During this study trip our guests participated in meetings with representatives of the diplomatic world, scholars, politicians and leaders of the Polish-Jewish community. They also visited places connected with the history of Polish Jews.

“The trip has totally changed and challenged my perspective on Poland.(…) I leave with an appreciation for the country and its people. Poland has endured a turbulent past but is recovering beautifully and trying to change. The Forum is a huge part of this positive change. (…) The hope is in the future of the children via education. Forum for Dialogue is a huge contribution in this endeavor.”, said one of the participants David Kurtz, TV/film composer and screenwriter from New York City.

Highlights of the visit included taking part in the Jan Karski Centennial Conference “Memory and Responsibility”, organised by Fundacja Edukacyjna Jana Karskiego. However meeting with the students from Radom, participants of the School of Dialogue educational program had a great impact on participants. High schoolers toured them through Radom and showed them places connected with Jewish heritage and history of their city.

“I felt heartened by the work of the Forum and what it seeks to achieve in bringing back to Polish memory an almost forgotten history via schoolchildren. This work is very valuable in both achieving a practical aim of ensuring that history is properly remembered and tolerance developed.”, said Henry Pinskier, businessman and activist from Melbourne, for many years one of the leaders of the Labour Party in Australia.

The project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the competition for the public task “Cooperation with Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad in 2014.”

During their study visit to Poland guests from Tel Aviv, including the city authorities of Tel Aviv, journalists, film makers and activists participated in meetings with representatives of the academic world, thinkers and leaders of the Polish-Jewish community. They also visited places and institutions associated with Polish-Jewish history. Highlights of the trip included meeting with Konstanty Gebert, journalist, activist, and founder of “Midrasz”, lunch with Maciej Kozłowski, former Polish Ambassador to Israel, dinner with Prof. Zdzislaw Mach, Head of the Center for European Studies, Jagiellonian University and a meeting with Narcyz Listkowski, a local activist working for the preservation of Jewish heritage in Rabka. Participants were very touched by the way they were treated by Narcyz Listkowski, who invited them to his home and showed them stairs to a former synagogue, he and his friends had uncovered and cleared on their own. Our guests were most pleased as well to interact with local high school students, participants of Forum’s School of Dialogue educational program in Nowy Targ. Inspite of rain and fog on the day and the fact that they were still having their summer holidays, the students showed the city’s Jewish sites to the Israeli group.

The project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the competition for the public task “Cooperation with Polish Diaspora and Poles Abroad in 2014.”

This past week, Forum hosted leaders of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for a thoroughly engaging, educational trip that introduced the participants to various developments in today’s Polish-Jewish relations. Highlights of the trip include a productive meeting with Piotr Puchta, Director of the Middle East and Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, a discussion with U.S. Ambassador Stephen Mull, a lively dinner with Prof. Dariusz Stola, Director of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, a casual evening of conversation with Polish Alumni of the Polish-Jewish Exchange Program, as well as encounters with Polish-Jewish community members at the JCCs in Warsaw and Krakow. Additionally, meeting numerous Poles in Lublin, Belzec, and Krakow who tirelessly work to preserve Jewish history in their communities proved to be very meaningful. Thank you to all the participants for joining us and opening your minds to this important dialogue.

We would like to thank Polish Embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland for their support for the project.

Last week, on Thursday, July 3, we had a pleasure of participating in Jake Wisnik’s Bar Mitzvah at the „Synagogue” Center of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. It was the first Bar Mitzvah in Zamosc in 75 years.

Approximately 80 people attended the celebration led by Rabbi David Holtz. Vice Mayor of Zamosc, Tomasz Kossowski, Mayor of Bilgoraj, Janusz Roslan, participants of School of Dialogue from Zamosc, Hrubieszow and Szczebrzeszyn, as well as local activists, historians, journalists and the Forum for Dialogue team, all attended this historic ceremony.

Following the Bar Mitzvah and a celebratory lunch, students from the III C.K. Norwid High School who had participated in Forum for Dialogue’s educational program, School of Dialogue, gave a walking tour of Zamosc’ Jewish sites. They showed everyone, including the Wisnik family, the most important buildings and places connected with the local Jewish history.

The idea to hold the Bar Mitzvah in Zamosc originated a year ago when Jake’s parents, Robert and Eva, attended a study trip to Poland organized by Forum for Dialogue. Their experiences from that visit, as well as their personal, historical ties to Poland, prompted them to ask Jake if he would like to hold his Bar Mitzvah in Zamosc. Jake enthusiastically agreed, explaining in his Bar Mitzvah invitation, “I wanted to come back to Poland to have my Bar Mitzvah to prove that the Jewish presence is not gone from Poland, and I want to make a statement that many Poles are welcoming towards Jews… I feel that this Bar Mitzvah is very important because I am continuing the tratidition of my father and grandfathers, in the country where all my ancestors came from.” Jake’s maternal grandfather, Abram Szlak, was born in Zamosc in 1935. Had it not been for World War II, he would have become a Bar Mitzvah in the very synagogue where Jake became one. Jake’s mother on the other hand, had to flee Poland with her parents and brother due to the 1968 anti-Semitic crackdowns.

