Leaders of Dialogue Regional Support Groups have the important function of coalescing the community of activists working to create projects based on shared principles. The members of these groups meet regularly with each other, and sometimes network with other regional groups to further cooperation between regions and strengthen the entire network.
On July 5-8, the group from Podlasie visited the Lublin area to meet with the local members of the Leaders of Dialogue network (this was a return visit after the latter visited the former last year). The joined delegation visited Lublin, Kazimierz Dolny, Józefów, Zamość, Biłgoraj, Szczebrzeszyn, Włodawa, and Sobibór.
“What do Zamość, Józefów, Biłgoraj, Lublin or Włodawa have in common? All had a Jewish community before the war. For centuries they contributed to the atmosphere of these places. It is where they set up their families, conducted smaller and larger businesses, learned the Torah, dreamed of Erec Israel. Thanks to the Forum for Dialogue the activists from Podlasie visited these places to get a tiny sense of what a prewar shtetl or a town was like. This seemingly impossible task was at all possible thanks to the incredible people who work hard to recover and maintain the memory of the now-perished residents, and thus bring faith in a better tomorrow… Though our journey was marked by the Holocaust as each visited place would overwhelme us with the great suffering that took place there, we’ve returned from this visit fortified and filled with hope. The very fat that there are people like that, who despite numerous obstacles, continue to fight for the memory of their Jewish neighbours and the material heritage left by them gives me hope for a better future.”
Mariusz Sokołowski, member of the Leaders of Dialogue Podlasie Regional Group
