Thirty-seven members of the United Jewish Appeal’s Young Leadership Cabinet wound up a ten-day tour of several European cities here Friday. Their trip was highlighted by a visit to Warsaw last week to observe the 30th anniversary of the 1943 Ghetto uprising.
The group described their pilgrimage to Auschwitz where, they said there was an obvious attempt by the Polish authorities to play down the magnitude of the Jewish tragedy that occurred there. They said there were commemorative plaques in 18 languages in the Hall of Nations at the death camp site but none in Yiddish or Hebrew.
While in Cracow, the American Jewish leaders visited the Remo Synagogue, where they held a morning service and were addressed by the head of Cracow’s Jewish community Meir Jacobovits. The synagogue, built in 1540, is adjacent to the cemetery. The tombstones, desecrated by the Nazis with the exception of the Remo tombstone, have since been repaired by Cracow’s Jewish community which totals 600 Jews. The group also visited the Jewish museum, housed in what was formerly the choral synagogue.
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