To obtain a printer friendly (pdf) version of this itinerary, please click here. Second Annual Visit WORLDS OF OUR FATHERS A Journey of Jewish History in Germany and Eastern Europe Visiting WORMS – WEIMAR – LEIPZIG – BERLIN– HAMBURG SEARCH FOR YOUR ANCESTORS With Professional Help in Hamburg

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“What had gone on between German Christians and Jews, and why? Why had there been such
a promising beginning, so much hope and so much accomplishment – and so terrible an end?”
W. Michael Blumenthal, The Invisible Wall

These huge questions, posed by a German Jewish emigrant who became a CEO in corporate America, as well as a U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, have preoccupied eminent historians for decades – since the Nazis and the Holocaust brought a near end to some 2,000 years of Jewish presence in Germany and other regions of Europe.

Fortunately for millions of European Jews, there was an alternative to the persecution and pogroms of the Russian Czar, the anti-Semitism of Germany throughout centuries, and the Holocaust of the Third Reich. That alternative was emigration overseas – overwhelmingly to the United States. That millions of others did not emigrate for whatever reasons, resulting in their murder, and/or the murder of their descendants, adds another huge question to the tragedy – Why didn’t more Jews seek a better life overseas? Why did some successful Jews, such as the Mendelssohn family, continue to chase the rainbow of assimilation, while others, such as Albert Einstein, grasped the reality of the Jewish community’s situation in Germany and moved to the United States?

“Professor Fritz Stern, perhaps the foremost historian on this subject, has argued that the history of the
assimilated Jews of Germany was much more than the history of a tragedy; it was also, for a long time,
the story of an extraordinary success: “We must understand the triumphs in order to understand the tragedy.” We must see the German Jews in the context of their time and, at the very least, appreciate their authenticity, the way they saw themselves and others, often with reason. For long periods, they had cause to believe in their ultimate integration, as did most Jews elsewhere in Western Europe, in the United States, and even in Czarist Russia. It was touch and go almost to the end.”
Amos Elon
The Pity of it All
A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch

These two themes – the portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch and the response of emigration to the United States – will be the major focus of our journey. Our trip may not convey all the answers. But our visit to today’s Germany, accompanied by an experienced historian, will bring to us greater understanding of this ancestral saga, and provide an enjoyable, enriching experience.

Our Ancestral Journey Includes: Round trip transatlantic flights USA to Frankfurt Hamburg to USA Nine nights accommodations deluxe hotels One night in Frankfurt Two nights in Weimar Four nights in Berlin Two nights in Hamburg Buffet breakfast each day Dinner seven evenings Tours and Visits Jewish Museum, Synagogue, and Cemetery in Worms Walking tour, with local guide, of Weimar, Buchenwald, Leipzig Felix Mendelssohn House in Leipzig Two visits with guide to the Jewish Museum in Berlin Visit to the New Synagogue in Berlin Motorcoach and walking tour, with guide, of Berlin Visit with guide to the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin Visit to the Holocaust Memorial and Education Center in Berlin Tour with guide of the Ballinstadt Emigration Center in Hamburg

Lectures The History of the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe 3rd Day The Early Centuries: The Roman Times and Middle Ages 5th Day The 18th and 19th Centuries: The Mendelssohn Family and the Quest for Assimilation 6th Day Beyond Germany: The Jews of Eastern Europe 7th Day The 20th Century: The Failure of Assimilation – Fritz Haber and Albert Einstein 8th Day Hitler, the Nazis, and the War Against the Jews The Goldhagen Thesis 9th Day Toward America and the New World Special Features Six lectures by an experienced historian of Jewish history in Europe (See "Historian" section for brief information on historian) Afternoon drive along the Rhine Tasting of Rhine and Israeli Wines in Rudesheim Private concert of Felix Mendelssohn music at the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig Klezmer music and dinner in Berlin Tracing of ancestors, assisted by professional staff trained in genealogy, at Ballinstadt in Hamburg Travel between cities via deluxe, air-conditioned motorcoach with English speaking tour manager Round trip airport transfers Hotel porterage

1st Day, Saturday USA – Frankfurt

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Fly this afternoon from your departure city to Frankfurt. Beverages, dinner and continental breakfast will be served in-flight.

 

2nd Day, Sunday Frankfurt – The Rhine

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The Rhine

Arrive Frankfurt in the morning, local time. Upon arrival, we will be met and transferred to our hotel.

