BEARING WITNESS TO THE PAST AND PRESENT
JEWISH POLAND
A CHARLOTTE COMMUNITY JOURNEY TO POLAND
October 9—18, 2025
Warsaw – Treblinka – Lublin – Tarnów –Kraków –Auschwitz-Birkenau
Led by :
Judy La Pietra & Rabbi Judith Schindler
ABOUT THE TOUR
Tour Highlights |
Prominent tour leaders
Warsaw, the Phoenix City
Lublin, the Gate to the East
Tarnow, a former shtetl
Krakow, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site
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Dear Friends,
I am pleased to invite you to join us on our Summer Taube Jewish Heritage Tour.
JEWISH POLAND: THE HEART & SOUL OF ASHKENAZI JEWRY
Sunday, June 22 – Sunday, June 29, 2025
Our journey, led by preeminent scholar Dr. Tomasz Cebulski will begin in Warsaw with a visit to the internationally acclaimed POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and conclude at the annual Krakow Jewish Culture Festival in the Royal City of Krakow.
We will trace the evolution of Jewish life in the cradle of Ashkenazi Jewry, visiting the very places where some of our grandparents and great-grandparents were born. Together, we will explore the richness of pre-war Jewish life, memorialize the tragic loss, and celebrate Jewish life in Poland today.
We will introduce you to Polish parliamentarians, Israeli, Ukrainian, and U.S. embassy representatives, and Jewish community leaders. Their perspectives will provide you with additional insights and a deeper understanding of contemporary Poland, its European and global role, and the country’s growing Jewish community.
We would be happy to answer any of your questions. Please contact us at amakuch@taubecenter.org
The Taube Center Team and I look forward to greeting you in Warsaw next June.
With our best wishes,
Helise
Helise Lieberman,
Director, Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning
SCHOLARS IN RESIDENCE
Dr. Edyta Gawron
Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of the History and Culture of Krakow’s Jews at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, visited the San Francisco Bay Area in November. Dr. Gawron spoke at the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley on Monday, November 12. Her presentation focused on how the Holocaust is being remembered and commemorated in Poland. She also spoke at San Francisco State on the Oskar Schindler History Museum and the Galicia Jewish Museum, and attended a San Francisco Krakow Sister Cities Reception in her honor.
Konstanty Gebert
He was born 1953 in Warsaw and graduated with a degree in psychology from Warsaw University in 1976. He is currently an international reporter and columnist with the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. Democratic opposition activist in the 1970s and underground journalist (as Dawid Warszawski) in the 1980s. Gerbert co-founded the underground Jewish Flying University and the Polish Jewish intellectual monthly Midrasz among others. He has served as a board member for the Einstein Forum, Potsdam; Paideia, Stockholm; and Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund, The Hague. Gebert has taught at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, UC Berkeley and the Grinnell College. Gerbert has authored eleven books in Polish, some translated into English, Italian, and Bosnian. His writing covers an array of topics including Poland’s round table negotiations of 1989, the Yugoslav wars, Israeli history, and commentaries on the Torah. His essays have been published in dozens of collections around the world and his articles have appeared in media worldwide. Most recent publications: “Poland: Living Apart,” in: Anders Jerichow and Cecilie Felicia Stockholm Banke (Eds): Pre-Genocide. Warnings and Responsibility to Protect, 2018; “Poland Since 1989 – Muddling Through, Wall to Wall;” in: Sabrina P. Ramet, Christine M. Hassenstab (Eds): Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019. In 2018, he was recognized with the American Jewish Press Association Rockower Award.
Most recent publications: „Salvation and perdition – the Polish Jews’ Russian school of modernity and politics” [in Polish], in: Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Katharina Friedla (Ed.): Syberiada Żydów polskich. Losy uchodźców z Zagłady, Warszawa 2020, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny; “Poland, Israel and History” [in German], in Gisela Dachs (Ed.): Freundschaften, Feindschaften. Essays., Berlin 2020, Suhrkamp.
ITINERARY
ARRIVAL IN WARSAW: THE PHOENIX CITY
A TJHT representative will meet all guests and transfers will be provided, based on your arrival information.
