Thomas Coco (left), a native of Easton and a student at George Washington University, and Nathan Benjamin (right) of Woodbridge, a senior at Brandeis University, pictured here at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, spent an intense winter break touring Poland with MEOR, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring, educating and empowering Jewish students at top universities across the country. The trip – the students’ first Jewish heritage experience of any kind – explored the vibrancy of Jewish communities in Poland pre-World War II, the magnitude of the loss during the Holocaust, and the rebirth of Jewish life in the years that followed. Having gained prospective and clarity, all 140 previously uninitiated students on the trip are now “inspired, motivated and excited to live a meaningful Jewish life” as well as determined to use their “inner Jewish light to illuminate a dark world.”