UJA Young Leaders on Historic Pilgrimage to Warsaw Ghetto

An historic journey across the generations will be made by a representative cross-section of young American Jews. The Young Leadership Cabinet of the United Jewish Appeal has organized a pilgrimage to the Warsaw Ghetto, departing New York Saturday. The trip, perhaps the first of its kind sponsored by an American Jewish organization, will mark the 30th anniversary of the most tragic, and most heroic, uprising of Eastern European Jewry during the holocaust. The central event of the pilgrimage will be a memorial service conducted by the Young Leadership group on the former Ghetto site.

Young Leadership Chairman Michael A. Pelavin stated: “This generation of young American Jewry feels both a spiritual and familial bond with those martyrs of Warsaw who stood firmly and resolutely, against overwhelming odds, in their fierce pride to exist as a People. I am certain that the experience of our visit to this hallowed spot will deepen our own commitment to sustain the struggle for survival of our worldwide Jewish community.”

The seven days-of the pilgrimage will also feature a visit to Schonau Castle, outside of Vienna, a receiving center for Soviet emigrants on their way to Israel; meetings with families in the Warsaw Jewish community; a journey to Cracow; and a visit to Auschwitz.

The final three days will be spent in London, where the Americans will conduct several joint functions with representatives of Great Britain’s Young Leadership group. While in London, they will hear presentations by Moshe-Rivlin, Director-General of the Jewish Agency, on “Global Jewry”; Prof. David Patterson of Oxford University on “The Meaning of the Holocaust”; and Marcus Einfeld of the World Jewish Congress on “The New Anti-Semitism.” The pilgrimage group returns to New York March 25.