“What you are doing, enriches Poland” the President of the Polish Senate told participants in Forum’s educational program at a festive gala concluding the third edition of the School of Dialogue.
More than 200 students, teachers and participating school principals gathered at Muranow Cinema on December 15 to jointly sum up and present the results of their activities in the frame of the project. “This initiative, an initiative that serves the rapprochement between Poles and Jews, serves also remembrance among Poles,” the President of the Polish Senate said in his speech. “It is important that Poles perpetuate this memory. It is important because of those who are gone but also for our future. What you are doing enriches Poland, enriches you and opens you for others. It is essential in nowadays free, democratic and sovereign Poland … that you do the work for which you will be honored today.”

They had the chance to hear comments from such leaders as: the Israeli Ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner, the United States Ambassador Lee Feinstein, the National Ministry of Education Vice-Minister Miroslaw Sielatycki, the City of Warsaw Vice-President Wlodzimierz Paszynski, the Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich and the Chairman of Forum’s Supervisory Council Henryk Wujec.

In 2010, over 550 junior high and high school students from Warsaw and former Jewish shtetls took part in School of Dialogue educational workshops.

The work done by you and your friends through the past year is truly impressive and you should be proud of your achievements.

Lee Feinstein, United States Ambassador to Poland

At this year’s celebration, the first prize was awarded to students from Kazimierz Wielki Junior High School in Radoszyce for their project “Shalom Radoszyce”. The second prize went to students from Waldemar Milewicz High School No 125 from Warsaw for their social animation “Bringing down walls”. As a reward, the winners will take part in a two-day field trip to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau, an Kazimierz Dolny. All participating schools received diplomas and were honored as Schools of Dialogue, with each school and participating teacher receiving a set of books on the history of Polish Jews.

Forum for Dialogue would like to thank the following institutions for sponsoring awards at the School of Dialogue Gala: Bureau of Education of the City of Warsaw, Jewish Historical Institute, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Polish Center for Holocaust Research of the Academy of Sciences, President of the Polish Senate and Warsaw Center for Educational and Social Innovations and Trainings, Austeria Publishing House.