|
|
Jan. 11, 2008
Geneological tourism at JSA
Writer tells seniors group about the search for his family heritage.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Over the last couple of decades, armchair travelling has become very popular, made easy by the abundance of print sources, television programs and the Internet. But the members of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of Vancouver don't limit themselves to the armchair. Although their Empowerment Travel and Learning series incorporate some very interesting "armchair" destinations, like Fly Me to the Moon and Musical Travelogue, planned for the next few months, they travel in truth as well. Their last two trips were actual bus tours. In October 2007, the seniors went to Victoria and, in November, the members went on a tour across Vancouver called Old Vancouver Jewish Sites.
"We want to get people out of their homes, to push them into a more active life style," Jerry Kushner, JSA president, explained. "The series is empowering them because they not only learn new facts but also do it together with the other members of the community. Common experiences enrich their social milieu while promoting their mental and physical well-being."
The upcoming Travel and Learning presentation on Jan. 16 is going to be of an exciting armchair variety. It is called Robin Esrock's Travel Roots. Local travel writer Robin Esrock will meet the members of the alliance for an afternoon of pictures and stories about his journey to Poland and Lithuania in search of his family heritage.
For the last quarter of a century, digging for cultural roots has been on the rise in North America. Many Americans and Canadians head to Europe or Asia during their vacations to look for their families' past. Genealogical travel has become not only a fashionable pastime, but a necessity for the people who wish to learn who they are and where they came from.
It's especially important for young North American Jews, as the roots of most of their families remain in Eastern Europe, in small towns – shtetls. Those Jews who escaped Europe before the Holocaust were lucky: they survived and scattered around the world. Their descendants are looking for what is left of the unlucky ones, the ones who perished.
Esrock is one of those descendants. His grandparents' families left Poland and Lithuania for South Africa before the First World War. Nearly a century later, the Vancouver-based Jewish travel writer went back to investigate his family history.
"I like talking to people about my trips, especially to seniors," Esrock mused. "Many of them came from those countries. They often can't travel themselves, so they travel through me. My stories and my pictures help them remember."
Esrock hasn't always been a travel writer. He worked in the music industry until a few years ago, when he literally fell into travel writing. Injured in an auto accident, he received some insurance money and used it for a trip around the world. "I was contemplating what to do with the settlement money," Esrock recalled. "I could've bought a new car, but that wouldn't have been as much fun. On the other hand, I always wanted to travel. It was my lifelong dream. So I said to myself: now or never."
Since February 2005, when Esrock embarked on his journey, he has visited 46 countries on six continents, regularly writing about his adventures for the Vancouver Sun, the Jewish Independent and other newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. But his entire travel epic is best covered on his website, www.moderngonzo.com. Esrock will also be hosting a new TV travel show, Word Travels, beginning Jan. 30. It was filming this show that took him on a genealogical hunt for his family origins in Lithuania.
Esrock's trip to Lithuania wasn't an easy one. Like all the former shtetls in Europe, Kupiskis, the town his grandfather was born in, had a tragic history. "Before WWII, 42 per cent of the town's population was Jewish. All of them were rounded up and brutally murdered by the local Nazi collaborators," Esrock said. "Over 3,000 men, women and children were killed and buried in mass graves, including members of my own family. While many people travel to the countries of their heritage expecting to discover and meet long-lost relatives, I knew that there was no chance of encountering a branch of my family tree. Still, visiting the town where my grandfather was born would help me understand where I came from."
Instead of his distant relatives, Esrock found a plaque installed in the town's library, with an astonishing list of names and ages of the victims. Some of the victims bore his surname. The list was compiled by a group of local midwifes during the war. "This list is the only one of its kind in Lithuania," he said. "If my grandparents' families didn't leave when they did, their names could've been on that plaque and I wouldn't have existed."
Later his guide took him to see several mass graves. "Some of the graves had small memorials; some of the memorials defaced by the modern Nazis," Esrock pointed out. "There were anti-Semitic signs painted and bullet marks. I was shocked by the vandalism. That's why we, the Jews, must travel there – to show them that they haven't won, to stir up the past. We are still here. We live. We remember."
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
^TOP
|
|
