Damian Rączka is a regionalist, vice president of the Old Fordon Lovers Association, tour guide active in Fordon and Bydgoszcz, author of the first guide to Fordon, Fordon-przewodnik po zapomnianym mieście (Fordon: a guide to a forgotten city), co-author of flaneur guides Fordoński Sztetl. Śladami żydowskiej historii Bydgoszczy (The Fordon shtetl: in the footsteps of Jewish history in Bydgoszcz) and Wisła w Bydgoszczy-Fordonie (The Vistula in Bydgoszcze-Fordon). Damian is also the author and leader of the One City, Three Cultures project and initiator of the search for the matzevot from the Fordon cemetery; in 2016, in cooperation with the Municipal Historic Preservation Officer, he recovered about 60 concreted matzevot from the cemetery on Gen. Dabrowski Hill, spending a year to extract and clean them, and transferring the relevant documentation to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He is the co-author and coordinator of reenactments staged as part of the Old Fordon Festival, and author of thematic tours and lectures “Kosher Kitchen,” “Sepulchral Jewish Art: The Symbolism of Matzevot,” and “Jews: The Forgotten Neighbors,” held as part of the Holocaust Remembrance Day. He has also organized many Jewish-themed events in schools across Bydgoszcz. A co-initiator of the restoration of the only surviving sukkah in Bydgoszcz at 2 Kapeluszników Street, Damian is also the producer and author of the script to the documentary film Fordon – historia królewskiego miasta (Fordon: a history of a royal city) and the music video Kultura (Culture). He has researched, collected, and published texts on the history of the Jewish residents of the city, also contributing articles to the Tygodnik Fordon weekly and texts about the history of Fordon and its surroundings, published on the Facebook fanpage Starofordoński Spichlerz Historii.
Damian Rączka
Fordon (Bydgoszcz)
