JEWISH HERITAGE TOUR: LITHUANIA & POLAND

DAY 1 VILNIUS Arrival. Transfer to the hotel. Accommodation. Welcome dinner. 
DAY 2 VILNIUS Full day to explore Jewish Vilnius: UNESCO Vilnius Old Town, Medieval Jewish quarter, Jewish ghettos, Choral synagogue, learn about the prototype of Doctor Dolittle - Zemach Shabad, one of the most famous French writters – Romain Gary. In Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum get to know about Jewish life, art in Lithuania, Shoah; visit newly established Samuel Bak museum.
DAY 3 VILNIUS – ZIEZMARIAI – KAUNAS – VILNIUS Unique wooden synagogue of Ziezmariai. IX Fort Museum. In Kaunas pass by castle ruins, the Town Hall Square, Cathedral and Perkunas House. Visit former Kaunas Jewish ghetto, Choral Synagogue. Learn about great things Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara has done to save around 6000 jewish people when Holokaust started. Return to Vilnius.
DAY 4 VILNIUS – PANERIAI – TRAKAI – BIALYSTOK Ponar Forest and Memorial. Trakai, famous for the medieval insular castle and heritage of karaites ethnic minority. Bialystok. Evening city tour during. Jewish district- Szulhof. Three surviving synagogue buildings, a few houses including Ludwik Zamenhoff family house, Jewish cemetery , mass grave and the building of former Jewish Hospital. 
DAY 5 BIALYSTOK – TYKOCIN – TREBLINKA – LUBLIN Tykocin became a typical Jewish shtetl by 1800. Today it looks the same as it did before WWII. You can still see Jewish wooden houses, one of the finest Synagogues in Poland built in 1642. Treblinka Extermination camp. Over 800 000 people were murdered here, which makes Treblinka second only to Auschwitz Birkenau in the number of victims. 
DAY 6 LUBLIN – MUJDANEK – ZAMOSC – LUBLIN Tour to discover Jewish Oxford – Lublin: beautiful Old town, former Jewish quarter, oldest Jewish Cemetery in Poland – the Old Kirkut, building of the pre-war Academy of the Lublin Sages (Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin) and the Synagogue of the Chevra Nossim Funeral Society (Chewra Nosim). Majdanek. Once a Nazi-Germany concentration and extermination camp, today a museum and a memorial site. It is one of the best-preserved camps. Zamosc - the pearl of Renaissance. See beautiful synagogue and building of the ritual baths (mikvah). 
DAY 7 LUBLIN – KAZIMIERS DOLNY – WARSAW Morning departure to Warsaw. En route stop at Kazimiers Dolny. According to the legend – the local synagogue was founded by King Casimir the Great as a gift for his beloved Esther. Stones for the construction were to come from the Western Wall in Jerusalem and parochets were sewed by Esther. Drive to Warsaw. Free afternoon. 
DAY 8 WARSAW Sightseeing tour including the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, the Ghetto monument, Umschlagplatz, Mila 18, remains of ghetto wall, Nozyk Synagogue, Jewish Historic Institute and museum, and the old Cemetery. 
DAY 9 WARSAW Private transfer to the airport. Departure.