In September 2015, the Rod’n’Ya project organized an educational expedition to Germany and the Czech Republic, where participants literally walked in the footsteps of their ancestors. The trip was followed by Sofia Zubtsovskaya, correspondent of newsru.co.il portal
On September 3 in Frankfurt am Main started the expedition of the international Jewish project “Rod’N’Ya”, during which 25 young people from the CIS countries study the Jewish roots of their family and their clan, visiting the places where their ancestors once lived.
The project, which is being conducted by the Israeli Am a-Zikaron Institute with the support of the Genesis Foundation, and which has already been described on the website, is designed to help young people from the former Soviet Union find answers to the questions “who are we?” and “what does it mean for us to belong to the Jewish people?”.
The first day of the expedition exposed the participants to the city of Trier, where Jews came at a time when Roman legions were fighting many Germanic tribes. The participants were able to get acquainted with the history of the city, visit its historical part, see the Roman baths, and touch the walls of the houses where Jews lived, on the only surviving street in the Jewish quarter. Here the children, who came from different cities and countries, got a unique chance to feel the atmosphere of the life lived by their common ancestors – German Jews, who were persecuted in XV-XVI centuries.
Shabbat in the German community: Jewish Russian-speaking youth explore their roots
On Friday, September 4, participants in the “Rod’N’Ya” project, which aims to restore family heritage and history, visited the German cities of Mainz and Worms, where they were able to trace the history of the origins of the oldest Ashkenazi families.
The Jewish community in Mainz is one of the oldest in Germany. In the Middle Ages, it was one of the main centers of social and cultural life in German society. Jews took an active part in the commerce of the city, which was a central point for travel along the Rhine and Main.
The project participants visited the modern synagogue in Mainz, built on the site of an old structure in 2010 and named after the medieval Talmudist Rabbi Gershom Ben Yehuda, nicknamed “Meor a Gola”, and visited his grave in the ancient Jewish cemetery, which is about 1,000 years old.
In Mainz, the participants – descendants of the famous Kolonimus, whose heirs were once called to the city by Charlemagne – found evidence of their ancestors’ lives. Before the project, they knew almost nothing about the origins of their family, and for the first time they were able to visit the synagogue that once belonged to their ancestors.
In the Middle Ages, along with the old communities of Mainz and Speyer, the Jewish community of Worms occupied the first place in the spiritual and cultural life of German Jews. The team of children from different countries had a unique opportunity to visit the synagogue in Worms – the oldest synagogue in Germany, as well as to get acquainted with the history of German Jewry in the house-museum of Rashi – Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, the author of many scientific books, articles and treatises, one of the most famous interpreters of the Torah.
In the evening, in the synagogue and community house of Frankfurt am Main, the participants of the “expedition” studying their roots met Shabbat together with members of the Hillel Center and Rabbi Chaim Shushan. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Frankfurt’s Jewish community was one of the largest in Western Europe, ensuring the city’s status as a center of Jewish scholarship and education. The project, organized by the Israeli Am a-Zikaron Institute with the support of the Genesis Foundation, is ongoing, and its participants will have many discoveries to make.
“We work with memory. If memory disappears, the nation disappears”. Participants of the “Rod’N’Ya” project research their family trees
Young people from the CIS countries opened another page of the history of the origin of their surnames, visiting on Saturday, September 5, the key places in Frankfurt am Main for the history of Jewry.
The guys visited the old Jewish cemetery, in the wall of which are embedded tablets with the names of thousands of Jews evicted from the city, the years of their birth and place of death: German concentration camps, Ukrainian and Lithuanian cities.
There are practically no traces of Jewish neighborhoods and streets in Frankfurt am Main, but the city has preserved the memory of the Jews who lived here: on many streets among the sidewalk tiles at the entrances there are plaques with the names of those who once lived in these houses.
Speaking about the importance of studying the past of one’s family and the Jewish people as a whole, Malka Haguel-Spitzberg, director of programs at the Am a-Zikaron Institute, noted: “We cannot change the past, we work with memory. If the memory disappears, the people disappears. In those cities where there are no objects of memory left – cemeteries, synagogues, Jewish neighborhoods – only Jewish surnames remain”.
By studying the history of their surnames, the project participants were able not only to obtain information about their ancestors, learn what they did and get an idea of the development of their family, but also to reconnect with their contemporaries – descendants of Jews. Often they turned out to be relatives in other cities and countries, with whom there had never been any contact, or it had been lost many years ago.
