For a long time now I’ve always been
asked the question: ‘what inspires you?’ Yet I’ve never truly been able to
answer this.
Last week I went on the year 12 Poland trip. The trip is an altogether different experience from anything I’ve ever done before. You can always learn facts and figures from books or documentaries, but you never really understand the holocaust and its horrors until you come up face to face with it.
On the trip we made Havdalah in the
cellar of the house of the Nazi Commander in charge of the Plaszow
Concentration Camp. This was the most spiritual part of the trip for me. Fifty
of us packed into this tiny room and sang ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ in the place where
70 years beforehand Jews were brutally beaten, raped and murdered, by this evil
man. We showed that no matter what is thrown at us, the Jewish people will
always defy the odds.
This inspired me because it taught me that you should never give up, and always try your hardest, because you will persevere.
This inspired me because it taught me that you should never give up, and always try your hardest, because you will persevere.
I didn’t realise until I came back how powerful that moment was. The fact that I stood there singing and dancing, showing my existence, made me understand the importance of having pride in who you are.
Poland has inspired me to contribute to my Jewish community more by standing up for Jewish related issues like Israel, because I learnt that if I just sit back and wait for somebody else to do something, no one will.
