A living bridge Haifa-Dzierżoniów

Since Hanukkah week was during our meeting in Poland the candles were lighted every evening. The day we were in Wroc ław we went to the synagogue, where the candles were lighted publicly. It was a special atmosphere, standing in front of the Stork synagogue, where one by one the first three candles were lit. Then Hanukkah songs were sung and danced. Afterwards we met the Rabbi ' s wife, who actually was from Israel, living in Poland for two years by now and she would talk with us (in Polish and Hebrew) for more than an hour. It was very interesting to listen to her story.

It's a big question to nature: “Where is snow?”. Unfortunately we didn't see snow during our visit to Poland. But it would be so great, especially at the Wroclaw Christmas Market.  By the way, Christmas Market looks magically. With all this lights, candles, spicy scents and tasty food. And what wonderful decorations, just look:

Today we had trip to Centrum Historii Zajezdnia. This museum located in old depo. Here was a strike that started the Wrocław Solidarity movement. It happend at 1980. We saw in the museum an huge exhibition. Everything is very colorful and interesting, you can really feel how life looked a long time ago.

For our trip to Krzyzowa, we prepared presentation about Israel. A few interesting facts about history, our schools and inventions. Just look at how we presented our work:

On Monday we visited a hometown of part of our group — Dzierżoniów. We were pleasantly surprised at how such a small city can have so interesting history. During the walk we visited the city central square. Really curiously was the story about one of the oldest local church. From start it was Evangelical church, but in 1962 the church was converted into a warehouse and a furniture store. The store worked in the church near 10 years and now it's spiritual place again. Also here is one of the unique synagogues in Poland. It was built almost 150 years ago. During the II World War, the synagogue thankfully was not destroyed, as it was bought by a local gardener.

 After having visited Hebrew Reali school in Haifa it was the most natural thing to go to the 1 LO Dzier żoniow. First we enjoyed some icebreakers, repeated - for example - the „How are You”-game in Hebrew and Polish. And then - we went to class: The schoolbuilding is very old, a 100 years for sure. But there was a special biology class prepared: We had the opportunity to dissect real hearts of chicken. That was cool. We had heart models to compare and microscopes to have a closer look at certain parts of the hearts.

Today we had a workshop on history: polish and israeli history of the years since the proclamation of the Israeli state and Poland regaining independence. It was fun to find out that both countries have such an important anniversary this year. Both countries have histories that go back for many years more but still 1918 and 1948 were of exceptional importance. For Poland it meant regaining an independent state after more than 100 years – for Israel it meant to establish a country, where - for the first time in hundreds of years - every Jew would be welcome. Many of the first citizens of Israel had come from Poland and ever since then the histories of the two countries were in close contact. We looked ad the stamp issued on occasion of these anniversaries and discussed, which other motifs could have been used.

After a long day of talking and working we went bowling! It was FUN! Some of us had talent, some of us were like grandmasters of bowling, some were even better – and some enjoyed themselves even though the bowlingball did not obey very much. Or not at all.

Ksionzh Castle is the largest castle in the Silesia region. The castle is just incredible. Also nature around castle are amazing – so many trees! And this landscape, just wow! But in the same time this beautiful place has very tragic history associated with World War II. During World War II, the castle was seized by the Nazi regime. Supervised by SS and Organisation Todt personnel, the building complex at Książ became part of the vast underground Project Riese complex, presumably a projected Führer Headquarter and a future abode for Adolf Hitler. Construction works were carried out under inhumane conditions by forced labourers and inmates of Gross-Rosen concentration camp, until the castle was occupied by Red Army forces in the wake of the Vistula–Oder Offensive in 1945. During the construction of the underground for the Nazis, hundreds of prisoners were killed here. Now parts of the tunnel complex beneath the castle are currently used by the Polish Academy of Sciences for grav