, who will be referred to as "L.", took us to the Mall of Berlin. I then proceeded to buy a pizza as that was my good food for the day.
I want to mention how Berlin was vastly different depending on where you were. While both West and East Berlin were relatively modern, there were stark contrasts between the two. For instance: in East Berlin, there are trams and massive copy-paste apartment blocks reminiscent of the Soviet era while that doesn't really exist in the Western side of the city.
Afterward on the next day: we left Germany for Poland where a whole new level of terror and more awaited us.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading the post! Due to the longevity of the trip, I am striving to publish a new section every 2-3 days. But depends on how I am feeling as I'm fighting some illness.
Want early access before that? Join Zach's Inn on Discord today! Don't want to do that but want to stay in the loop? Subscribe to our new notification system today. Just enter your email and click "Subscribe". No spam, just new posts delivered in their entirety directly to your inbox.
Other than that: I am merely recovering from the trip. I look forward to writing more about it.
I hope people enjoyed the post. It was definitely nostalgic and "fun" to write about.
Once more: thanks for reading. Have a spectacular Saturday night!
