During last week they participated in number of meetings, which deepened their knowledge about the history of Poland and also complicated Polish-Jewish relations. Among the participants there were Mary Slade, barrister from Melbourne, who was born in Łódź just after the war and Frank Hornstein, an elected member of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Their meetings mostly took place in Warsaw and Cracow. However, our guests admitted, that the most important moment of their trip to Poland was a visit to Sieradz, where they met with students from local high school, participants of the School of Dialog educational program.

It was an extraordinary meeting. Students guided our group to places connected to the history of Sieradz Jews. Together they visited an Ary Szternfeld memory plaque, synagogue, place of the former Jewish bath (mikvah) and the memorial wall near the Collegiate church, where there are plaques reminding of the history of Sieradz Jews.

For students the most memorable experience was meeting with Mary Slade from Melbourne. Mary is a board member of the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Centre and she has Polish roots – her mother is originally e from Sieradz, and Mary herself was born in Łódź just after the war.

“Mrs. Marysia” (that’s how Mary was addressed by the students) told young people from Sieradz a dramatic story about her parents being the last survivors from Łódź ghetto. Listening to Mary’s story and stories of other Polish Jews, was a strong and extraordinary experience for our students.

In the end of the study trip our participants and students, with a help from the priest prelate Marian Bronikowski, planted a tree in the church garden in memory of this exceptional meeting. Little oak tree with a memorial plaque, stands in a place with a view to the synagogue. The plaque says:

“In memory of the Jewish men and women of Sieradz who throughout the ages built and developed this town together with their Christian neighbors and who were expelled and murdered out of human wickedness.

Participants of the School of Dialogue project and the Study Tour organized by the Forum for Dialogue.”

One of the participants of the study trip, Karen Shapiro said in the end of the trip:

“Knowing we were the first Jews these students have ever met, and the ability to interact with them in a positive manner was critical to erasure of negative Jewish stereotypes. That I could help in that matter gives me great satisfaction”.

“The project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the competition for the public task “Cooperation with Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad in 2014.”

During their study visit to Poland the group participated in meetings with representatives of the academic world, publicists and leaders of the Polish-Jewish community, and also visited places and institutions associated with Polish-Jewish history, such as the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Galicia Jewish Museum or the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Highlights of the trip included a meeting with Helise Lieberman, Director of the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland, lunch with journalist Adam Leszczynski about political transformation in Poland, dinner with Edyta Gawron, Head of the Center for the Study on the History and Culture of Krakow Jews and discussion about the phenomenon of Krakow Jewish Culture Festival with its representative, Robert Gądek. Our guests from FHAO were most pleased to interact with local middle school students, participants of Forum’s School of Dialogue educational program in Pruszkow – a small town nearby Warsaw. The intense weekly program concluded with a workshop dedicated to lesson planning and using the experience in Poland in everyday school work.

We would like to thank Polish Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland for their support for the project.

In July, students from Northeastern University visited Forum’s office for the second time. They were taking a few weeks long trip across Europe. As part of their educational program, involving mostly World War II and the Holocaust, they were introduced to the School of Dialogue program and other projects carried out by Forum for Dialogue. We also had a chance to introduce Forum for Dialogue’s work to group of 22 members from Minnesota, led by Rabbi Morris Allen.

David Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), met today with alumni of Jewish-Polish Exchange Program, co-founders of the Polish Friends of Forum group, at Forum for Dialogue’s office. After the official breakfast Harris and Forum for Dialogue’s President, Andrzej Folwarczny reaffirmed the value of the partnership between Forum and AJC, especially with regard to the importance of the Exchange Program. This program has helping build bridges in Polish-Jewish relations for 15 years. David Harris and Forum’s guests also discussed the challenges that Poland and United States face in a changing geopolitical landscape.

Last night, the Forum for Dialogue Foundation in collaboration with the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland hosted a special dinner for representatives of Facing History and Ourselves at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. The dinner accompanied a discussion panel titled “Poland’s Transformation from Communism to Democracy” featuring Henryk Wujec, former Solidarity leader and currently advisor of President of Poland, Michał Boni, a politician and former dissident under communism; Aleksander Smolar, head of the Stefan Batory Foundation; and Stephen Mull, ambassador of the United States to Poland.