Italy - Day 2 - Shul Hopping in Piedmont - Part 2

We got back on the road and drove 35 Kms. south to Saluzzo. From the window of the car, we could see why this area is called Piedmont - at the foot of the mountains - as thenAlps loomed high everywhere we looked.

 

And as it was lunch time, we sat at an outdoor cafe, where they were happy to let us eat our lunches as long as we purchased coffees. 

Across the road there was a small laneway called Via Deportati Ebrei, the street of the Jewish deportees in memory of the 29 Jews from Saluzzo murdered in the Holocaust.

 

The earliest record of Jews in Saluzzo was in the mid 1400s, and by the end of the 1500's there was a cemetery and 13 families with a total population of 68. At its height, the population numbered no more than 200-300 Jews, who were employed mainly as moneylenders, jewellers and traders of fine fabrics. 

 

Again from the street, there was no indication of a shul. It is in the building on the right of the above picture. We entered a small courtyard through an archway and then climbed three floors to enter the shul. The building is from the 1700s and the Aron is from that era. The synagogue was rebuilt in 1832 and was recently restored. 

 

There is a centre raised bimah whose floor level extends to the Aron. It is gold plated sculpted wood with mirror inserts. 

Recently when the restoration was in process, they discovered that the vaulted ceilings were covered in frescos (think Michaelangelo) that depict scenes of Jewish content including a detailed illustration of the order of the encampment of the Israelites in the desert. 

 

 

We were beginning to detect a pattern here. Synagogues hidden away but possessing great artistic value. Synagogues that almost all gave great thanks and kavod to King Carlos Alberto who granted the Jews total freedom to worship and live outside ghetto walls at the time of Emancipation in the mid 1800's. 

 Small communities who dedicated themselves to ensuring that there was a Jewish life and a place in which to gather worship and socialize. Communities that over time dwindled and disappeared. 

We were off to our fourth synagogue of the day in the town of Cuneo, 33 Kms south of Saluzzo.

When we arrived in the old section of the city, we met a Jewish lady who lives in Cuneo and who has been very involved in the restoration of the space in memory of her husband a"h. 

The community began in the early 1400s when a few Jews from Provence were allowed to reside in the city, and by the end of the 1500s descendants of the "Pope's Jews" arrived from Avignon. They were given that name because when the pope was exiled from Rome, he brought his Jewish financiers and bankers with him to Avignon. So well were the Jews of Cuneo accepted that the local market day was changed from Saturday to Friday. 

 

The synagogue unlike the two previous communities was on a Main Street and was clearly visible as a synagogue with the possuk "v'asu li mikdash veshachanti betocham" embossed along the top of the facade of the structure. 

 

We entered a tall rectangular sanctuary, with much gold leaf bordering the panels that lined the walls. In the front of the shul was a very ornate Aron with wood carvings and depictions of the vessels used in the Beit Hamikdash. Once again, we marvelled at the beauty of a shul in such a small Kehilla. 

 

 

 

Some unique things that we saw in this shul was a yartzeit plaque which was different from any we had seen till now as it was hand written on paper. 

 

There was also a list of "Takanot" or rules regarding who can serve as the shaliach tzibbur for the High Holy Days and for Selichot. 

 

And then in the corner of the room was a raised pulpit where the Rav would speak and below it a stone plaque which read "al ha-nes she-naaseh po" (for the miracle that happened here) in memory of the miracle of Purim Della Bomba. 

 

This occasion was celebrated in Cuneo for about 140 years commemorating a miracle which occurred during the Napoleonic war in 1800 on the 4th of Kislev, when a bomb fell on the synagogue where Jews congregated for the evening prayers, but miraculously, no one was hurt. On the anniversary of the day of salvation, which was called Purim Sheni, the community gathered and remembered by reciting Hallel and piyyutim, removing Sifrei Torah from the ark and doing hakafot (circling the bimah), etc. The special celebration of this event was ended when the Holocaust began. 