This afternoon we will enjoy a delightful drive along the Rhine—a relaxing time to enjoy the scenery of one of Europe’s great rivers.

See the vineyards of the famous Rhine wines, the many barges on this busy waterway, and perhaps best of all the fairy tale castles around almost every bend in the River. Of particular note are the famous Lorelei rocks immortalized in the classic poem of Heinrich Heine.

A Jew, Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) was one of Germany’s greatest romantic poets.

Set to music, his poem tells the story of boatmen lured to their death by a beautiful maiden sitting on the
rocks, combing her long blond hair while singing her fateful song.

After our Rhine visit, we will proceed to wine tasting at the cave of Georg Breuer, among the finest vintners of the Rhineland. G. Breuer is affiliated with Israel’s Galil Mountain Winery of the Upper Galilee.

G. Breuer owner, Heinrich Breuer, will lead us in tasting some of the finest wines of Israel and the Rhine.

Next, we will enjoy dinner with music at the Breuer’s Rudesheimer Schloss.

 

3rd Day, Monday Worms – Weimar

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The Jewish Wedding at Worms, Around the 18th Century Jewish Museum, Worms

The first Jews entered the region of present-day Germany with the Roman legions. An edict by the emperor Constantine to the magistrate of Cologne in the year 321 provides early testimony of their presence.

Evidence of Jewish presence reappears during Charlemagne’s rule (768-814). At that time, Jews primarily worked as traveling merchants – a highly esteemed profession, as it provided princes and bishops with luxury goods such as perfume and exotic spices, jewels, and medicine.

The Romans and Jews settled along the Rhine and to the West, known today as the Rhineland. The land to the east of the Rhine, inhabited by Germanic tribes, was considered too hostile even for the Romans.

The leading centers of Jewish life in the Rhineland were Worms, Speyer, and Mainz.

This morning we will visit Worms and its synagogue dating from 1034 A.D. The synagogue mikvah still exists today . We will visit the Rashi House, today a Jewish museum, named after the famous commentator of the Talmud, Rabbi Solomon Ben Isaac, who studied at Worms in the 11th Century. His commentary has been included in every edition of the Talmud since its first printing in the 1520s. We will also visit the Jewish cemetery in Worms, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe. The oldest tombstone dates from the year 1076.

This afternoon we will drive into eastern Germany to Weimar.

 

4th Day, Tuesday Weimar

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Weimar is home of the best and worst in German history.

The cultural history of Weimar is awesome, Goethe, Germany’s greatest writer, lived here. Schiller, who wrote the words to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “Ode to Joy,” lived in Weimar. Johann Sebastian Bach stayed ten years in Weimar, composing his immortal music.

The Hitler Youth movement began in Weimar.

The former concentration camp of Buchenwald is near Weimar.

“I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it.
For most of it, I have no words.”
- Edward R. Murrow, April, 1945

Today we will have a walking tour of Weimar and Buchenwald, accompanied by a local guide.

This evening is at leisure to sample a restaurant in Weimar on your own.

 

5th Day, Wednesday Leipzig – Berlin

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Moses Mendelssohn (1729 - 1786)

Today we will visit Leipzig and the home of Felix Mendelssohn, containing much of the composer’s original furniture. Felix Mendelssohn was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, the foremost Jewish figure of the 18th century. Moses Mendelssohn was a renowned German philosopher, literary critic and man of letters, and among the first to bridge the social and cultural barrier between Jews and Germans. His great ambition was to end the age-old social and intellectual isolation of Judaism—some of which had become self imposed.He was the original advocate of assimilation. Throughout the nineteenth century, generations of hopeful German Jews would celebrate Mendelssohn as their patron saint; like Mendelssohn, they sought a larger community of rational men beyond the confines of religious identity. There was an intense desire to belong. Social integration with gentile Germans, it was thought, would be accomplished by self improvement, education and religious reform. Although Mendelssohn, himself, had remained an observant (orthodox) Jew, his ideas led to a modernization of Jewish religious practice. Prayers and sermons in German, a German language hymnal, choir singing, and an organ were introduced in synagogues. This created a split between orthodox and reform sectors of Ashkenazy Jews, which continues to the present day. Thus Moses Mendelssohn became, albeit inadvertently, the father of modern reform Judaism. The movement spread to England and the United States.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)