We recommend that participants arrive by 2:00 pm. If participants would like to arrive earlier, TJHT will be happy to make hotel and transfer arrangements on their behalf.
3:00 pm Check-in at hotel
Time to refresh and explore the city of Warsaw on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Optional guided tour of Warsaw or time on your own.
Suggested sites to visit:
● Walk the Royal Route and Nowy Swiat Avenue, which evoke the architecture and cultural milieu of pre-war Warsaw and are lined with cafes and eateries.
● The Royal Baths Park (Łazienki) is the largest historical park in Warsaw, which serves as a venue for music, the arts, and cultural events.
● A stroll along the Vistula river, the longest river in Poland and one of the longest in Europe. The river bank has its own beaches and bars where you can sit and enjoy the view or sample Warsaw’s street food.
● Visit to Praga, the district of Warsaw located on the right bank of Vistula river. Sites worth visiting: Polish Vodka Museum and the Żabinski’s Villa* in the Warsaw Zoo.
The Zabinskis were the zookeepers prior to and during World War II. They succeeded in hiding more than 300 Jews within the zoo’s grounds.
● Wilanów Palace (a wonderful Baroque royal residence located in the south of the capital), with its lovely grounds and world-famous poster museum.
● Visit to the viewing platform of the Palace of Culture and Science, a 1950s Stalinist skyscraper offering panoramic views of the city, including its booming CBD.
WELCOME TO JEWISH POLAND
WARSAW – the capital of Poland, has been popularly dubbed the “The Phoenix City”, as it lost well over a half of its prewar population and was almost completely destroyed during World War II, and afterwards was rebuilt from the rubble and ruins in a nationwide effort. Divided by the Vistula, Poland’s major river, the city’s right and left banks narrate the complex history of the city. Today, Warsaw, Poland’s largest city with over three million people living in its metropolitan area, is a vibrant political and economic center of the country, reflecting the resurgence of Poland’s economy over the past 30 years as a member of NATO since 1999 and the EU since 2004. The meticulously rebuilt Old Town with the Royal Route and the 2016 European Museum of the Year POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews are two of the crucial major cultural cornerstones of this Central European capital. Home to more than 350,000 Jews from across the cultural and religious spectrum in the center of the Ashkenazi world prior to the Holocaust, Warsaw is now home to Poland’s largest Jewish community counting several thousand people, which hosts a renown Jewish Historical Institute, JCC, Hillel, and a day primary and secondary schools, as well as various religious communities. From the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Warsaw is also the center of international support for the attacked country as well as the main hub of aid effort for Ukrainian refugees, of whom several hundred thousand have found a temporary home in the Polish capital’s metropolitan area.
7:00 pm Welcome dinner Reception with the tour leaders and the Taube Center Team.
Venue: restaurant with a separate room
Why are we here? What brings us to Poland?
Walk/van back to the hotel
Overnight in Warsaw
WARSAW: 1,000 YEARS OF JEWISH LIFE IN POLAND
Breakfast in the hotel
9:00 am – 10:30 am Welcome to Jewish Warsaw: introductory session at hotel with Taube Center staff and a special guest: Konstanty Gebert, a veteran Polish journalist, Jewish community figure and former underground activist in Warsaw, as wellas one of the most notable war correspondents of various Polish daily newspapers.
10:45 am Coach to the Umschlagplatz Monument, commemorating the 300,000 Jews deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka Death Camp in 1942.
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Guided walking tour through the former heart of pre-war Jewish Warsaw and the Warsaw ghetto, begins at the Umschlagplatz and follows the Route of Martyrdom and Struggle, which includes Mila 18 and the Warsaw Ghetto Memorials, to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm Welcome to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the director.
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Buffet lunch
1:30 pm – 4:00 pm A private curator-led tour through the nine-gallery Core Exhibition, “1,000 Years of Polish-Jewish History”.
