We just had an inspiring day in Poznan, Poland, a town with an incredibly rich past, about four hours west of Warsaw.
We first met the head of the community—a very energetic young lady in her mid-forties who is very optimistic about the future of her community. She showed us a room with a swimming pool that used to be a synagogue. She explained that the Nazis made it into a swimming pool. They built it in such a way that the pressure of the water keeps the building standing, so they can't even empty the water for long periods of time.
She then took us to the community center where a crowd of Jewish people were waiting for our visit.
We held afternoon Mincha services—the first in recent history. After the prayers, the attendees broke into a spontaneous dance. It was incredible; some of the dancers were elderly survivors, and others were young enough to be their grandkids.
Many of the men put on tefillin—some for the first time. After each first-timer donned tefillin, we all danced the hora with him to celebrate his belated bar mitzvah.
We then sat down for a meal where we sang Jewish songs and spoke words of Torah.
After installing a mezuzah on the entrance of the synagogue, we visited the newly restored Jewish cemetery which houses the resting place of Rabbi Akiva Eger, a great Talmudist who was the longtime rabbi of Poznan. We were told how the community had to fight long and hard to win the right to restore the site, which is in the backyard of an apartment building.
