Twenty-five Jewish teens from around the world traveled through Poland and Israel this summer as part of a CTeen Heritage Quest designed to connect young Jews with their history and traditions.
The group visited significant Jewish sites, including the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz concentration camp and the historic synagogues of Krakow.
For 16-year-old Jesse Goldberg of Chicago, the experience was eye-opening. “I grew up hearing stories from Holocaust survivors in Chicago, but they were just stories,” he said. “This trip showed us the harsh reality unfiltered.”
He explained that his motivation to join the trip stemmed from a drive to understand his roots. His great-grandfather, “Zaide Goodman,” was born in Germany before fleeing to Belgium for safety. Eventually, as the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, family members scattered—one joined the French resistance, while others went into hiding. Many survived, some finding work in a Volkswagen factory.
Rabbi Mendy Lepkivker, coordinator of CTeen summer experience, which took place from July 9-23, said that “one of the most pivotal moments of the trip is flying from Poland, with the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in participants’ minds, straight to Israel, where the first stop is not the hotel, but the Kotel”—the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
“Going straight to the holiest place in the world brings home this message viscerally,” he added.
In addition to requisite sight-seeing, this year’s Heritage Quest culminated in a mission to Israel with a schedule that included volunteering; packing meals for Israelis in need at Colel Chabad, Israel’s oldest charity, established in 1788; connecting with Israeli soldiers on the front lines; and working at a greenhouse in southern Israel, the region most affected by the current war.
“This trip hasn’t changed my perspective on my Jewish heritage, it’s only strengthened what I already knew. I saw where my great-uncles and aunts suffered in Auschwitz, and their memorial plaques in Yad Vashem,” said Goldberg.
“I saw the destruction caused by our current enemies,” he added. “And yet I stand here with my new brothers, proudly in Israel, because the Jewish people and goodness will always prevail. Am Yisrael Chai.”