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Time to explore the Museum on your own
4:30 pm Return to the hotel
Optional Shabbat services at Ec Chaim
8:00 pm Private Shabbat dinner Venue: POLKA Restaurant Address: Świętojańska 2 St., Warsaw
OR Communal dinner at Ec Chaim
Overnight in Warsaw
TYKOCIN, ŁOPUCHOWO FOREST, AND TREBLINKA
Breakfast in the hotel
9:00 am Depart Warsaw via bus to Tykocin (an approx. 2-hour drive)
11:00 am Visit Tykocin and the former synagogue (now a museum)
12:00 pm Drive to Łopuchowo, mass grave of Jews from Tykocin
Lunch boxes available on the bus
1:00 pm Depart for Treblinka (an approx. 1 hour drive)
2:00 pm Arrival in Treblinka Memorial and Museum followed by a study tour
4:00 pm Depart for Warsaw
7:00 pm Arrival in Warsaw and dinner on your own in Warsaw. Recommendations will be provided.
Overnight in Warsaw
WARSAW: PAST MEETS PRESENT
Breakfast in the hotel
9:00 am – 10:15 am Morning session with Dr. Dariusz Stola, former Director of the POLIN Museum, Chairman Member of Academia Europaea since 2024. Member of the third term of the International Auschwitz Council.
10:15 am Coach to Grzybowski Square
10:30 am – 11:45 am Guided visit to the Grzybowski Sq vicinity including a visit to the Nożyk synagogue, the heart of Jewish spiritual life in contemporary Warsaw, and the only synagogue to survive the war and serve the Jewish community. Meeting with Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich
11:45 am Coach to Okopowa Jewish Cemetery
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Guided tour of the Cemetery
1:30 pm Coach to the Jewish Historical Institute.
1:45 pm – 2:45 pm Light lunch
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Visit to the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute with a private viewing of the new permanent exhibition that tells the story of the hidden archives of the Warsaw Ghetto, which were collected by Jewish researchers imprisoned in the ghetto, then hidden underground, and rescued after WWII.
Free time or return to the hotel
Dinner on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Overnight in Warsaw
WARSAW – LUBLIN: THOUGH THE LAND OF SHTETLS (END OF SUKKOT)
LUBLIN –is the largest Polish city in the East. Relatively close to the Ukrainian and Belarusian borders, Lublin is an important location where cultural influences from the West and East intertwined throughout centuries. The city has a rich history – its picturesque Old Town with its townhouses and churches is considered to be one of the best examples of typical Polish Renaissance and Baroque architecture. It became one of the centers of Jewish printing during the 16-18th century and the home of the famous Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.On the outskirts of Lublin, in the village of Majdanek, German Nazis constructed an infamous concentration and death camp (KL Lublin) during World War II, that was active 1941-44.
Breakfast in the hotel
Check-out
8:30 am Departure for Lublin
10:30 am Arrival in Lublin and guided tour of Lublin’s Old Town (Grodzka Gate)
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch in the Old Town
Venue: Browar Grodzki
Address: Grodzka 15 St.
1:00 pm Drive to Majdanek
1:30 pm – 4:00 pm Visit the State Museum of the former German Nazi Concentration Camp in Majdanek, located at the outskirts of Lublin.
4:00 pm Drive to the hotel and check-in
TBC Reflection session in the hotel led by the Rabbi Schindler
Time to refresh and dinner on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Overnight in Lublin
LUBLIN – TARNOW: WELCOME TO KRAKOW, THE ROYAL CAPITAL
10:00 am Depart for Tarnow (an approx. 3-hour drive)
1:00 pm Arrival in Tarnow. Visit to the cemetery and remnants of the synagogue
1:45 pm Light lunch
2:30 pm Drive to Krakow.
3:30 pm Arrival in Krakow and check into hotel
KRAKOW – The historical capital of Poland, miraculously saved from destruction during centuries of wars and turmoil, is replete with numerous medieval, renaissance, and baroque churches, synagogues, and other marvels of architecture. While walking through the streets of old Krakow, you can literally breathe in the city’s 1,000-year-old history and admire the monuments of the ancient times. But Krakow is also the second largest city of the country, with more than a million people living in its metropolitan area, a center of vibrant economic and service activity, offering all aspects of modernity. Krakow – was once an important center of European Jewry, a bustling center of Ashkenazi life and culture since the middle ages, and particularly one of the major sites of Progressive movement – is now one of the main centers of Jewish renewal in Poland. Visitors and locals alike are attracted to the Old Town of Krakow, the former Jewish district of Kazimierz, and the district of Podgórze, located across the Vistula, where Germans established the ghetto during the war. Krakow, with its seven remaining synagogues, numerous museums holding an array of interesting judaica, and other reminders of Polish Jewish heritage, is both a living memorial and a beacon for the future.