We then went downstairs to an area that has been totally renovated in recent years to be used as a meeting place and library. It is quite amazing that people are still putting effort into building and renovating Jewish areas of interest when the community has few Jews left. One of the items that we saw in the library was a Pirkei Avot published between 1712 and 1718 in Mantova, Italy. 

 

Our final stop of the day was the beautiful synagogue in Cherasco, 48 Kms away.

The community dates back to the mid 1500s and at its height consisted of 100 Jews. The Synagogue here is on the top floor of a plain residential building and again without a guide, you would never know that there was a shul here. 

 

The shul dates back to the late 1700s and the bimah, with its twisted columns and huppah like roof in the centre of the room facing the ornately carved Aron, resembles a number of the shuls seen earlier in the day. 

 

Once again, plaques adorned the walls of the room with names of donors hidden in Pesukim and phrases. 

 

A beautifully artistic Brich Shemai was painted on the wall. 

 

Behind the parochet were beautifully painted and carved wooden doors of the Aron.

 

And so ended a full day of shul hopping. 

We walked away with mixed feelings. 

On the one hand, these were people who truly cared about their religion and invested heavily, way beyond the ability of their numbers, in creating a mikdash me'at for their tiny communities. We tried to think of anyplace that we had visited where we had seen such beautiful synagogues and so many in one region and we came up blank. It was truly inspiring. 

On the other hand, it was depressing to see a precious heritage and legacy that had almost totally disappeared and was now relegated to museum like displays. Jewish life had seemed to come to an end in all places in Piedmont other than Torino. It was sad. 

We are so happy that we took the time to do this tour. You get one chance to do it and as they say, one must seize the opportunity. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we do some more shul hopping, but this time without Baruch Lampronti. We visit three shuls in the northern area of Piedmont, in Casale Monferrato, in Vercelli and in Biella. And yes, there are more surprises and more mixed feelings.

All the best

Fran and David

Italy - Day 2 - Shul Hopping In Piedmont -Part 1

On Tuesday morning we were downstairs in the lobby at 8:15 AM to meet Baruch Lampronti. Baruch is about 30 years old, is trained as an architect, and works for the Jewish community of Turin in cataloging and archiving materials of interest to the Jewish community of the region. 

He is an expert on the shuls in the area and was a great guide. Although there is a shul in Alessandria (close to where we were staying), that shul was still under restoration and as such we could not visit it. The restoration is scheduled to be completed in the next few months. Perhaps for our next visit.

So we drove 38 Kms. to the city of Asti and walked thru the old town until we reached Via Ottolenghi, named for Count Leonetti Ottolenghi who donated the money for the Synagogue's last renovation in 1889. 

 

The street is in the old area of town and is a very recognizable structure on this narrow and small one block street which formed part of the small Jewish ghetto of 136 Jews from 38 families. It is surrounded by a steel picket fence and the entry gate had heavy padlocks. The phrase "karov Hashem l'chol korav" (Hashem is close to all who approach Him) was embossed above the entry. 

The first Jews came to Asti in the 9th century with the majority of the immigration coming in the 1300s from France and Germany. What was quite startling (and this would repeat itself throughout our visits to the other synagogues) was that Asti never had a Jewish population of more than 400 - 450 people and yet this small number of people invested in the creation and maintaining of a very beautiful place of worship. 

There are no regular daily hours for visits and everything must be pre-arranged. I wondered how many visitors must have walked thru Asti, had seen the shul and then had no way to get inside. As the day went on, the same story was repeated over and over again. These are historical gems and yet gaining entry takes work and preparation. Of all the 8 shuls we visited on Tuesday and Wednesday, there was only one in Casale Monferrato that seemed to have regular hours and to be open for visitors who just showed up. 

We met a local woman who is entrusted with allowing pre-arranged visitors in for tours and there was a school visit scheduled that morning.  When we entered the building, there was a small lobby which contained signs from yesteryear indicating the times for weekday prayers and for Shabbat services. Baruch then unlocked the door to the sanctuary and invited us inside the main sanctuary.

 

The first development of the synagogue of Asti on a much smaller scale dates back to 1601 and it was extended to its current footprint between 1838 and 1840. It originally had a central bimah situated in the centre of the four tall marble columns, with seating perpendicular to the Aron which was the style in Italian synagogues of that era. 

