In May, a very special and dear friend visited our office – we had an honor of meeting Leon Weintraub, a Holocaust Survivor and a staunch supporter of our School of Dialogue program.

He was born in 1926 in Łódź. In 1939, his family was forced to relocate to ghetto there and in 1944, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was separated from his mother and sisters. He managed to escape by joining a transport to a forced labor camp. Liberated in 1945, he learned by accident that 3 of 4 his sisters also survived the war. He returned to Poland and finished medical studies, but left the country in 1969 during the antisemitic campaign waged by communist authorities and emigrated to Sweden, where he lives to this day.

Since 1991, he has worked towards bringing back the memory of the Jewish community of Dobra, his mother’s hometown. Those activities have reconnected him with School of Dialogue students and teachers from Henryk Sienkiewicz School Complex in Dobra, and now they cooperate to restore the town’s past. In 2021, he was a special guest of our School of Dialogue online Gala and delivered a powerful message of hope to participating students.

photo: M. Dziurdzik

On Friday, March 11, at the Awards Ceremony of the Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest organized by the Chapman University’s Rodgers Center American and international students were recognized for their artistic efforts inspired by Survivors’ Testimonies. This was the 23rd year of the competition, this year entitled “Turning Memory to Strength. Living with hope, courage and resilience.” The participants were encouraged to consider the message shared by the Survivors and ways of transmitting it through artistic means: film, art, poetry and prose.

This year, the competition committee recognized the work of a Polish student from Warsaw, whose film received second place.

In addition, the school, Frycz Modrzewski Bilingual High School no 17, the students and her teachers won the first in the competition’s history International School Award. This award means to honor the efforts of the school and its staff in education about the Holocaust, and the students special accomplishment. What is more, another Polish student, this time from Nasielsk, was among the finalists in the prose category. Congratulations to all finalists and awardees for their important projects.

On January 19, 2022, Patrycja Dołowy’s newest book, “Treasures” premiered in Poland. Dołowy, who is a writer, multimedia artist, social activist, popularizer of science and art, came up with the idea for “Treasures” in 2017. Michelle Levy, her American Jewish artist friend, asked her for help in searching for Levy’s family roots. During their journey they met Poles who care about the memory of Jewish history and heritage in their towns. It is their stories, contrasted with the experiences of Jews visiting Poland to trace their family histories, that make up “Treasures”.

The book features members of Forum’s Leaders of Dialogue network: Marek Chmielewski from Orla, Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko from Będzin,

Ireneusz Socha from Dębica, Jacek Koszczan from Dukla, Kamila Klauzińska from Zduńska Wola, Krzysztof Przybyłowicz from Biecz, Marek Kołcon from Zamość, Mirosław Skrzypczyk from Szczekociny, Sławomir Chwaściński from Radoszyce, Urszula Antosz-Rekucka from Mszana Dolna, Wojciech Mszyca from Żarki, and Wojciech Mazan from Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Their personal stories are part of the multi-layered history of the interweaving fates of people from the past and present, and their “treasures”, mementos and family heirlooms, which after decades of silence force readers to rethink the complex issues of confronting the traces of the once vibrant and now lost world.

The fall semester of the School of Dialogue is behind us. We started with in-person workshops in mid-September, happy that Forum Educators could once again see the students in person. At the same time, we were ready, after the experiences gained in previous years, to change the formula to a remote one. Ultimately, the workshops took on a hybrid formula mixing in-person and online sections. Students from 17 towns and cities across Poland took part in the program.

