Last week, the Vice-President of Forum for Dialogue, Zuzanna Radzik, took part in the International Council of Christians and Jews meeting in Frankfurt am Main, where she was one of the two Polish participants at the organization’s first in-person meeting. The most important event of this year’s event was the first ever Seelisberg Award ceremony, awarded to prof. Amy-Jill Levine in recognition of the role her New Testament research played in building new and mutually enriching relationships between Judaism and Christianity. We are all the more pleased that prof. Levine was the guest of one of Forum’s online meetings of the Shared Heritage program.

The ICCJ acts as an umbrella organization for 37 affiliated national organizations around the world that work for Christian-Jewish dialogue. Poland is represented by the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. The ICCJ and its affiliated organizations promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians based on mutual respect, raise the issue of human rights in line with Christian and Jewish traditions, and combat all forms of intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, racism, and instrumental treatment of religion.

In May, a very special and dear friend visited our office – we had an honor of meeting Leon Weintraub, a Holocaust Survivor and a staunch supporter of our School of Dialogue program.

He was born in 1926 in Łódź. In 1939, his family was forced to relocate to ghetto there and in 1944, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was separated from his mother and sisters. He managed to escape by joining a transport to a forced labor camp. Liberated in 1945, he learned by accident that 3 of 4 his sisters also survived the war. He returned to Poland and finished medical studies, but left the country in 1969 during the antisemitic campaign waged by communist authorities and emigrated to Sweden, where he lives to this day.

Since 1991, he has worked towards bringing back the memory of the Jewish community of Dobra, his mother’s hometown. Those activities have reconnected him with School of Dialogue students and teachers from Henryk Sienkiewicz School Complex in Dobra, and now they cooperate to restore the town’s past. In 2021, he was a special guest of our School of Dialogue online Gala and delivered a powerful message of hope to participating students.

photo: M. Dziurdzik

In May, Forum was invited to join Glenn Kurtz, a longtime Friend of the Forum and author of “Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film”, Bianca Stigter, director of “Three Minutes – A Lengthening,” and a group of Jewish descendants from Nasielsk in what was the culmination of over a decade of efforts to preserve and commemorate the Jewish history of Nasielsk. Starting with the Polish premiere of “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the visit continued with the official unveiling ceremony of the ‘Gate of Memory’ at the Jewish cemetery in Nasielsk, and artistic and educational program prepared by Nasielsk students, including participants of the School of Dialogue program, and their teachers.

Bianca Stigter’s documentary transforms a 3 minute color film found by Glenn in his family home, which was shot in 1938 Nasielsk in Poland by David Kurtz, Glenn’s grandfather, into a moving homage to Jewish life in Poland before the Holocaust.

David Kurtz, who was born in Nasielsk, emigrated to the U.S., and returned to visit his birthplace where he captured three minutes of life of Nasielsk Jewish community. The footage, which had almost rotten just before it was discovered and restored, is the only remaining moving image of the once vibrant community. The finding of the footage and the process of reconstructing the stories of Nasielskiers seen in it are the subject of an acclaimed book published by Glenn Kurtz in 2014.

photos by Forum for Dialogue, P. Stankiewicz

After the film’s official premiere at the POLIN Museum, Glenn, Bianca, and descendants of Nasielsk Jewish families traveled to Nasielsk to witness the unveiling of the ‘Gate of Memory’ monument at the local Jewish cemetery. This moving ceremony, crowning ten years of efforts to bring back the memory of town’s Jewish community, gathered representatives of local authorities, members of Polish/Jewish organizations, and residents of Nasielsk, School of Dialogue students among them.

The ceremony was followed by “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” screening at the “Niwa,” a cinema that dates back to the pre-war times. After the screening and a Q&A session with Glenn and Bianca, School of Dialogue students took their guests on a guided tour of town’s Jewish heritage and shared the findings of their research. The visit ended with a hospitality evening hosted by Polish Friends of the Forum.

photos by K. Pietrzak-Kret, M. Usiekniewicz

The first workshops of the new semester of the School of Dialogue program started in March. Forum educators are conducting in-person workshops at the participating schools, and facilitating the educational process helping students overcome any challenges that may arise. The commemorative projects created by the students should be ready by mid-June, but we can already share a few highlights:

Students from Kudowa-Zdrój plan to enhance their Jewish heritage tour with culinary workshops for participants. They also want to prepare a guidebook featuring descriptions of noteworthy places of Jewish heritage in Kudowa-Zdrój, as well as biographies of important figures of local Jewish community. The group from Adam Mickiewicz High School in Opole Lubelskie base their historical research on an oral history methodology: they will be interviewing history witnesses for testimonies of pre-war town and events during the World War II. Students of the St. Urszula Ledóchowska Congregation of the Ursulines High School in Pniewy are especially interested in Judaism and the history of Orthodox Jewish communities, so it will be interesting to see how will this specialized focus shape their commemorative project.

The groups from Opole Lubelskie, Nicolaus Copernicus High School No 1 in Będzin, and Maria Montessori Bilingual High School in Radom, which host refugee students from Ukraine, plan to make the projects accessible to them. Despite the language barrier, School of Dialogue emphasis on workshops fostering cooperation is proving to have a very positive outcome in this sometimes difficult situation.

