Shabbat in Warsaw: Ariel Lipshitz

The day of rest has finally come, Shabbat.

A late sleep and a late start is what everyone needed. We were all immensely tired from our previously busy week, everyone was appreciating the valuable time to sleep in and very excited for the day ahead. 

A Shul service in the beautiful Nozyk Synagogue was conducted and was followed by breakfast. The whole group then met in the reception of the hotel and we were briefed by our guide about the Warsaw ghetto. He explained to us that we would tour the last remaining evidence of the Warsaw Ghetto, everything else was flattened with the rest of the city during WWII. 

We proceeded to walk outside of our hotel into the cold, where to our surprise we saw a red-brick wall which we had never paid attention to. We were then told that this wall was the remaining pieces to the entrance of the Warsaw ghetto. Everyone was speechless, they understood that the ghetto was right in the middle of the city where the Germans had nothing to hide. 

We then walked around a fraction of the ghetto and explored different landmarks. We learned about the bridge which joined the small ghetto and the large ghetto. We sat down in a circle and learned about life in the ghetto, the struggles and difficulties. Our guide showed us many interesting pictures of people with different stories, and a building which was used to to house the Judenrat who were the "Jewish government".