 

The Ottolenghi financed remodelling in 1889 changed the form to be more church like with the bimah moved to the front and the seating all facing the Aron. 

 

 

 

Asti together with the nearby communities of Moncalvo and Fossano all shared a similar nussach, called AFAM from the rashei teivot (first letters) of the three communities, which was a combination of French, Provençal and Ashkenazi rituals. They spoke a unique language which was a Hebrew Piedmont dialect. And until today, the tunes used in the various Italian synagogues differ from each other and certainly from the traditional Ashkenazi tunes; the liturgy has its own text called Italki and is unlike Sefardi or Ashkenazi Nussach. 

 

Baruch showed us a major difference in the opening tefillah of Maariv for Friday night prayers. 

We drove to our next community, Carmagnola, 61 Kms from Asti. Unlike Asti, this synagogue was totally unrecognizeable as we walked down the narrow street. 

 

Baruch pointed it out to us as the top floor of a normal three storey residential building. We entered the shul of Carmagnola on the main floor, which contains a museum of all the shuls in Piedmont with building plans, scale models, articles about the shuls and Jewish artifacts from the area. One of the unique items was a small pair of tefillin which appeared to defy the requirement of square lines in the tefillin construction. 

 

Jews first came to Carmagnola in the mid 1400s. The Jewish community reached its peak population in the 1800s with a grand total of 171 members. There was a small Jewish ghetto consisting of two blocks with 10 families. Today there are no Jews but a beautiful classic Italian synagogue. 

We climbed the stairs to the top floor and entered the shul. We were not prepared for the amazing artistry of this shul.

 

 

In the centre of the room is the bimah or tevah, an octagon structure constructed of inlaid and painted wood with twisted columns holding an ornate wooden cupola above it. The Aron has a similar style with gold leafed ornate carvings and twisted columns surrounding the panelled wooden doors of the Aron. 

 

We opened the doors to the Aron and the inside doors were beautiful gold leafed wood carvings depicting the various vessels of the mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash. 

 

Surrounding the room are plaques with intricate carved wooden framing that contain biblical phrases that have hidden in them the names of various donors to the synagogue. 

 

It was a beautiful shul in its time and still is today; unfortunately there is no one in Carmagnola to appreciate its value and beauty.

We will continue our day in our next post, Italy - Day 2 - Shul Hopping in Piedmont Part 2

Italy Day One

On Sunday evening we flew from Toronto to Zurich on Air Canada and after an early Monday morning arrival, we rented our car and began our trip south through the Alps toward Milan and our ultimate destination, the Piedmont Area of Italy. 

Our drive supposedly took us through one of the prettiest drives ever, because the towering Alps are supposedly everywhere your eye can see. Despite our many travels and numerous times in Europe where we should have seen the Alps by now, every time we have come here it has either been pouring rain, overcast, foggy, or low clouds. We have seen the Austrian Alps and parts of the Italian Alps, but have never seen the Swiss Alps. And today, we kept that record alive. From the moment we began our drive in Zurich until we entered Italy just south of Lugano, it was pouring rain and while you could catch glimpses of some high mountains, we can honestly say that we still have never seen the Swiss Alps. 

We headed south thru the Gottard Tunnel, a 17 km. long tunnel that is an amazing engineering feat, straight as an arrow and very boring, which brings you to the south end of the Alps and Lugano. As soon as we entered Italy, the rains stopped, the sky cleared and the sun emerged. Oh well, we hope that on the way back in two weeks from now, we will finally realize the elusive dream of seeing Hashem's amazing Alps. 

We followed the directions to the western side of Milan, to a residential area dotted with numerous kosher stores and restaurants. Almost all of Milan's kosher options are located in a concentrated area and we headed to Carmel dairy restaurant for a late lunch. 

 We had a light lunch consisting of a hearty vegetable soup, a salad with fried mozzarella, cheese cake and cappuccino and we shared everything. The ladies who ran the restaurant were very helpful in explaining to us the location of all the other kosher places in the area, as well as the hours of operation. It seems that most of the restaurants close between 2:30 and 7 PM, so luckily we arrived at 2 PM and ate. 

