The 7^th National Leaders of Dialogue Conference, an annual gathering of activists from all over Poland took place on April 12-14, 2019. Weekend spent in Serock with people who devote their time to selflessly preserve, document, and educate about the rich Jewish history of their towns all over the country offered ample opportunities to network, share experiences and knowledge with the invited experts and guests. It is worth noting that the Conference’s program is always carefully planned according to the needs and interests expressed by Leaders themselves. It consisted of panel discussions, debates, and workshops on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Poland’s Chassidic legacy, through the more practical issues of genealogical research and challenges of Polish/Jewish group meetings, to discussions concerning the newest book premieres in the field of Jewish studies.

The first day of the Conference started with updating session, when all of the Leaders had an opportunity to share their latest successes and challenges they had encountered during their work. Then we listened to Alina Skibińska from the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, who talked about the problem with social reception of researchers’ findings concerning the role of Catholic Poles during the Holocaust.

In the afternoon, within the three thematic blocks, prof. Marcin Wodziński presented his latest book Historical Atlas of Hasidism, the very first cartographic reference book on one of the modern era’s most vibrant and important mystical movements, Zuzanna Radzik talked about the antisemitic aspects in the history of Christianity, and Patrycja Dołowy and Magdalena Kicińska elaborated on some of the issues raised by recent publications of books looking at the Jewish history from the feminist point of view. After that, the Conference’s participants met with Monika and Stanisław Krajewski, who shared their personal story of reclaiming the Jewish identity during and after the period of communist Poland. There was also an opportunity to listen to Łukasz Krzyżanowski and Bartłomiej Krupa, who reviewed the newly published book Of Stones and Ruins: a journey through one hundred destroyed communities in Poland by Mordechai Tsanin. Saturday ended with a dinner, during which we were honored to have Israel’s Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari joining us.

photo: P.Kęska

On the second day of the conference the participants had an opportunity to participate in meetings and workshops of a more practical kind. Jakub Niewiński, Leader of Dialogue from Murowana Goślina, talked about the challenges of Polish/Jewish group meetings during the visits to Poland from a educator’s perspective. Monika Kajalidis presented the new joint program of Rabbinical Commision for Jewish Cemeteries in Poland and Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage which aims at providing new guidelines for conducting the maintenance works on Jewish cemeteries. Michał Majewski and Witold Wrzosiński presented the secrets of genealogical research using available variety of internet sources and databases, and Gerard Bah talked about the means of counteracting the hate speech in public spaces.

After the return to Warsaw, the 7^th National Conference of Leaders of Dialogue ended with a tour of the Okopowa Jewish cemetery led by Jacek Dehnel, an acclaimed author and one of the initiators of the grassroots initiative coordinating the cleanup works of the cemetery.

photo: P.Kęska

Contributors

Project co-financed by Ledor Wador Foundation.

In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this educator training program. Through recovering the assets of the victims of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference enables organizations around the world to provide education about the Shoah and to preserve the memory of those who perished.

Project co-financed by Friends of the Forum.