This year, we had the great honor of organizing Study Visits for our allies and friends from the US and Canada, with whom we delved into Polish/Jewish history, Jewish heritage, and activities undertaken to preserve Jewish memory in Poland. All the tours helped strengthen connections within the Forum for Dialogue Network and enabled conversations between people who, if not for these Study Visits, might never have met. This year, two Study Visits were organized with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2024”: in July, we hosted 9 Canadian educators, and in September, we met with our 11 American friends and allies.

“People aren’t different. People are the same. Especially if you learn how to talk to each other and listen to each other,” said Nancy Civin, a participant in the September Study Visit, as she reflected on the experience of discussions within the Forum for Dialogue Network. We would like to express our gratitude to all participants of this year’s visits. We appreciate their openness and willingness to engage in meaningful conversations and to create true dialogue. Being part of their meetings and building this unique international community of people who share common values has been an honor to us!

photos: Olga Detlaf, Piotr Hukało, Michalina Jadczak, Gabriela Nowak-Dąbrowska i Paweł Pawlicki

Public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2024”

Forum for Dialogue Network activist Katarzyna Sudaj together with the ATUT Foundation produced the film “Sara” as a part of the project we helped co-fund via our Grants and Scholarship competitions. The film, based on the novel “Shadow of the Clock” by another member of our Network Jolanta Sroczynska-Pietz, captures the story of a friendship between Sara and Ida, two girls, one Jewish and one not, and is set in the late 19th century in Trzemeszno. “Sara” inspired great interest locally, and is now available online to the general public (with auto-generated subtitles). We encourage you to give it a try!

In 2024, the grants and scholarships program is financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, LEDOR WADOR Foundation, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue. Scholarships for personal development are possible thanks to The David and Anna Dlugie Kliger Scholarship Fund.

June 7–9, we organized the National Forum for Dialogue Network Activist Conference in Zegrze, near Warsaw. The event gathered over 100 individuals working to preserve the memory of Jews in Poland. Our program included panel discussions, workshop sessions, lectures and meetings. We talked about engaging young people in preserving the memory of Jews, cyber-security, designing walking tours of Jewish sites, publishing research and teaching about the Holocaust after October 7. This year, we also invited book authors to discuss their recent publications; we were honored to host Anna Bikont, Łukasz Krzyżanowski, and Joanna Ostrowska, while Magdalena Kozłowska talked about Emily Tamkin’s “Bad Jews.”

In the workshop sessions, we addressed issues such as popular camp fiction. The absolute highlight of the Conference was the meeting with Hanna Krall, a journalist and writer, one of the first to publish on the experience of Polish Jews during the Holocaust. She shared a lot of great stories in conversation with Network’s own Anna Włodek and Mirek Skrzypczyk. The conference ended with a tour of Nasielsk’s Jewish heritage.

photo: Piotr Banasik i Wojciech Dobrogojski

photo: Piotr Banasik

It’s been a long while since I was among people with such kindness. We’ve created an atmosphere that I would wish to have every day in the place I am active. I’m experiencing an ocean of kindness, support, and empathy. I have a sense of belonging to a community that is free of envy or jealousy, a community where people want to help one another, learn from one another … What happened at this conference is an existential experience.

Katarzyna Dąbrowska from Włocławek

With Assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future

The National Forum for Dialogue Network Conference for activists is cofinanced by Friends of the Forum and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue.

May 10–12 saw the meeting and integration of two groups of members of the Forum for Dialogue Network. Our Polish benefactors travelled to the Lublin Area to meet with our activists, Dorota Bida, Mariusz Czuj, and Emil Majuk, to explore the Jewish history and heritage of Chełm, Wojsławice, and Włodawa. łukasz Mieszkowski, in his role as co-author of the design of the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór, and a longtime Polish Friend of the Forum, took the entire delegation on a tour of the site. It is vital for us to have the members of the Forum for Dialogue Network meet and interact, as well as learn about each other’s motivation for being part of the Forum community.

It is equally important to us that the work of the Network activists is recognized by those who, like them, believe that Jewish history in Poland is Polish history and must be preserved, documented, and widely shared. All participants of the visit expressed great enthusiasm for the program, which only confirms our belief that we need to organize even more opportunities for people dedicated to dialogue to meet and learn from one another.

photo: Wojciech Dobrogojski

It’s great that so many passionate people are connected via the Forum for Dialogue Network. These are tender, thoughtful people who support one another … There is so much goodness being done where so much evil resides. And it lasts thanks to the Network support, and also thanks to the Forum. It’s real grassroots work. The trip leaves me inspired and feeling so much better.

Paulina Kieszkowska

We are pleased to announce that Forum for Dialogue has received a grant in the “Public Diplomacy 2024” program of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project funded, called “Through a Common History to a Modern Poland: Study Visits of Jewish Leaders to Poland,” involves the organization of two comprehensive study tours to Poland for no less than 16 individuals, representatives of Jewish communities from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, and other countries.

The purpose of the Study Visit program is introducing the participants to the complexity of Jewish history in Poland, as well as to the efforts to preserve the memory of the Jewish past undertaken in Poland.