We went up the road to Kosher Paradise and then to Eretz, where we stocked up on kosher supplies for the next two days of travel. 

Of the two, Eretz definitely had a wider variety of options and literally anything needed by a kosher traveler could be found here. 

We now headed to the small town of Alessandria, about a 45 minute drive from Milan, and the area of Piedmont which would be our base for the next two days and our hotel just outside of Alessandria, the Hotel Diamente. 

When we began planning this trip, we were going to limit our journey to the Lake District and Venice, inspired by our friends Josh and Liz Gordon, who were there last year and raved about the absolute beauty of the region. 

Then as I began researching the region, I came across the existence of a group of synagogues in the area of Torino (Turin), which is in the Piedmont area of Italy.

 

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy, and its largest city and capital is Turin. Piedmont is latin for “in the foot of the mountains”, with the Alps just to the north of the region. It is surrounded on three sides by the Alps and it borders Switzerland to the north and France to the west. 

Early Jewish settlement in the region dates back hundreds of years and in the 1500's there was a large influx of Jews to the area from France. And while there was no real concentration in one large city, there emerged dozens of small communities consisting of 100 to 900 Jews dotting the region. 

In many of these communities they established the basics of a community; a shul, an old age home, Talmud Torah etc. The laws at that time restricted Jews from many professions and from owning property and therefore many became money lenders, a position that Jews were good at and an avocation forbidden to Catholics. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Over time, Jews became successful but because they were restricted in owning possessions, they kept a very low profile and therefore their synagogues were hidden in residential like settings and usually on the top floor of a building because of the Halacha that one should not live atop a shul. 

Eventually many of these small communities disappeared or dwindled as a result of relocation, assimilation and the Shoah and what remained was a small number of beautiful abandoned synagogues. A number of organizations, including the Jewish community of Turin, began acquiring and restoring these gems and now with the right connections and arrangements, you can visit and marvel at the beauty of these shuls. 

 

After mapping out a driving route for a two day tour of the shuls, I contacted most of those shuls to no avail. The registry of email addresses is either out of date or there are poor communication skills in those shuls. We finally contacted the Jewish Community of Turin, who, unbeknown yet to us, was the central address of about 12 of the group of 16 shuls in 13 different communities. At the same time we contacted an amazing couple, David and Rebecca Leibowitz, who have a touring company and offer Jewish themed tours in the area. 

We received great responses from both and when the Leibowitzes realized that we only wanted the synagogues, they graciously suggested that we proceed with the official offices of the Turin community. 

That was what brought us Monday night to Piedmont and we caught a good night's sleep and prepared for Tuesday's full day tour of five shuls in the region with Baruch Lampronti of the Turin community. I will tell you, since I am writing this on Thursday, that Tuesday and Wednesday's shul hopping left us awestruck by the dedication and devotion of these small clusters of Jews in decorating and maintaining their shuls, but also saddened by the knowledge that these holy places are now nothing more than museums with few Jewish visitors. 

What was most upsetting (and you will read about this in an upcoming fascinating post of our visit Wednesday to Biella) is that the world's oldest kosher Torah scroll written around the time of the Rambam in the early 1200's now sits in a bank vault in Vercelli Italy, never seeing the light of day and never being used for its intended purpose.

More to come of our great day with Baruch Lampronti on Tuesday.

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Friday and Shabbat at Chabad Tokyo

We arrived late on Thursday night from Nagoya after a pleasant one and a half hour train trip.

We checked into our new AirBnB apartment right around the corner from Chabad. It was a large, fairly well equipped apartment, and the location for Shabbat could not be beat.

Since our return, many people have asked us about Airbnb and its network of apartments. Their main concerns were ones of security and consistency. We could say as a matter of simplification that Airbnb is the Uber of vacation apartment rentals. 

Here is how it works: 

People who have an extra apartment or even a person who has an extra room in their home, may decide to rent that space to people visiting. They would go to the Airbnb site and list their space with pictures and details as to location, amenities, cost, available dates etc. 

