The Roudnice Torah Project MST#747

Congregation Beth Am, San Diego

Elana Marcus & Jane Willoughby of Congregation Beth Am, San Diego USA (MST#747), visited the Roudnice Gymnazium school (ages 11-19) (shown below- the yellow building) and met teachers Mark Johnston, Katu Stepankova, Jana Kolkova and the school principal Zdenka Vachkova. Jane presented to the high school age students introducing them to Judaism and explaining Congregation Beth Am’s connection to Roudnice (our Torah from the Memorial Scrolls Trust and our wall depicting the wall at the ritual building in the New Jewish Cemetery in Roudnice). Following this presentation nine students from the Gymnazium signed up for an elective focused on uncovering the stories about the Jews who once lived in Roudnice before the Holocaust. These students will work collaboratively with high school students at Congregation Beth Am. Note that the Gymnazium school is right at the end of what was the Jewish Ghetto on Havlíčkova Street in Roudnice, near the river.

Jane presenting to the Gymnazium students

While in Roudnice the Educators set up an incredible program with the key highlights below:

1. Jane was able to meet with the descendants of righteous gentiles who tried to improve the lives of the Jews in Roudnice and Terezin. All the stories were incredible but the story that moved us the most was the story of Karel Plichal and Zdena Plihalova. They were part of a community that included the Jews of Roudnice. Knowing that the Jews in the Havlíčkova Street ghetto were starving, they tried to ease this but bringing them fish. They would take their boat out and fish and when it was dark they would quietly knock on the doors of the Jewish families they knew and give them the fish so they could eat. When they arrived back in their apartment further down at the end of Havlíčkova Street people would ask where their fish was as they came back with so few fish as they had given them away. They were part of the community in and around Havlíčkova Street and they were helping their friends. Below is a picture of Jane with Zdenek the son of Karel and Zdena and a picture of Zdenek and his parents.

2. A guided tour of the town revealing the old cemetery and the building that once housed the synagogue. We also visited the New Cemetery but could not get in due to concerns about the stability of the wall; we are in touch with the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic and have been told that it has been stabilized.

The synagogue- now an apartment block on Havlíčkova Street

The Old Jewish Cemetery off Havlíčkova Street

3. William Lobkovitz arranged permission to visit the towns archives held at Nelahozeves Castle. William is the current head of this family which owns the monastery, the Castle and lands in Roudnice and so much more. He is the descendant of nobility from the areas of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic). He gained his lands back after the communist era ended. We travelled to the archives at Nelahozeves Castle and met with the archivist Sonia who was helpful and interested in what we are doing. At Nelahozeves we found out that they have archived documents that are specifically related to the Jews of Roudnice that date back to 1595. We are going to see if we can apply for a grant to have a student work on translating the documents.

4. Jane visited Terezin with the teachers from the Gymnazium. We walked the same walk from the railway station that the Jewish community had to walk after they were rounded up by the Nazis. The Gymnazium has developed a collaboration with Jan Springer, the director of Education at Terezin, to help track down names of people sent there from Roudnice.

The Jewish community had to leave the trains and walk through the yellow building before then then walked to Terezen.

Research Team

Each person on the research team has taken a time period (1600-to-date) and is actively researching the Jewish history of Roudnice in their designated period. One outcome is to find the names of families that once lived in Roudnice, and we have been able to identify at least 20 names of people who once lived there in the period prior to the Holocaust. We hope that our Roudnice Honors students will be able to find descendants of these families and able to get testimony.

We have also has reached out to the butterfly Project about the possibility of using butterflies as part of a memorial to the Jewish children in Roudnice who lost their lives in the Holocaust. The poem “I never saw another butterfly,” was created by Pavel Friedman a man incarcerated at Terezin, who lost his life in Auschwitz.

Education

JLC (Kindergarten to 6th grade)

Our education team have been working on the curriculum to be integrated into the overall curriculum for the JLC. This curriculum will integrate information on the Roudnice Jewish population so that when our students graduate on 6th grade, they will fully understand the history and culture of the Jews of Roudnice and the circumstances that lead to the Holocaust where so many perished. Once the curriculum is finalized the Research Team will focus their work on finding relevant information on the Jews of Roudnice to create materials for the teachers.

SABRA (High School grades 9-12) & Plans for The December Trip to Roudnice

We have created a Roudnice Torah Honors Society for high school students. This ‘student run group,’ will be facilitated by Jane and Elana and the students will have an opportunity to work on Roudnice related projects and collaborate the group of students enrolled in the elective at the Gymnazium in Roudnice. This group has already met their counterparts on zoom and will hopefully meet in person in December as the students going on the Israel trip will first make a stop in the Czech Republic and spend a day in Roudnice with the students from the Gymnazium. We will be jointly lighting a menorah together that we will gift to the school. This is likely the first time a menorah will have been lit since the Holocaust and to have students both from the USA and Roudnice jointly light - this will be amazing.

One of the students in the group in Roudnice lives in a home once lived in by a Jewish Family before the war. He sent us several items they uncovered from their house including the Jewish star below: