Customized Tours

Taube Jewish Heritage Tours offers unique experiences through one-of-a-kind tours and study programs tailored to you, your family, or your organization. Would you like to trace your family’s history in Poland, follow a Hassidic route, explore the many layers of Polish Jewish history in depth, or engage in the revival of Poland’s Jewish communities? Would your family or organization like to explore a special aspect of Jewish culture in Poland, or visit sites and cities of particular interest? We can assist you in crafting a specially designed itinerary or study program. We have the staff and expertise to:

Provide guides, schedule special meetings with communal leaders, academics, politicians, and cultural activists;
Organize consultations with genealogists and archival researchers;
Recommend or book ground transportation, hotels, and tickets to cultural events and museums on your behalf;
Offer tour consultations;
Provide lecturers, educators, and workshop facilitators for organized tour programs.

We have created customized tours for board members and senior staff of Birthright Israel, AIPAC, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, and the Anti-Defamation League, to name a few. For example, the ADL arrived in Warsaw during the NATO Summit 2016 to visit the POLIN Museum and observe Shabbat, then participated in an international 70^thanniversary commemoration of the mass murder of Jews by their Gentile neighbors in the town of Jedwabne in southeastern Poland, and from there, toured the UNESCO Jewish heritage sites in the beautiful, ancient capital of Kraków, the only city to survive intact the pervasive devastation of the Nazi occupation in WWII. In addition to customized 7 to 10-day tours, we offer layover tours and other short, 2- to 4-hour walking tours.

Hillel International Professionals | July 2015 Study Tour Itinerary

After providing tours for individual campus Hillel groups in Poland, Taube Jewish Heritage Tours partnered with Hillel International to formalize an ongoing effort to bring student groups to Poland from university campuses around the world. Hillel International recognized that it would be important to first introduce Hillel directors to the quality educational tours that TJHT provides so that they could approve the program and promote it among their students and peers. Subsequently, the first study tour for Hillel professionals took place in summer 2015. Hillel student tours are now regularly organized each year for groups from across the U.S. Funding for the Hillel Professionals’ Study Tour was supported by the Republic of Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture.

Day One: Warsaw as a Palimpsest

Welcome to Warsaw, the Phoenix City, at the Palace of Science and Culture

Welcome by Taube Center Director
View Warsaw from the observation deck of the Palace of Science and Culture

Introductions and Orientation

Introductory session with Dr. Sam Kassow, Scholar-in-Residence
Lunch at the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland

Guided stroll from Plac Bankowy to Starówka (Old Town) Dinner at JCC Warsaw

Meet with young local Jewish leaders and activists
Kosher dinner with remarks from JCC Warsaw Director

Overnight in Warsaw

Day Two: Living in the Shadows – Absence and Presence

Framing the Day with Dr. Kassow Walking tour of Plac Grzybowski and Próżna Street Visit Nożyk Synagogue, the only surviving pre-war synagogue in Warsaw

Text study with Chief Rabbi of Poland

Visit the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Institut Historiczny – ŻIH)

Introduction to ŻIH and the Ringelblum Archives by Dr. Kassow
View selected documents with the Ringelblum archives with the Chief Archivist
Refreshments at ŻIH’s bookstore café
Group session at the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center

Walking tour from Perec Street via Waliców and Żelazna to Chłodna Street Installation Lunch Brief visit to the Etgar Keret House with the Curator Tour the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery with Dr. Kassow and a representative from ŻIH’s Department of Documentation

Participate in a cemetery clean up project

Dinner with President of the Warsaw Jewish Community Overnight in Warsaw

Day Three: Exploring 1,000 Years of Polish Jewish Experience

Visit the Umschlagplatz and walk the Route of Martyrdom and Struggle with guide Visit POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Welcome at POLIN Museum by Director
Tour the Core Exhibition with Dr. Kassow and a representative from the POLIN Museum’s Education Center
Q&A Session: The Core Exhibition as a Resource for Study Tours with the Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition and Advisor to the Director of POLIN Museum

Express train to Kraków Dinner at the Galicia Jewish Museum

Discussion: How we frame and facilitate visits of international students and museum visitors in our institutions? with Jagiellonian University Jewish Studies professor and Board Member of the Galicia Jewish Museum; Executive Director of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture; and Director of the Galicia Jewish Museum