Among the six children of Moses Mendelssohn, four converted to Christianity. Son Abraham in turn had his children baptized in 1816, including young Felix, age seven. As an adult, Felix Mendelssohn wholly embraced his revised identity as a Christian. He became a leading composer of Christian religious music and helped to revive the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, the most important Lutheran after Luther himself. Mendelssohn established the first music conservatory in Germany. Nevertheless, it was forbidden to play the music of Felix Mendelssohn during the Nazi Reich – some 86 years after the composer’s death. Why? Because he was a Jew. A person’s ancestry – not his accomplishments, however laudable, defined his status in the annals of Nazism. We will tour the House of Felix Mendelssohn, and then be treated to a private concert of his music. We will visit the memorial at the site of the Great Leipzig Synagogue, destroyed at Kristallnacht. We will walk in Leipzig and savor the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, who worked in Leipzig for 27 years. Even beyond Bach, the music and intellectual heritage of Leipzig is awesome. Schiller wrote his soaring “Ode to Joy,” later set to music in his Ninth Symphony by Beethoven, in Leipzig. Wagner was born in Leipzig, and Mendelssohn founded the first German conservatory in Leipzig. Goethe,considered Germany’s greatest writer, studied at the University of Leipzig. Today Leipzig remains one of the great musical capitals of Europe. See the Gewandhaus, one of the most modern and acoustically perfect concert halls in the world. Next, we will continue to Berlin, arriving in the late afternoon. Dinner is included at our hotel.

6th Day, Thursday Berlin – The Jewish Museum, City Tour

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“I had no idea of the scope of material here. The building is powerful.””
Henry Kissinger

This morning we will go to the Jewish Museum for the first of our two visits to this extraordinary repository of 2,000 years of Jewish history in Germany.

The Museum is not a Holocaust Museum. The exhibits trace Jewish life in Germany from the arrival of Jews with Roman legions to the revitalization of the community in recent years due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. In the section on the Holocaust, the focus is on Jewish reactions to the gathering Nazi terror, not the industrialized killing itself.

Designed by Daniel Libeskind, an American Jew born in Poland, there is a striking connection between the exhibits and the architecture. “The history of German-speaking Jewry is German history, and in the museum we attempt to tell it accurately and fairly,” said W. Michael Blumenthal, the museum director, who fled Nazi Germany and eventually served as Treasury Secretary in the Carter administration. “All of it: the towering highs and the abysmal lows, the triumphs as well as the bloodshed and disasters.”

Accompanied by a Museum guide, we will visit half of the exhibits this morning.We will return tomorrow morning to visit the second half of the exhibits.

This afternoon we will tour Berlin with a local guide. Sightseeing includes Potsdam Square, the Brandenburg Gate, and a remnant of the infamous wall. See the Russian War Memorial, Alexander Square, and drive along Unter den Linden, the main avenue of pre-war Berlin. Our tour includes the top of the Kurfurstendam (Ku’damn), dominated by the bombed out shell of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and its new, starkly modern replacement. These buildings have become symbols of the Old and New Germany. They are among the most impressive sights in Europe.

We will visit the beautiful Rykestrasse Synagogue, built in 1904 and today the largest synagogue in Germany.

This evening is at leisure to sample a restaurant in Berlin on your own.

	The New Synagogue, Berlin, 1865
Albert Einstein gave a violin concert for the benefit of the Youth and Social Welfare Office of the Jewish Community in Berlin. Einstein’s social commitment was an expression of solidarity with the Jewish Community.		Albert Einstein and his secretary Helen Dukas at his New Synagogue concert, January 29, 1930

 

7th Day, Friday Berlin: The Jewish Museum – The New Synagogue – Holocaust Memorial and Education Center

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On May 10, 1933, Berlin Students burn the books of “unaccepted” and Jewish writers on Opernplatz (today Bebelplatz). About 20,000 books were burned during the evening.

This morning we will return to the Jewish Museum where our museum guide will show us the second part of the exhibits.

This afternoon we will visit the New Synagogue, inaugurated in 1866 in the presence of Prussian Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. Seating 3,000 people, it was the largest synagogue in Germany. With services in the German language and its organ and choir music, the New Synagogue became a center of Reform Judaism. The splendor of its architecture, eastern Moorish style resembling the Alhambra in Spain, was a reflection of the rapid growth of the Jewish community in 19th century Berlin.

