A Visit of Study Trip Participants

October 2018

In the fall of 2018, a group of participants of Forum’s Study Trip to Poland met with the students of C.K. Norwid Catholic High School in Garwolin – alumni of the School of Dialogue 2018. Even though access to sources on the Jewish community in Garwolin is difficult, high school students from Garwolin prepared a unique meeting.

After the icebreaker activities conducted by the Forum educator, the participants and students shared conversations and jokes over coffee and snacks before heading on a walking tour. Students prepared posters in English put in the classroom; printed brochures in English for each tour participant with a translation prepared in a professional way. During the walking tour, the students presented the Jewish past of their town centered on individual stories of Garwolin Jews.

When the group reached a forest covering the area of destroyed Jewish cemetery, one of the participants from Israel explained to the students how to read the inscriptions on the remaining matzevot, and the local activist Renata Masna talked about the activities for the commemoration of the cemetery, emphasizing the support of the students in this matter. This joint assistance does not have to end on the day of the meeting – the guests gave their email addresses to the students in case they ever needed help with Hebrew.

A Shabbat in Dębica

October 2018

In the fall of 2018, a goup of participants of Forum’s Study Trip to Poland celebrated Shabbat together with Leaders of Dialogue in Dębica, in the Podkarpackie region. On Friday evening, October 12, the participants and guests sat at one table in the historic Wiluszówka Villa to get to know each other and build bonds.

The meeting began with a tour of Jewish Dębica guided by the host, Ireneusz Socha, a local Leader of Dialogue. The tour included, among others, the Market Square in Old Dębica, streets of the pre-war Jewish life, the former ghetto area – now a park, a Jewish bakery building (where the participants bought challah) and the Nowomiejska Synagogue, where Ireneusz Socha, the keeper of the building, sang a funeral prayer. The mass execution site in the Wolica forest was the last stop of the tour, where the participants said kaddish.

Before the supper, Maya Liquornik, a participant to the study trip from Israel, read Parashah about the true righteous and their light, referring to the present Leaders of Dialogue – Ireneusz Socha, Jolanta Świerczek-Stelmach from Dąbrowa Tarnowska with her husband Jerzy Stelmach, and Tadeusz Królczyk from Ochotnica Górna

The guests where very impressed by the diversity of work for the preservation of local memory that the Leaders presented over the supper. The Leaders talked about their work for the preservation of local memory over supper table. Tadeusz Królczyk from Ochotnica also mentioned his work in local government – the Shabbath was held a week before the local elections (which he won and became a mayor). The participants were also impressed when during the dinner Ireneusz Socha sang“Lecha Dodi” song to the forgotten melody of the Dębica Hassidic Jews – they admitted that they had never heard such an arrangement.

The guests emphasized how that evening felt family-like to them – as if the hosts from Dębica invited them to their own home for Shabbat. “This isn’t the end – but the beginning of something” one of the guests said at the end.

Contributors

The program is co-financed by Malka and Pinek Krystal Scholarship Fund.

See more about Leader of Dialogue Ireneusz Socha

See more about Leader of Dialogue Jolanta Świerczek-Stelmach

See more about Leader of Dialogue Tadeusz Królczyk

A Visit of Bob Geminder and Gabriel Y. Karin

April 2017

On April 20, a day after the 74th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, two Holocaust Survivors met with students of Lajlos Kossuth High School to talk about their childhood in hiding during the war. Bob Geminder and Gabrielle Karin, currently living in the United States, shared with the alumni of the School of Dialogue 2016 and their fellow-students, an important message about the power of knowledge: though people may strip you of everything, they will never take away what you know and have learned.

On the day before the meeting, students from the same high school took part in the “Daffodils” campaign organized by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, to commemorate the Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During the event they distributed paper daffodil pins in honor of the fighters. A local online newspaper published an article about the action: HaloUrsynów.pl.

A Visit of Richard Weintraub

May 2017

Richard Weintraub, a descendant of Polish Jews and a participant of Forum’s study trip in 2014, once again visited Poland. This time he met with the participants of the School of Dialogue program in Krempna. This was the second time Richard visited Poland to search for information about his family. In 2015, together with his family he visited School of Dialogue in Makow Mazowiecki.

During the presentation of their findings, students from Krempna and their guests established a deep bond. Later, they all went to the Hałbowska Pass.

At the site of a mass grave where 1200 Jews were shot during the war, the students lit candles in a gesture of respect and commemoration. After saying goodbye to the students, Richard went to Kotań, where he visited a wooden Orthodox church. When the keeper of the church found out that the guest’s family came from this area, she exclaimed, “You’re a local!”.

We encourage you to watch a short film from Richard Weintraub’s visit in 2015.

Read more about the School of Dialogue at the School Complex in Krempna