While I'm admiring the facade of the synagogue, an elderly gentleman approaches and attempts to address me in what I think are Polish, Hebrew, and Yiddish, to no avail. Finally, he walks to the door and gestures that he wants me to follow him inside. He gives me a brief tour of the synagogue's interior – and even though he speaks only a few words of English, I think I get the general idea of much of what he's trying to tell me.

As we're leaving, he stops and points to a collection box. "Please leave a donation," he says – proving that you can indeed learn at least a few words of a foreign language if you're properly motivated!