Having been destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943, the New Synagogue was reopened in 1995 as a museum and Jewish community center.

Unlike the Mendelssohn family, Albert Einstein was dubious about assimilation. As noted by his biographer Walter Isaacson, Einstein believed that Jews were more than just persons “of the Jewish faith.” Instead, he defined Jewish identity as a matter of ethnic kinship, or tribal companions. Einstein scorned what he called “the assimilatory” approach that sought “to overcome anti-Semitism by dropping nearly everything Jewish.” This never worked; indeed, it “appears somewhat comical to a non-Jew,” because the Jews are a people set apart from others.

“The psychological root of anti-Semitism lies in the fact that the Jews are a group of people unto themselves,” Einstein wrote.

When Hitler came to power, January 30, 1933, Einstein was in California. He chose to stay in the United States and never returned to Germany.

“Those who burn books will in the end also burn people.”
Heinrich Heine, 1821

This afternoon we will visit Bebelplatz (Opernplatz in 1933), scene of the Nazis’ burning of thousands of books by “degenerate” authors. In addition to a stone marker of Heine’s prophetic words, 112 years before the Nazis ascent to power, visitors can see through a glass plate in the ground and view rows of empty bookshelves – a modern monument to that dark event.

Next, we will visit the Holocaust Memorial and Education Center, completed in 2005. The architecture represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because it does not use symbolism. The grid pattern, consisting of 2,711 concrete stelae, which can be walked through from all sides, leaves it up to visitors to find their own way in and out of the complex. The underground information center provides information on the victims, the places of extermination and today’s memorial sites.

Sabbath dinner is included this evening.

 

8th Day, Saturday Berlin: Morning at Leisure

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Berlin has 85 museums. Among the most impressive is the Pergamon on Museum Island housing some of the world’s most precious artifacts and classical antiquity. The famous Pergamon Altar, dating from 160 B.C., is a masterpiece of Greek art. Nearby is the magnificent Berlin Cathedral, the largest Lutheran church in Germany.

Stroll along Unter den Linden to the Brandenburg Gate. Visit the Reichstag, again the site of the German Parliament.Enjoy a drink at the Gendarmen Platz.

From evil to redemption to renaissance, Berlin has seen it all.

Afternoon Excursion
House of theWannsee Conference

The murder of Jews by the Nazis increased during the autumn of 1941, following the early success of the Wehrmacht invasion of the Soviet Union. In January of 1942, top Nazi leaders met at a mansion on the outskirts of Berlin to organize administratively the systematic extermination of Jews residing in areas controlled by the Third Reich – the Final Solution. The meeting became known as the Wannsee Conference.

Accompanied by our guide, we will visit this mansion where extermination of the Jews became the formal, official policy of the Nazi regime.

The mansion is today a museum.

This evening we will enjoy dinner with Klezmer music. Klezmer began in medieval Europe as the music of the Eastern European Jews. By the 19th century, it had become a developed musical style, taking its inspiration not only from the synagogue, but also from the non-Jewish culture that surrounded it.

 

9th Day, Sunday Hamburg: Ballinstadt Emigration City

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Search for Your German and/or Eastern Europe Ancestors with Professional Help

This morning we will leave Berlin and proceed to Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city. It was in Hamburg that the first Reform synagogue opened in 1811.

After German Jews came to the United States and achieved some success, they encouraged other Jews to follow. A rabbi in Cincinnati wrote a poem called “The Jewish Emigrant” that was printed in Die Deborah, a German Jewish newspaper, in 1855:

Far, far toward the West,
There is a great country.
Far across the sea it holds out
To us its brotherly hand.
Thither shall we cross over,
There shall be the home
Where we can find rest
From suffering, ignominy and agony.

For Jews seeking escape from the persecution and pogroms of Czarist Russia, the anti-Semitism during the Kaiser’s Germany and earlier centuries, or from the Third Reich of the 1930’s, there was an alternative – Emigration. Millions of European Jews seized the opportunity. Between 1815 and 1930, more than 50 million people left their European home countries to start a new life in the USA, Canada, Australia, and South America. By 1914, 21% of Europeans lived outside Europe. The great majority went to the United States, which became the largest emigration destination in the world.

