December inspires a reflection on the year’s accomplishments and encourages plans for the future. Last week, Forum organized a special meeting for our educators to mark the end of the year and summarize and evaluate the 2017 School of Dialogue program. It was an opportunity to thank the brilliant and dedicated educators for their contribution to the program. The meeting was an informal get-together inviting experience sharing, conversations and integration. This week, in turn, the Forum’s office team had a year-end meeting to talk about this year’s achievements and discuss the plans for the future. Both events included good food and a lot of laughter, which make us optimistic for what 2018 holds.

photo: J.Szkarłat, I.Meyza, M.Dziurdzik

Conference Antisemitism in Poland: Assessment – Implications -Countermeasures took place on December 5. It was organized by AJC Central Europe and Center for Research on Prejudice. After the introductory speeches by Agnieszka Markiewicz, director of AJC Central Europe, and Michał Bilewicz, director of Center for Research on Prejudice and Vice President of Forum for Dialogue, the discussions and presentations were divided into four thematic sessions. Representative of Forum, Izabela Meyza, coordinator of the School of Dialogue program, participated in the last session, Counteracting the hate crimes: good practices.

Photo courtesy of AJC Central Europe.

For Leaders of Dialogue the program is not only a platform for meeting and exchanging experiences, but for broadening their knowledge and honing their skills as well. Recently five Leaders of Dialogue – Dorota Budzińska from Dąbrowa Białostocka, Marek Chmielewski from Orla, Andrzej Grzegorczyk from Łódź, Katarzyna Łaziuk from Mińsk Mazowiecki and Anita Rucioch-Gołek from Zbąszyń – participated in workshops organized by the Forum.

The workshops focused on how to plan Leaders’ activities, so that they appeal to local communities. The paticipants learned ways to define the target groups for their projects, to apply for external funding and meet possible donors’ expectations. Finally, they discussed how best to promote their activities to maximize their reach and impact.

photo: M.Halaczek

Project financed by the Ledor Wador Foundation.

We are proud to share that our School of Dialogue program was among the 13 European projects on the shortlist for 2017 Evens Prize for Peace Education. The prize is awarded during the Conflict Matters – a major European conference organized by the Evens Foundation exploring the potential of conflict in the process of individual and social transformation.

This year the conference took place in London on November 8-10. For Forum’s representatives – Executive Board Member Zuzanna Radzik and School of Dialogue Project Coordinators Julia Machnowska and Izabela Meyza – participating in the conference was a unique opportunity to partake in meaningful discussions, reflect on different strategies to address major educational challenges and share thoughts with fellow educators, teachers and researchers from all over Europe.

We are pleased to announce that Ireneusz Socha, a Leader of Dialogue from Dębica, received an honorable mention  during the POLIN Award gala at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The prize is awarded by the Museum to people, organizations and institutions working towards preserving the memory of Polish Jews. Ireneusz Socha was recognized for his activism in taking care of the Jewish heritage of Dębica, especially his initiatives aimed at saving the town’s Jewish cemetery and former ghetto area. Congratulations!

You may read more about Ireneusz Socha here.

photo: M.Śmiarowski

Zuzanna Radzik, Forum for Dialogue’s Executive Board Member, participated in the 2017 Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education that took place on November 1-3 at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA. This year’s conference dove into the controversial role of the Roman Catholic Church and its relationship to the events of the Holocaust. During the final session, focused on the changing nature of the Catholic/Jewish relations, in the part devoted to the issue of the Post-Holocaust Theology and its attitude towards Jews, Zuzanna Radzik gave a lecture entitled “Political Correctness or revolution? Theological consequences of the post Vatican II Council theology of Judaism in the Polish context”.

photo: M.Śmiarowski

Read more about the conference 

At the end of October a group from the Park Avenue Synagogue visited a School of Dialogue in Brzesko, a finalist at 2016 School of Dialogue Gala. After a warm welcome and preliminary ice-breaking workshops, the students took their guest on a walking tour of Jewish heritage sites and presented the findings of their research. At the town’s Jewish cemetery the meeting’s participants lit candles in a gesture of commemoration. It is always very moving to see this type of intercultural dialogue happen!

photo: J.Machnowska

We have finished a week-long study visit to Poland for our guests from United States. A dinner with Andrzej Folwarczny, President of the Forum, opened the study trip on Monday, October 16. On Tuesday and Wednesday participants toured Warsaw and city’s Jewish sites, met with Ambassador of Israel to Poland Anna Azari, journalist Konstanty Gebert and representatives of Warsaw Jewish Community.

On Thursday in Grabów they met with students involved with the School of Dialogue program there. After a warm welcome and preliminary ice-breaking workshops, the students took their guest on a walking trip of Jewish heritage sites of their town. Then the study visit participants travelled to Łódź for a tour of Jewish history and piano recital in Łódź Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic.

photo: M.Piekarska, J.Szkarłat

The last part of the study trip started with a visit to the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau and then Shabbat dinner in Chrzanów, attended by Leaders of Dialogue, local activists working for the preservation of Jewish heritage: Kamil Bogusz from Chrzanów, Justyna Biernat from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Joanna Lorenc from Bieruń and Michał Lorenc from Rymanów. The next day, participants had an opportunity to enjoy a tour of Chrzanów Jewish sites guided by Kamil Bogusz.

After the meeting focused on Jewish-Christian relations led by Zuzanna Radzik, Forum’s Executive Board Member, participants travelled to Krakow to took part in Kazimierz Jewish Quarter sightseeing and meetings with representatives of local Jewish community as well as scholars affiliated with Jagiellonian University.

We would like to thank all the participants for this meaningful journey!

photo: M.Piekarska, J.Szkarłat

In October Forum for Dialogue’s representatives met with two groups of study trips to Poland participants. On October 14 towns of Otwock and Karczew were visited by American, Canadian and Australian students and professors from The American University of Paris, institution providing an American-style university education for degree-seeking students from around the world. The group focuses its research and learning on the memory about the Holocaust and was very interested in the question how this issue manifests on the local level in contemporary Poland. After the brief presentation of the Forum’s educational activities and the School of Dialogue program, visit participants met at local history museum with Monika Czub, Leader of Dialogue active in Otwock and Karczew.

She guided them on a tour of the towns’ Jewish history and explained her initiatives aimed at commemorating the local Jewish community annihilated during the World War II.

The group of visitors affiliated with the Beth El Synagogue met with Forum for Dialogue’s representatives on October 24 as a part of their Eastern Europe tour, during which they visited Prague, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw with a program offering ample opportunities for meeting and conversations with members of local Jewish communities and spokepersons representing organizations working towards promoting tolerance, intercultural dialogue and remembrance of once-thriving Central European Jewish life.

photo: J.Szkarłat