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The Wandering Jew
The Wandering Jew Yomim Noraim in Warsaw 2017
Part I
By Hershel Lieber
The historic “Old Town” in Warsaw
Although my first Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in Warsaw was in 1979, it wasn’t until 1987 that I became a steady baal tefilla for the Yomim Noraim at the Nozyk Synagogue. In fact, for the past twenty years, I missed being there only three times for different reasons. After my children got married or were studying in Israel, Pesi almost always accompanied me. Chavi, our youngest daughter, went with us to Poland in 1995, a year before getting married. Mechel, who was just under bar mitzvah, also joined us that year.
Fast forward to Elul of 2017. Mechel, who was already married twelve years, expressed a burning desire to spend Yom Kippur with us and to hear me davening on this awesome day, something that he had not experienced in ages. I also think he was motivated by the fact that my grandson, Eli Klein, was planning to join me in Warsaw for Yom Kippur. Mechel’s wife, Leah, also persuaded him to make this trip, and she made all the arrangements to make it possible. Pesi and I were thrilled about the prospect of Mechel getting to know firsthand about our annual experience of davening with the Polish Jewish kehillah. It would be an opportunity for him to get to meet our friends and mispallelim and understand why davening there is so meaningful to us. Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich was likewise encouraging, and he was also excited that both Mechel and Eli could contribute to the tefillos and more so to the entire atmosphere in the shul.
Pesi and I arrived on Tuesday, September 19, a day before Rosh Hashana. We usually stay at the Radisson Hotel, a five-minute walk to the shul. This year, Rabbi Schudrich rented a small apartment for us about a ten-minute walk away from the shul. To be honest, the apartment was a far cry from our hotel accommodations, but it provided an extra room for the three days that Mechel would join us in Warsaw. Eli made a booking at a hotel on his own since he was only coming for two days.
That very evening, we were invited for dinner to Mati and Margalit Lokietek, whom we know for many years. They have two married children, a daughter in Passaic and a son in Manchester. They also have a number of grandchildren from both of their children. Like in previous years, Mati requested that I bring them specific English seforim which they both read from cover to cover.
The next day, erev Rosh Hashana, I spent time with the assistant Rabbi Uriel Zaretsky re-
Preparing the tefillos with Oriel Zaretzky
With Piot Kowalik and his son Kuba Mati and Margalit Lokietek Pesi with Grazyna Pawlak
viewing the tefillos and marking our machzorim to reflect which piyutim we would say and which ones we would skip. I also met with Grazina Pawlak who was coordinating the newly formed museum dedicated to Rav Meir Shapira and Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, which would be opening soon in the building of the former yeshiva in Lublin. I helped her write some text for the exhibits, and we chose songs that Rabbi Shapira composed, which would be playing in the background while visitors would view the exhibits.
In the afternoon, we started preparing for Yom Tov. We shopped for produce, drinks and paper goods, which we brought up to our apartment. During the previous years, we had a number of families who hosted us for the yom tov seudos. This year, one family had already moved to the United States. Two other families were in Dinov for Rosh Hashana. There, a guest house was established mainly for Chassidim from Israel who wanted to daven in the proximity of the kever of the Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech, the author of the classic “Bnei Yissaschar.” Baruch Hashem, Pinchas Etzioni, the owner of the Kosher Delight restaurant in Warsaw, who was in charge of daily dinners for elderly Jews, was also
catering on behalf of the members of the Nozyk Shul. His kitchen provided us with ample food for our evening seudos – challahs, fish, soup, chicken and beef, side dishes, dessert and wine. The hardest part was shlepping the food to our apartment. We bought new fruits for the “Shehechiyanu” and honey at the produce market. The Yom Tov day seudos we ate together with Rabbi Schudrich and other guests, as well as the usual group of elderly Yidden, at the community dining room.
Erev Yom Tov was truly a very
hectic day for us. I just barely had time to run to the mikva before rushing off with Pesi to shul.
