Readers often ask how and when they can help restore or clean up a Jewish cemetery, so we are pleased to share this call for applications for a 10 day travel and study trip in Poland that will allow participants to explore Jewish heritage sites — and also help clean-up a long neglected cemetery.
The trip takes place July 30-August 8, 2024.
Applications are due by March 31, 2024.
Called the JewishGen Neshama Travel & Preservation Program, it is aimed at adults and has been developed based on trips co-led since 2019 by JewishGen, Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland, and The Matzevah Foundation.
In addition to cleaning up a Jewish cemetery, participants will meet with rabbis, scholars, dignitaries, and Jewish community leaders, who will discuss the imperative (and challenges) of cleaning-up cemeteries in accordance with Jewish law.
Planned itinerary:
The journey begins with a tour of Jewish Warsaw, which will include a visit to the Okopowa Street Cemetery, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, the Nozyk synagogue, and a side-trip to visit Treblinka.
From there, participants will travel to Lublin, Brzesko and Kraków. There will be a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau on Friday, followed by Shabbat dinner with local Jews in Krakow on Friday night. Shabbat/Saturday is unscheduled as a day of rest, with optional opportunities for prayer at one of the Kraków synagogues and time for walking tours or independent walks.
On Sunday the group goes to Zawiercie, where for three days, under the leadership of The Matzevah Foundation and following the guidance of the Rabbinical Commission on Cemeteries in Poland, the group will work on the restoration of a Jewish cemetery that has been largely neglected over the past 80 years.
Thursday morning will see the group return to Warsaw’s Chopin Airport and depart.
Optional add-on components of the trip include arriving a day early for a detailed consultation with a NOTE: professional Polish genealogist in Warsaw, and staying in Poland beyond the group trip for an individual immersive excursion to your own town or towns of ancestral interest within Poland.
Click to see the full Call, with costs and other details, as well as application link