Where the shtetl once was. Following the traces of Jews in the homeland of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Program
1st day: Arrival to Warsaw and bus transfer to Lublin.
afternoon: Check-in and start the city sightseeing. The visit includes: the main market square with its lanes, the building of Jeshivah Chachwej Lubeni (Rabbinic Academy) and the old Jewish cemetery. evening: Free time Overnight Lublin
2nd day: Majdanek
morning: Visit to Majdanek concentration camp – the second largest Nazi camp of this type in Europe after Auschwitz, established in 1941. It is estimated that over 230 000 human lives were lost in Majdanek, including about 100 000 Jews. afternoon: Free time evening: Optional culture program. Overnight Lublin
3rd day: The whole day excursion through the shtetls.
morning: Start in Kazimierz Dolny – the Renaissance medieval town at the right bank of the Vistula river. While visiting you will see: the market place, the synagogue reconstructed after the Second World War and the Jewish cemetery. afternoon: Lubartow – the small town with 25,000 inhabitants, which boasts the numerous palaces of the noblemen. There we find the partly preserved Jewish cemetery. Leczna – the Big Synagogue with the preserved renaissance interior and valuable polychromies (now the synagogue contains the museum), the Small Synagogue also called the House of Prayer and the former Jewish houses in the market square. evening: Night in Lublin. Overnight Lublin
4th day: Round through the shtetls
morning: Piaski – meeting with the local historian and discussion about the coexistence of Jews and non-Jews during the interwar period. afternoon: Bychawa – meeting with the school manager and the organizer of the International Youth Meeting. A film projection about Poland in the 20th Century – Jews. Visit to the Market Square including the synagogue. Meeting with a survivor. Izbica – Entering the partly former Jewish cemetery where you find a tomb-monument of the Jewish-Catholic couple of brothers Griner and Pawlowski. Continuation to Zamosc. evening: Arrival and night in Zamosc. Overnight Zamosc
5th day: Zamosc – UNESCO World Heritage Town.
morning: City sightseeing tour of Zamosc which includes: the Old Town Market, Zamojski Palace, the Town Hall, the synagogue and the mikva, the house of Rosa Luxemburg. afternoon: Departure Zamosc for the half-day theme-tour about the Hasidism. Belzec – visit to the extermination camp Sieniawa – Jewish cemetery with Tzaddik’s tomb – Ohel Lezajsk – ohel Elimelech – the famous miracle worker Tzaddik, the Bernardines Monastery and the cathedral. evening: Check-in in a hotel in Dabrowka. Overnight Dabrowka
6th day: Lancut
morning: Arrival to Lancut. Visiting of the four-pillared masonry synagogue in Lancut built around 1726 – one of the most beautiful and well preserved provincial synagogues. A stop at the castle in Lancut – a magnificent aristocratic residence. Originally this early Baroque palace was sited within fortifications raised for Krakow Voivode Stanislaw Lubomirski in the years 1629-1641. The residence also comprises a winter garden, stables, coach-house and a small romantic castle in the park. afternoon: Route to Tarnow. Check-in the hotel. Leisure time. evening: Free time Overnight : Lancut
7th day: Tarnow – Warsaw
morning: Visiting of the Main Market Square with centrally located impressive Gothic -Renaissance town hall, Bimah of the Old Synagogue, houses and palaces of the noblemen, the Jewish district and cemetery and Sinti and Roma Museum. afternoon: Return to Warsaw with a short tour of Sandomierz. The town boasts the cathedral (1382), the house in which the medieval chronicler, Jan Dlugosz once lived (1478), a Dominican Abbey (1226), the church of St. Paul (1434), a Baroque Benedictine monastery and the Town Hall. evening: Arrival to Warsaw.
8th day: Warsaw
morning: Visiting of the Jewish Ghetto site and the cemetery at Okopowa Street – the most valuable monument of Jewish culture in Warsaw. Then the stop in Nozyk Synagogue founded in 1902 by Zalman Nozyk and his wife. Meeting with a representative from the Jewish community. Discussion about present situation of Jewish community in Poland. afternoon: Free time. evening: Performance in the Yiddish Theatre. Overnight Warsaw