About Us

Forum Team

Andrzej Folwarczny

President & CEO

Founder and President of Forum for Dialogue. He began at first as a local and then national-level politician during the 1990s political transformation in Poland. He served as a Member of the Polish Parliament, where he chaired the Polish-Israeli Parliamentary Group. After retiring from politics, he devoted himself to Polish/Jewish dialogue.

Zuzanna Radzik

Vice President

Theologian, graduate of the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is a regular contributor to Tygodnik Powszechny, a Catholic weekly, and an author of books on women’s presence in the Church. In 2019, she received the Irena Sendler Memorial Award for her work on Polish/Jewish dialogue and the role of women in Catholicism.

Jakub Petelewicz

Executive Board Member

Historian, co-founder and academic secretary of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences where he also serves as a Managing Editor of Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały and Holocaust Studies and Materials academic journals. One of the authors of the initial project of the Holocaust Gallery at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Olga Kaczmarek

Director General

With a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, she has worked at University of Warsaw’s Institute of Polish Culture. She has published a book on Emmanuel Levinas and postmodern anthropology, as well as articles on the memory of Polish/Jewish relations during the war. She began her involvement with the Forum in 2012 as a School of Dialogue educator, currently she is responsible for all operational and representational activities.

Paulina Bełdyga

Deputy Director, People Operations and Administration

A philologist with professional experience in both the public and private sectors. She worked at the University of Warsaw for several years, where she coordinated the work of the university’s authorities, participated in the design and implementation of organizational solutions, was involved in the development of policies in various areas. In her role as administrative director, she co-created the Faculty of History after its establishment in 2020. With the Forum since 2024, she is responsible for work flow and organization, implementing HR solutions, optimizing processes, as well as formal and legal issues.

Hanna Gospodarczyk

Program Team Manager

An anthropologist and arabist, she has experience in coordinating cultural and historical projects. Participant of research projects on memory of Jewish communities in Malopolska. At the Forum since 2019. She is in charge of the Program Team and develops the program offer for Forum for Dialogue Network activists.

Bartosz Duszyński

Project Coordinator

Graduate of Jewish Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at Jagiellonian University, he studied at the Tel Aviv University, and he holds a Ph.D. in history. He worked at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow. He specializes in Holocaust research and contemporary Israel studies. At the Forum since 2022. He coordinates and develops programs for Forum for Dialogue Network activists. He works with teachers in the Network and runs the Polish Zoom in on the Forum series.

Bartosz W. Gajdzik

Project Coordinator

Graduate of Philosophy with a Ph.D. from the Biblical Studies Institute of the Catholic University of Lublin. Involved in Polish/Jewish dialogue for over a decade. At the Forum since 2023, he coordinates and develops programs for the Forum for Dialogue Network activists, including the Grants and Scholarships program, and admission of new Network activists into the community.

Michalina Jadczak

Project Coordinator

Graduate of Hebrew Studies and Cultural Studies at the University of Warsaw and an alumna of the One-Year Jewish Studies Program at Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Stockholm. She is a teacher of Hebrew and a translator. At the Forum since 2023. She is responsible for international programs, including Study Visits and the English-language Zoom in on the Forum series.

Jagoda Szkarłat

Project Coordinator

Graduate in Cultural Anthropology and Hebrew Studies at the University of Warsaw. She worked with minorities, migrant-support and Polish/Jewish dialogue in various non-profit organizations. She has experience in informal education, project coordination, and group facilitation. A School of Dialogue educator for seven years, she rejoined the team in 2017. She coordinates and develops the programing for the members of the Forum for Dialogue Network.

Marcin Dziurdzik

Promotions Coordinator

Graduate of History at the University of Warsaw and alumnus of the Paradigm program at Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Stockholm. He worked at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Museum of Warsaw. In 2012–2022, he was a member of the board of the S. An-sky Association. Since 2017, he has been overseeing Forum’s digital public relations and marketing.

Iga Kondraciuk

Communications Coordinator

Graduated from Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw. She researched the memory of women’s experience during the war and post-war period in the Podkarpacie region. At the Forum since 2021. She coordinates Polish communications.

Marta Usiekniewicz

International Communications Coordinator

With a Ph.D. in Literature and Gender Studies, she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw’s American Studies Center. She was a Fulbright fellow at SUNY Buffalo, an intern at AJC headquarters in New York, and recently became a Tarbut Fellow. At the Forum since 2007, she coordinates international communications and multimedia production.

Kinga Pańczyszyn-Liśkiewicz

Fundraising and Donor Relations Manager

A sociologist with nearly a decade of experience in non-governmental organizations. She managed a corporate foundation and was a member of the board of the Polish Donors Forum. Experienced in creating and implementing fundraising strategies, as well as coordinating ongoing fundraising activities. She writes about fundraising for Blog Sektor 3.0. At the Forum since 2022, she is in charge of the Fundraising Team and manages fundraising and relations with donors.

