In January, the Forum organized its first open debate with Państwomiasto cafe, a continuation of the series “Forum on Chlodna” that run in 2012. The topic of the meeting: “What have we done with Jewish graves?” concerned wartime and postwar fate of Jewish tombstones and cemeteries in Poland.
During the meeting, the audience of about 50 people had a chance to hear about what had been made out of matzevot – Everything, if one needed a stone: walls, stairs, roads, tools. While the cemetery could have been recycled as a park, sports field or sandpit…
In this travel throughout Poland our guides were Łukasz Baksik, photographer and author of the “Matzevot for everyday use” photo exhibition and Agnieszka Nieradko, representative of the Rabbinical Commission on Cemeteries. The meeting was facilitated by Zuzanna Radzik, Board Member of Forum for Dialogue Among Nations.

The debate was recorded by Virtual Shtetl and can be watched online (in Polish):
http://www.sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/warszawa/19,aktualnosci/40038,24-01-2013-co-zrobilismy-z-zydowskimi-grobami-/

The open debates series organized by Forum for Dialogue Among Nations in collaboration with Państwomiasto includes monthly meetings and panel discussions on Polish-Jewish relations, featuring experts and field specialists.