Toward America and the New World
Jewish children on a street in Zabludow, Poland, in 1916. From about 1600 to the time of the Holocaust, more Jews lived in Poland than in any other nation in the world.		So many emigrants sailed from the port of Hamburg that a village, Ballinstadt, was built to give them temporary housing.
Passengers board a ship of the Hamburg-America Line around 1910. Founded in 1847, the Hamburg-America shipping company was amoung the first to specialize in transporting immigrants, rather than cargo, across the ocean.		Whenever possible, passengers spent time on deck to escape the stench and the cramped quarters. But space was limited, and in bad weather or heavy seas they had to stay below deck.
For most emigrants the sight of the Statue of Liberty in New York was an evocative moment. Many never forgot this moment that marked the end of a gruelling passage and the start of a new life.		Albert Einstein with his secretary Helen Dukas and step daughter Margot becoming American citizens in Trenton, New Jersey, in October, 1940.

German emigration peaked in the years 1854, 1872, and 1881. Thereafter, the period of mass migration from Eastern and Southeastern Europe began.

Between 1933 and 1939, between 275,000 and 300,000 German Jews left their homeland.

The primary port of emigration was Hamburg. More than 5.2 million people from all over Europe – mostly Jews – sailed from the Port of Hamburg from 1850 to 1939.

A major reason for the predominance of Hamburg was its Ballinstadt Emigration City at the Port. Ballinstadt is named after Albert Ballin, a Hamburg Jew who owned the Hapag Shipping Company (today Hapag-Lloyd). Ballin built a departure city for the emigrants, offering accommodations, food, shops, church, a synagogue, and medical facilities. This transition venue for emigrants awaiting departure of their ships was enormously helpful to emigrants and made Hamburg the leading port of emigration from Europe.

Accompanied by a museum guide, we will tour Ballinstadt this afternoon and learn more about the epic emigration movement out of Europe.

After our tour, tour members can trace their ancestry, assisted by Ballinstadt staff trained in geneaology, who will help us with research and building a family tree.

Tour members who do not complete their ancestry search this afternoon can make an appointment to return to Ballinstadt tomorrow morning.

Dinner this evening will be at an historic restaurant in Hamburg.

 

10th Day, Monday Hamburg: Ballinstadt Emigration City Tracing Our Ancestry

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“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

Where do we come from? Who are our ancestors? These questions have occupied the minds of people for generations. Millions of Americans are retracing the steps of their ancestors.

The huge database contains lists of passengers on ships leaving Hamburg between 1850 and 1934, which were digitized and indexed during years of work by the state archive in Hamburg. A total of 270,000 images were created, containing around five million names. It’s the largest collection of passenger lists from emigrant ships in the world. Birthplace, place of residence and profession were details registered by the emigrants back then—a treasure trove for those researching their family now.

Those of us not returning to Ballinstadt this morning will have a tour, with local guide, of sites of Jewish life and history in Hamburg.

A sightseeing tour of Hamburg via motorcoach is also included this afternoon.

Our farewell evening will include dinner and music.

A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People

 

11th Day, Tuesday Hamburg – USA

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This morning we will be transferred to Hamburg Airport to board our return flight to the U.S. Arrive back in the U.S. this afternoon.

