Jewish Travel in Places not Jewish

By Hannah Estrin
KOACH Rabbinic Intern

"Wherever you go there's always someone Jewish! You're never alone when you say you're a Jew!" Do you recognize that song? Do we realize the truth to that song? I'm beginning to believe that it is simply impossible to travel anywhere without being able to incorporate something Jewish into the experience, and that more often than not, we simply need to open our eyes to see that we're never alone. Let me share with you a couple of my recent encounters with Judaism at the far corners of the earth!

This past winter break I had the fortune to visit friends in Goerlitz, Germany. Are you familiar with it? Drag out your maps and look in the most south-eastern corner of the country. It's on the border with Poland and a half hour drive from the Czech Republic, basically in the middle of nowhere in what used to be East Germany. It's a little sleepy town with beautiful pre-war homes and parks galore.

As I walked around this wonderful little town -- in negative degree weather mind you -- I came to discover that before WWII it was home to a thriving Jewish population, large enough to sustain a good sized synagogue (now a community center, but clearly identifiable as a synagogue), a mikvah in which water still runs and a sizable Jewish cemetery. With a little bit more searching I was able to find a remaining Jewish resident who, with the help of some translation, was nothing short of thrilled to share the Jewish history of the town. All of this in a place where I never would have even thought to look for Jewish life.

This summer I had another opportunity to see Jews in a different corner of the earth. Fairbanks, Alaska, 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, has not only a thriving Jewish community but sports the northernmost synagogue in the world. Nestled among some of the largest open tracts of land in the world this borough (county) of only 85,000 people has contained Jews since our arrival for gold in 1904. While there I was fortunate to get to know several families in the community and meet Jewish tourists from all over the country, in fact from all over the world. Shabbat services, regular learning for students and adults and special programs keep them immersed in a world of Judaism. Half of the year they live without complete darkness and the other half with very short amounts of daylight. Yet, Judaism allows us not only to live there but to thrive there as well.

We don't always travel to places looking for Jewish history or life to be present. Sometimes we are simply going on vacation. Remember though all you need to do is open up to the possibility and discover that wherever you go. Good travels!

[Posted 12/5/02]