ABSTRACT
The trip to Poland and World War II concentration camps draws participants from all Jewish backgrounds and is a learning experience designed to connect Jewish young adults with the events of the Holocaust. For the children and descendants of survivors, the trip is especially poignant. They are immediately drawn in because they feel directly connected to those who died in the Holocaust and to their survivor relatives who came from Europe. Many American Jews, whose parents or grandparents had come to the United States before World War II, have a less direct connection. For children of Middle Eastern Jews in Israel, however, there seems to be a disconnect that is particularly painful. Over the years, as the story of the events of World War II and the Holocaust became a key part of the Israeli historical narrative, the cultural gap between Middle Eastern and European Jews has widened.
