IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF RABBI LEO BAECK: DISCOVERING THE ROOTS OF REFORM JUDAISM • IN GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE BI LEO AB 6 - 2 BA R e 1 5 , E n 2 0 C F J u 1 O 9 K S P E T S T O THE O F EUROPE E TRIP H T N I TOLL FREE 888-811-2812 | Search on arzaworld.com for more details 888.811.2812 New York: 500 7th Ave | 8th Floor | New York, NY 10018 Prague: Soukenicka 1194/13 | 110 00 Prague 1 | Czech Republic Jerusalem: 19 Washington Street | P.O. Box 71047 | Jerusalem, Israel 9171000 Tel Aviv: 6 Beit Hillel Street | Tel Aviv, Israel 6701709 RENEE GOUTMANN | TOUR EDUCATOR Renee was born in France and made Aliyah in 1976. Before arriving to Israel, she studied English Language and American Civilization at the Sorbonne. Since arriving in Israel, guiding has been Renee’s primary career, which she began in 1979. Throughout her years of guiding, she has worked with families, adults, interfaith groups, Birthright, Christian Pilgrims and specialized study tours for farmers, doctors, journalists and politicians, and more. Renee’s strong Zionist and Jewish identity enhance her dream of living in a place ‘where Jewish history is made’ and she loves being a part of that history and sharing it with the people she guides. Her areas of expertise include Jerusalem, the political situation in Israel and hiking in the desert. When Renee is not guiding, she enjoys hiking, reading and travelling. OUR TRIP JUNE 16-25, 2019 & POSSIBLE EXTENSION TO VIENNA UNTIL JUNE 27, 2019 FROM $4,555 LAND ONLY HIGHLIGHTS A journey of education and connection Experience great centers of Jewish culture and creativity Examine and mourn the Holocaust Meet those revitalizing Jewish life in Germany and Prague Celebrate the heroism and impact of Leo Baeck Europe today: beauty, culture, continuity and change Outstanding tour educators and speakers The glory and tragedy of Vienna: an exciting extension Europe in style: superb service and logistics Guided by Renee Goutmann who guided many LBT trips since 2005 Day One SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2019 LaDa'at Focus Meet with a leader of the local Jewish community. DEPARTURE Welcome dinner and orientation dialogue with your tour Depart the U.S.A. educator/scholar. Overview of the group journey; including reviewing the itinerary, the group themes, the different narratives. Overnight: Flight Share group and personal goals. DAY TWO MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2019 Overnight: Frankfurt ARRIVAL TO FRANKFURT Day THREE TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2019 Arrive at Frankfurt International Airport. THE “SHUM” CITIES - MEMORY & RENEWAL Welcome by our representative and assistance with arrival formalities. Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to the city Explore three important centers of Jewish theology and learning Walking tour of Frankfurt including visits to: in Central Europe during the Middle Ages. Known collectively as The Roemer and theRoemerplatz, City Hall and old town square. Shum (based on the initials of the Hebrew names for the cities - The Book Burning Memorial, site of the Nazi book burning Shpira, Vermayza, and Magentza), the cities of Speyer, Worms, and Bartholomew, better known as the Kaiserdom. An Imperial Mainz maintained a lively exchange of ideas with one another Church and site for the elections and coronations of the Holy and was famous for their important yeshivas and their pioneering Roman Emperor for centuries. rabbinical conferences. Stumble Stones, a sobering way to commemorate the many LaDa'at Focus The Shum Cities and Their Impact on Judaism in victims who lost their lives under the Nazi regime. Medieval Europe with your tour educator/scholar. Stop next to the Jewish Ghetto Wall, (Staufenmauer) once part Depart Frankfurt and drive to Speyer, whose Jewish history of the city's defensive walls built in 1180, it later became one of reaches back over 1,000 years. In the Middle Ages, the city the walls that surrounded the 1st Jewish Ghetto in Germany. of Speyer was home to one of the most significant Jewish Walk along the Holocaust Memorial Wall, a very personal communities in the Holy Roman Empire. The community was memorial that the city of Frankfurt has created, to honor the totally wiped out in 1940 during the Holocaust. memory of the 12,000 Frankfurt Jewish Citizens who lost their Visit the Jewish Courtyard, the central area of the Jewish Quarter in lives during the Holocaust, including Anne Frank. Speyer and visit the remains of the Synagogue and well-preserved Check into the hotel. Mikveh, built in 1128 and the oldest of its type in Germany. Drive to the Ignatz Bubis Jewish Community Center, the heart of Continue to Worms, the oldest city in Germany and also a center the Jewish community in Frankfurt. of medieval Ashkenazic Judaism. Visit the Jewish Cemetery (also known as Heiliger Sand), dating Depart Frankfurt on a train to Berlin (Train journey is from the 11th century and reflecting 900 years of Jewish