At an intersection of global and local activism, Łukasz Połomski and Edyta Danielska, activists of the Shtetl of Tsanz and members of our network, hosted Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice-President Kamala Harris, during his visit in Gorlice. They showed him, and a delegation from U.S. Consulate General in Krakow, around the Jewish sites of the town of his ancestors.

The visit was part of Emhoff’s European tour promoting the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration in fighting antisemitism worldwide.

For the past months, we have been working on new strategies for the Forum, which will come into full effect in 2023. As a part of those changes, we are currently developing the new School of Dialogue program. We aim to build even closer co-operation with teachers to increase the program’s sustainability and long-term impact. We are lucky that we can rely on the help of people best suited for such a challenge: members of our activist network working as teachers. In January, we invited a group of them to Warsaw for a workshop and discussion that will ensure School of Dialogue’s update inspires even wider audiences to rediscover and return Jewish past into the history of towns all over Poland.

In May, Forum was invited to join Glenn Kurtz, a longtime Friend of the Forum and author of “Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film”, Bianca Stigter, director of “Three Minutes – A Lengthening,” and a group of Jewish descendants from Nasielsk in what was the culmination of over a decade of efforts to preserve and commemorate the Jewish history of Nasielsk. Starting with the Polish premiere of “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the visit continued with the official unveiling ceremony of the ‘Gate of Memory’ at the Jewish cemetery in Nasielsk, and artistic and educational program prepared by Nasielsk students, including participants of the School of Dialogue program, and their teachers.

Bianca Stigter’s documentary transforms a 3 minute color film found by Glenn in his family home, which was shot in 1938 Nasielsk in Poland by David Kurtz, Glenn’s grandfather, into a moving homage to Jewish life in Poland before the Holocaust.

David Kurtz, who was born in Nasielsk, emigrated to the U.S., and returned to visit his birthplace where he captured three minutes of life of Nasielsk Jewish community. The footage, which had almost rotten just before it was discovered and restored, is the only remaining moving image of the once vibrant community. The finding of the footage and the process of reconstructing the stories of Nasielskiers seen in it are the subject of an acclaimed book published by Glenn Kurtz in 2014.

photos by Forum for Dialogue, P. Stankiewicz

After the film’s official premiere at the POLIN Museum, Glenn, Bianca, and descendants of Nasielsk Jewish families traveled to Nasielsk to witness the unveiling of the ‘Gate of Memory’ monument at the local Jewish cemetery. This moving ceremony, crowning ten years of efforts to bring back the memory of town’s Jewish community, gathered representatives of local authorities, members of Polish/Jewish organizations, and residents of Nasielsk, School of Dialogue students among them.

The ceremony was followed by “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” screening at the “Niwa,” a cinema that dates back to the pre-war times. After the screening and a Q&A session with Glenn and Bianca, School of Dialogue students took their guests on a guided tour of town’s Jewish heritage and shared the findings of their research. The visit ended with a hospitality evening hosted by Polish Friends of the Forum.

photos by K. Pietrzak-Kret, M. Usiekniewicz

The first workshops of the new semester of the School of Dialogue program started in March. Forum educators are conducting in-person workshops at the participating schools, and facilitating the educational process helping students overcome any challenges that may arise. The commemorative projects created by the students should be ready by mid-June, but we can already share a few highlights:

Students from Kudowa-Zdrój plan to enhance their Jewish heritage tour with culinary workshops for participants. They also want to prepare a guidebook featuring descriptions of noteworthy places of Jewish heritage in Kudowa-Zdrój, as well as biographies of important figures of local Jewish community. The group from Adam Mickiewicz High School in Opole Lubelskie base their historical research on an oral history methodology: they will be interviewing history witnesses for testimonies of pre-war town and events during the World War II. Students of the St. Urszula Ledóchowska Congregation of the Ursulines High School in Pniewy are especially interested in Judaism and the history of Orthodox Jewish communities, so it will be interesting to see how will this specialized focus shape their commemorative project.

The groups from Opole Lubelskie, Nicolaus Copernicus High School No 1 in Będzin, and Maria Montessori Bilingual High School in Radom, which host refugee students from Ukraine, plan to make the projects accessible to them. Despite the language barrier, School of Dialogue emphasis on workshops fostering cooperation is proving to have a very positive outcome in this sometimes difficult situation.

