Bar Mitzvah

So after we connected with the sort of head of the jewish community here yesterday (his English was almost non-existent), we decided to visit the Remuh Synagogue on Szeroka Street this morning (shabbat) thinking we might catch a short service and say hello to whomever would say hello back. Dianne was directed to the back room to participate through the lace curtain, and we chated with each other just before starting that she'd be alone or maybe with one or two others. Just before the service begins, in marches a huge group. Well we hit paydirt. We had the privilege of participating in the first Bar Mitzvah to be conducted there (maybe in Krakow) since the war, 60 years. A group had come up from Australia with little Yacov for the event, with his grandmother who was a survivor of Auschwitz. They had fortuitously hooked up with an unrelated British group touring here, and asked them to join for a minion. So we sat for 2.5 hours and davenned at an orthodox service, a first for both of us. The entire siddur and service was in hebrew with most of it happening in undertones... A kind man named Henry from the English group kept me onbthe right page and paragraph. We congratulated the young man and family, and got invited to the kiddush, but we have to run off to the Wawel Castle now.
This was a very lucky event!!