Between September 28 and October 2, 2015 Polish Educational Society Middle and High school students participated in a Polish-Norwegian youth exchange program. Guests from Norway were school children and their teachers from a school in Lundano and Human Rights Center in Falstad. The meeting was meant to introduce the two groups to each other, learn about the other nation’s cultures and traditions, with Jewish culture serving as a unifying and overarching theme of the meeting. Participation in the project was made possible through cooperation with Polin Museum, a Norwegian Grant recipient.
The initial anxiety was quickly overcome through dedicated workshops that fostered group integration. The visit itinerary included a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador to Poland, with whom participants took a group photo. Even though guests from Norway were accommodated in a hotel in Warsaw, each slept over for one night with our students and their families. Such informal meetings often provide the best setting for getting to know one another better.