Below is a list of all the schools participating in the School of Dialogue program in the fall of 2021:

• Piotr Skarga High School in Szamotuły
• Józef Bliziński Elementary School in Bóbrka
• Polish Noble Laureates Elementary School in Otwock
• Janusz Kusociński High School no 7 and Emil Waryński High School no 8 in Bydgoszcz (students from the two schools worked together on one project)
• Jan Walery Jędrzejewicz Elementary School no 2 in Płońsk
• May 3rd Elementary School in Kalisz
• Wacław Nałkowski High School no 1 in Wołomin
• Zygmunt Puławski Vocational Education Center in Świdnik
• 2nd Engineer Brigade Vocational School Complex no 1 and A. Frycz Modrzewski High School no 2 in Włodawa
• Irena Sendlerowa STO Bilingual Charter Elementary School in Ciechanów
• Józef Piłsudski Elementary School in Gidle
• European High School in Zgorzelec
• Correction Facility and Shelter for Minors in Koronowo
• Elementary School in Wińsko
• John Paul II Elementary School no 2 in Czersk
• Jan Kasprowicz High School no 2 in Kutno
• Edward Szylka High School Complex in Ożarów.

Congratulations!

Each of the project groups was to prepare either a walking or an online walking tour of places related to the Jewish community that once lived in their town. In addition to this obligatory point, students often opted for numerous additional activities. They organized urban trail games, film screenings, created exhibitions, posters and educational presentations, engaged in commemorative ceremonies or maintenance works at their local Jewish cemeteries. They talked to local experts and historians. Some noteworthy ideas were culinary in character, such as food festival organized in partnership with a local rural women’s association, or post-tour refreshments inspired by traditional Jewish dishes, such as the hamantaschen and apples dipped in honey. Activities were often documented on social media and reported in local newspapers and online journals.

This semester passed very quickly and, despite the difficult circumstances surrounding the pandemic, it was a very fruitful one. Now we have a tough task of evaluating the student commemorative projects and selecting this year’s nominees and winners. The results of our deliberations will be announced during the official School of Dialogue 2021 overview planned for early spring. We can’t wait!

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

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

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

Every year, we encourage the schools we work with to participate in Annual Holocaust Art & Writing Contest organized by the Rodgers Center at Chapman University in Orange County, California. This year, in its 23rd run, the words “Turning Memory to Strength. Living with hope, courage and resilience” are the overarching slogan. To participate, the students need to first watch video testimonies of Holocaust Survivors and analyze and reflect on the motivations and messages of the witnesses to the story. They translate their considerations in creative ways: art projects, poems, stories, or films which they submit as their entries.

The competition combines things that are extremely important to us in the context of education about the Holocaust, and working with testimonies is always a unique experience. This year, teachers and students have the opportunity to use a much wider database of testimonies in Polish.

We encourage them to use recordings related to their area, as we believe that the connection with local history can significantly enrich their work. In the previous edition, one of the finalists was a student from Warsaw’s Romuald Traugutt High School. We are certain that this year will bring another unique submission or submissions from Poland!

In 2022, Forum has offered additional support to teachers in their work with students. We have invited interested educators to participate in workshops on using testimonies of Holocaust Survivors in education. The workshop was led by Monika Koszyńska, the regional representative of the USC Shoah Foundation in Poland., who showed how to use the materials collected in the digital archive. Together, we reflected on and discussed the ways of using this type of sources, often difficult to interpret, in education.

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

In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for support. Through recovering the assets of the victims of the Holocaust, the Claims Conference enables organizations around the world to provide education about the Shoah and to preserve the memory of those who perished.

The first workshops of the new semester of the School of Dialogue program begun in mid-September. Forum educators visited students in participant schools to conduct the first of four workshops. We are incredibly happy to once more see our students in class! Aware of the unstable health situation, the educators and the students are prepared to move online if there is need for that.

Twenty schools joined the program this semester, and those listed below already had their first workshops:

• Maria Curie-Skłodowska School Complex in Rusiec
• Piotr Skarga High School in Szamotuły
• Józef Bliziński Elementary School in Bóbrka
• Polish Noble Laureates Elementary School in Otwock
• Janusz Kusociński High School no 7 and Emil Waryński High School no 8 in Bydgoszcz
• Jan Walery Jędrzejewicz Elementary School no 2 in Płońsk
• May 3rd Elementary School in Kalisz
• Wacław Nałkowski High School no 1 in Wołomin
• Zygmunt Puławski Vocational Education Center in Świdnik.

