We are pleased to announce that Ireneusz Socha, a Leader of Dialogue from Dębica, received an honorable mention  during the POLIN Award gala at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The prize is awarded by the Museum to people, organizations and institutions working towards preserving the memory of Polish Jews. Ireneusz Socha was recognized for his activism in taking care of the Jewish heritage of Dębica, especially his initiatives aimed at saving the town’s Jewish cemetery and former ghetto area. Congratulations!

You may read more about Ireneusz Socha here.

photo: M.Śmiarowski

Zuzanna Radzik, Forum for Dialogue’s Executive Board Member, participated in the 2017 Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education that took place on November 1-3 at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA. This year’s conference dove into the controversial role of the Roman Catholic Church and its relationship to the events of the Holocaust. During the final session, focused on the changing nature of the Catholic/Jewish relations, in the part devoted to the issue of the Post-Holocaust Theology and its attitude towards Jews, Zuzanna Radzik gave a lecture entitled “Political Correctness or revolution? Theological consequences of the post Vatican II Council theology of Judaism in the Polish context”.

photo: M.Śmiarowski

Read more about the conference 

At the end of October a group from the Park Avenue Synagogue visited a School of Dialogue in Brzesko, a finalist at 2016 School of Dialogue Gala. After a warm welcome and preliminary ice-breaking workshops, the students took their guest on a walking tour of Jewish heritage sites and presented the findings of their research. At the town’s Jewish cemetery the meeting’s participants lit candles in a gesture of commemoration. It is always very moving to see this type of intercultural dialogue happen!

photo: J.Machnowska

We have finished a week-long study visit to Poland for our guests from United States. A dinner with Andrzej Folwarczny, President of the Forum, opened the study trip on Monday, October 16. On Tuesday and Wednesday participants toured Warsaw and city’s Jewish sites, met with Ambassador of Israel to Poland Anna Azari, journalist Konstanty Gebert and representatives of Warsaw Jewish Community.

On Thursday in Grabów they met with students involved with the School of Dialogue program there. After a warm welcome and preliminary ice-breaking workshops, the students took their guest on a walking trip of Jewish heritage sites of their town. Then the study visit participants travelled to Łódź for a tour of Jewish history and piano recital in Łódź Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic.

photo: M.Piekarska, J.Szkarłat

The last part of the study trip started with a visit to the Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau and then Shabbat dinner in Chrzanów, attended by Leaders of Dialogue, local activists working for the preservation of Jewish heritage: Kamil Bogusz from Chrzanów, Justyna Biernat from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Joanna Lorenc from Bieruń and Michał Lorenc from Rymanów. The next day, participants had an opportunity to enjoy a tour of Chrzanów Jewish sites guided by Kamil Bogusz.

After the meeting focused on Jewish-Christian relations led by Zuzanna Radzik, Forum’s Executive Board Member, participants travelled to Krakow to took part in Kazimierz Jewish Quarter sightseeing and meetings with representatives of local Jewish community as well as scholars affiliated with Jagiellonian University.

We would like to thank all the participants for this meaningful journey!

photo: M.Piekarska, J.Szkarłat

In October Forum for Dialogue’s representatives met with two groups of study trips to Poland participants. On October 14 towns of Otwock and Karczew were visited by American, Canadian and Australian students and professors from The American University of Paris, institution providing an American-style university education for degree-seeking students from around the world. The group focuses its research and learning on the memory about the Holocaust and was very interested in the question how this issue manifests on the local level in contemporary Poland. After the brief presentation of the Forum’s educational activities and the School of Dialogue program, visit participants met at local history museum with Monika Czub, Leader of Dialogue active in Otwock and Karczew.

She guided them on a tour of the towns’ Jewish history and explained her initiatives aimed at commemorating the local Jewish community annihilated during the World War II.

