The use of paper maps has declined in the face of the more efficient digital navigation devices. Yet, for the Shabbat observant traveler, paper maps are invaluable. One such map guided me and my fellow classmates in the Emil A. Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at YU on our recent study abroad in Central Europe.
Our journey to Vienna’s Stadttempel shul led us through the city lined with golden tiles in spots where Jews used to live, memorials of lost shuls to covers for arks from the lost sanctuaries hanging in the Stadttempel lobby. The inspirational and warm davening was uplifting, particularly, the children’s choir. The children surround the senior chazzan and harmonize the last parts of the tefillah under his tutelage.
On my way out, I noticed a little girl, hiding behind one of those preserved covers, playing hide and seek. My first instinct was to tell her to move away from the 150-year-old, fading velvet cover, but instead, I enjoyed the sight of a giggling, Jewish child playing behind an artifact that miraculously was drawn from the fires of Kristallnacht. The jarring thought of where it had been and the dissonance of it being the backdrop of everyday life for this child struck me. Her compass, rooted in the rebuilding of the Viennese Jewish community will certainly help her navigate the ever-changing map in her journey as a Jew.
