After a challenging 2020, which required us to switch and adapt to remote learning, we launched the 2021 edition of School of Dialogue program equipped with new knowledge, many new experiences and inspirations, but also very much missing in-person interactions with students in their schools.

However, the pandemic reality had new challenges in store for us. Due to everchanging guidelines related to schools’ operation in COVID times, we also had to amend and adapt our own plans. Although along with our educators, the students and their teachers, we did our best to implement as many activities as possible in “live” format, our experience from the prior year also allowed us also to operate on remote basis in some exceptional cases. Despite all kinds of hurdles, 28 schools, 50 teachers and 523 students took on the challenge to commemorate their local Jewish communities in 2021.

Biała Podlaska, Biłgoraj, Bóbrka, Bydgoszcz, Ciechanów, Czersk, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Gidle, Kalisz, Koronowo, Kutno, Kadzidło, Mysłowice, Otwock, Ożarów, Płońsk, Rusiec, Rzeszów, Stąporków, Szamotuły, Świdnik, Tuczno, Warta, Wińsko, Włodawa, Wołomin, Zgorzelec, Zielonki – youth and teaching staff from these towns completed School of Dialogue projects in 2001. All schools participating in the initiative created a walking or virtual tour of their town’s Jewish sites. Preparing these routes allowed students to engage in proper research activities – they looked for historical sources, dug through local archives, interviewed Holocaust survivors and their descendants as well as members of the local community. Alongside this work, students often conducted cleanup works at local Jewish cemeteries, as was the case in Kutno, Koronowo and Ożarów, to name just a few examples. Additionally, School of Dialogue participants would often prepare additional projects and information campaigns.

For many School of Dialogue participants, working on the tour offered an opportunity to present Jewish history and culture to their own school community, as was the case in Zielonki, but often also to the wider public, like in Biała Podlaska, where students organized a performance in the town; in 7 locations relevant to local Jewish history, they served as live information points, holding up self-made plaques with information on each site’s significance.

Participants from a school in Biłgoraj created paper maps in three language versions (Polish, English and German) and shared their information materials with a local museum and tourist information center so that they can serve any potential visitors to the town. School students from Warta created a city map entitled „Jewish sites in Warta” that is currently displayed at the town’s main square. The map’s legend has been translated into English and German.

Some of the schools prepared additional art projects to accompany their walking tours. Participants from Dąbrowa Górnicza made a fascinating video presenting a story of one Jewish family living in their city in 1930s which won first prize at a regional film festival. Students from Otwock also used the film medium to document their activities on YouTube. Their video “In the footsteps of Jews in Otwock” has already gathered an audience of over 300 viewers. In Ożarów, project participants organized a photo exhibition in their school under the title „They called Ożarów their home” and an event featuring a selection of songs in Yiddish. Participants from Płońsk and Rusiec, among others, used their graphic design skills to create lapbooks and educational posters. Some groups also encouraged their school communities to get involved in creative initiatives, as was the case of Szamotuły where a schoolwide photo contest was held.

Students from Bóbrka made a film entitled „We will save you from oblivion. Seventh-graders in pursuit of history” and organized its screening for their town’s residents. The film’s audience was also invited to try Jewish dishes such as challah and kugel with sour cream prepared by the students themselves. School of Dialogue participants from Czersk also tried their hand(s) in Jewish cooking and organized a food fair presenting a range of traditional Jewish dishes at their school. Female school students from Koronowo opted for experiencing Jewish culture through handicrafts and sewed kippahs and baked hamantaschen Purim cookies.

School of Dialogue participants did their best to get local authorities involved in their projects – students from Kalisz invited the mayor and employees of the city’s public relations office to join their walking tour. They also plan to issue an open letter urging local authorities to take measures to conserve a local sukkah. School students from Ciechanów petitioned their local authorities to erect commemorative plaques in sites pertinent to local Jewish community. A school in Wińsko drafted a petition addressed to their village mayor, urging him to sponsor an information board at the site of the former synagogue. Aided by their teachers, participants from Włodawa put in a formal query whether an information board can be placed at the site of what had once been a Jewish cemetery.

High school students in Bydgoszcz used Instagram to promote their activities through a dedicated profile @nie_dlazapomnienia – Śladami bydgoskich Żydów (Tracing Jewish Bydgoszcz). They use the platform to present various Jewish-related sites in Bydgoszcz but also to educate their followers on Jewish culture and traditions. School of Dialogue participants from Gidel, Świdnik, Tuczno and Zgorzelec also utilized social media to promote their activities. Their respective Facebook pages attracted sizable audiences among their peers and members of the local communities. Facebook was also used by students in Rzeszów who even held a live session on their page to engage their followers.

Female students from Mysłowice adopted a creative approach to new media – using ActionBound app, they created a scavenger hunt with their town’s Jewish history in focus. School of Dialogue participants form Stąporkowo merged new technologies with traditional information channels – a QR code granting access to a virtual map they created was included in the posters and leaflets they distributed around town. A similar approach was adopted by a group of students from Wołomin, who used QR codes to link to a website presenting all their project activities.

We are all aware that the past year has not been easy on the students, the teachers nor school personnel in general. We are happy to have been able to support School of Dialogue participants with our knowledge and offer them safe spaces where they could be together. In this context, we would like to congratulate everyone who got involved and donated their time and energy to bring their local and often complex past to light.

Sponsors and partner institutions

In 2021, the School of Dialogue was financed from two sources.

Project financed by the Active Citizens Fund – National financed by the Norwegian and EEA funds.

Project co-financed by Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and individual and institutional donors from Poland and abroad.