What makes the system work is that both the landlord and the renter have to register on AirBnb and both sides have to write reviews of their experience. In other words, you rate the apartment as to whether the experience fulfilled your expectations based on how the apartment was represented by the landlord. 

At the same time, the landlord rates you as a tenant; were you easy to deal with? did you leave the space clean? did you answer emails promptly etc.

That way, the next time you decide to rent, a prospective landlord can read the reviews on you and you can read reviews on the apartment that have been posted by many previous renters. 

We used AirBnb during our recent trips to South America and to Japan. And overall, it has worked well. We have been very pleased with the value that we have received. And because we are always looking for the kitchen which allows us to deal with kashrut issues while travelling, AirBnb has become a very valuable resource for us.

Anyway, back to Japan.

Friday morning, we headed over to the Ebisu area of the city as Fran had ordered new glasses when we were in Tokyo two weeks earlier.

We ordered them from a Korean chain, Zoff. Fran has multifocals and that is the only reason it took so long. They need 10 days for multifocal; but all other lenses are ready in 30 minutes. She was very pleased with the work, and so before leaving Japan, she ordered another pair (which will be mailed to us) and I ordered one (which I picked up 30 minutes later). Amazing! Fran with her new glasses.

We had left much of our souvenir and gift shopping for our return to Tokyo. And originally we were going to spend a couple of days of rest and relaxation in Hakone, a pretty resort area not far from Tokyo. But when we looked at the weather report which screamed cold and wet, we figured that it would be a waste of time and money to go to Hakone. So we simply extended our stay in Tokyo and spent our time visiting the shopping areas of Shibuya, Shinjuku, Aeon Makuhari Mall and Kappenbashi. We also took the opportunity to eat out again at Chana's Place at Chabad. 

This was our second Shabbat in Tokyo and when we walked into shul this time, we were greeted like old friends. Everyone wanted to hear about our trips to various parts of the country. There were a few new visitors as well and we spent a very pleasant Shabbat at Chabad. We also finally met the Rebbetzin Chana who had been away the first Shabbat we spent in Tokyo. 

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we relaxed, waking up late and then choosing one new area of the city to discover each day. We also revisited Kappenbashi, the kitchen and cooking centre of Tokyo where Fran bought a new Japanese made chef knife...We have since used it and it really is great quality.

We continue to be amazed by the toilets which are the most high tech and the cleanest we have seen anywhere. And this includes washrooms in public subway stations, department stores and places where you would normally visit only if you had no other choice. Here is a urinal and sink at a level that little children 
can deal with:

And how about a high chair in a public bathroom so you have a place to put your baby while you attend to "your business". 

We continue to be amazed by the train and subway system in Japan. It really works!

Here is a sign in a train station indicating the times of the upcoming trains. What makes this so interesting is that these trains were all high speed trains and they were all on the same track. So five minute intervals for the train to zoom into the station, people disembark and board and the train has to get out on time as the next train is zooming in right behind!

So this brings us to the end of our trip.

Our impressions have been written extensively in another post, but if we had to sum up our trip, we would say that while Japan is not the most beautiful place we have visited, it is certainly among the most interesting. The culture is so different from any other place we have been to. It is a very safe place to visit. The people are very service minded and are very proud of their country and very pleased that you have made the decision to visit. 

Among the disappointments we had was less than favourable weather (tho'  we do not let that stop us), and that we were not able to attend a Sumo wrestling match, as it was off season....

If anyone wants information for an upcoming visit, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We may post one more with a link to our favourite pictures from a very memorable visit to Japan. 

All the best

Fran and David

Japan - Thursday in Yaotsu and Nagoya - A memorable day

Today (Thursday) we got a very early start from Osaka. We were out of the apartment at 7:30 AM and took a taxi to the Shin Osaka station at the north end of the city, for an hour long train ride to Nagoya. Our goal was to visit the special museum and memorial to Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Kovno, Lithuania, who was responsible for saving 6000 Jews and the Mir Yeshiva in WWII and then, later in the afternoon, go to the Hilton Nagoya, where a special kosher sushi meal was being prepared for us at the exclusive Gonji restaurant, one of the finest restaurants in Nagoya.