Each year, the participants of previous editions of the School of Dialogue decide to continue their involvement in efforts to remember the Jewish communities of their towns and cities. This April, students from Juliusz Słowacki High School No 1 in Częstochowa decided to mark the Yom HaShoah with a virtual commemorative ceremony organized and conducted together with fellow Israeli students from Modi’in. Students of Janusz Korczak High School No 2 in Wieluń took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Campaign – Daffodils Social-Educational Campaign organized by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. They also plan to mark the 80^th anniversary of the liquidation of Wieluń ghetto with a visit to Kulmhof Nazi extermination camp, where they will honor the memory of their town’s Jewish community. The group from the Academic High School in Biała Podlaska organized the “World That No Longer Exists – The History of Biała Podlaska’s Jews” conference, during which they shared the effects of their School of Dialogue historical research. Among the invited conference guests were local historians and regionalists, who presented their own research.

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.

After two-year hiatus in study visits and conferences caused by the Covid-19 pandemic the time has finally come for return to face-to-face meetings. In late April, and early May 2022, together with the Yad Vashem Institute, Forum co-organized a seminar devoted to the issues of Holocaust memory. Nineteen Poles active in Polish/Jewish dialogue and commemorative efforts joined us in Jerusalem for an intense week of lectures, discussions, and site visits.

The seminar’s program was focused on the place of Holocaust in contemporary Israel’s consciousness and the forthcoming 80^th anniversary of the Aktion Reinhardt. The participants had a unique opportunity to listen to the leading authorities in the field of Holocaust research like Professor Yehuda Bauer and Ophir Yarden. They also met Holocaust Survivors Alona Frankel and Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel, as well as representatives of the second generation. An analysis of the characteristics of Israeli Holocaust discourse, especially how it is visible in public spaces, was a key topic of the seminar. To experience that, the participants took part in guided tours of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Yad Vashem campus focused on this aspect. They have also joined the official ceremonies of Yom HaShoah held at Yad Vashem.

When asked about their impressions of the seminar, the participants stressed not only the value of learning about the Israeli perspective: “It was a time for discovering previously unknown fields of Holocaust research and confronting myself with the Israeli narration. Time of amazing meetings with people who deeply care for the heritage of Polish Jews,” shared one participant. The possibility of meeting fellow Polish activists was also a big asset of the program, as expressed by another participant: “This seminar reassured me that what I am doing is important. The feeling that every, even small local project contributes to Poland’s great map of dialogue gives you energy to keep going.”

In 2022, the program is co-financed by the Dutch Humanitarian Fund and the Orange Foundation.

An average of 65,000 Ukrainian refugees are entering Poland each day, which so far has taken in over 450,000 people, according to the Polish Ministry of the Interior. At this rate, we could be facing Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the World War II. If you are interested in helping people fleeing the unlawful Russian assault of Ukraine, check out our list of reputable organizations coordinating support for refugees:

• UNICEF Poland
• Polish Center for International Aid
• Ocalenie Foundation
• Polish Humanitarian Action

Following on the earlier experience of dealing with the situation on Polish/Belarussian border, some of the smaller, yet extremely effective, organizations have decided to form consortia to act and fundraise better:

• consortium of 14 non-profit organizations (scroll down to find description in English)
• Solidarity with Ukraine

Begun in December 2019, the series of seminars dedicated to teachers was designed on the basis of Roberta Grossman’s Who Will Write our History [LINK] documentary about the Ringelblum Archive – the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto. The story of the Oneg Shabbat group and their methods served as inspiration for concrete educational tools. Our methodology prioritized the experience of individuals to show the diversity of prewar Jewish life in Poland.

The series included 7 workshops focused in the following provinces:

• Lublin Province
• Swiętokrzystkie Province
• Podlasie Province
• Łódź Province
• Greater Poland Province
• Kujawsko-Pomorskie and Pomeranian Provinces
• Podkarpacie and Lessser Poland Provinces

We focused each seminar on the Jewish history of a region and sought support from local activists and educators of the Leaders of Dialogue network: Marek Kołcon, Mirosław Skrzypczyk, Mariusz Sokołowski, Anita Rucioch-Gołek, Jakub Niewiński and Edyta Danielska. These seminars are an opportunity to network local teachers and educators, explore archival material pertinent to local Jewish history, and introduce methods of working with the archives for  teachers interested in working on the Jewish heritage with their students.

The first two seminars were organized in Lublin and Kielce with the support of Grodzka Gate and Jan Karski Association respectively. Due to the pandemic, the remaining seminars were organized online. Though unable to meet face-to-face, the participants of the online seminars had more time to explore the materials in the digital Ringelblum Archive at the Central Jewish Library run by the Jewish Historical Institute and other online archives. Despite the pressure put on schools by the Covid-19 pandemic, we had 171 teachers from all over Poland participate in the program. This showed us how many teachers search for new ways of expanding their knowledge and competences in educating about Polish/Jewish history. We wish the participants and their students all the best in their journey of discovery of local Jewish history.

The dedicated lesson plans (in Polish) are available for download at the School of Dialogue website.

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