August 1-3, 2023, Forum’s representatives participated in the Powell Holocaust Summer Institute, made possible by the vision and investment of the Powell Family Foundation, at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle WA, USA. Hanna Gospodarczyk, Forum’s Program Team Manager, and Katarzyna Łaziuk, a member of our activist network from Mińsk Mazowiecki, took part in a session focused on challenges and good practices in teaching about and commemorating the Holocaust in the local context. Our participation in Powell Holocaust Summer Institute was enabled by the generous support of Nancy Powell and Carol Heller.

We are pleased to announce that Agnieszka Mysakowska, a member of our Leaders of Dialogue network from Wieluń, received the Fr. Stanisław Musiał Award of The Club of Christians and Jews ‘Covenant’. The award recognizes people working towards Christian/Jewish and Polish/Jewish dialogue and reconciliation. Agnieszka Mysakowska was awarded alongside historian Małgorzata Międzobrodzka, author of the “Jews of Wieliczka” monograph.

Agnieszka Mysakowska teaches students about the history and culture of Wieluń region Jews. Thanks to her numerous initiatives, organized trips to Israel as well as the cooperation with The Jewish Organization of Wielun in Israel, young Poles and their Jewish counterparts learn of the importance of mutual understanding.

At an intersection of global and local activism, Łukasz Połomski and Edyta Danielska, activists of the Shtetl of Tsanz and members of our network, hosted Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice-President Kamala Harris, during his visit in Gorlice. They showed him, and a delegation from U.S. Consulate General in Krakow, around the Jewish sites of the town of his ancestors.

The visit was part of Emhoff’s European tour promoting the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration in fighting antisemitism worldwide.

For the past months, we have been working on new strategies for the Forum, which will come into full effect in 2023. As a part of those changes, we are currently developing the new School of Dialogue program. We aim to build even closer co-operation with teachers to increase the program’s sustainability and long-term impact. We are lucky that we can rely on the help of people best suited for such a challenge: members of our activist network working as teachers. In January, we invited a group of them to Warsaw for a workshop and discussion that will ensure School of Dialogue’s update inspires even wider audiences to rediscover and return Jewish past into the history of towns all over Poland.

Teresa Jabłońska, member of Leaders of Dialogue network, together with the Września Children Foundation, has just finished an educational project about the history and culture of Jews in Poland. The project was addressed to both students at local schools and seniors, attendees of the University of the Third Age. They all joined culinary workshops on Jewish dishes, which included a tasting at the end. The project also included a klezmer music concert organized in cooperation with the municipal authorities and the local Cultural Centre.

There were also educational activities organized at schools, such as an urban exploration of local Jewish heritage. The participants listened to eyewitness accounts of history and visited the Regional Museum, Museums of Martyrdom in Poznań and Żabikowo, and the Death Camp in Chełmno.

“The History and Culture of Jews in Września. Września Youth at Sites of Memory” project was co-financed by the Forum for Dialogue in the 2022 Grant Competition.

photos courtesy of Teresa Jabłońska

The Leaders of Dialogue program, including grants and scholarships, was financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, LEDOR WADOR Foundation, and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue. Scholarships for personal development are possible thanks to The David and Anna Dlugie Kliger Scholarship Fund.