Kara and Lana Tedrick of the CTeen Clifton Park Chabad Chapter recently returned after spending part of their summer on the CTeen Heritage Quest trip, a three-week journey that took Jewish teenage girls to see the sites of Jewish destruction in Poland and to the now vibrant Jewish life of Israel.

The girls were part of a group of Jewish teens, many of them the only Jewish students in their schools back home, who stood together one day this summer in Auschwitz-Birkenau and recited the Shema in a place where more than a million Jews were murdered.

Pride and strength

According to Quest administrators that moment sits at the center of CTeen’s Heritage Quest, a program designed to give teens a powerful connection to Jewish history, identity and community.

“Today, many Jewish teenagers are constantly dealing with anti-Semitism, whether on social media or even in school,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, chairman of CTeen International. “When they stand together at these important Jewish sites with fellow Jewish teens who know exactly what that feels like, they go home with the pride and strength it takes to be an advocate for their faith.”

The Poland leg of the trip covered five days, moving from Warsaw through the Lublin region to Kraków. The group walked through what remains of centuries of Jewish life: the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, and the restored 18th-century shul in Łańcut.

Then came the destruction: the Warsaw Ghetto, the Majdanek concentration camp, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps. But Poland was not only about loss. At Lizensk, the group visited the gravesite of Reb Elimelech, one of Poland’s most important Chasidic pilgrimage sites. It is still active and draws Jews from around the world.

On Friday afternoon, the group welcomed Shabbos in one of Kraków’s old shuls, davening in the same space where Jewish women had davened for generations. After Shabbos, they gathered at the site of the Kraków Ghetto for havdalah.

Supporting one another

“Havdalah in the ghetto was the most powerful moment on the whole trip for me,” said Kara. She also spoke about what Poland taught her about her heritage. “Judaism is so full of history, both sad and joyous. The trip also taught me about Jewish perseverance.”

The all-girls format also gave the teens an opportunity to process the experience together. In a setting that demanded emotional honesty, the group became a source of support and strength for one another.

“One of the coolest parts of being a counselor on Heritage Quest was watching the girls connect not just to the places we visited, but to each other and to our Jewish heritage in such a real way,” said Sara Fajnland, one of the trip’s counselors.

On Sunday night, the group boarded a flight from Kraków to Ben-Gurion Airport. Hours after standing in Auschwitz, they were standing at the Haas Promenade, looking out over Jerusalem.

“Israel felt so safe,” said Lana. “I never once felt unsafe during my trip, and especially in Israel, in the middle of a war, I felt at home.”

The Israel leg stretched over two weeks. There was a water day in the Galilee, rafting the Jordan River and swimming in the Kinneret. There were Bedouin tents in the desert, a sunrise hike up Masada, and evenings wandering Machane Yehuda with friends.