The Sugihara Memorial is in the village of Yaotsu (population 12,000) which is about a 45 minute train ride north of Nagoya, plus a connection to a 30 minute bus and then a taxi from the centre of Yaotsu to the Sugihara Museum. 

In short, Yaotsu is not an easy place to reach; however, we felt that as a show of Hakarat Hatov (gratitude) to all that this man had done, it was something that we could not ignore simply because of the difficulty of getting there. 

Because Yaotsu is a bit off the beaten track, the trains and buses heading in its direction do not run with the same frequency as those on the major north south routes of the country, that contains Japan's major concentration of population. And while we could prebook and pre determine the schedule of the trains, there was not much to go on in terms of the bus schedule for the final leg of the journey from the train station to the centre of Yaotsu. 

So we left Osaka early and arrived in Nagoya at about 9:30 AM. We checked our luggage into a locker at the train station and then boarded our train west to Mino Ota station at about 10:30 and arrived there at 11:15. So far so good as far as timing was concerned. 

Here is where it got a bit tricky....from Mino Ota, we were told to take a bus. But when we arrived in Mino Ota, we saw that the next bus would leave for Yaotsu at 12:30 (a wait of over an hour), and based on that schedule we would be hard pressed to return to Nagoya by 4 PM. 

The reason for getting back to Nagoya by 4 PM was that we had to go to the Hilton and turn on the rice cooker, to ensure that there would be no bishul akum issues in the preparation of our meal; more on that later.

So we hailed a taxi and headed up to the suburbs of Yaotsu in the hills above the town to visit the memorial to Sugihara's memory. This was not a cheap cab ride, about $60 one way, but then again, as I said before, it is a small price to pay in showing respect to Sugihara who risked everything to save 6000 Jews, a number that has now mushroomed to an estimated more than 100000 persons. It really is a confirmation of the rabbinic dictum "whoever saves one soul, is as though he has saved an entire world".

For those unfamiliar with the story, it is worth watching this short 12 minute video as an introduction. There are many more longer videos on Youtube which discuss this amazing person's self sacrifice for others. If you have trouble opening the link below, here is where you can find it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_xNVtRsjo

We had emailed the centre in preparation for our visit and had a number email exchanges with Ken Takashima, an official with the Yaotsu City Council. We told him that we knew a number of individuals whose fathers were saved by the Sugihara visas; among those, Josh Gordon, Abe Kaplan and Rabbi Eliezer Langer. Ken was very interested in getting information from them as he was working on securing UNESCO status for the town, which in essence would put the town on the map, and bring more tourists. Ken told us that getting actual copies of the visas would assist him in his efforts with UNESCO. 

We really did not know what to expect when we would arrive. I sort of had a vision of a small house where Sugihara was born and a few artifacts. In fact, when our cab pulled up in front of the Museum, we saw a modern large structure and quite a few visitors. 

Ken was waiting for us at the curb with another individual who we would learn was the director general of the Museum.

The two bus loads of visitors were all Japanese and we would learn that Sugihara has become some sort of hero to the Japanese, especially with the release of a recent dramatized documentary movie called "Persona Non Grata". We tried to secure a copy but since it is still in Japanese theatres, they are not selling it commercially. And when it is sold it will have English subtitles. 

The museum is set up as a self guided display of many panels which explain the lead up to the seizing of power by the Nazis and the development of the Holocaust. 

It then moves to panels which highlight the heroic decision by Sugihara to defy his government and write visas for 6000 Jews which allowed them passage to Kobe Japan and eventually to Shanghai, from where most emigrated to North America and Israel. There are also panels that feature other notable heroic acts by other government officials around the world who were instrumental in saving Jews in WWII.

One of the pages from the list of those saved by Sugihara. The second name on the list is Moshe Kaplan, my Junior High Gemara teacher in Eitz Chaim. 

At the end of the historical panels, you enter a recreation of Sugihara's office where you can watch a number of short films highlighting his activity as consul. 

