Day 10: How will YOU be remembered?

How would you like to be remembered? Will you be a part of constructing that narrative or will you leave that up to your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers?

For decades Jewish culture and history has had an “absence of presence” because it has been largely defined by the Holocaust. I’m so grateful for my journey to Lithuania and Poland because it’s introduced me to a richness in Jewish culture that I never knew existed or thought to consider.

We spent the day in Kazimierz, the historic Jewish Quarter, that today bustles with a cosmopolitan area of shops, restaurants, galleries, and bars. But here’s the amazing thing: prior to German occupation these elements existed as well and there was even harmony between Christians and Jews as many of their houses of worship were side by side. Nazi Germany destroyed that, but today the commitment to restore cultural and historical landmarks is strong. The Jewish Community Centre of Krakow has a vibrant membership devoted to building the Jewish community as well as Polish-Jewish relations. Finally, the Galicia Jewish Museum exists to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to celebrate the Jewish culture of Polish Galicia.

Even with all that positivity, we were appalled to discover that at a local square market, local vendors were selling replicas of swastikas, SS pins, Jude armbands, and stereotypical paintings of Jewish men reading the Torah while counting coins. As memorabilia! WTH?!? We secretly took pictures because we could not believe our eyes! I was irate and asked my Jewish friends how they were feeling. They were not surprised, but very upset.

However, Jews will not let the remnants of antisemitism or neo-Nazism overshadow their
rich history. It motivates them even more to be a part of writing the new narrative - post-Holocaust - not for them, but for future generations. As Jonathan Ornstein, Executive Director of JCC Krakow told us today, “Jews are a people laser focused on LIFE.”

By the way, I’m so damn proud of my Puerto Rican sisters and brothers who are standing up for justice and demanding to be heard!

May we all be remembered for living our lives with a passionate mission to bring good to this world.

JCC of Krakow. Love the butterflies on the wall 

Home to the internationally acclaimed exhibition, Traces of Memory.

Town Hall

A fortification. Built to protect against the Turks who never came.

Former Opera House

Jewish Kazimierz

Disgusting that this would be sold as “art.”

Do you see them?!

Replicas of stamps used at ghettos when deported Jews arrived. 

One actually was created for the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

WTH? Unbelievable!