Maria Małanicz

Fundraising and Donor Relations Coordinator

Graduated from Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw, she has researched religion in Ukraine. At the Forum since 2017. She is responsible for relations with Polish donor community.

Olga Detlaf

Fundraising and Donor Relations Assistant

Student of Art History, she has interned at the Print Room of the University of Warsaw Library, where she was in charge of the graphics from the Stanisław August Poniatowski’s collection. She has experience in medical industry marketing. At the Forum since 2023, she supports the fundraising processes.

Marek Magdziak

Financial Manager

Financial expert with years of experience in the non-profit sector. He has managed the finances of small and large organizations and business entities. He has extensive experience in preparation and control of operational and financial budgets, implementation and improvement of business processes, financial control and organization of start-ups. He has been with the Forum since 2023. He oversees financial matters and the work of the finance team.

Anna Barańska

Senior Financial Specialist

Involved with non-governmental organizations for over a decade, she has been with the Forum since 2014. She is responsible for reviewing financial and accounting services, as well as for financial administration of projects co-financed with public funding and international grants.

Magdalena Maciąg

Financial and HR Specialist

An HR specialist, with years of experience in large private sector organizations. At the Forum since 2023. She is in charge of HR and financial services in cooperation with an accounting firm, specifically responsible for documentation, as well as employee and procedural matters.

Maja Owcarz

Office and Executive Board Assistant

Graduate of the School of Ideas: Innovation Design at the SWPS University and Urban Studies at the University of Warsaw. Her research focused on architectural education and the relationship between local identity and the post-war architecture of the Bielany neighborhood in Warsaw. At the Forum since 2023, she manages the office and assists the Board.

Co-workers

Monika Halaczek

Personal Data Protection Officer

Graduate of International Relations with experience in coordinating human rights-focused projects and fundraising. She has been with the Forum since 2010.  Between 2019-January, 2024 as a Deputy Director General she was responsible for the structure and running of the organization. She overviewed formal and legal aspects of Forum’s work. Since 2024, she supports the organization as a Personal Data Protection Officer.

Izabela Meyza

Communications Coach and Facilitator

Program Director at the School with Class Foundation, an educator with 15 years of experience, author of educational programs, and mediator. She is a graduate of Cultural Studies. She works with many non-formal education organizations. She supports Forum for Dialogue Network activists develop their soft skills, including effective communication.

Forum for Dialogue Scholarly Advisory Board

The Scholarly Advisory Board is an advisory body to the Forum for Dialogue Executive Board. It offers space for mutual interactions between the academic community and Forum for Dialogue team in terms of the topics, forms, and methods of operation of the Forum. Members of the Board, leading representatives of various academic disciplines, provide support in determining directions of the Forum for Dialogue activities, and ensuring quality of our programs.

Michał Bilewicz

Chair of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Social psychologist and professor at the Department of Psychology of the University of Warsaw, where he chairs the Center for Research on Prejudice. His research focuses on issues of prejudice, group conflicts, antisemitism, and dehumanization. In 2005-2019 he served as the Vice-President of Forum for Dialogue.

Barbara Engelking

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

A psychologist by training, Professor Barbara Engelking is the head of The Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. For over 30 years she has been researching the Holocaust and its consequences. She is the author or co-author of many books and articles on the Holocaust in Poland.

Agnieszka Haska

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

A sociologist and cultural anthropologist, Agnieszka Haska, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics – from the discourse on collaboration during World War II, through stories of attempts to save Jews thanks to passports from other countries, to an anthropological perspective on various forms of memory and post-memory. Author of, among others: I am a Jew, I want to enter. Hotel Polski in Warsaw 1943 (2006, in Polish) and Hańba! Stories about Polish betrayal (2018, in Polish).

Mikołaj Herbst

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Assistant professor at the Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (EUROREG), University of Warsaw, doctor habilitatus in economy. Specializing in regional development, human capital, and education economics. Graduate of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw and the Columbia Cooperative Program in Economics by the University of Warsaw and Columbia University in New York. Engaged in several research projects on the determinants of regional growth, the measurement of educational quality, and the financing of education systems. Advisor to the public administration on issues of management of education systems in Poland and abroad, consultant in projects organized by the OECD, the International Labor Organization, and the World Bank.

Kamil Kijek

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Historian and sociologist, Kamil Kijek, PhD, works at the Department of Jewish Studies, University of Wroclaw. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, University of Haifa, and at University College London. Fellow at the Center for Jewish History in New York, the New York University, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. His research interests are Jewish history in Eastern-Central Europe in the second half of 19th and 20th centuries, relations between social theory, political, social and cultural history, as well as the history of Zionism and the Jewish community of Eretz Israel/Palestine in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2001-2007, he worked as an educator on behalf of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee at Jewish youth camps in Poland and Hungary. In 2007-2012, he was involved in planning the permanent exhibition of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Author of, among others, Children of Modernism. Political consciousness and socialization of the Jewish youth in interwar Poland (2017, in Polish).

