Forum for Dialogue has been expanding its offer for teachers involved in teaching about the history of Jews in Poland. We organize workshops and seminars to broaden their knowledge and a set of educational tools concerning this subject.

During the online seminar “Who Will Write Our History – teaching about Polish/Jewish heritage” we hosted teachers from the Lodz province. Together we reflected on using the documentary “Who Will Write Our History” in the classroom, and how to talk about the history and culture of Polish Jews by focusing on individual, local experiences. The participants, with the support of educators, had a chance to search for materials in the Ringelblum Archive, as well as other archives concerning their town or the nearest vicinity.

One of the highlights of the seminar was the meeting with a local activist – Miroslaw Skrzypczyk, teacher and Leader of Dialogue from Szczekociny, who talked about how he understands the school’s mission: as a place that is a catalyst for change in a town, also in regard to the memory of the Jewish heritage.

We also organized a workshop for teachers from all over Poland, which concerned the use of the online archives collecting Jewish history. This workshop was led by Julia Machnowska, a historian specializing in archival research, and project coordinator at Forum for Dialogue. During the workshop the participants had an opportunity to see up close the collections of the most important museums, archives and information centers in Poland, Germany, Israel and the United States. They learned more about research results that can be found in the databases without leaving home. They were introduced to ways of finding pre-war photographs, documents, recorded testimonies, maps, genealogical sources, which are available at your fingertips thanks to virtual tools. We hope that these tools will prove useful in educating young people and engaging them in activities aimed at restoring the memory of Jewish communities in their towns.