Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Day 3 in Poland



Hello everyone,

I hope all is well in decadent Amerika:) I am realizing more and more how lucky we are all living in the great USA. Its so much about the little things I take for granted. I can't find ice to save my life and every drink is served cold?? Ok...enough complaining:)

Today went rather well. We had some lectures about the history of Jews in Poland and was amazed as to how many Synagogues there are in Poland...almost none used as Synagogues today. The question of identity came up again and I am still rather vexed on this issue. I WILL get a good answer (I hope) to this question I hope when I meet with Polish students. We then had workshops in small groups talking about key issues of Polands history and is relationship with Jews today and in history. It was hard as there were three languages flying around all the time. I have a new appreciation for ELL students now!

After dinner (which is the same as our lunch) We went downtown to see a play that was based on Yiddish Theater "Dla mnie Bomba". It was very interesting...but again a challenge because of the language issue.

I am posting a few pics. One of me presenting to the group here in Poland and the other...is of the two directors who were leading us in dance last night.

More to come and more photos soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. So i think it's so interesting to read about the differences in their culture from ours. It's exciting to hear that Poland is such a lively place regardless of thier history. My only question is, how are the people now different than they used to be? Are jewish neighbors and polish neighbors still different towards each other or are they tolerant of one another because of the change in government?

Hadley's Blog said...

There are so few Jews living in Poland today...less than 5000...compared to the 3+ million before the war. Anti Semitism still exists in Poland despite the presence of Jewish people. What is interesting is the presence of their culture, not practiced on some level by non Jewish poles. Much like the play I attended last night...most of the actors were not Jews...but were preforming in what is known as Yiddish theater (not preformed here in Yiddish). The change in government has helped us to create a better dialogue between Israel and Poland...which is what this conference is all about. Thank you for the question.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
It was good to talk to you tonight. Sounds very interesting..to say the least. We miss you and look forward to talking to you in person when you get home on Sunday.
I will have a propel and Ice ready for your arrival :-)
Love,
Stephanie