The beginning of our tour was personally guided by Ken, the city official. I then recalled that the rabbi in Kobe had told me that there was an Israeli woman on staff at the museum and we asked if we could meet her. 

She came out and was clearly pleased to see Jewish visitors. She said that while many Israeli visitors to Japan do come to Yaotsu as part of organized tours, very few Jewish visitors from other parts of the world make the effort to come up to Yaotsu. She, her husband and five children have been in the Yaotsu area for many years but are now considering moving to another country where there is a sense of a Jewish community. 

She then spent the rest of the tour with us and we learned that she was responsible for the design of the current centre which was totally remodelled just two years earlier. Previously there had not been an emphasis on the Holocaust, but her input had put the Shoah front and centre to the entire story.

Here is a view of the small town of Yaotsu from the second floor window of the Museum

Our assessment is that it is worth the trip to Yaotsu. Besides the element of showing gratitude to the man, the museum is worth visiting despite the difficulty in getting there. 

We were very pleased when Ken told us that he would drive us back to the train station, and on the way, he drove us through the centre of town where he showed us Sugihara's home. 

What was remarkable however, was that on every lamppost there was a banner with Sugihara's name and picture. Ken explained that the town was totally behind the UNESCO application and therefore the entire town was plastered with pictures and banners in a show of support. 

We returned to the Nagoya station with enough time to walk the 20. Minutes to the Hilton.

When we arrived at the Hilton, in typical Japanese fashion, they were ready for us. As soon as we approached the counter, the concierge said, are you Mr and Mrs. Woolf? She then made a call and asked us to take a seat. Four people appeared a few moments later, the Executive Chef of the Hotel, the Food and Beverage Manager, our personal sushi chef (with the white cap) and the Maitre D (in the kimono) of the exclusive Genji Sushi restaurant in the hotel.

So how did this all come about? When we were in Israel in January, we met with Tiorah Simantov who together with her husband Rabbi Dr. Hertsel Simantov had spent 13 years living in Tokyo. We contacted her to get as much information as we could in preparation for our trip. 

Tiorah was very helpful. Her husband, besides teaching and practicing Japanese medicine in Tokyo (to where he commutes part of every month from Israel), is a mohel and is one of the leading mashgichim in the area representing the OK, the OU and other agencies. In his travels throughout Japan where he supervises over 100 plants, he developed a friendship with the Nagoya Hilton kitchen staff and arranged for them to secure a special knife, cutting board, rice cooker etc. which are only used for kosher. He also explained to them the intricacies of kosher laws pertaining to kosher fish. 

So when we arrived and were greeted by four hotel officials, we were ushered up to the Genji restaurant and met the head sushi chef who unwrapped the special knife and cutting board and watched as we turned on the rice cooker, which would be used to prepare the rice for our sushi dinner.

We returned an hour later and were ushered into a private area of the restaurant by our Maitre D. She had spent some time in Australia and spoke english well. We were in a private section of the restaurant, just us and our personal sushi chef. 

In front of him was a refrigerated case containing various fresh veggies to be used in the preparation of our sushi. Cucumber, carrots, avocado, ginger, daikon, lily flower root among others. There was another refrigerated case with fresh tuna and salmon. As well, there was a brand new bottle of soy sauce, pickled ginger and fresh wasabi root. 

And the performance began. Our chef who had apprenticed for ten years before being able to do it on his own, began making various types and forms of sushi for us. And while it looked very much like the sushi that we get at home, the taste was remarkably different. The nori was much softer and fresher tasting. Each roll was made after we completed eating the previous one and the rolls took various forms and shapes.

What we did not realize was that the would be no end to his preparation until we said so. And when we began to feel stuffed, we asked the Maitre D how much longer this would continue; whereupon she explained that he had all night and all we needed to do was say "enough". 

So feeling very satiated and pleased, we walked back to the train station, collected our luggage and hopped a high speed train for Tokyo and our final Shabbat and days in Japan. 

Our final posting on Japan is still to come...soon we hope.

All the best

Fran and David

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