The workshops will continue till the end of November, and the commemoration project created by the students should be ready by December 10, 2021. Each group of students will have to decide if they want to prepare an online walking tour of the Jewish sites of their town or organize one offline with an audience of their choosing.

The School of Dialogue workshops in the fall semester are organized within two grant projects:
• 12 schools from towns below 30 thousand residents are financed thanks to the Active Citizens Fund – National financed by the Norwegian and EEA funds;
• 8 remaining schools are financed thanks to the generosity of Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and individual and institutional donors from Poland and abroad

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

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

We are relaunching the Shared Heritage program as a series of conversations with international experts on Jewish/Christian relations addressed to Polish Christian leaders.

These online conversations will offer a deep dive into Christian/Jewish relations from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as personal and practical experiences of our guests. We aim to show Judaism as a vibrant community of faith, looking for ways of being in the modern world. Too often has Christianity ignored the developments in Judaism and the diversity of its theology.

The meetings, hosted by Zuzanna Radzik, a theologian and Forum’s VP, will be conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Polish.

October 12, 7 p.m. Warsaw time
Can a Rabbi be a Woman?: A Conversation with Rabbi Jeffrey Fox

The guest of the upcoming meeting, Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox is a Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Maharat, who will talk about the daily realities of a yeshiva. Yeshivat Maharat was the first Orthodox yeshiva to start teaching women for leadership roles. These graduates, fluent in Jewish law and theology, use the titles “Maharat” and “Raba” which makes them de facto Rabbis. This is why we will talk more broadly about what is Orthodox Judaism and how flexible it is to accommodate contemporary needs and demands. We shall also ask about the role of the rabbi in the wake of such changes, and the type of religious leadership needed by communities of Orthodox Jews.

Registration link

Facebook Event

November 23, 7 p.m. Warsaw time
Judaism Rethought, or On Modern Rituals: A Conversation with Aliza Kline

Aliza Klien, the co-founder and Director General of OneTable, an organization which involves thousands of young Jews in shared preparation of Shabbat dinners, will be our guest. Before OneTable, Aliza created the Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh & Education Center in Boston, the success of which shows that even  a superficially archaic custom may become a modern practice with a new meaning.

Registration link

Facebook Event

October 28, 7 p.m. Warsaw time
Challenges in Christian/Jewish Relations from a Jewish Perspective: A Conversation with Rabbi David Rosen

The Jewish take on the changes in Christian/Jewish relations over the 20^th and 21^st centuries will be the focus of the talk. Our guest, Rabbi David Rosen, Director of International Interreligious Affairs at the AJC, is involved in relations with the Vatican and global networks of interreligious dialogue. Together, we will examine the achievements and challenges of dialogue.

Registration link

Facebook event

December 14, 7 p.m. Warsaw time
When Christians Like Jews a Bit Too Much, or Philosemitism and Judaization in Contemporary Christianity: A Conversation with David Sandmel

Rabbi David Sandamel, Director of Interreligious Affairs at the ADL, will be Forum’s guest. This time, we will focus on Christians who while reaching to the roots of Christianity in Judaism adopt the rituals of the latter. Our focus is on the ways it affects Jews and how they feel about it.

Registration link

Facebook Event

Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox

Rabbi Jeffrey S. Fox a Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Maharat was the first graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Upon graduation he served as the Rabbi of Kehilat Kesher: The Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood for seven years. In Rabbi Fox’s tenure at Kesher, the community grew three-fold from thirty families to nearly one hundred. During that time Rabbi Fox also taught at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah as well as the Florence Melton Adult Education School in Bergen County. He also served on the board of the Synagogue Leadership Initiative of the UJA of NNJ. Rabbi Fox is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and has also been a member of the faculty of the Drisha Institute, the Florence Melton Adult Education School in Westchester County, and Hadar.