Each year, the participants of previous editions of the School of Dialogue decide to continue their involvement in efforts to remember the Jewish communities of their towns and cities. This April, students from Juliusz Słowacki High School No 1 in Częstochowa decided to mark the Yom HaShoah with a virtual commemorative ceremony organized and conducted together with fellow Israeli students from Modi’in. Students of Janusz Korczak High School No 2 in Wieluń took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign – Daffodils Social-Educational Campaign organized by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. They also plan to mark the 80^th anniversary of the liquidation of Wieluń ghetto with a visit to Kulmhof Nazi extermination camp, where they will honor the memory of their town’s Jewish community. The group from the Academic High School in Biała Podlaska organized the “World That No Longer Exists – The History of Biała Podlaska’s Jews” conference, during which they shared the effects of their School of Dialogue historical research. Among the invited conference guests were local historians and regionalists, who presented their own research.

In 2021, the School of Dialogue was financed from two sources.

Project financed by the Active Citizens Fund – National financed by the Norwegian and EEA funds.

Project co-financed by Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and individual and institutional donors from Poland and abroad.

After two-year hiatus in study visits and conferences caused by the Covid-19 pandemic the time has finally come for return to face-to-face meetings. In late April, and early May 2022, together with the Yad Vashem Institute, Forum co-organized a seminar devoted to the issues of Holocaust memory. Nineteen Poles active in Polish/Jewish dialogue and commemorative efforts joined us in Jerusalem for an intense week of lectures, discussions, and site visits.

The seminar’s program was focused on the place of Holocaust in contemporary Israel’s consciousness and the forthcoming 80^th anniversary of the Aktion Reinhardt. The participants had a unique opportunity to listen to the leading authorities in the field of Holocaust research like Professor Yehuda Bauer and Ophir Yarden. They also met Holocaust Survivors Alona Frankel and Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel, as well as representatives of the second generation. An analysis of the characteristics of Israeli Holocaust discourse, especially how it is visible in public spaces, was a key topic of the seminar. To experience that, the participants took part in guided tours of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Yad Vashem campus focused on this aspect. They have also joined the official ceremonies of Yom HaShoah held at Yad Vashem.

When asked about their impressions of the seminar, the participants stressed not only the value of learning about the Israeli perspective: “It was a time for discovering previously unknown fields of Holocaust research and confronting myself with the Israeli narration. Time of amazing meetings with people who deeply care for the heritage of Polish Jews,” shared one participant. The possibility of meeting fellow Polish activists was also a big asset of the program, as expressed by another participant: “This seminar reassured me that what I am doing is important. The feeling that every, even small local project contributes to Poland’s great map of dialogue gives you energy to keep going.”

In 2022, the program is co-financed by the Dutch Humanitarian Fund and the Orange Foundation.

On Friday, March 11, at the Awards Ceremony of the Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest organized by the Chapman University’s Rodgers Center American and international students were recognized for their artistic efforts inspired by Survivors’ Testimonies. This was the 23rd year of the competition, this year entitled “Turning Memory to Strength. Living with hope, courage and resilience.” The participants were encouraged to consider the message shared by the Survivors and ways of transmitting it through artistic means: film, art, poetry and prose.

This year, the competition committee recognized the work of a Polish student from Warsaw, whose film received second place.

In addition, the school, Frycz Modrzewski Bilingual High School no 17, the students and her teachers won the first in the competition’s history International School Award. This award means to honor the efforts of the school and its staff in education about the Holocaust, and the students special accomplishment. What is more, another Polish student, this time from Nasielsk, was among the finalists in the prose category. Congratulations to all finalists and awardees for their important projects.

An average of 65,000 Ukrainian refugees are entering Poland each day, which so far has taken in over 450,000 people, according to the Polish Ministry of the Interior. At this rate, we could be facing Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the World War II. If you are interested in helping people fleeing the unlawful Russian assault of Ukraine, check out our list of reputable organizations coordinating support for refugees:

• UNICEF Poland
• Polish Center for International Aid
• Ocalenie Foundation
• Polish Humanitarian Action

Following on the earlier experience of dealing with the situation on Polish/Belarussian border, some of the smaller, yet extremely effective, organizations have decided to form consortia to act and fundraise better:

• consortium of 14 non-profit organizations (scroll down to find description in English)
• Solidarity with Ukraine

On January 19, 2022, Patrycja Dołowy’s newest book, “Treasures” premiered in Poland. Dołowy, who is a writer, multimedia artist, social activist, popularizer of science and art, came up with the idea for “Treasures” in 2017. Michelle Levy, her American Jewish artist friend, asked her for help in searching for Levy’s family roots. During their journey they met Poles who care about the memory of Jewish history and heritage in their towns. It is their stories, contrasted with the experiences of Jews visiting Poland to trace their family histories, that make up “Treasures”.

The book features members of Forum’s Leaders of Dialogue network: Marek Chmielewski from Orla, Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko from Będzin,

Ireneusz Socha from Dębica, Jacek Koszczan from Dukla, Kamila Klauzińska from Zduńska Wola, Krzysztof Przybyłowicz from Biecz, Marek Kołcon from Zamość, Mirosław Skrzypczyk from Szczekociny, Sławomir Chwaściński from Radoszyce, Urszula Antosz-Rekucka from Mszana Dolna, Wojciech Mszyca from Żarki, and Wojciech Mazan from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Their personal stories are part of the multi-layered history of the interweaving fates of people from the past and present, and their “treasures”, mementos and family heirlooms, which after decades of silence force readers to rethink the complex issues of confronting the traces of the once vibrant and now lost world.