Roots Travel: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia 2008

Want to go home again? Various companies are letting researchers know about summer 2008 roots travel tours.

As with all such trips, prospective participants should carefully investigate companies offering tours, hosts and guides, as well as add-on costs for ancestral shtetl or archive visits with experienced people.

A 14-day heritage tour, "In Search of Jewish Roots in Northern Poland, Lithuania and Latvia," is set for May 19-June 1, 2008, leaving from Toronto.

It starts in Warsaw, through northern Poland, and then into Lithuania (Kaunas, Memel, Vilnius, Trokai, Sauliai) and Latvia (Riga), including visits to Jewish historical and cultural sites, and places associated with the Holocaust and WWII, such as Treblinka, the Wolfs Lair, Paneriai Forest, Ninth Fort and the ghettos of Warsaw, Vilnius and Kaunas.

According to the announcement, participants can also arrange visits to ancestral shtetls or archives in Vilnius and Kaunas.

Tour hosts are research librarian Maureen Price and professor emeritus Dr. Irwin Feuerstein, who has led two previous Jewish roots tours; while guides include Jacques Pauwels and Simon Davidovich (Sugihara Museum director in Kaunas).

For details and the itinerary, look under Cultural Tours at the Pauwels Travel website.