Rabbi David Rosen

Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s International Director of Interreligious Affairs, has been advancing understanding and good relations between religious communities for more than forty years – from the time he served as rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa, during his tenure as Chief Rabbi of Ireland; and throughout the last more than thirty years based in Jerusalem. In addition to interreligious representation and education, his work involves mediation and peace building and he is heavily involved in multi-religious engagement on ecological issues. Among the various awards and recognition he has received, Rabbi Rosen was granted a papal Knighthood in 2005 for his contribution to Jewish-Catholic reconciliation and in 2010 he was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for his work promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation.

Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, Ph.D.

Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, Ph.D. is chair of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations (www.ijcic.net) , the consortium of Jewish organization that is the official Jewish dialogue partner of the Vatican, the World Council of Churches, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox churches.  He has been with ADL (Anti-Defamation League) since 2014 and currently serves as Senior Advisor on Interreligious Affairs.  He held the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago (2002-2014). He was the Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies in Baltimore (1998-2001) where he directed the publication of “Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity.”  He lectures and publishes issues in Jewish-Christian relations, Jewish-Muslim relations, and the foundations of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity.  His commentary on First Thessalonians appears in the Jewish Annotated New Testament.

Aliza Kline

Aliza Kline is the President and CEO of OneTable. At a time when many feel isolated and disconnected from Jewish life, OneTable creates new ways to connect with each other, time, and community by linking Jewish wisdom with modern technology. Founded in 2014, OneTable has grown to a national organization that engages tens of thousands Jewish young adults through peer-led Shabbat dinners. Since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, OneTable has expanded to serve the broader community – most recently by launching HereFor.com a platform to enable individuals to find alternative High Holiday celebrations. Also the founding executive director of Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh & Education Center, Aliza has devoted her career to re-imagining Jewish ritual open to the full diversity of the community. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner Rabbi Bradley Solmsen and three daughters.

In 2021, the program is co-financed by the Dutch Humanitarian Fund and the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion.

Summer and early fall is a time when many of the Leaders of Dialogue activists organize ceremonies commemorating the deportations and annihilation of the Jews from their towns. This year the form of these events had to conform to the Covid-19 safety restrictions, oftentimes including activities that were planned for the previous year but were canceled due to the epidemic.

Many of the ceremonies included the unveiling of permanent commemorations of the local Jewish community. In Rabka-Zdrój, a plaque with all the names of the Jews killed during the war was unveiled thanks to the efforts of Michał Rapta and Narcyz Listkowski, members of the Leaders of Dialogue network and pillars of the Historia Rabki association. For press coverage in Polish, you may click here. Another plaque, this time marking the deportation site, was unveiled in Biecz thanks to the efforts of Krzysztof Przybylowicz, co-organizer of a ceremony commemorating local Jews. The Jews of Mińsk Mazowiecki were also commemorated with a plaque. Katarzyna Łaziuk has been working to preserve the memory of the Shoah for years. First as a teacher of English and a local activists, and now as a representative of local authorities. On August 22, she co-organized a commemoration ceremony at the local Jewish cemetery, as well as the unveiling of a plaque marking the tragic events at the Kopernik labor camp, a presentation of five bus stops featuring an overview of the Jewish history of Minsk, and an opening of an exhibition. The day-long commemoration ended with a performance by Lena Piekniewska singing “A Lullaby for an Eternal Dream.”

Members of the Leaders of Dialogue network, Katarzyna Suszkiewicz and Tomasz Kocur, who run the AntySchematy 2 Foundation dedicated to the preservation of places of memory, invite the local community and young people in their activities. For the past months, they have been organizing commemorative events in Sędziszów Małopolski, Jasło, and Radomyśl Wielki. During their Days of Memory event they read out the names of the members of the local Jewish community, lit candles in their honor, and left flowers in a gesture of respect. The activists working together as the Shetl of Tsanz organized an Assembly of Remembrance in several towns nearby: Stary Sącz, Limanowa, Gródek upon Dunajec and Nowy Sącz.