Justyna Kowalska-Leder

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Assistant professor and a doctor habilitatus in cultural studies at the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw, where she is the head of the Holocaust Remembrance Research Team. Author of Their Childhood and the Holocaust: A Child’s Perspective in Polish Documentary and Autobiographical Literature (2015), “I don’t know how to value them …” A Sphere of Ambivalence in the Testimonies of Poles and Jews (2019, in Polish), as well as editor of Renia Knoll’s Diary (2012, in Polish); co-editor and co-author of Traces of the Holocaust in the Imagery of Polish Culture (2017, in Polish).

Stanisław Krajewski

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, Stanisław Krajewski obtained a PhD in mathematics, habilitation in philosophy, and the title of professor in humanities. An active participant of the Jewish life revival in Poland even before 1989, later involved in the Jewish community life. Co-founder of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, which he has been co-chairing for almost 30 years. He co-created the Postwar Years gallery at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Author of books and articles on logic, philosophy of mathematics, Judaism, history and experiences of Jews, interreligious dialogue. His books include: Jews, Judaism, Poland (1997, in Polish), 54 Commentaries on the Torah for Even the Least Religious Among Us (2004, in Polish), Poland and the Jews. Reflections of a Polish Polish Jew (2005), The Mystery of Israel and the Mystery of the Church (2007, in Polish), Our Jewishness (2010, in Polish), What I owe to Interreligious Dialogue and Christianity (2017), Jews in Poland – and in Tatra Mountains (2019, in Polish), as well as Goedel’s Theorem and Its Philosophical Interpretations: from Mechanism to Post-Modernism (2003, in Polish) and Does Mathematics Belong in the Humanities? (2011, in Polish).

Łukasz Krzyżanowski

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łukasz Krzyżanowski received a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Warsaw. From 2016 to 2018, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin. He was also an Assistant Professor at the Institute of History, University of Warsaw. His monograph, Dom, którego nie było: Powroty ocalałych do powojennego miasta had two editions in Polish: in 2016 and 2018. Its English-language adaptation, Ghost Citizens: Jewish Return to a Postwar City was published in June 2020 by Harvard University Press. He has held scholarships from the University of Oxford, Yad Vashem, the Claims Conference (Kagan Fellowship), and the National Science Center. His research interest focuses on the experience of Jewish Holocaust survivors in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the social history of Poland during the German occupation, and the Holocaust.

Roma Sendyka

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Roma Sendyka is a professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She works at the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Polish Studies. She is a co-founder and director of The Research Center for Memory Cultures, and a member of the Curatorial Collective. She specializes in cultural and literature theory, visual culture studies, and memory studies. She is an author of The Modern Essay: Studies in Historical Awareness of a Genre (2006, in Polish), From “I” Culture to the Culture of the “Self” (2015, in Polish), and co-editor of four volumes on memory studies. She is the leader of a research project Uncommemorated Genocide Sites and their Impact on Collective Memory, Cultural Identity, Ethical Attitudes, and Intercultural Relations in Contemporary Poland (2016–19), as well as the Awkward Objects of Genocide, a project funded through Transmitting Contentious Cultural Heritages with the Arts: From Intervention to Co-Production (2016–2019) grant. Co-curator of the exhibition Terribly Close. Polish Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust (2018-2019). Her current work focuses on so-called “non-sites of memory” and visual approaches to genocide representation.

Dariusz Stola

Member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

Professor Dariusz Stola is a historian with a title of doctor habilitatus, working at the Institute for Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. He has published ten books and more than 150 articles on the history of Polish-Jewish relations, the communist regime in Poland, and international migrations in the 20th century, including: Hope and the Holocaust (1995, in Polish); The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland , 1967-1968 (2000, in Polish); A Country with No Exit? Migrations from Poland, 1949-1989 (2010, in Polish); Patterns of Migration in Central Europe (2001, with C. Wallace). His books have received several awards, while he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his contribution to research on Poland’s history and the Medal of the University of Warsaw for his contribution to migration studies. He serves at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Committee on History and Committee on Migration Research, as well as at advisory boards of several Polish and international institutions and journals. Besides the research, he has worked as the director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (2014-2019) and vice-president of Collegium Civitas (2002-2011).

Foundation Council

Andrzej Mochnacki – Chairman of the Council

Roman Kraczla

Michał Pastuszka

Henryk Wujec – In Memoriam

Executive Board

Andrzej Folwarczny – President

Zuzanna Radzik – Vice President

Jakub Petelewicz – Board Member