approximately 4 hours). community life in Worms. Arrive in Berlin and transfer to the city center. Visit the Worms Synagogue, dating from 1175 and reconstructed LaDa'at Focus The Enigma that is Berlin: Introduction to Berlin in 1961 after its desecration on Kristallnacht. with your tour educator/scholar. Visit the Rashi House, a Jewish Museum housed in the former Boxed lunch. school where the famous scholar once studied. An introductory tour to Berlin including: Lunch on your own, en route. The Brandenburg Gate, originally commissioned by Friedrich Continue to Mainz, which was a major center of religious Wilhelm II to represent peace. The gate was ironically teaching and especially known for the work of Rabbi Gershom incorporated into the Berlin Wall during the years of the ben Judah, whose teachings and legal decisions had an impact Communist regime. Perhaps Berlin's best-known landmark, it on Judaism at large. now stands as a symbol of the city's reunification. Visit the city's new Synagogue, which was designed by architect View the Reichstag, the seat of the German Parliament and one Manuel Herz and built in 2010 in response to the Jewish of Berlin's most significant landmarks. community's rapid growth rate in the city. The Holocaust Memorial, the Monument to the Murdered Jews LaDa'at Focus Meet with a member of the local Jewish of Europe. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman, this undulating community, which has been growing mainly due to an influx of field of reflection with thousands of concrete dark gray slabs immigrants from countries in Eastern Europe. forms a gentle wave, ankle-high in some places, designed to give Return to Frankfurt. visitors a sense of groundlessness and of a loss of orientation; the Dinner on your own and evening at leisure. memorial also includes a subterranean information center at the edge of the site which houses a permanent exhibition dedicated Overnight: Frankfurt to the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Day FOUR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2019 View the famous Humboldt University and visit the Book FROM FRANKFURT TO BERLIN: INTRODUCTION Burning Memorial at Bebel Square. TO BERLIN Visit the Berlin Wall Memorial, an open-air exhibition that explains the history of division and the impact of the Berlin Wall Breakfast at the hotel and check out. on the city and its residents. Load luggage onto the luggage truck (luggage will be transferred Check into the hotel. to Berlin separately). Dinner on own and evening at leisure. Transfer to Frankfurt train station. Overnight: Berlin Day FIVE THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019 Return to the hotel. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LEO BAECK: Dinner on own and evening at leisure. JEWISH LIFE IN BERLIN Overnight: Berlin Breakfast at the hotel. LaDa'at Focus Progressive Judaism in Germany Today: Dialogue Day SIX FriDAY, JUNE 21, 2019 with Rabbi Walter Homolka, Director of Abraham Geiger College, THE MANY FACES OF CONTEMPORARY BERLIN the first liberal rabbinical seminary inC ontinental Europe since Breakfast at the hotel. the Holocaust. LaDa'at Focus Berlin Meeting Today's Challenges: Dialogue with Visit the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, the second largest Jewish Jewish-American journalist Toby Axelrod. cemetery in Europe. Visit the grave of Hermann Cohen and the Drive to Kreuzberg for an Alternative Berlin walking tour: memorial marker for Leo Baeck. Discover the puzzle that is Kreuzberg, between the hipper LaDa'at Focus The Distinguished Jews of Berlin: Introduction by district and Turkish neighborhood, from galleries to street art your tour educator/scholar. and graffiti. Tour to Jewish sites in East Berlin including: Take a stroll between the many food and flower stands and The Hackescher Markt shop with the locals in Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg's great The Jewish Cemetery, including Moses Mendelsson's grave market hall. Enjoy lunch on own from the diverse options Lunch on your own, en route. offered at the market. Visit the New Synagogue and the Centrum Judaicum, one of the Meet with representatives of IsraAID in Berlin and overview of most important locations for contemporary Jewish life in Berlin. their work with the refugees in Germany. Visit a refugee camp/ View of the Leo Baeck Haus, the building of the Hochschule für shelter, hear from the local German Manager of the camp and Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Liberal Seminary where Leo hear personal stories from refugees. Baeck studied and gave lectures. It now hosts the Central Council Return to the hotel with free time to prepare for Shabbat. of Jews in Germany. Kabbalat Shabbat services at a local Progressive synagogue Visit the Jewish Museum of Berlin, designed by architect Daniel (Reform and Conservative options available). Libeskind. One of the most conspicuous architectural landmarks Shabbat dinner at a restaurant. in the city, it embodies remembrance, melancholy, and departure.