There were also the annual Marches of Memory in Otwock and Rymanów, and in the fall there will be one in Brzesko (October 2 and 3) and Pułtusk. In Otwock, the March was a part of the events commemorating the 79th anniversary of the ghetto liquidations in Otwock, Falenica and Rembertów. These events included meetings with descendants of local Jews, panel discussions, walking tours and concerts.

In Szczekociny, the commemoration of the local Jewih community was part of the Szczekociny Dialogue of Cultures Festival, initiated by Mirosław Skrzypczyk, a local Leader of Dialogue. The event aims to create a space of intersection of cultures which have contributed and continue to contribute to Szczekociny history and identity. The key term of the festival is its titular “dialogue.” The organizers believe that different perspectives can be in dialogue and complement one another.

The commemorative ceremony in Jedwabne was organized by the Warsaw Jewish Community. We encourage you to read a very moving account of Kamil Mrozowicz, a member of the Leaders of Dialogue network active in Jedwabne, about the memory and its lack in the town. The text is available in Polish here.

Other commemorative events were organized thanks to the tireless efforts of activists of the Leaders of Dialogue network from Mszana Dolna (Urszula Antosz-Rekucka), Dukla (Jacek Koszczan), Jędrzejów (Klaudia Kwiecińska), Wieluń (Agnieszka Mysakowska), Wola Michowa (Joanna Potaczek), Dębica (Ireneusz Socha), Białowieża (Katarzyna Winiarska), Zduńska Wola (Kamila Klauzińska), Czarny Dunajec and Krościenko upon Dunajec (People, not Numbers).

From March to June 2021, Forum has run another round of School of Dialogue workshops. Due to concerns over health safety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, all the workshops in participant schools were conducted online.

For both students and teachers, who have been learning and teaching remotely since the beginning of the school year, taking part in an extracurricular activity was a challenge. This is why we are in such awe of those who did take part in the most recent edition of the program.

In the spring semester we had 11 schools joining the two projects run by the Forum.

The first project, co-financed by Friends of the Forum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and individual donors from Poland and abroad featured four schools:

• Queen Jadwiga Bilingual High School no 9 in Rzeszów
• Maria Skłodowska-Curie Elementary School no 1 in Mysłowice
• Karol Adamiecki Economics School Complex in Dąbrowa Górnicza
• John Paul II Academic High School in Biała Podlaska.

The second project made possible by the Active Citizens Fund – National financed by the Norwegian and EEA funds featured seven schools:

• Cpt. Stanisław Skarżyński Elementary School in Warta
• “Elementarz” Foundation Elementary School in Jackowo
• Fr. Jan Twardowski Elementary School no 5 in Biłgoraj
• Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński School Complex in Kadzidło
• John Paul II Elementary School in Zielonki
• Stanisław Staszic School Complex in Stąporków
• Wedel-Tuczyńscy Family Elementary School in Tuczyn.

During the spring semester, 170 students and 15 teachers took active part in the program.

In all locations, the participants commemorated local Jewish communities both on and offline. They created online maps of Jewish sites, walking routes, and guides (in Polish, English, and German), interviews with eyewitnesses, history quizzes, and social media profiles. The students also organized meetings with guest speakers online, and during periods of relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions also events and walking tours following the traces of Jewish communities in their towns.

The outcomes of commemorative projects submitted by students participating in the spring 2021 and fall 2021 edition of the School of Dialogue program will be evaluated in January 2022 by an expert jury that will select the most accomplished submissions.

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

The project is made possible by the Active Citizens Fund – National financed by the Norwegian and EEA funds.