RKYHS seniors capped off a memorable and life-changing trip to Poland with a visit to Israel. The seniors have spent the prior week receiving a firsthand look at the horrors of the Holocaust and understanding life in Poland before the war. After arriving in Warsaw, the group started their non-stop touring immediately with visits to the Warsaw cemetery and the Warsaw Ghetto. As they walked through the once-vibrant Jewish communities in Poland, the seniors came away with a new understanding of the devastation of the Shoah. The journey included visits to concentration and extermination camps including Auschwitz Birkenau, Treblinka and Majdanek.

The students toured surviving area synagogues and batei midrash, including Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, which the students filled once again with the sounds of Jewish songs, prayers and dancing, and brought the feeling of Shabbat back to the former Jewish quarter of Krakow.

RKYHS students were also able to obtain a greater knowledge of the environment for Polish non-Jews as well during the war and heard testimony from one of the righteous gentiles that hid Jews during the war, providing a different first-hand perspective from the accounts they had heard about from Jews that had been hidden.

After an emotionally taxing six days, the students were so excited when they finally arrived in Israel and davened at the Kotel. Only once they had felt the devastation of Poland could they really appreciate Israel, the true Jewish homeland that ensures that the Holocaust will not repeat itself. After a nighttime arrival, the students headed straight to the Kotel to daven. The rest of their brief trip to Israel included sight-seeing and a visit to perform chesed at Pantry Packers.

This meaningful and powerful trip truly strengthened their Jewish identities and connection to their history and roots, and will be an experience that they will never forget.