We have finished the Polish Jewish Exchange Program visit to the U.S. organized in cooperation with the AJC. April 22-29 our delegation visited Washington, Chicago and New York. Their stay in the U.S. was filled with meetings, among others with AJC staff, regional and national board members, as well as Rabbi Andy Baker, AJC Director of International Jewish Affairs, AJC Assistant Director Belle Yoeli, AIPAC Director of the International Affairs Department Stephen Schneider, HIAS Senior Director Naomi Steinberg, and David Harris, Chief Executive Officer of the AJC. Among the highlights of the trip were site visits, including United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., as well as tour of the Borough Park neighborhood of the borough of Brooklyn. This visit to the one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside Israel and home to many Hasidic Jews, mainly of the Bobover branch, was guided by Prof. Robert Moses Shapiro of the Brooklyn College of the University of New York.
The program is offering ample opportunities for less formal conversations during lunches and dinners as well. For our participants it is an unique chance to look into the life of the Jewish community in the U.S. and see how the Jewish organizations contribute to the civil society, but also to learn more about the Jewish perspective on Polish/Jewish dialogue.