Time to refresh
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Why did Jews settle in Krakow? Revealing Krakow’s medieval Jewish roots through a guided walking tour of Krakow’s Old Town and Main Market Square, one of the largest in Europe. Lecture led by Professor Edyta Gawron, Assistant professor at the Department of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University; Head of the Centre for the Study on the History and Culture of Krakow Jews, Jagiellonian University. Prof. Gawron is also the president of the Board of Directors of Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute Foundation and the academic advisor for Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków.
5:00 pm Free time to explore Krakow
Dinner in the Krakow Old Town combined with Vodka tasting
Venue: Wesele restaurant
Walk back to the hotel/van
Overnight in Krakow
KRAKOW’S KAZIMIERZ– THE JEWISH QUARTER
Breakfast in the hotel
10:15 am Guided walking tour through Krakow’s Jewish district including a visit to historic synagogues and cemeteries.
12:30 pm Visit to the JCC Krakow followed by a group lunch with the Director and Zofia Radzikowska, Holocaust survivor, member, JCC Krakow, leader, JCC Krakow Senior Club.
2:00 pm Van to Podgorze
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Tour of Podgórze
3:00 pm Van to Kazimierz
3:45 pm – 5:00 pm Visit to the Galicia Jewish Museum
Return to the hotel
Dinner on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Overnight in Krakow
AUSCHWITZ–BIRKENAU: INTO THE DARKNESS
Early breakfast in the hotel
8:00 am – Departure for Auschwitz-Birkenau via coach. How we visit Auschwitz session en route
9:30 am – 2:30 pm Study tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau including a visit to the Auschwitz conservation lab
Boxed lunch provided
3:30 pm Reflection session at the Auschwitz Jewish Center in the town of Oswiecim.
Coffee and snacks served.
4:30 pm Coach back to Krakow
6:00 pm Arrival in the hotel.
Dinner on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Overnight in Krakow
KRAKOW: SHABBAT
Breakfast in the hotel
Free day in Krakow to explore on your own. Recommendations will be provided.
Shabbat services
6:00 pm Private farewell Shabbat dinner in the Krakow Old Town or at the JCC Krakow.
Overnight in Krakow
KRAKOW – DEPARTURES
Breakfast in the hotel
Check-out
Private transfers to the airport (KRK)
Double Occupancy
One Person-
Early bird fee USD 5,800
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Early bird fee is valid until Janury 30, 2025
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Five-star accommodations
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Full breakfast daily
-
Private arrival and departure transfers
-
Selected meals featuring national and international cuisine
-
Entrance fees to all venues included in the itinerary
-
Ground transportation via deluxe air-conditioned coach and express train
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Pre-tour online meeting with Dr. Cebulski and Helise Lieberman
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Introductory consultation with the Taube Center’s genealogist
-
A comprehensive resource and reading list sent prior to the tour
-
Gratuities
Single Occupancy
One Person-
Early bird fee USD 7,100
-
Early bird fee is valid until Janury 30, 2025
-
Five-star accommodations
-
Full breakfast daily
-
Private arrival and departure transfers
-
Selected meals featuring national and international cuisine
-
Entrance fees to all venues included in the itinerary
-
Ground transportation via deluxe air-conditioned coach and express train
-
Pre-tour online meeting with Dr. Cebulski and Helise Lieberman
-
Introductory consultation with the Taube Center’s genealogist
-
A comprehensive resource and reading list sent prior to the tour
-
Gratuities
In case of any questions, please let us know:
the most important sites
in jewish poland
OnlinE genealogy consultation prior to the tour start date
space is limited
Optional family heritage journeys
private briefings
Please read the two tour policy guidelines carefully. In case of any questions, please contact Director of Operations, Aleksandra Makuch at amakuch@taubecenter.org