Say, What Does it Mean?

Children’s laughter interrupted my thoughts while searching for the Jewish cemetery in Smarhon. I had been handed a map of what Smarhon once looked like before WWII according to the Jews from the city. This type of map is called a Yizkor Buch (memorial book) map.  The feeling of looking for a place even though I knew I was in the right location and yet I just found a park felt so eery to me. At the time I felt frustrated, like we were chasing after the “ghosts” of people that once lived here. However, after processing the experience I have embraced my discomfort and realized that even though we only found a few signs of the huge Jewish community that had once made up the majority of the city, we were honoring those who had once lived in this city by visiting it. It made me think about what it means to have physical objects.

This area was once a Jewish cemetery in Smarhon. Today it is a playground.

Later in the day, we went to the Valoyzn Yeshiva, which was in another Belarusian city that had once been the home of a large Jewish community. Although the yeshiva building was well preserved, it still felt like something was missing, similar to Smarhon. I think that this emptiness was partially a result of my naive expectations of what this trip would be like. Although I knew going into the trip that most of the Jews in the towns that we are visiting were killed or had left, I was still expecting to feel more fulfilled by visiting these places.

Inside of the Valozyn Yeshiva

There was one moment while sitting in the Valozyn Yeshiva, that I felt the spirits of the people who had once studied and prayed inside the yeshiva come alive. Small tea candles burned brightly on one of the tables that we found inside the yeshiva as we sang "May-Ko Mashmo Lon" (which means, "Say, What Does it Mean"). Hearing the acoustics of the building was magnificent. When the song came to an end, we remained silent as the words echoed in our minds. The yeshiva was alive again.

I encourage you to listen to the song here https://soundcloud.com/yiddishkayt/maykomashmelon. Close your eyes and let the words take over you.