The group of visitors affiliated with the Beth El Synagogue met with Forum for Dialogue’s representatives on October 24 as a part of their Eastern Europe tour, during which they visited Prague, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw with a program offering ample opportunities for meeting and conversations with members of local Jewish communities and spokepersons representing organizations working towards promoting tolerance, intercultural dialogue and remembrance of once-thriving Central European Jewish life.

photo: J.Szkarłat

Last weekend, September 15-17, Forum for Dialogue organized the third Local Leaders of Dialogue Conference. These annual meetings – added to the Leaders of Dialogue program in 2015 – are aimed at creating a convenient space in which Leaders could interact and integrate, share experiences and strengthen mutual bonds in a group supportive of each other. It is an opportunity to present their work to others, and exchange ideas, solutions and experiences on the ground.

This year the event was held in Podkarpackie province and hosted by Leaders active in that region: Adam, Joanna and Michał Lorenc and Magdalena Zykiert in Rymanów, Jacek Koszczan in Dukla and Jerzy Dębiec in Nowy Żmigród. The three locations and the sheer number of hosts provided a unique insight into different challenges and approaches to commemoration of Jewish past, and reconnecting ties between descendants of Polish Jews abroad and contemporary Poland.

In Rymanów, the main focus of the team of activists affiliated with “Spotkanie Rymanów” Association is to facilitate the dialogue between the descendants of Rymanów’s Jews and contemporary residents of the town. They hold gatherings which give participants an opportunity to learn about each other and share stories. Members of “Spotkanie Rymanów” team not only managed to create a wide network of contacts, but also secured support for their activities from local authorities and the parish priest. During the Rymanów section of the Conference program, the participants had a chance to familiarize themselves with preserved material heritage of the Rymanów’s Jewish community: cemetery with ohalim of famous Rymanów’s tzadikim, synagogue and remaining unique urban layout of the typical Galician shtetl. They also saw the effects of the association’s international cooperation. One such example is the Malka’s House, which became a museum of Rymanów’s Jewish community. It was renovated thanks to the generous support of Malka Shacham Doron, granddaughter of the former owner of the house. Leaving Rymanów, one of the participants remarked jokingly that it seems that the Rymanów Leaders know all the descendants of Rymanów Jews.

photo J.Szkarłat

In Dukla, the local Leader of Dialogue, Jacek Koszczan shared with the group the details of the prolonged formal process involved in obtaining permits and funding to erect a monument commemorating the town’s Jewish population. This was incredibly useful for those among the Leaders, who themselves are planning their own remembrance projects. In Dukla, the group visited the ruined synagogue, and heard about the plans for its restoration, which date back as far as the 1950s and 1960s.

photo J.Szkarłat

Finally, in Nowy Żmigród, the local Leader of Dialogue, Jerzy Dębiec talked about the challenges faced by a Leader of Dialogue working alone, as his only associate recently decided to move to another town. Everyone was deeply impressed by the dedication and amount of hard work that Jerzy Dębiec puts into taking care of the Nowy Żmigród’s Jewish cemetery. One of the participants even commented in appreciation that the grass on the cemetery resembles that of a golf course. In turn, Jerzy Dębiec could hear from Leaders more experienced in international projects, as he is currently planning to establish connections with descendants of Nowy Żmigród’s Jews. The group then went to Hałbowska mountain pass, where they paid their respects at the site of a mass grave making a spot where over 1200 local Jews lost their lives during the war.

photo: J.Szkarłat

Project co-financed by the Ledor Wador Foundation.

In appreciation to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) for supporting this educator training program. 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.

Leo Wolinsky, a descendant of Polish Jews with roots in Gródek and a participant of Forum’s 2015 Study Visit to Poland, returned to his father’s town to meet with School of Dialogue students working on commemorating Gródek Jewish community. Leo Wolinsky is a veteran journalist who spent the first half of his career as a writer and reporter and the second as a news executive. That includes more than three decades at the Los Angeles Times, where he led an editorial staff of more than 1,000 and directed coverage that won the paper two Pulitzer Prizes. On September 8^th, 2017, when he visited Gródek, he said : “I came here because my father and two generations of his family were born here. I hope that pupils from Gródek’s school will help me in researching those roots, discovering my family’s history.”

