We Needed To Find A Jew In A Remote Forest In Croatia. Against All Odds We Did.

My mother was diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago. The disease was asymptomatic for years, but once it went into high gear, she had to begin treatment which tied her down to the hospital.

When she made progress in fighting the cancer (she appears to be in remission, thank God!) and her new treatment protocol allowed her to travel, my parents decided that every Pesach would become a special family time to make happy memories around the world. We’ve been privileged to observe Pesach in places like China, Morocco, and Spain since we began this tradition.

As Jew hatred rises, the choices of where to travel is becoming more and more limited. This year we chose Croatia, as we heard that it’s still quite safe. Though in the synagogue in Dubrovnik that we visited, you can see edicts for Jews to wear special markings in both 1540 and 1941. We also learned that the Croatians were so cruel to Jews during the Holocaust that even the Nazis were surprised!

Our family is large enough that we nearly have a minyan on our own. We planned the days’ activities each day to always be back for a mincha minyan (a prayer quorum for the afternoon service). One day last week we wanted to visit the most beautiful national park in Croatia called Plitvice, but we weren’t sure if we’d be home in time for Mincha.

We’d need to leave early and not dawdle, two things we’re not very good at! As we got to the park, certain family members expressed concern with the timing. With full sincerity I declared, “If Hashem wants us to find a Jew, we’ll find him.” The country has almost no Jews, but my family was committed to this mitzvah, and I believed a minyan was possible. Two minutes later, we were crossing a wooden bridge to begin the hike, and came upon a small group that we accidentally bottlenecked due to our large group.

We began to chatting with the individuals, and they asked where we’re from. It’s a scary thing to say “Israel” in today’s climate, but my sister said it anyway. (My entire family, except my husband, two sons and me currently live in Israel. Plans for our Aliyah are in the works!)

Thank God, we got positive reactions, and one man from the group (named David) told my sister that his grandmother lives in Israel. He is an American working in Europe, visiting Croatia for the week. He chose Croatia randomly because it was the cheapest airfare he could find for his spring break. And, by the way – David is a Jew. He came to the hike that day looking for a new adventure and to possibly meet up with new people. We came to the hike that day looking for our tenth Jew.

We had a wonderful time getting to know David, who agreed to be our minyan man and told us he’d fallen away from tradition, but had in mind to start keeping Shabbos one day. We invited him to our kosher for Pesach lunch and he had his first matzah of the holiday as well as a yummy brisket.

Though David was a complete stranger, once we knew he was a fellow member of the tribe, he was instantly family. He told us that his own family wasn’t so large and he always dreamed of having a large family to travel with. So he got to experience that for the day (minus all the drama that goes along with actually traveling with dozens of family members!).

It’s getting scarier and scarier to be openly Jewish in the world these days, but when we see Hashem’s plan so clearly, like we did last week in Plitvice National Park, we felt pride, gratitude, and comfort. The world may be watching us closely, but so is Hashem.

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