Poland -- Kielce Shabbaton

Michael Traison, who organized the Shabbaton last weekend in the Polish city of Kielce, has passed on some reaction to the event, which brought Jewish religious services to the century-old synagogue in the city for the first time since World War II The synagogue was totally rebuilt after the war and has served as the district archive since 1951. Fotos of the event have been posted of the very comprehensive Shabbaton Web Site.

This is what one participant wrote:

From childhood I used to listen to my parents descriptions of the Kielce synagogue. This synagogue was the symbol and pride of the Jewish community of Kielce. It was like Jerusalem for the Jews in Kielce and their center of life. It appeared on every document, book, letterhead related to Jewish Kielce. It was the community icon. Whenever I told somebody that I visited the synagogue they asked me whether the wonderful ceiling paintings are still there.  

I am not a religious person, I don't know to pray and if I went to synagogue it was mainly during my and my sons bar mitzvah when I also "went up to the Tora" - keeping the Jewish tradition. I never had a dream to pray at any specific place, or at all, neither in the Kielce synagogue but apparently when it happened it became another bar Mitzvah for me.

When I was 13 years old I went up to the Tora in our local synagogue surrounded by all my family members and friends. Being a good musician, I learned to sing the Brachot, Aftara and Maftir as a real Hazan. I remember very well the excitement and how my parents were proud. This was almost 50 years ago.

Last weekend I was standing there in the Kielce synagogue during the praying, once again surrounded with many friends, Jews and non Jews among them the chief Rabbi of Poland. I slowly started to feel excited and realized that I am celebrating a second bar mitzvah but this time without the presence of my family members. Then instead of looking into the Sidur, I started to think of each and every one of my family members who lived in Kielce and prayed in this same place and slowly slowly I started to feel their presence. And when Rabbi Schudrich invited me to the Tora, instead of saying the Brachot I suddenly started to sing them at exactly the same melody which I was singing when I was 13 years old and which I never repeated since then. I felt that I came to Kielce to celebrate my Bar Mitzva once again after 49 years, this time with my grandparents, great grandmother uncles, cousins and other family members that lived in Kielce and could not attend my first 13 years bar mitzvah. I hope that they have been proud of my singing as were my parents when I was 13 years old.

POLAND -- Shabbaton in Kielce: services in synagogue for the first time since WW2

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A Shabbaton  will take place in the Polish city of Kielce next weekend (Oct. 16-17), bringing Shabbos observances to a synagogue that has not been used for worship since the Holocaust. A detailed web site (in English as well as Polish)  describes the program, the synagogue -- reconstructed out of recognition after World War II, and long used as the district archives -- and the history of Jewish life (and death) in the city.

On 16 October the Shabbaton will begin with common prayers at the three houses of worship built in Kielce in the early 20th century: the Catholic Church, the Synagogue, and the Orthodox Church. During an open meeting, the Polish Council of Christians and Jews will then discuss Catholic and Jewish identity.

On Friday evening a community Sabbath will be celebrated for the first time since World War II. Sabbath prayers will be said in the synagogue, which this year celebrates the 100^th year since its founding and which is currently in use as the State Archive, followed by a traditional Sabbath dinner dinner.

On 17 October after morning prayers and lunch everyone is invited on a walk through Jewish Kielce. Guests from Israel will then lead workshops on Judaism. A Havdala service will mark the end of the sabbath, which will then be followed by an evening of dance and music.

Jews were barred from settling in Kielce until the early 19th century; by 1939, there was a Jewish population of about 25,000. The Nazis set up a ghetto in April 1941; many died from the brutal conditions, and about 20,000 people were deported to Treblinka.

Kielce, however, is far better known for what happened after World War II. It is is infamous as the site of the last pogrom in Poland, a massacre of 42 Jews by a Polish mob who attacked the Jewish community house on July 4, 1946. The pogrom is described in detail in the book Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz,  by Jan T. Gross.     

 Building in Kielce where the 1946 pogrom took place. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

 

 Monument to the pogrom, in Kielce, by American artist Jack Sal. (Photo from www.jacksal.com)

The Kielce Shabbaton is the latest in a series of Shabbaton programs in long-disused synagogues in Poland organized by Michael Traison, an America lawyer who has an office in Warsaw and has spent much of his time in Poland over the past 15 years. Previous Shabbatons have taken place in Pinczow, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Przemysl, and Lublin.

Traison -- whom I met in 1995 at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz -- told me recently that he had four motivations for organizing the Shabbatons.

"First is remembrance, to remember these communities and these human beings that were here. Second is to demonstrate that the Jewish people did survive as a people and thrive and we are here, we are alive, and that we're here in Poland, too: Am Yisroel Chai. Third, to have an opportunity to bring Poles and Jews together, not just here but worldwide. And fourth, to provide a Jewish religious experience for people who would like to participate in such an experience and enjoy a good Shabbat."

(I'm also told that a Shabbaton will be held in late November in Plock, apparently organized by the Beit Warszawa reform congregation, but I don't have any details.)