His hopes were met, as the 2016 School of Dialogue alumni have become, during the program, real experts in local Jewish history. The effects of their work included in Places that are no more, a state-of-the-art compendium of knowledge about pre-war history and topography of Gródek, created by the Friends of Gródek Region Society and funded by the local authorities.

Gródek has a rich and diverse history. At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 80% of Gródek inhabitants were Jewish, mainly small-scale craftsmen, business owners and traders. The social, religious, cultural and political life of the community was abundant. There were five synagogues and two Hasidic shtiebels, a cemetery, numerous schools, kosher restaurants, a pharmacy and a photo studio. Pre-war memoirs and diaries all mention how fierce the competition was between the local branches of political movements, from Betar zionists to Bundists and Communists. Having discovered this vibrant history of her hometown, one of the School of Dialogue students commented: “Gródek, which seemed to be this small village, now seems a great one to me.” Her friend added: “I wasn’t interested in those things before; now, as I know who lived in Gródek before, it all seems very interesting to me.”

photo: J.Szkarłat

Leo Wolinsky’s visit began with a meeting at the school, where students and their guest had a chance to get to know each other. He told them how his interest in his family’s history was sparked  by a detective who called him up one day and asked if he was that Leo Wolinsky. What followed would merit an international spy thriller! He also shared his discoveries with the students. They, in turn, had a chance to ask many questions regarding contemporary Jewish life in the U.S. Afterwards, together they attended the unveiling ceremony of a plaque in honor of Lew Cukierman, a pre-war Jewish physician and a popular Gródek figure tragically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

From the ceremony, the students took their guest, as well as other tour participants, including other students, local journalists, and a famous Polish painter and local activist, Leon Tarasewicz, on a tour of Jewish Gródek that they prepared themselves. The students were very well-prepared, and the tour featured a snack stop with challah at the site of a prewar kosher restaurant, and a mock photo studio and hair salon, next to the building in which they were once located. These representations were done sensitively and appealed to the younger members of the audience.

The students personalized the tour for their guest. The greatest surprise came when they showed him a photograph of his aunt who, as it turned out, was one of the most active members of the local Jewish drama group. The group specialized in Yiddish theater classics, and was so successful, it received official patronage of the local firefighters and recognition of the authorities. Another heart-warming moment was when the students helped Leo Wolinsky identify the house that belonged to his family’s friends.

The visit was an incredible example on how sharing stories lead to reconnecting ties. To get a glimpse of the tour check out the photos and watch a short TV material prepared by the local branch of Polish National Television (the material is available in Polish only, starts at 12:12 and ends on 15:00).

From August 7th-11th, 2017, Forum for Dialogue’s representatives participated in the Powell Holocaust Summer Institute, made possible by the vision and investment of the Powell Family Foundation, at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle WA, USA. Julia Machnowska, the coordinator of Forum’s flagship project School of Dialogue, and Katarzyna Łaziuk, a Leader of Dialogue from Mińsk Mazowiecki, took part in a seminar focused on exchanging experiences and knowledge concerning the methodology of teaching about the Holocaust as means of fighting against prejudice and discrimination.

The program included a variety of excellent lectures, workshops, discussions and site visits, including, among others, an inspiring conversation with Alexandra Zapruder, author of Salvaged Pages, about using diaries and personal narratives in the classroom, as well as a great lecture by Tatyana Tsyrlina-Spady about Janusz Korczak and his legacy today. Another highlight of the Summer Institute was the meeting with Tom Ikeda from Densho, a grassroots organization educating about the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

For their part, Forum’s delegates had an opportunity to share their unique experiences and highlight the Polish perspective on the program’s main topics. Katarzyna Łaziuk gave an account of the projects created by her students and residents of Mińsk Mazowiecki. Julia Machnowska presented the School of Dialogue program, focusing on its impact on social change in Poland.

Both participants from Poland feel that the seminar was an amazing opportunity for mutual learning, sharing experiences and broadening one’s horizon thanks to the global context of the program.

Julia Machnowska and Katarzyna Łaziuk’s participation in Powell Holocaust Summer Institute was enabled by the generous support of Nancy Powell and Carol Heller.

photo: K.Łaziuk, J.Machnowska