The ceremony was covered by a large number of local and national media including, among others, the biggest Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

After the Bar Mitzvah the Wisnik’s family attended Krakow Jewish Culture Festival. During its final concert, Jake Wisnik appeared on the main stage and was standing in front of 12,000 people. He was invited there by Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, to celebrate Havdallah, the symbolic end of Shabbat.

Last Friday, Forum for Dialogue had the privilege of opening its second Leaders of Dialogue Conference in the halls of the Polish Senate. Dedicated to the memory of Sherry Levy-Reiner, one of the most loyal and involved of Forum’s friends, the conference convened many Polish leaders, who avidly and independently work to commemorate pre-war Jewish communities in towns across Poland.

The Leaders of Dialogue conference opening night featured a number of speakers who offered both personal stories and praise for the work of the activists and educators attending. Jan Wyrowiński, the Senate speaker began the evening, followed by the deputy ombudsman Ryszard Czerniawski, and Shmuel Afek, a teacher from the United States who participated in a Forum for Dialogue study trip to Poland in conjunction with the non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves.

The approximately 30 participants of the Leaders of Dialogue Conference included teachers, government authorities, local historians, archivists, and representatives from cultural institutions and memorial sites. Throughout the two days, participants exchanged their experiences, learned practical skills (e.g. crowdfunding), and planned their next steps. Guests of the Forum also attended a number of lectures connected to Polish-Jewish relations. The Director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research, Barbara Engelking, spoke about dealing with Holocaust issues specific to Poland, and Rabbis Fred and David Reiner discussed the modern celebration of Shabbat and the differences across Jewish tradition. Additionally, Irene Pletka, an American philanthropist of Polish-Jewish descent, conveyed the challenges and hopes in rebuilding Polish-Jewish relationships, and Michal Bilewicz, vice-president of Forum and Director of the Center for Research on Prejudice of the University of Warsaw, explained how to combat anti-Semitism. On Saturday evening, the Leaders of Dialogue celebrated Havdalah, the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat, at Jewish Community Center in Warsaw.

As winners of the last year’s competition for the best School of Dialogue commemoration project, students from M.M. Kolbe Middle School no 2 in Błonie spent two days on a study trip to Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. On their first day in Krakow they participated in interactive workshops at the Jewish Community Centre, where they demonstrated a high-level of knowledge in Jewish culture and history. Then, the students visited the Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz and Rynek Podgorski, concluding their day on the Krakow’s charming Main Square.

On the second day of the trip, participants had much harder task in front of them – mostly in an emotional way. However, they proved their high level of sensitivity during the moving tour, respectfully engaging with the guide and honoring the victims of the former concentration camp.

Jak co roku o tej porze pracę biura Forum wspiera stażystka z USA. Wszystko w ramach programu stażowego American Jewish Committee Goldman Fellowship. Od 2 czerwca jest z nami Hannah Morris – absolwentka historii na Northwestern University, która aktualnie studiuje język niemiecki oraz europeistykę w School of Foreign Service na Georgetown University w Waszyngtonie.

Nasza nowa koleżanka, która będzie z nami do 1 sierpnia, jest nieocenionym wsparciem dla biura Forum w trakcie przygotowań do pobytu w Polsce zarówno delegacji American Jewish Committee w ramach Polsko-Żydowskiego Programu Wymiany, jak i wizyty studyjnej żydowskich nauczycieli Facing History and Ourselves. Pomaga także przy organizacji specjalnej wizyty AJC związanej z dziesiątą rocznicą otwarcia Muzeum-Miejsca Pamięci w Bełżcu oraz wspiera nasze biuro w pozyskiwaniu funduszy i w komunikacji zewnętrznej.

Representatives of Facing History and Ourselves left Warsaw on five buses to visit five towns participating in the School of Dialogue program, including Błonie, Grójec, Radzymin, Sierpc and Sokołów Podlaski. An integration workshop run by our educators was held in the schools, as was a lunch for both the students and their guests. The students participating in the School of Dialogue gave their guests tours of their towns’ Jewish heritage.

Kathy Lawrence’s ancestors were industrialists who owned a leather factory and were active in the local Jewish community. During the visit, middle school students from the Józef Ostaszewski Middle School, a participant in the School of Dialogue program, gave Ms. Lawrence a tour of the town, including the graveyard and the sites where Mława’s synagogue and mikveh once stood.

Today, Ms. Lori Fife, a New York board member of the Facing History and Ourselves Foundation, visited Radom, the birthplace of her father. She was hosted by Polish students from the Nicolas Copernicus High School, which has participated in the School of Dialogue program for the past couple years. The students gave her an approximately two-hour tour of the city, which included houses where her family lived and a monument that marks where the Radom Synagogue, destroyed by the Nazis during the German occupation of Poland, once stood. During her visit, Ms. Fife had lunch with Zbigniew Wieczorek, a local teacher and participant of the Forum’s Leaders of Dialogue program.