PUBLISHED EVERY ROSH HODESH

Tevet 5763

Dec. 5, 2002

KOC Editor Audrey Shore has friends in fun places. Where have you been? We bet somewhere extremely exciting and jealousy-inspiring! See the responses from "Five Questions, Five Minutes." Wherever you go, is there always someone Jewish? Sing along with Hannah Estrin, KOACH Rabbinic Intern, as we explore the idea. How's life at the Conservative Yeshiva? Check out the news from Dave Baum, last year's KOACH Southeast Fieldworker. Are you an earthy kind of college kid? Hugged any trees lately? Do you unapologetically serve your Shabbat meals on plastic plates? Tell us about your stance on the environment in "Five Questions, Five Minutes"! Another Jew in the lotus? Shula Warren takes us through India! Galavanting around Europe can be fun and educational. KOC Assistant Editor Sarah Bier takes us there. Mind the gap! Brooke Lewis tells us about her amazing travel experiences between high school and university. Hillel Skolnick finds a meaningful connection between Kristallnacht and the fast days of the Jewish calendar.

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(Tivet 5763/December 2002)

Compiled by Audrey Shore
KOC Editor

OUR QUESTIONS:

1. What is your name?

2. What school do you attend?

3. Aside from Israel, what are some places to which you've traveled extensively (meaning, more than a layover in an airport)?

4. What cool Jewish places did you visit / what were they like?

5. What is a cool Jewish place would you like to visit? (Israel doesn't count!)

YOUR ANSWERS:

1. Lawrence Szenes-Strauss

2. Brandeis U, Waltham, MA

3. Montreal, various places in Italy, and the Czech Republic.

4. In Prague, the oldest synagogue in Europe -- around 1,000 years old, if I remember. It's tiny, and isn't much more than a masonry dome, but it's built to last. Also a major cemetery there, where the Mahara"l is buried. (Prague seems to be playing up the whole "golem" theme as a tourist attraction.) In Italy, the Synagogue in what used to be the ghetto in Florence, which is beautiful and sadly in disrepair. There were also some historical sites which were troubling: Terezin; the clock in the center of Prague in which the sin of Greed is represented by a Jew; the triumphal arch in Rome commemorating the fall of Jerusalem to Titus's armies.

5. The Beta Israel synagogue in Calcutta.

1. Jonathan Mansfield

2. MIT, Cambridge, MA

3. Switzerland, France, England

4. The old Jewish communities in Legnau and Endigen, where Jews were first allowed to live in Switzerland after being massacred in 14th and 15th centuries.

5. There is no other cool Jewish place besides Israel!

1. M.Berk

2. Tacoma C.C., Tacoma, WA

3. Czech Republic, Poland, Canada, Mexico

4. While on a trip to Eastern Europe and Israel, I visited a large number of concentration camps and other historically important Jewish European landmarks. Among them was the old Prague Jewish graveyard, which contained hundreds upon hundreds of sinking gravestones in a tiny courtyard.

5. My mother recently visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI while on a trip through New England - I'd like the opportunity to travel through New England and see Touro and other old American synagogues.

1. Davida Kutscher

2. Williams College, Williamstown, MA

3. Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, Costa Rica

4. I went to shuls in both Costa Rica and Portugal. Security was extremely tight in Portugal, and the Jewish community was suffering. The Costa Rican community seemed more vibrant.

5. I would love to attend Shabbat services in every country that I travel to from now on. I am especially interested in Jewish sites in Asian countries.

1. Anonymous

2. UT, Austin

3. New York City, Cleveland, Columbus, around the South West through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, Tampa, Orlando, almost all of Florida, Rome

4. The Jewish Quarter in Rome was like a time warp. The people who lived there were right out of a story book. They were all so welcoming and ready to share their history and hardships.

5. I would like to see the remains of the Sephardic Jewish community of Medieval Spain, like Gerona. I would like to take a peek into the life of Maimonides. I would also like to explore the evidence of the Exodus from Egypt, even though there technically isn't any physical evidence. I would like to go to Egypt and research. While there I would want to see the synagogue in Cairo where many Jewish documents were found. I wouldn't mind going on March of the Living either.

[Posted 12/5/02]