Ilya, one of the participants of the “expedition”, was able to trace the history of several generations, find surnames related to his family and discovered that he had relatives in London, the USA and other Russian cities with whom he was able to get in touch. It turned out that some of them had been searching for relatives for many years, and meeting Ilya was a real joy for them. Such a reunion for their family became especially significant, as Ilya was the only one of the last generation who began to research his history, asking his grandparents, opening new pages of family history not only for himself, but also for his parents, who did not know about the origin of the family.
By researching archival documents, photographs and family trees, talking to his grandmother, Ilya was able to learn his family’s tragic history and find patterns that could be traced back through the generations. “My parents were surprised that I started doing this and listened to me with interest because no one had ever told them this before: in the USSR it was not customary to talk about where you came from,” Ilya explains. One sensible idea for continuing the project, in his opinion, would be to visit elderly people and write down the stories they can tell about their past, as these stories can help other Jews find their roots.
“I am proud every day that I am Jewish.” The “Rod’N’ya” project continues in Germany
A visit to the German cities of Oppenheim, Speyer and Nuremberg became another page of research into the history of European Jewry for young people from the former Soviet Union participating in the “Rod’N’Ya” project. The project, organized by Israel’s Am a Zikaron Institute with the support of the Genesis Foundation, helps participants find their family’s Jewish roots and includes a trip to the places where their ancestors lived and worked.
In Oppenheim, where the first documentary evidence of Jews dates back to the 13th century, such a place was the estate and vineyards of one of the feudal lords, located on top of a hill.
In Speyer, the Jewish community was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the XI-XIX centuries. The Jews were harassed, and a special quarter was set aside for them with a ban on buying houses, where the old synagogue and mikvah, built in the XI century, have been preserved. Jewish neighborhoods and yards in Nuremberg have not survived, but many streets in the old city are named after old Jewish surnames. By visiting the neighborhoods and “courtyards” where Ashkenazi Jews with the same surnames lived, the children were able to get an idea of how their ancestors lived centuries ago and also to feel connected to their past: for example, a participant named Shapiro found the “starting point” of his family in the town of Speyer.
Yulia, who came to the program from Moscow, has felt Jewish since childhood, and became interested in the history of her family after the seminar “Generations”, which was held by the ” Am a-Zikaron ” Institute for the participants of the Taglit program. As she searched for her ancestors and relatives living today, she had to gather information literally bit by bit. “It was difficult for me to look for connections, but I was curious about who these people related to my family were, what they look like and what they are doing now, ” Yulia noted. – It’s important to find a connection through the ages, to bring it to your grandchildren and not be shy to say it. I’m not shy to say it, and I feel proud to be Jewish every day.
“Knowledge of the world begins with oneself”: a “Jewish expedition” has come to an end in Europe
The expedition of the “Rod’N’Ya” project, during which 25 young people from the former Soviet Union studied the Jewish roots of their families and their clans, ended with a visit to the places where Jewish communities once lived in Prague.
Before traveling to Europe, the project participants did a lot of work to research the origin of their surnames. “Why study your family history? Learning about the world starts with yourself and who you are, – explained Ilya, one of the project participants. – This project allows you to recognize yourself as a representative of the great Jewish people, to get to know yourself from a new side.
During the “expedition” the children made many discoveries for themselves: Anastasia learned that her family came not from Germany, but from Sephardic communities, although previously she was sure that all members of her family were Ashkenazi.
Guys from different cities were united by the desire not only to understand the history of the family, but also themselves. Anastasia, who came to the project, explained what brought her here: “Every person is interested in where they come from, why they are the way they are, and why we do some things the way we do them. The easiest way to find out is from your family, because everything comes from there. By researching your history, you can get that invaluable information that will affect your life anyway and even more so for your children. It’s the kind of information that will help you understand why you are the way you are – which is basically what we try to do all our lives.”
In Prague, participants visited the Jewish quarter, met with local community leader Petr Papoušek and visited the Jewish cemetery. “I am never left with the feeling of what was done here. When we are told about the pogroms that took place here, about the fact that Jews were taken from here virtually to their deaths, you realize what the state of Israel is and why it was needed, ” Anastasia admitted.
According to Elijah, “The fact that Israel is there and what it is like is perhaps what makes me proud of the Jewish people as they are today. I love that I am a Jew. My people are very beautiful and interesting, and I consider myself lucky”.
The trip gave the participants, armed with knowledge of the events that took place in Germany and the Czech Republic, the opportunity to be in the places where Ashkenazi Jews originated, to feel the spirit of those times and to visit the streets and neighborhoods where their ancestors lived. The children will now begin to implement their own community initiatives at home.