We have finished the Polish Jewish Exchange Program visit to the U.S. organized in cooperation with the AJC. Our delegation went to Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York and had their week filled with meetings, site visits including United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as well as home hospitality and cultural events. Among the highlights of the trip were meetings with AJC staff, regional and national board members, as well as Rabbi Andy Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs, and AJC CEO David Harris. The group also met with Polish Deputy Chief of Mission, Paweł Kotowski, and Lukas Fuksa, President of the Polish American Leadership Political Action Committee. The program offered ample opportunities for less formal conversations during lunches and dinners, including one with a Holocaust survivor, Aron Elster. In New York Polish delegates were welcomed to a Shabbat dinner hosted by AJC members, and could enjoy a jazz concert.

It is difficult to talk with teenagers about the Holocaust in a way that is both sensitive and frank. But George Elbaum, a Warsaw-born Holocaust Survivor, who has met with School of Dialogue alumni in Błonie, Mszczonów and Grójec, knows how to captivate his young audience.

The author of “Neither Yesterdays, Nor Tomorrows. Vignettes from the Holocaust,” published in Polish with the help of Forum for Dialogue, moved his audience and inspired a lively Q&A session afterwards. So lively, in fact, that the meeting in Mszczonów took an hour more than was planned! Students lined up to have their copy of the book signed.

After reading that he likes sweets, the students from Grójec baked their visitor a Polish cheesecake, which he mentions in his book. The students in Błonie offered him handmade ceramic cups filled to the brim with marzipan – his favorite.

George Elbaum was visiting Poland in the company of his wife and son, who took part in the Jewish tour of Grójec prepared by the students in the School of Dialogue program.

5th Leaders of Dialogue Conference was inaugurated with an opening dinner and a keynote address by Marc Skvirsky, the Vice President and Chief Program Officer at Facing History and Ourselves. It was a welcomed opportunity to catch up with the amazing people that form our network of activists, artists, educators, local government officials and entrepreneurs dedicated to saving Polish/Jewish memory from oblivion. We were also honored to have George Elbaum, a Warsaw-born Holocaust Survivor join us for the opening night. Tomorrow we start the day with presentations by Leaders of Dialogue who are themselves experts in their respective fields.

The 5th Leaders of Dialogue Conference introduced changes to the way the event is organized. This year we have invited five Leaders to join our Program Board, so that the program truly reflected the needs of our network. We have also invited so-called “flying experts” who, though not presenting at the Conference, are available for consultation to any of the participants. Among the experts, we have Alicja Mroczkowska from the Jewish Historical Institute, Krzysztof Bielawski from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Polin, and Barbara Engelking representing the Polish Center for Holocaust Research.

Attended by over 50 Leaders, including about 20 first-timers, it was, in our humble opinion, a great success. The Conference was a fantastic educational and networking opportunity. It was also a very moving meeting of close friends. We were really sad to let them go back to their homes, but we know that they return re-energized to do more of the amazing and humbling work that we appreciate them for.

Project co-financed by Ledor Wador Foundation and Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

We are happy to report that the first round of workshops in all the 21 schools of the 2017 School of Dialogue spring semester has been completed. Though we’ve been running the School of Dialogue program since 2008, we keep on being positively surprised. This time it was the Junior High School in Starachowice, where the school authorities surprised the students and Forum’s educators with a special visit of local experts on Jewish history and tradition: Jerzy Miśkiewicz, Deputy Mayor of Starachowice, Agnieszka Malinowska, a doctoral student researching local Jewish history, and Dawid Szychowski, Starachowice-born rabbi from Łódź. The meeting was an opportunity for students to ask questions, and consult with the Deputy Mayor.

On Tuesday,  May 10, 2017 Forum’s educators met with Israeli students of the Oranim Academic College to share experiences and talk about the challenges involved in educating about dialogue and mutual understanding. The workshop was held at the Menora Info Punkt and focused on innovative methods of teaching about the past to create a more tolerant and open society of the future. This is the second time Forum’s delegates meet with the students, who are in awe of the work accomplished in Polish schools.

Effects of School of Dialogue now in a PhD dissertation! We are very proud that our flagship educational program aimed at fighting prejudice and preserving Jewish heritage in Poland has been the basis for a thesis entitled “The influence of contact with a multicultural past on intergroup attitudes and civic engagement” defended by Anna Stefaniak at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw yesterday. The dissertation shows how attitudes towards others change once students are exposed to information about the past multicultural environment of their town or village. The contemporary homogenous communities give little opportunity to encounter the other, which may foster xenophobic attitudes, but learning about the local Jewish heritage and the ethnic and cultural diversity of a given area makes these students more open to difference. Dr. Stefaniak received a distinction for the dissertation and defense.

Take a walk around Warsaw with Esther Pinskier, a Warsaw-born Holocaust survivor now living in Australia, who came to Poland for the 2016 School of Dialogue Gala. Together with her son, Henry, she visited places she knew from childhood. Check out the touching mini-documentary that came out of the visit.

A shorter version of this film was published on wyborcza.pl to commemorate the 74th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (see the LINK).

“This is our history which has shaped us too” said a student from the wining School in Chorzów when asked about her motivation for participating in the School of Dialogue program. To hear what other students, as well as experts think about the program, check out our latest video from the 2016 School of Dialogue Gala.
We would like to use this opportunity to once again express our gratitude to those, without whose support the gala would not have been the success it was. The following institutions and companies offered a generous support in kind: Azrieli Holocaust Survivor Memoirs, Polish Center for Holocaust Research, Czarna Owca Publishing House, Czarne Publishing House, Filo Publishing House, Jan Karski Educational Foundation, Jewish Community of Warsaw, Grycan, Iskry Publishing House, Kopernik, Korporacja Ha!art, Krytyka Polityczna, Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Auschwitz Jewish Center, Prószyński i s-ka Publishing House, Rebis Publishing House, Czulent Jewish Association, Świat Książki Publishing House, W.A.B Publishing House, and Znak Publishing House
The School of Dialogue Gala was organized in cooperation with Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa.
The 2016 School of Dialogue program and School of Dialogue Gala were co-financed by Friends of the Forum, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, City of Warsaw, and the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund.

During the opening gala of the AJC Central Europe Office in Warsaw held at the Polin Museum, Forum’s President, Andrzej Folwarczny was honored with the Jan Karski Award. When presenting the award, AJC CEO David Harris said: “We give this award rather rarely because the world is short of worthy recipients.” Ambassador of Israel to Poland, Anna Azari applauded the AJC for recognizing Andrzej Folwarczny and the Forum for their important work in Polish/Jewish relations.

On March 21, Forum for Dialogue had an opportunity to meet with students of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys during their “Names, not Numbers” project trip to Poland. We talked about the School of Dialogue program and its impact on junior high and high school students’ civic engagement. The American students were astonished by the commemorative projects prepared by their Polish peers, especially since most School of Dialogue participants do not claim any Jewish heritage. This lead to a conversation about the responsibilities of a community to maintain the memory of a people who no longer inhabit a specific place, but whose presence has shaped the community of today.