In winter 2020, Forum run two seminars for teachers about teaching Polish/Jewish history using Roberta Grossman’s documentary, Who Will Write our History, depicting the history of the Ringelblum’s Archive, a secret archive of the Warsaw Ghetto.

The first seminar took place in Lublin at the Brama Grodzka – NN Theatre, and the second one was held in Kielce at the Jan Karski Association’s educational space. These workshop-style seminars were dedicated to testing out classroom activities and discussions. Inspired by the mission of Oneg Shabbat, we developed ways of teaching about Jews and their history using their own voices as recorded in documents and artifacts sensitively, so that we incorporate the way they wanted to be remembered in death and life. We also introduced the Ringelblum Archive as a great resource for creating just such an approach to Jewish history. A key element of the seminars was presenting ways of researching the archive to find information about the teachers’ local history and how to find testimonies of Jews from their towns.

The conclusion of each seminar was a conversation with a teachers and Leaders of Dialogue: Marek Kołcon in Lublin and Mirosław Skrzypczyk in Kielce. The experts talked about their activism to inspire other teachers to take on the task of commemorating Jews and the Jewish past of their towns. Upon completion of the seminar each teacher received a Who Will Write our History DVD and a copy of education kit with lesson plans designed by the Forum on the basis of the film.

Educational initiatives related to Who Will Write Our History have been made possible thanks to the generosity of Al and Gayle Berg Family Foundation.