Leaders of Jewish communities will participate in a series of meetings with experts, scholars, local activists and young people with whom they will father a comprehensive perspective on Jewish past and present in Poland. They will also visit major Polish cities, such as Warsaw and Krakow, as well as other places, including smaller towns that once had a substantial Jewish presence. This, in turn, will allow the participants to learn about the wide spectrum of endeavors undertaken in Poland to keep the Jewish memory alive and preserve Jewish heritage, as well as the successes in and obstacles to building an open civil society.

Name of the task: Through a joint history to modern Poland. Study visits of leaders of the Jewish Diaspora to Poland.

Project financed from the state budget within the competition of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland “Public Diplomacy 2024”.

Funding amount: 179 999,98 PLN

Short description of the task: The project involves the organization of two comprehensive study tours to Poland for no less than 16 individuals, representatives of Jewish communities from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Israel, and other countries. The purpose of these activities is introducing the participants to the complexity of Jewish history in Poland, as well as to the efforts to preserve the memory of the Jewish past undertaken in Poland.

Teresa Jabłońska, an activist of Forum for Dialogue Network started her project introducing students from Września schools to the rich Jewish history and heritage of the region in 2021. This year, together with the Września Children Foundation and a wide supporting coalition of local school teachers and institutions, she organized lessons and workshops on Jewish culture, followed by an interactive walking tour of the history of Jews in Września for 130 students from 5 schools. Older students from 4 local high schools took part in classes on the Holocaust in preparation for the following study visits to three memorial sites, the Martyrological Museums in Poznań and Żabików, as well as the Museum of the Former German Kulmhof Death Camp.

Photos by Tomasz Małecki

“History and Culture of Jewish Września. Young People in Sites of Memory” project by Teresa Jabłońska and the Children of Września Foundation was co-financed by Forum for Dialogue as a part of 2023 Grant Competition.

In 2023, the program for activists belonging to Forum for Dialogue Network, including grants and scholarships, is financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, LEDOR WADOR Foundation, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue. Scholarships for personal development are possible thanks to The David and Anna Dlugie Kliger Scholarship Fund.

We’re pleased to announce that Mariusz Sokołowski, member of the Forum for Dialogue Network, activist from Wasilków and Białystok, and recipient of the Forum grant for permanent commemoration, has won the 2023 POLIN Award. We couldn’t be happier for him. Also recognized were Saga Grybów Association, whose members – Kamil Kmak and Anna Boruch – are a part of our Network, and Ewa Paul, activist in Bełchatów. The list of nominees includes two more Network members: Dorota Bida working in Chełm, Bożena Gajewska active in Kutno, as well as Małgorzata Frąckiewicz active in Łomża. Congratulations to all!

Finally, and to our great joy and honor, Forum for Dialogue and its President, Andrzej Folwarczny, were presented the POLIN’s Director Special Award.

Photos by Anna Kurowicka and Marta Usiekniewicz

October 25-27, as a part of “Zbąszyń’s Days of Open Arms” commemorations of the 85th anniversary of the “Polenaktion,” Anita Rucioch-Gołek and Wojciech Olejniczak from the Forum’s Network together with the TRES Foundation organized “Collected Stories | Memory Collection” conference for teachers, educators, and employees of cultural institutions on the memory of the “Polenaktion” and ways of educating about this part of Polish/Jewish history. Attended by experts, scholars, and activists, other members of Network among them, the conference was an ample opportunity to reflect on the diverse aspects and perspectives of practical work with history and memory.

Photos by TRES Foundation

“The 85th Anniversary of Polenaktion 1938” project by Anita Rucioch-Gołek, Wojciech Olejniczak, and the TRES Foundation was co-financed by Forum for Dialogue as a part of 2023 Grant Competition.

In 2023, the program for activists belonging to Forum for Dialogue Network, including grants and scholarships, is financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, LEDOR WADOR Foundation, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue. Scholarships for personal development are possible thanks to The David and Anna Dlugie Kliger Scholarship Fund.

Check out the photos from the opening of exhibition presenting the 19th and 20th century history of Jews in Koźmin Wielkopolski, curated by a member of Forum’s Network Paweł Bajerlein and hosted by the local public library. The exhibition, a part of broader “Greetings from Koźmin!” project conducted by Paweł, tells the multi-faceted story of Koźmin’s Jewish families and their everyday life through archival photographs, postcards, documents, and press clippings. It also includes pieces of additional information provided by descendants of Koźmin’s Jews from all over the world, whom Paweł invited to cooperate in his project.

Photos by Mateusz Adamiak

“Greetings from Koźmin!” project by Paweł Bajerlein and the Krotochwile Association was co-financed by Forum for Dialogue as a part of 2023 Grant Competition.

In 2023, the program for activists belonging to Forum for Dialogue Network, including grants and scholarships, is financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, LEDOR WADOR Foundation, United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, and individual donors and institutions from Poland and abroad supporting Forum for Dialogue. Scholarships for personal development are possible thanks to The David and Anna Dlugie Kliger Scholarship Fund.