Agnieszka Pollak-Olszowska

I have been interested in Jewish culture since my childhood, mainly thanks to my mother, who was a teacher in the times of the People’s Republic of Poland and, despite possible reprisals, taught students and teachers on Jewish cultural heritage. For many years now, she has been working with, among others, the Jewish community in the district of Kazimierz in Krakow. My interests were also influenced by my family story about how my great-grandparents in the Eastern Borderlands hid a Jewish family during the Holocaust. I have always been fascinated by the multicultural history of Bielsko-Biała, a city where the turmoil of history constantly changed the origin and nationality of its residents. Besides, my life motto is that without Jewish culture, Polish culture would not have gained its present form and I try to convey it to as many people as possible. I am a teacher of the Polish language, history of art, pedagogical therapist, journalist and writer. I am passionate about travelling, culture and art in its broadest sense, as well as writing film reviews. I run my own Facebook profile “Przystań kultura”.

I use my own program to teach the Holocaust and the history of Polish Jews. I guide tourists and descendants of Jewish families from my region around the multicultural heritage of Bielsko-Biała. I support the activities of the Jewish Religious Community in Bielsko-Biała, the Galicia Museum in Cracow, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. From March 2016, I have been leading initiatives aimed at the social activation of the elderly. As part of the project, I conducted workshops at the Jewish Community in Bielsko-Biała. I also led anti-discrimination workshops in part focused on the subject of antisemitism. The workshops met with great interest from the old-age residents. Many of them visited the Jewish Community for the first time. As a journalist of the local website www.bielsko.biala.pl, I publish articles about the history of Jews who once lived in Bielsko-Biała. I put effort into teaching about the history and culture of Jews who lived in my area with the aim to make the young generation aware of the multicultural tradition of the city and the country they live in.

Activism