As every year, tens of youth from Eilat will be travelling to Poland in order to learn more about the spiritual-cultural richness of Jewish life in Poland prior to World War II and to face the enormity of the Holocaust that decimated the Jewish people in the previous generation.  During the one-week trip the students will be visiting the remnants of the Jewish community in Poland and the sites of death camps set up by the Nazis and their helpers.  Destinations include the Krakow Ghetto, Auschwitz, the Majdanek death camp, Lublin Ghetto, and Warsaw - the Jewish cemetery, the Korchak orphanage, the Rappaport memorial, the Treblinka death camp, and more. 

This year's delegation of around 120 12th-year (yud-bet) students will include 47 pupils from Begin High, 40 from Goldwater, and 32 from Rabin High School, with two or three teachers from each school accompanying the students.  The delegation will set out this coming Sunday (9.11.2008) and return to Eilat on 16.11.08.  Each group will tour separately during the trip. 

The trip essentially concludes the study of the Holocaust during which the students are exposed to the subject in various ways - workshops, study days, seminars, meetings with survivors, consolidation days, watching films, and more.  The trip to Poland is to conclude the scholastic-experiential process the students have undergone when they are ready to deal with what awaits them when arriving at the death camps and walking on the paths that led to the crematoria. 

Most of the youth worked over the summer holiday to save money for the trip.  The cost of the trip is around 6,200 NIS.  The Eilat Municipality allocates a certain amount each year for scholarships for students who would like to take part but have trouble financing the trip.  The allocation was raised this year from 60,000 NIS to 80,000 NIS and is divided into five levels of support as per need, this being decided according to the family's economic situation, the parents' income, health, etc.  Some 30 students from the three high schools were given scholarships due to the importance that the City, schools, and students place on being able to make the journey to Poland. 

On Wednesday 5 November at 19:30, there is a ceremony at Rabin High School to see their delegation off.  Goldwater and Begin High Schools will each have a ceremony at their own schools this coming Saturday night, Goldwater at 19:00 and Begin at 20:15.