W. Michael Blumenthal Director, Jewish Museum Berlin Return to Berlin Michael Blumenthal is a former Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, who went on to serve as US Secretary of the Treasury. Here he describes for BBC News Online why he decided to return to Germany to direct the Jewish Museum in Berlin. In 1945, I was among the millions of people who had fled the Nazi holocaust. I was one of the lucky ones. In the first postwar years, the United States assumed its historical role as a haven for immigrants and opened its doors to people like us. The population generally welcomed us and we were quickly integrated into American society and culture. More than a half century later, I have returned to Berlin and am once again a part-time resident of the city from which I fled with my family. I came here because, though an American citizen since long ago, I accepted a government invitation to lead Europe's largest Jewish Museum. I am often asked why I agreed to do this job, and why I consented to return to this place where family members and close friends were murdered while some Germans actively collaborated in this atrocity and most others looked away. The reason is simply that it is time to turn the page, to face the challenges of the present and the future, rather than to allow the disasters of the past to rule us. However, we must also not forget the past. Today's young Germans were not alive in the 1930s, and even their parents were either unborn or too young to be involved in the holocaust. Yet they do have a national responsibility to remember. That is what the German government has in mind in creating the Jewish Museum, and other "institutions of memory". The lessons of history To remember means to learn the lessons of history and to apply them not merely to avoid the errors of the past, but also to help meet the challenges confronting us all today and tomorrow. That is the relevance of the mission of the Berlin Jewish Museum. That is why I have chosen to help in this work. That is why I decided to return to Berlin and to support my many like minded German friends determined to make sure that the lessons of history will not be forgotten. Excerpt from BBC News, Road to Refuge - The Way Ahead A Pilgrimage to Germany After my visit to Frankfurt and Worms, I had the same sad feelings that I had experienced in Poland in 1989 and a year later in Vilna, Minsk, and Kiev. For I realized that in Germany, too, I had seen some of the remains of a Jewish civilization. This similarity raised the question: Why do Jews visit Eastern Europe in organized Jewish heritage tours but avoid Germany, even though the latter offers many significant Jewish historic sites? Is there not an equal obligation for Jews to memorialize German Jewry? While most American Jews feel a particular identification with their Eastern European ancestors, they may discover another kind of kinship and heritage in pre-Hitler German Jewry. The early and long experience of German Jews in confronting and responding to modern Western culture has significantly influenced the ways in which contemporary Jews of Eastern European origin accommodate and adapt religious traditions. Germany Jewry of the nineteenth century formulated the fundamentals of American Jews’ major religious ideologies: Reform, Conser- vative, and neo-Orthodox. (Significant events in the early development of these religious movements, especially of the latter, are associated with Frank- furt.) It is at least arguable that the Jewishness of most religiously affiliated and active American Jews of Eastern European origin, shorn of their Yiddish heritage, more resembles that of their counterparts among historic German Jewry than of their preimmigrant ancestors. The comparison with pilgrimages to Eastern Europe highlights another significant meaning in commemorating German Jewry A Jewish pilgrimage to Germany, particularly in an organized Jewish heritage tour, would symbol- ize, perhaps even more markedly, the failure of the Nazis to erase Jewish memory, for it was the Jewish civilization of that nations that was first targeted for extinction. That failure would be powerfully demonstrated by a visit to sites of Jewish significance in the very heartland of what was once the Nazi empire. Furthermore, such pilgrimages by Jews would recognize and support the “other Germany”- its accomplishments in reclaiming Jewish history and its seriousness in coming to terms with the past and with itself. If such efforts indeed manifest a spirit of atonement, are not Jews today obligated to acknowledge and reciprocate them? Perhaps such an awareness of the “other Germany”, as well as of the necessity of preserving the memory of German Jewry, would help many Jews confront and transcend their pain and rage. Perhaps a Jewish pilgrimage to Germany would prove to be restorative. J O S E P H  G R E E N B L U M J U D A I S M A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF JEWISH LIFE AND THOUGHT PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS Issue No. 176 / Volume 44 / Number 4 / $6.00 / Fall 1995

Historian Kenneth E. Block, M.A. A graduate of Princeton, Ken Block has studied at the University of Berlin and holds a Masters Degree in history from Columbia University in New York. He has served as a Naval Officer and as a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State in Europe and Asia. Ken founded Matterhorn Travel and has 43 years experience designing and operating history travel programs. In addition to World War II in Europe, Ken has put together history programs covering Colonial America and the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Western Expansion, and World War II in the Pacific. Ken is a member of the Kneseth Israel Synagogue in Annapolis, where his grandfather was among the early members beginning in the 1920's. Other historians may also participate. Organizations are welcome to bring their own historian.

 

Left to right: Vonnie Block, Kathy McCary, Ken Block, JoAnn West

Our holiday is operated by Matterhorn Travel. Established in 1966, Matterhorn Travel has carried over 50,000 passengers to Europe. Matterhorn officers have a combined experience of 102 years with the company. Please note the all-inclusive nature of our trips. There are no hidden operational costs. We include all features for a complete holiday - breakfasts, dinners every evening, and full sightseeing.

