Mirosław Skrzypczyk

Szczekocin Jewish Culture Festival – organized since 2008, this annual festival played a significant role in introducing residents to Jewish culture and history of Szczekociny’s Jews as well as to commemorate the local Jewish community. The festival is co-organized by Szczekociny’s School Complex and Organization of Jewish Szczekociners. Co-organizers include ReBorn Roots organization, Szczekociny Municipality, and Szczekociny Community and Sports Center. I am one of the organizers and coordinators. Each year, the festival program consists of three permanent components. The first component consists of a ceremony at the old Jewish ceremony in the course of which participants and festival guests pray together for the murdered Jewish residents of Szczekociny. Chief rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich or one of the descendants of Szczekociny’s Jewish residents says the Kaddish. During these ceremonies, commemorative plaques at the cemetery and on the former synagogue building had been unveiled, as well as a monument to the memory of Szczekociny’s Jews. Additionally, for the past few years, art projects have been implemented at the Jewish cemetery.

The second component consists first and foremost of meetings with local Holocaust survivors and listening to their testimonies. It also includes meetings with important figures for Jewish life in Poland, such as Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich or female rabbi Tanja Segal. This festival component also includes film screenings (such as Jolanta Dylewska’s Po-lin), book launches including Pinkes Szczekocin and B-94. The Power of a Survivor (B-94. Siłaocalonego) by Izyk Mendel Bornstein and Agnieszka Piśkiewicz, After Surviving (Po ocaleniu) by Leon Zelman and Szczekocinyin the Stories ofits Residents. Prewar Times and Wartime (Szczekociny w opowieściach mieszkańców. Czasy przedwojenne i wojna), and announcements of children’s and young adults’ competition winners.

The third component is a Concert of Memory, when School Complex students play Jewish music with artists from Poland and abroad (including such names as Klezmer Divas, Viennese kantorsShmuel Barzilai and Eliezer Mizrachi, Kroke, Di Galitzyaner Klezmorim, Karolina Cicha).