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June 11, 2004/Sivan 22 5764, Vol. 56, No. 38
Life-changing trip
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Randi and Dave Sherman of Scottsdale recently traveled to Poland on a United Jewish Communities study mission. The couple is standing in Old Town Square in Warsaw.
Photo courtesy of Randi Sherman
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Randi and Dave Sherman have traveled the world on United Jewish Communities missions, including trips to Israel, Argentina, Cuba and Kiev, but none of those trips made as profound an impact as their trip to Poland last month.
As members of the National Young Leadership Cabinet of UJC, the Shermans traveled with 50 other young leaders from North America for a six-day trip to Poland and Israel. Their three days in Poland took them to visit three concentration camps - Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek - as well as synagogues, Jewish cultural centers, the Lauder-Morasha School (the only Jewish day school in Poland) and other sites in Krakow and Warsaw.
Dave Sherman says the trip changed how he thinks and feels about the enormity of the Holocaust.
"If people really want to know what happened, the only place they can go is Poland," he says. "The experience changed me. ... I walked out of this trip a different person. I know things and I've seen things and I've heard things about the Holocaust that I never knew before."
Randi Sherman says there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland prior to the Holocaust. At the end of World War II, she says, there were about 500,000 and now there are only 5,000-10,000 Jews in the entire country, although the number of Jews in Poland is hard to determine because so many people have kept their heritage a secret. It is not uncommon for an elderly person on their deathbed to tell a completely unaware family that they are Jewish, she says. The Shermans even met a Catholic priest who found out at the age of 35 that he was actually a Jew.
Despite the secrecy, the Shermans report the Jewish culture is alive and well in Poland.
"There was a choir of about 35-40 adults who sang for us (in Hebrew and Yiddish) and about half were Jewish," recalls Randi Sherman. "When we asked why non-Jews would want to participate and sing these Jewish songs, they said they love the culture."
They also visited a Jewish cultural center and a synagogue that were run by non-Jews.
After their three days in Poland, the mission traveled to Israel for a long weekend.
Dave Sherman says that visiting Israel after the emotional trip to Poland truly felt like going home.
"I think people should go to see (Poland)," he says, "but if it's a choice of Israel or Poland, go to Israel."
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