Clay in My Boots: A Romp Through My Genealogical Past

Glad we have Diana to guide us. First stop- ice cream! And on to the only active synagogue in Lviv where there were once  more than 40! We met two of the rabbi’s children, but only pictures of the synagogue.  Then to another that is serving as a community center, but not the sanctuary as you’ll see.  Much of the Jewish areas are in ruins with remnants of identity.  Look closely, and you’ll see that antisemitism is still evident.  The saddest is that the Jewish cemetery was destroyed and the Soviets restored it as an outdoor market. It still operates that way. I couldn’t take any pictures😢 Until we got to the Jewish hospital, still in use as a public hospital.  On to the Medieval section of town. The Market Square ( still no comparison to Krakow). And a stroll through the Jewish Quarter. If you look carefully, you can see where the mezuzah once protected the doorway.  And just at the city wall we came to the remnants of another synagogue called Di Gold...

We arrived in Ukraine this afternoon and was met by our Tour Guide and Interpreter Diane Borysenko   (  email  ) for the duration of our trip to Volyn. Lviv is the provincial capitol of Galicia that supported a large Jewish population, but not my relatives. However, we were amused by / and enjoyed our Jewish sites tour of Lviv. There are signs of past Jewish life through out the city, especially in the Jewish quarter. We visited the only active Synagogue in the city where we were hosted by two of the Hasidic Rabbi’s young children at about 6 (girl) and 8 (boy) years old. They showed me their favorite collection of their father including a small sailing ship and a bird house that looked like a small village house of the 1800’s. I mistakenly shared a video of baby birds on my deck, upon which they grabbed my phone and began playing games I’d allowed Phyllis’ “niece”, Gracie to put on my phone including “nail salon”, “movie star”, and “superstar”. Nail Salon was b...

While Michael attended the conference until we met up to go to the POLIN Museum (The History of the Jews in Poland from creation through present day), I decided to venture around the city an play the wandering Jew. I had coffee at a local Costa Coffee shop, visited a few shops for local artists and even stopped in the mall. Some of my sights:

After using my food coma as an opportunity to blog, before dinner Michael and I wandered around the area that was formerly the Warsaw Ghetto. We started with a map posted at what was the entrance to a factory just outside the border.  The streets are well marked with the location of the walls.  Earlier, we had checked out a remaining piece of the wall with bullet markings from the uprising and some of the mass executions.  The Nazis all but leveled Warsaw, paying particular attention to the Jewish areas. All of the remaining Jewish buildings are now protected, but sadly there are few.  The following pictures show the bridge between the large and small Ghettos from the POLIN Museum and the memorial in the same location today.  I tried to get a panorama shot so check out the double towers on each side of the street.   My overall impression is that many Poles have come to appreciate all that the Jewish people contributed to their past. Too bad antisemetism is ...

Tuesday morning food tour!!  OMG, what could be better. Tomas picked us up in our luxury ride- a communist era vintage minivan. No AC. Three forward gears. No power steering. It set the tone for a great time. And it was just the three of us.  I’m the photographer. Duh! First stop for breakfast at Hala Mirowskie, the market.  Farmers cheese, ser korcinski with czarnuszka ( a cheese with herbs), and soured milk (somewhere between yogurt and cottage cheese). And some sour dough soda to drink! It tasted like “near beer.” On to the pickle stand for two kinds of pickles and sour kraut. Rye with horseradish bread.  Smoked ham, kielbasa and blood sausages with kasha.  And that was just the first stop.  Brunch. On to Kamerlina. A restaurant out of the 50’s.  for compote to drink (thin fruit juice with cranberries and apples) and two soups. The cabbage soup had ham potatoes and herbs. The sour rye soup had boiled white sausage, boiled egg, marjoram and way too m...