BCA’s March of the Living
Beth Chana Academy
traces the steps of a journey not to be forgotten…
….. our journey traces the actual route which
countless numbers of our people were forced
to take on their way to the gas chambers at Birkenau.
Our students experience a piece of powerful Jewish history.
Unforgettable Moments
As you arrive in Poland, you will wonder how it was possible for the destruction of an entire generation of Jews to occur…
….you will pledge to keep their memory alive.
By taking part in these special events, you will share unforgettable
moments in Jewish history and bear witness to the undying spirit of the
Jewish people.
Drawing by Deborah Sessel
You will visit the concentration camps and historic Jewish sites in
WARSAW (the Ghetto Memorial, Mila 18, the Jewish Cemetery, the restored
Nozyck Synagogue), KRACOW (the Jewish Quarter, the Ramah
Synagogue), LUBLIN (the famous Yeshiva) and the new Chabad
Centers in Warsaw & Krakow.
In Poland you will search for traces of a world that is no more.
Like those who participated in the previous marches, you will return
home with a new sense of yourself, your people and your history.
You will discover that, of the hundreds of Jewish Yeshivos, shuls and
institutions that existed in Warsaw before the war, all that remains is
one sparsely attended synagogue (used by the Nazis as a stable during
the war) and a centuries-old Jewish cemetery that was left relatively
untouched by the Nazis during their occupation of Warsaw.
Today you can see a new resurgence of Jewish culture with shuls,
yeshivos, organizations and youth groups. Chabad centers in
Warsaw and Krakow reach out to those who live in Poland and renew
connections with Yiddishkeit by bringing Torah and Mitzvos to an
uneducated generation.
It will be an experience that will remain with you for a lifetime.
Throughout the “March of the Living”, our students keep a journal and
record their thoughts and experiences. Upon their return, they
share them as a collected published work, titled "Spaces Revisited" .
Faith
by Janice Sussman
How can we who haven’t suffered
Through those times
Known the depths of desperation
Or enormity of hope
That filled these souls
WE CAN ONLY IMAGINE
Nights filled with darkness
Nights filled with fear
Days that were nights
We see remnants --
Shoes, hair, eye glasses, a locket
And we live their pain
Pain of the ages
Pain that causes us to question
Pain of the ages, that demands we are strong
To live, To hope
To recreate
To recreate
Again and Again
TO HAVE FAITH
As I looked around and saw us standing on these hallowed grounds soaked
with Jewish blood, I realized our privilege and responsibility.
No, Hitler did not succeed in eradicating our people. Instead, we
are here today, carrying on the great responsibility of living out
their lives as Jews. It is our obligation to fulfill what those
who perished would have loved to accomplish, had they been able to.
-- excerpt from a senior Journal Essay
