For the second year in a row, a group of Dartmouth students and staff members traveled to Eastern Europe to restore a Jewish cemetery that had been desecrated roughly 60 years ago.
The Executive Director of Hillel, Rabbi Edward Boraz, his administrative assistant Claudia Palmer, and Dr. Michael Lozman joined 13 Dartmouth students on the Cross Cultural Service Project. In addition to repairing the Jewish cemetery in the Belarussian town of Indura, the group traveled throughout Eastern Europe and visited Auschwitz, the Krakow quarter, and the Warsaw ghetto.
Ethan Levine '03, Evan Konwiser '03, Diana Bellonby '04, Vadim Villarroel'04, Madeline Hwang '05, Haley Peckett '05, Kimberley Pelak '05, Dan Ellman '06, Alex Gelman '06, Lydia Gensheimer '06, Irina Kholkina '06, Mike Mina '06, and Libby Sherman '06 were selected from a pool of roughly 30 applicants to take part in the project. The group left August 26 and returned September 9.
Dr. Lozman, an Albany, New York native, was the driving force behind this service project. Dr. Lozman took a personal trip through Eastern Europe and was shocked by the poor condition of the Jewish cemeteries. Dr. Lozman, the Tucker Foundation and Hillel subsequently worked out the first cross cultural service project to Belarus, which took place in the summer of '02.
The participants on the '02 trip worked to restore a cemetery in the town of Sopotskin. Levine '03, who participated in both trips noted that while the primary goals of each trip were the same, the results of the restoration in Indura were much more visible. "We didn't accomplish as much last year," Levine said.
The group put a fence around the perimeter, segregating the cemetery from the surrounding farm lands. They raised gravestones, cut weeds, removed trash, erected a new entrance and took other steps to beautify the grounds and improve the landscaping.
Gensheimer '06 commented on the intensity of the physical labor but also said that she has "never felt a sense of accomplishment like that before."
"I don't think you get a chance to do that often," Ellman '06 said. The group immersed themselves in a new culture for two weeks. They stayed in homes and were accepted warmly. School was even cancelled on the first day that work on the project commenced so that the best students could help, Gensheimer noted.
Both Gensheimer and Ellman commented on the pride that the residents of Indura took in the restoration project. "They wanted to see it done, and done well," Gensheimer said.
"We could really bond with people who we could barely even speak with," Ellman said. Many residents of the town cried when the group left and students have been receiving a steady stream of letters.
The students had a particularly good time with the University students they met, who all spoke near perfect English.
"There were a lot of things we didn't expect to experience. We had so much fun and learned so much," Gensheimer said.
While the '03 trip was run entirely by Hillel, the trip was not limited to Jewish students. Eight of the 13 students were Jewish.
What Rabbi Boraz calls "experimental exploration of mass genocide" impacted all the students on the trip.
"I wanted to see Auschwitz a lot," Ellman said. "As I was there, it was kind of surreal. I came back and read some more, and it is so much more powerful now."
"Every couple of days, I think about it," Gensheimer said.
Kholkina '06 was born in Brest, Belarus, and her family currently lives in Sevastapol, Ukraine. "I think my experience on this trip was definitely unique due to the fact that I could associate myself with both cultures and serve sort of as a link or a mediator between them," Kholkina said. Several other students on the trip were of Eastern Europe heritage.
A third trip to Belarus will take place in 2004 from June 14 to the June 24. The exact location for the restoration has yet to be established.