Overnight in Kraków

Day Four: Jewish Kraków – Presence and Absence

Explore Kazimierz, Kraków’s Jewish district

Walking tour of Kazimierz with special guide, Director of Columbia University’s Yiddish Language Program
Coffee and tour wrap-up discussion at Cheder Café
Lunch at JCC Krakow with Executive Director, staff and community members

Walking tour of Kraków’s Old Town and Wawel Grounds with Tour Guide & Educator from the Galicia Jewish Museum Dinner on your own (restaurants to be recommended) Overnight in Kraków

Day Five: Auschwitz-Birkenau

Study tour through Birkenau and Auschwitz State Museum Visit, session and lunch at the Auschwitz Jewish Center with the director and educators Return to Kraków Shabbat services at Kupa Synagogue Shabbat dinner at JCC Krakow with community and guests Overnight in Kraków

Day Six: Building a Jewish Future in Poland

Breakfast in the hotel Optional Shabbat services at Kupa Synagogue Shabbat lunch at JCC Krakow with members of GIMEL Jewish Student Club Meet with a Holocaust survivor and member of JCC Krakow’s Senior Club Free time Havdallah Overnight in Kraków

Day Seven: Polish Jewish Life in Transition – Łódź

Departure by bus to Łódź A guided tour of Jewish Łódź with guide and graduate of the Taube Center’s Mi Dor Le Dor program Bus to Warsaw Dinner on your own Overnight in Warsaw

Day Eight: New Expressions of Jewish Identities

Breakfast in the hotel Sessions at the Taube Center

Meet with Mi Polin, Warsaw based Judaica designers
Meeting with Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Special Envoy for the Jewish Diaspora
Light lunch provided

Final wrap-up session and farewell dinner at JCC Warsaw Overnight in Warsaw

Day Nine

Departures and Extensions

Layover Tours

Customized tours of Jewish Warsaw and Kraków with transfer services to and from Modlin and Chopin Airports in Warsaw, and Balice Airport in Kraków. Private visits crafted to fit the needs of people taking connecting flights via Warsaw and Kraków. Visit Jewish heritage sites on an all-inclusive tour with an airport pick-up, restaurant arrangements (including kosher meals per request), walking tours and meetings. The tour in Warsaw can encompass a visit to the Nożyk Synagogue, an iconic symbol of Warsaw’s Jewish continuity, Grzybowski Square, the former Warsaw Ghetto, the Umschlagplatz and the Route of Memory and Martyrdom, as well as a guided visit through POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. While connecting via Kraków you can visit Kraków’s Old Town, listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, with its famous Cloth Hall and Main Market Square, Collegium Maius, and the grounds of the Royal Wawel Castle followed by a visit to Kazimierz, Kraków’s revitalized Jewish district, with its preserved pre-war synagogues, Jewish Community Center, and a special guided tour of the Galicia Jewish Museum.

Guided Walking Tours

Unique guided walking tours (2-4 hours each) of Jewish Warsaw and Kraków include the most important sites connected to Jewish history and contemporary life. TJHT offers custom-designed tours of Jewish heritage sites and contemporary institutions, and post-tour conversations with educators and peers. The walks, based on advance consultation with TJHT staff, can be incorporated into a group’s itinerary. The guided walking tour through Jewish Warsaw, past and present, will include a visit to the Nożyk Synagogue, an iconic symbol of Warsaw’s Jewish continuity, Grzybowski Square, the former Warsaw Ghetto, the Umschlagplatz and the Route of Memory and Martyrdom, and a guided visit through the recently opened POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews as well as the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the largest repository of Polish Jewish heritage in the world. The tour of Warsaw’s Old Town tells the story of the site of the first Jewish settlement, the majestic Royal Route. Pilsudski Square reflects the history of the Poland’s interwar period, and the University of Warsaw addresses issues related to Jewish intellectuals and university graduates, including Menachem Begin. The walking tour of Kraków’s Old Town, listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, will include the Cloth Hall and Main Market Square, the Szara building, St. Mary’s Basilica, Collegium Maius, and the grounds of the Royal Wawel Castle. The tour of Kazimierz, Kraków’s revitalized Jewish district, a unique Jewish urban complex, includes visits to its seven preserved pre-war synagogues, its Jewish Community Center, and a special guided tour of the Galicia Jewish Museum and Schindler’s Factory Museum. TJHT tours address issues of memory, uncover the rich Jewish historical legacy and historical narratives within the cityscapes, and create new cultural paradigms and links between the Polish Jewish past and its present.