Chanichim Thoughts from Poland

Below is the text from a speech given by Jasper ter Kuile, our resident Dutchie on Workshop 63. After spending the morning in Krakow learning about the Akiba youth movement and their resistance against the Nazis, Jasper was part of creating the tekkes. The theme of the tekkes was rebellion, and Jasper wrote the following thoughts about rebellion and the youth movement.

Why we do rebel?
We rebel because we love. Because we can't stand by and do nothing while all that is dear to us is burning.
Because we love humanity we rebel.
Because the world is dear to us we rebel.

We refuse to stand by and do nothing while bad things happen to the people we love.
We watch our country, our nation, our people suffer and we refuse to simply let it pass.
We feel the pain of their loss because we know the joy of happiness.
And once you can feels another's pain it's so much harder to stay silent and do nothing.
Our love for others is the light that keeps us figthing over and over again, time after time. And if we ever stop loving we will stop fighting. Our love for one another is our greatest weapon.
Because we feel love for those near us. We will help those farther from us. Those whom we may not know yét and whom we may not love, yét. But we will rebel for them because we know that they too love and are loved.

The Acco kvutza at Josefinska Street, where the leaders of the Krakow underground

 lived in a movement commune. This commune was the center of the rebellion that 

bombed the Cyganeria Cafe, a Nazi restaurant. Reading about life in the commune provided 

some good perspective and a few laughs about the similarities between communal life

then and now. Turns out arguing about cleaning up in shared living spaces is in the youth

movement DNA! To read more about the Krakow underground, visit http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/30/armed_resistance.asp.