Rabka-Zdrój
Reconnecting Ties
Reconnecting Ties
September 2016
One of the highlights of the study trip for Jewish leaders from the U.S., that took place in early September 2016, was a Shabbat dinner held in Rabka Zdrój. Trip participants together with with local Leaders of Dialogue – Narcyz Listkowski, Michał Rapta and Karolina Panz – and their families gathered for a shabbat reflection, sang some prayers, and lit the candles. An evening full of touching moments for all present there.
The next day, they met again to visit Jewish sites of Rabka Zdrój with Narcyz Listkowski and Michał Rapta. The day was concluded with Havdala ceremony attended by the guests from U.S., Leaders of Dialogue and their families and guests from the local community. Rabbi Wayne Franklin, one of the participants of the study trip wrote about hid experience on Shabbat in Rabka:
“We were the first people to observe Shabbat in Rabka-Zdroj since the 1940s. A group of us from Temple Emanu-El in Providence, Rhode Island, along with friends from New York and Massachusetts, came to spend Shabbat in this picturesque spa town, not knowing its gruesome history. We welcomed Shabbat with participants in the Forum’s Leaders of Dialogue program and their families.” 
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August 2015
During their week-long study trip to Poland in August 2015, organized by Forum for Dialogue in partnership with Polish Embassy in Washington, US teachers and educators collaborating with Facing History and Ourselves visited Rabka-Zdrój. For many a highlight of the trip was a meeting with Leaders of Dialogue Narcyz Listkowski and Michał Rapta in Rabka-Zdrój, who presented their work to preserve the Jewish heritage of their town.
August 2014
In August 2014, Israelis participating in a study visit organized by Forum for Dialogue visited Rabka-Zdrój. They were very moved by the hospitality of Narcyz Listkowski and Michał Rapta, Leaders of Dialogue who work for the preservation of the Jewish heritage in Rabka. Narcyz invited them to his house that used to be a rabbi’s house and a mikveh, and together with Michał, they showed their guests the stairs to the former synagogue, which they had discovered and uncovered.
