From prayer moments to exploring family lineage in the files at the museum in Auschwitz. We took a long stroll through Birkenau which strengthened our constitution to depleting our legs. From castles to historic synagogues, to silly moments to Schindler’s factory where my Cantorial mentor Moshe Taube was identified his and his father as two […]
Images from the fortresses and museums at Terezin. Many medium of artistry expressed in cloth, pencil, music by children and adults. A moment of refreshment we had a local restaurant in the city limits and then we paid our respects at the cemetery and crematoria.
A few photos from the beginning of the trip…
Rabbi Chapman with CBS members at the Kotel, Jerusalem, Israel
On our full first day in Israel, we traveled to the south to visit communities impacted by the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, including to the Nova Festival site. I know many of us visited the Nova Exhibition in Chicago this year, which was certainly powerful. But, for me, it pales in comparison to standing […]
Our second day in Vienna included a visit to the Wall of Names, where I was honored to lead a memorial service for the group. The number of names is just staggering. But I was more struck by the inscription in the entryway. In addition to honoring the more than 65,000 Jews from Austria were […]
(Photo credit Wikipedia) According to David Roet, Israel’s ambassador to Austria with whom we met tonight, today there are some 20,000 Jews in Austria, a combination of Israeli emigres, Jews from the former Soviet Union, and the remnants of the prewar community. There are Jewish schools and Kosher restaurants. And Austria has been one of […]
(picture credit Wikipedia) This year’s JUF Nachshon mission begins in Vienna, a city with a Jewish history going back to the 12th century. In the early 20th century, around 200,000 Jews lived here, about 1/10th of the city’s population. During the Holocaust, the Nazis decimated Austria’s Jewish community, leaving only a few thousand here after […]
I didn’t write a post yesterday. Please forgive me. We spent nearly the whole day in Auschwitz-Birkenau. I was not yet able to put anything into words but I will soon. I will share a pair of stories that bring home for me the layers of history, conflict, and geography I have experienced this week. […]
Today we “visited” the Jewish communities of Lublin, Kazimierz, and Sandomierz. I put “visit” in quotes because all that’s left of Jewish life in these places are plaques and cemeteries. But even these stone markers attest to the rich Jewish life that once thrived here. I asked Rabbi Poupko if he thought all that existed […]
In just over 24 hours so far in Poland, I have visited dozens of sites that attest to both the majestic Jewish civilization that flourished here for hundreds of years, and its brutal annihilation over a few short months. In Treblinka, I walked the same steps hundreds of thousands of Jews from across Europe walked […]
Dear CBS Family, For the past few days I have had the privilege to be in Israel on a solidarity mission with JUF. Along with leaders from Chicago’s Jewish community (including some Beth Shalom members!) I am here to see firsthand the impact that Oct. 7 and the subsequent war has had on the country. […]
3433 Walters Avenue, Northbrook, IL 60062
(847) 498-4100 |
Monday – Thursday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
