heading south.....

So the sun finally caught up with me and the weather has been gorgeous here in Krakow. However, my days of roaming city streets are on pause. As Friday I met up with my conference and the games have begun. We had a fantastic tour of Jewish Krakow with one of the handful of Krakow's Jews left here today... concluding the tour at the Remuh Synagogue. There we joined the few members of today's community for the friday night service. To be honest the melodies were pretty different and the women who joined me behind the mehitzah attempted to help me follow along. Although, as we came to the familiar lecha do di and we all turned to welcome in the shabbat bride I could feel the spirit of those who prayed in the synagogue for centuries before me come through the crumbling, but beautiful doorway. What a tribute to this once flourishing community to have spent shabbat here and increased (maybe 6x) the current minyan with our group.

The conference itself has been amazing-- so much to absorb and so many fantastic people. I've befriended a group of theater students from LA who work in Rwanda with trauma therapy theater with the survivors of the genocide (Beth and Lydia you would both love the work they do!) Both today and yesterday we were at Auschwitz and Birkenau... the most famous scholars on my side examining history, memory and discussing the future of genocide prevention. For those of you who know of Deborah Lipstadt and her trial with Holocaust denier David Irving you can appreciate what a learning experience it was to walk along side her while she shared with me the details of the case and how the steps and door leading into the gas chambers proved as significant pieces in her trial. I have learned so much!

Tomorrow morning as the sun rises over Krakow I will be saying good-bye and continuing south to part II of the conference in Sarajevo. I hope all is good on your side of the world and I'll try and write again soon.

Don't forget to email me!