February with the AWC...

I went a little crazy at this year’s charity handbag auction buying myself three bags in the live auction and several more in the bargain sale.

We bundled up for an afternoon in Amsterdam to visit the old Jewish District. We started with a tour of the Portuguese Synagogue. Built in 1675, this amazing building somehow made it through World War II unscathed.

The orthodox congregation is now quite small, so they often use this lovely winter synagogue throughout the year.

Our group was really lucky because our guide brought us into the library, which is the oldest functioning Jewish library in the world.

We walked by the Auschwitz Memorial on our way to the Jewish Historical Museum. It wasn’t until after our tour of the permanent exhibit and we were eating a special Jewish lunch that we found out that our tour guide was actually in her early 80s and had survived WWII by hiding in the Dutch countryside.