A new school year is always an exciting time, as new students take their first tentative steps into the world of formal education, older children look forward to seeing friends they haven’t seen for a few weeks, and preschoolers mix the laughter of new experiences with the cries of being in strange surroundings for the first time.
In Lodz, the excitement of the new year was even greater as Straus-Amiel and Claudia Cohen Women’s Educators Institute emissaries, Rabbi David and Myriam Szychowsky, open the city’s first Jewish kindergarten – Gan Matanel – seven decades after Nazi extermination of Lodz ghetto.
“It is so emotional for us to be a part of the renewal of Jewish life here in Lodz, especially considering all that the Jewish community went through during World War II – and the total lack of Jewish education for decades,” said Szychowsca, who represents the Shavei Israel organization in Lodz and whose own children will attend Gan Matanel starting next month. “We are truly proud that our own children will be among the first Jewish kindergarten class in Lodz in nearly 50 years.”