Europe played a hugely important role in Jewish history. The first European Jewish communities in Greece were thriving even before the advent of the Roman Empire. Over the next two millennia Jewish history in Europe oscillated between periods of official tolerance, leading to golden ages of high cultural and material prosperity, and bleak periods of persecution and tragedy. European Jewry barely survived the ravages of the Holocaust, but Jewish communities and Jewish culture endured and revived.
The huge majority of US Jews are descended from European Jews who crossed the Atlantic in search of a better life in the New World. Luxury Jewish tours of Europe are a wonderful way for American families to connect with their roots on a deeper level and explore some of Europe’s most beautiful historical sites, through the lens of Jewish heritage.
Despite the destruction of World War Two, many of the continent’s most important Jewish cultural sites and monuments remain intact. Many others have been lovingly restored to their former splendor by expert artisans. It’s an amazing experience to walk through the old Jewish quarters where your ancestors once lived, and to visit synagogues, cemeteries and museums with professional guides whose passion is Jewish history.
Some of the most popular destinations include the atmospheric cobbled streets of Prague’s medieval Jewish quarter the Josefov, once home to the Rabbi Lowe and Franz Kafka. The Parisian Jewish quarter Le Marais is a bustling district famed for its Jewish delis, bistros and restaurants, offering one of the world’s outstanding kosher travel experiences for gourmets and wine buffs. In the Netherlands, the mercantile port city of Amsterdam welcomed Sephardic Jews fleeing the Inquisition. The city’s modern luxury hotels are an excellent base for private walking tours of the Amsterdam Jewish Cultural Quarter.
Customized Jewish heritage tours are the perfect way to bond as a family and to give kids and grandkids a special insight into your family heritage - and our wider Jewish heritage and culture. They are also a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a luxury vacation in Europe and to take in other national treasures, including famed UNESCO World Heritage Sites!
When you travel to Europe, you’ll be spoiled for choice when it comes to heritage sites and destinations. It’s important to be relaxed, well rested and full of energy to get the most out of each day. Luxury hotels, private travel arrangements and expert guides take the stress out of traveling in a foreign country and leave you free to focus on discovering Jewish history and experiencing all the detail and nuance of centuries of Jewish life.
A well organized luxury tour with family-oriented itineraries will cater for every age group and interest level. There will also be vetted childcare and babysitting service, allowing adults to dine in kosher restaurants in the evening or attend concerts and other more highbrow cultural events. A tailored itinerary can also include meetings with the local Jewish community, historical lectures and Shabbat services in historic synagogues.
There are dozens of fascinating destinations for European Jewish tours, but four of the most popular for US Jews are France, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.
Paris is Europe’s City of Light and has at least a thousand years of Jewish history. The old Jewish quarter of Le Marais is full of delights and surprises and it’s a real pleasure to explore the district on foot and soak up the unique atmosphere. Le Marais is one of the best places in Europe to sample kosher food, ranging from street snacks and deli sandwiches to formal seven course meals that combine the best of French and Jewish cuisine.
A guided tour of Paris will also include a visit to the Holocaust Memorial, the Jewish Museum and the city’s beautiful synagogues, including the Grand Synagogue and the Synagogue des Tourelles and the art nouveau style Synagogue de la Rue Pavée in Le Marais. Almost 400 miles south of Paris is the balmy region of Provence, known to its sophisticated Jewish communities during the middle ages as Provintçia. There’s been a Jewish presence in Provence for 2,000 years and there is a wealth of Jewish history - and southern French cuisine - to explore.
Germany is a tough destination for most Jews. A visit to Berlin is a highly worthwhile experience, but also inevitably a sad one. Germany’s capital - the city of the Haskalah - was once a center of Jewish culture that attracted writers, scholars, intellectuals and religious thinkers. Before 1933, there were around 160,000 Jews in Berlin, by 1945 just a few thousand remained. Berlin was the heart of the Nazi regime and the city where the Holocaust was planned and directed. A tailored tour of Berlin often begins with a guided tour of the Jewish Museum and Holocaust Memorial.
Despite the savagery of Kristallnacht, and systematic Nazi vandalism (not to mention Allied bombing and a Russian assault) some of Berlin’s synagogues and Jewish sites survive. The Moorish style Grand Synagogue was built in 1866 and was extensively renovated after the war. The Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue survived an arson attempt on Kristallnacht and is still in use today. Its decorative interior is almost unchanged and would be immediately recognizable to Berlin Jews from the 1920s.
Poland’s Jewish history goes back at least a thousand years. Polish Jews enjoyed mixed fortunes, but there were long periods of tolerance, including the celebrated Golden Age. The highlight of many Jewish tours of Europe is a visit to the ancient city of Krakow and a private walking tour of the Jewish quarter or Kazimierz. Many scenes from Steven Spielberg’s epic Holocaust film Schindler’s List were filmed in Krakow and Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory now hosts two Krakow museums. The Kazimierz is a beautiful place to wander and your guide will make sure that you experience some traditional Polish kosher food as part of your travel experiences.
The Polish Capital Warsaw was the scene of desperate Jewish heroism in the spring of 1943. The Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto launched an uprising against the Germans, shocking the Nazis with their courage and fighting spirit during a month of ferocious urban combat. The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes is located at the site where the first shots of the uprising were fired. Another important Jewish heritage site in Warsaw is the Nozyk Synagogue and adjacent Jewish cultural center. If you have Polish ancestors (or are descended from other European Jews) Gil Travel may be able to help you trace your ancestry and identify modern sites with a family connection.
Amsterdam grew from a tiny fishing village to become one of Europe’s great cities and was once a global commercial center. The city’s prosperity was aided by its strong Jewish community, a mixture of Sephardic and Central European Jews. The Sephardim built the magnificent Portuguese Synagogue (Esnoga or Snoge) in 1675. The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam occupies the sites of four former synagogues and is a major feature of the Jewish Cultural Quarter. Arguably, the most famous Jewish site in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank House, which contains some particularly moving exhibits.
Amsterdam is deservedly famous for its canals and waterside buildings. The city is basically flat and offers some excellent walking tours (start with the Jodenbuurt or Jewish district) and ask your guide to take you to a kosher deli or restaurant. Amsterdam has some world-class luxury boutique hotels and is a great place for a short city break that includes high end kosher travel experiences and a chance to explore a fascinating chapter of Jewish history.
Gil Travel is a specialist Jewish travel company that has decades of experience organizing luxury private tours of Jewish heritage sites in Europe and around the world. Talk to Gil Travel today about creating a tailored itinerary, either for your family, or for a synagogue group, book club, or any other group of friends. Gil Travel can also draw on its extensive network of contacts to arrange private lectures by historians and behind the scenes tours of museums, archives and synagogues.
Author Bio Iris Hami is President of Gil Travel Group, the largest travel management firm sending people to Israel. She has over 40 years of experience in the travel industry and uses that knowledge to craft unique Jewish journeys around the world. Her company has won multiple awards, including one from State of Israel Bonds for Extraordinary Achievements Promoting the State of Israel.