On Rosh Hashana, there were not as many people at the shul during the tefillos as in the past years. Nozyk was once the only synagogue in Warsaw. During the past few years, a number of other shuls had been established, which drew some congregants away from Nozyk. Chabad had opened a branch in 2005, and a shul for Georgian Jews started about eight years later. Two liberal congregations, Beit Warszawa in and Eitz Chayim, also attracted some former mispallelim of the famed Nozyk Synagogue. In addition, a number of religious families and individuals emigrated from Poland to Israel, the United States, England and Austria, thereby reducing the shul population. Nevertheless, many of the mispallelim who did attend are religiously sincere and participate in many aspects of Jewish life and tradition. Rabbi Schudrich, in addition to his enormous responsibility as the chief rabbi of Poland, teaches and provides guidance to the congregants of the Nozyk Shul community.
My davening that Rosh Hashana was, baruch Hashem, very good. My voice carried well, and the shul’s acoustics did indeed help. The regulars were very familiar with the niggunim that I use for various sections of Mussaf and joined me heartily singing the words of the machzor.
The seudos both in our apartment and at the community dining room were nice and yom tov-dik. That year, Shabbos immediately followed Rosh Hashana, which provided us with more time to rest.
Sunday was Tzom Gedalaya, and we went to visit Yoel and Yehudis and their two small sons, Chaim Yosef and Laizer Moshe. They lived in New York for a number of years, and we were very involved with them during the years that they were studying in Sh’or Yoshuv and Touro/BYA, respectively. We also participated in making their chasuna, and they were frequent guests at our Shabbos and yom tov table. They returned to Poland because of immigration issues and are actively trying to make Aliyah to Israel.
In the afternoon, I learned Mishnayos with Mati Karpow, a young teenager with whom I have been learning weekly by Skype. After the fast, we ate at Kosher Delight and were joined for tea and cake by Yisroel and Esther Szpilman. We have a long, ongoing relationship with Yisroel and just started to get to know his wife, Esther.
Monday was even a lighter day, in that all we did was a bit of shopping and visiting the 14th century “Old Town,” which is a World Heritage site. On Tuesday, we took a private driver to Zelazowa Wola, the birthplace of Frederic Chopin, the famed Polish composer. The house and gardens of the virtuoso of piano music exhibited his artifacts and provided information that gave us a deeper appreciation of his talent. Our walk through his estate was complemented with the music of Chopin’s great compositions.
Driving in this vicinity, I noticed a road sign showing that the town of Sochaczew was only 8 kilometers away. I was once there many years before, but Pesi had never been there at all. Though it is a small town, its fame for Yidden are that two great rabbinic personalities lived there, the Avnei Nezer (on halacha) and the Shem Mishmuel (on parsha and Moadim) . Rav Avrohom Borensztain and his son Rav Shmuel were both great chassidic leaders who wrote the aforementioned seforim that are wildly acclaimed. We asked the driver to make a stop there.
At the entrance of the bais olam, there was a sign that said that we could obtain the key at the nearby florist. With great reverence, we entered the ohel of the two tzaddikim, recited Tehillim, and placed kvitlech on their graves. We were thrilled at this unexpected opportunity that transformed the secular motif of the day to one supplemented with spiritual eminence.
We ate dinner, which was last night’s leftovers, in the apartment and rushed over to visit our friends Piot and Marisha Kowalik. Piot works as Director of Education at the Polin Museum which documents Jewish life in Poland over the last thousand years. Their son, Kuba, and Piot’s mother were there as well. We had some tea and cake and spent a good hour talking. Piot also related to me about his Rosh Hashana experience and the heightened spiritual atmosphere that prevailed in Dinov. We returned to the apartment and immediately went to sleep.
Tomorrow, we would have a very busy day, beginning with a train journey to Krakow.
Studying Mishnayos with Mati Karpow The ohel of the Sochazhover Rebbes
Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.
A visit with Yoel Jaworski and his two sons Chopin’s piano In the gardens of Chopin’s birthplace
