|
|
May 31, 2002/Sivan 20 5762, Vol. 54, No. 37
New guides give travel a Jewish flavor
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Want to know one sign of getting older?
Finding yourself doing and saying more things your parents said and did. That goes from warning your kids about swimming on full stomachs to parroting sage parental maxims - "don't throw out the old water until you get the new" - to seeking out Jewish sites in your travels. I recall my parents recounting their search for a kosher deli in London or their adventures exploring the Jewish quarter in Paris. When I was in my teens and 20s, it really didn't pique my interest; now, I often find myself looking for that same deli, and eating there.
The interest in Jewish travel has exploded, and more and more travelers are using their leisure time to find out more about their roots. Keeping pace with the interest, a mini-industry has developed. There are Jewish heritage tours to destinations as far flung as the Ukraine and Australia, private tour guides offering visits from the Casbah to Beijing, and a plethora of Jewish travel books for the more intrepid who choose to do it on their own.
A recent release, "Jewish Travel Guide 2002," (Valentine Mitchell, $16.95 paperback), is a compendium of Jewish life from Argentina to the United States. Published in association with the Jewish Chronicle of London and edited by Michael Zaidner, the alphabetical listing of Jewish communities from around the world offers concise listings of Jewish sites and services in each of its more than 100 listings. Need a mikvah in Gibraltar? There is one at 12 Bomb House Lane, and Zaidner supplies both a phone and fax number for contacting the ritual bath. Have a craving for a kosher meat meal in Slovakia? Zaidner can point you to Chez David, a supervised kosher restaurant at Zamocka 13 in Pressburg, only open for lunch but offering "take-away" kosher food as well. Each entry begins with a short overview of the history of the Jewish community in the country including figures for total population and Jewish population, and then lists organizations, synagogues, cultural institutions, cemeteries and other relevant sites.
Toni Kamins, a New York writer and former book editor, takes a slightly different approach in her Jewish guidebooks. Released earlier this year, "The Complete Jewish Guide to France" and "The Complete Jewish Guide to Britain and Ireland" (St. Martin Griffin, each $17.95 paperback) are heavier on historical detail and descriptive narrative and lighter on extensive listings of Jewish services. In the France guide, Kamins begins with a section on travel basics, covering such essentials as transportation, accommodations, telephone service and money. Then she offers the reader a 20-page overview of the history of Jews in France and an equally concise description of the history of Parisian Jews. From there she takes the reader on a region-by-region tour, pointing out major Jewish sites and enticing travelers to visit them with her descriptive prose and interesting detail. She describes the Pletzl in Paris: "This neighborhood is known, affectionately, as the Pletzl - Yiddish for little place. It, along with the larger area surrounding it, is known as the Marais (the swamp). Centuries ago, Paris's ground level was much closer to the level of the river and this section of town was swampland."
Kamins ends each of the sections on a particular region with a list of resources that include synagogues, kosher eateries, mikvot and bookstores. The book on Britain and Ireland has a similar plan and offerings. Each would be good airplane reading en route to a vacation destination, providing quick snapshots of Jewish life in each of the countries and piquing interest in exploring some of the sites mentioned. Kamins provides a palatable introduction to Jewish life that may not satisfy the more serious student of Jewish history and culture but is sure to whet the appetite for more reading and travel.
A third offering, titled "Traveler's Guide to Jewish Germany," (Pelican Publishing Company, $22.50 paperback) takes Jewish travelers into a country that is fraught with memories of the Holocaust but also those of the rich Jewish life that was destroyed. Authors Billie Ann Lopez and Peter Hirsch note in the foreword, "No country in the world, outside of Israel itself, contains more Jewish historical sites of importance and significance than Germany today."
The guide begins with pointers on how to get around Germany, including German phrases such as, "Bitte, wo ist der Judenfriedhof?" "Where is the Jewish cemetery, please?" The section also includes advice on how to gain entry into Jewish sites in small towns and villages that may be difficult to find. For instance, in the entry about the Jewish cemetery in Ahrweiler, the authors divulge, "The key is available from a Protestant minister, H. Warnecke, at Burgstrasse 56."
Also included in the guide are maps of a variety of regions in Germany, as well as a guide to deciphering names and dates written in Hebrew on tombstones.
The alphabetical listing of cities includes charming descriptions interspersed with color photographs of a variety of the sites.
|