 

Prices
Prices Per Person, Double Occupancy
From the East	Boston, New York, Newark	$6195
From the Mid-Atlantic	Washington, Philadelphia	$6295
From Chicago and the Mid-West	Chicago, Detroit	$6395
From the Carolinas	Charlotte	$6445
From Atlanta and the Carolinas	Atlanta	$6395
From Florida	Miami, Orlando	$6445
From Texas	Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston	$6495
From the West	Denver, Phoenix	$6545
From the Pacific Coast	Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland	$6595
Inquire about prices from cities not listed above. Land Only Price: $5395 per person, double occupancy. Single Room Supplement $895. Triple Room Reduction $20 per person. Add $292 U.S. and foreign airport and security taxes

Hotels Franfurt Intercontinental Weimar Dorint Berlin Westin Grand Hamburg Park Hyatt Two Departures / 2010 Depart USA Return October 2 October 12 October 16 October 26

Terms and Conditions

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Deposits and Final Payments An initial deposit of $400 per person must be sent with the reservation(s). Final payment is due two months before departure. Responsibility These tours are under the operation and management of Matterhorn Travel Service, Inc., 3419 Hidden River View, Annapolis, Maryland 21403. The Tour Operator shall be responsible for supplying the services and accommodations as outlined in this brochure, except to the extent that such services and accommodations cannot be supplied due to delays or other causes beyond its control, in which case the operator will use its best efforts to supply comparable services and accommodations. The Tour Operator reserves the right at its discretion to change the sequence or alter any part of the itinerary or hotel accommodations, without prior notice for any reason; but in the event of substantial reduction in the services rendered, a proportionate refund will be made to tour participants upon written request to the Tour Operator. If there is a major change in the itinerary, participants will be notified before departure and offered an opportunity to cancel with full refund. In the absence of negligence by the Tour Operator, the Tour Operator accepts no responsibility for losses or additional expenses due to delays or changes in air or other services, sickness, weather strikes, or other causes. All such losses or expenses will be borne by the passenger. The tour member waives any claim against the Tour Operator for any damage to or loss of property or injury or death of persons due to any act of negligence of any hotels, or any other persons rendering any of the services or accommodations included in the ground portion of the itinerary. The Tour Operator shall not be responsible for any delays, substitution of equipment or any act of omission whatsoever by the carrier, its agents, servants and employees, and tour member hereby waives any claim arising therefrom. Tour participants agree that the Tour Operator has no responsibility or liability of any nature whatsoever for loss, damage or injury to property or person resulting from air transportation. The air carrier provides insurance for the protection of passengers and performance within the provisions of its tariffs. The Tour Operator reserves the right to decline, accept or remove any tour member as a participant of these tours at any time. If any tour member is removed from the tour, a proportionate refund for unused services will be made. Cancellations/Refunds Refunds cannot be made to any passenger who does not complete the tour. In the event of cancellation by the Tour Operator, Tour Operator's liability shall be limited to a refund of all payments made by the tour participants to Tour Operator. All cancellations and requests for refunds must be submitted in writing to the Tour Operator. If cancellation in writing is received by the Tour Operator more than two months before tour departure, an administration charge of $90 per person will be retained. For cancellations received within two months of departure, the following cancellation charges apply: Two months to one month before departure: 25% of the tour price One month to one week before departure: 60% of the tour price Less than one week before departure: No refund Insurance Trip accident, health and baggage insurance is recommended. Cancellation insurance is also available and is particularly recommended. Details will be furnished upon request. Baggage One suitcase per person (50 pounds) may be taken on the trip. The liability of the carrier for loss or damage to personal baggage shall be limited to the actual value of such baggage but not more than approximately $9.07 per pound in the case of checked baggage and approximately $400 per person in the case of unchecked baggage or other property. (Domestic-actual value not to exceed $500.) Airport Transfers Airport transfers are provided only for passengers arriving and departing Europe via flights reserved by the Tour Operator. Passengers using different flights are responsible for their own airport transfers. Special Note Prices quoted are based on air fares, taxes, European supplier costs, and rates of foreign currency as of September 15, 2009. Prices are subject to change prior to departure. Participants will be notified in writing at least two months before departure if there is any increase in tour price required by such cost increases. There is no credit for unused services. Forwarding of participants' deposit(s) indicates acceptance of these terms and conditions. THE AIRLINES participating on this tour are not responsible for any act, omission, or event during the time the passengers are not on board their airplanes or conveyances. The issuance of the passage contract by the airline concerned shall constitute the sole contract between the airline and the purchaser of this tour and/or the passengers. In addition to the participating airlines, the services of any IATA and ARC carrier may be used in connection with these tours. This program is valid from May 1 to October 31, 2010. To obtain a printer friendly (pdf) version of this itinerary, please click here.