The summer study trips continue! In the last days of July we began a visit of educators from the ADAM le’ ADAM group, an Israeli initiative that aims to raise awareness of the importance of education and encounter between Israeli and Polish people and its impact on both nations’ current discourse and identity. For the first time the trip was organized through a co-operation of Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, ADAM le’ ADAM and the Forum, with the support of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. During the week-long trip, participants explored Warsaw, Łódź, Kielce, Kraków, tasted Polish cuisine and held countless discussions. They also had a chance to spend a day with the students from Kłobuck to witness their work in the School of Dialogue program, and met with the Facing History and Ourselves educators participating in their own Forum for Dialogue study trip.

On June 30, 2015, two very important members of the Forum for Dialogue family were honored with high State Awards in Poland. Andrzej Folwarczny, Forum for Dialogue’s founder and president, and Michael Rosenbaum, founder and president of Friends of the Forum, received the prestigious Order of Rebirth of Poland and Order for Merit of the Republic of Poland respectively.

In good fortune, this momentous occasion in overlapped with our Friends of the Forum trip, which meant that our esteemed friends were able to attend this important ceremony.

On June 19, a group of Australian Jews, all of whom have Polish origins, had a chance to visit the winning school from last year’s School of Dialogue program. During the trip, which was organized by the Jewish Museum of Australia, the group visited a middle school in the town of Mława, where the students presented their project commemorating the Jewish past of their town. After seeing the students’ work, the visitors said it was no surprise that the project was awarded first place. The most significant part of the day, however, was when the students led the visitors on a walking tour of Mława, which made stops at historically Jewish sites and provided insightful and emotional stories and information. The day was a huge success. In fact, the students were so thrilled to have Jewish guests see their project that they said it was the “real award” for participating in the program.

In June, we had the pleasure of hosting a delegation of Jewish community leaders from the U.S. and Australia. The group visited Warsaw, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Chmielnik and Kraków, as well as the Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau. The visitors participated in various meetings concerning Polish-Jewish relations and visited among others the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Historical Institute and the POLIN – Museum of the History of Polish Jews. In Grodzisk Mazowiecki our guests met with students from the School of Dialogue in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, who introduced them to the history of the Jewish community that lived there before the war. The group was impressed with the students’ efforts and involvement in the project.

Forum for Dialogue’s study trip to Poland program has started again for this year. This time we hosted the second ever Israeli group. The seven-strong group included social and cultural activists, an architect, an educator and a journalist. They participated in an intense trip during which they visited Warsaw, Siedlce, Łódź, Kraków and Museum and Memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau. They spoke with academics, intellectuals and diplomats, including a particularly thorough and informative meeting with Anna Azari, Ambassador of Israel to Poland. They were also invited to a Home Hospitality Evening with the Alumni of the Polish-Jewish Exchange Program. In Łódź they visited The Marek Edelman Dialogue Center and some of the magnificent sites which are the testimony of the city’s rich Jewish history.

During an especially memorable day in Siedlce our guests met with students and teachers who have participated in the School of Dialogue Program. The students showed our guests around the town’s Jewish sites and shared with them their knowledge and impressions from the program.

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 2015.”

On May 7th a group of representatives of Jewish community from the United Kingdom, who were invited to visit Poland by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met the participants of the School of Dialogue from the II LO in Końskie. After a short workshop during which the whole group could find out about each other and about their common passions the students guided a tour around Jewish sites of Końskie. Despite the fact that the official presentation of their project in the form of an urban game is still a few weeks away the students impressed their guests with their knowledge about the Jewish everyday-life in Końskie, some war-time events such as the visit of Leni Riefenstahl, their discoveries such as the mezuzah trace in the former building of Talmud-Torah school and many, many more. This meeting was also an opportunity to learn about Judaism and the Jewish culture from experts who were among the guests.

On April 24th a group of Jewish educators and community leaders from Italy, participants of Study Visit organized by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, paid a visit to Zamość and met with students from II LO high school participating in Forum’s “School of Dialogue”. The II LO school was established 99 years ago. Before World War II a vast majority of its students were Jewish. Today, in the frame of the Forum’s activities, the teenagers are retracing the past of their school and of the district where it is located, Nowe Miasto.

During the meeting both groups took part in a workshop that not only allowed them to get to know each other, but also was a presentation of the methods used in the Forum’s educational work. The Italian guests participated in a very special tour of Nowe Miasto, conducted and prepared by the students as their own commemoration of the Jewish community in Zamość. The guests were very impressed by the incredible work done by the school and the students

Last Friday, April 24th, a group from World Presidents Organization and Young Presidents Organization visited the School of Dialogue in Błonie. Over 20 guests from the US and Australia met the students who took part in the project two years ago or joined its continuation recently. First the group had the chance to get to know each other, find out what they share and have in common. After a short presentation about the project and the life of Chaja Łaja the students from Gimnazjum nr 2 in Błonie invited the representatives of WPO-YPO to join them on a tour of the Jewish Błonie. They explained the story from the film “Run boy, run” and showed their guests where the synagogue and other important places for the prewar Jewish community were located. For the students who’d recently joined the program it was a great practice – and they did really well!

The Third National Conference of Leaders of Dialogue was held in Warsaw on April 17-19, 2015. It was a meeting of people for whom it is important to restore the memory of Polish-Jewish history. The inauguration of the Conference was held in the Senate, which was a partner of the event.

The Leaders of Dialogue Program aims to support people who are actively working for commemoration of the centuries-long presence of Jews in Poland. This includes teachers, government authorities, local historians, archivists, and representatives of cultural institutions and memorial sites. 40 people from different villages, towns and cities from all over Poland met during the event.

Throughout the two days, participants exchanged their experiences, learned practical skills (e.g. project management), and planned their next steps. They also attended a number of lectures connected to Polish Jewish relations as well as the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Raising.

The project is co-financed from the funds granted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund.

Before the new School of Dialogue educators start to lead their workshops, first they have to go through an intensive training process. In February and March 2015 three sets of training workshops, including a seven days long one, took place. During the meetings participants mastered their facilitating skills, learned the methods of Forum’s work, deepened their knowledge about the history and culture of the Polish Jews and Israel as well as ways of fighting prejudice.

The program included educational walking tours in former Warsaw Ghetto area, the Jewish Cemetery in Okopowa Street and following Jewish traces in Warsaw Praga district. Lectures and workshops were led by: Jolanta Żyndul (historian working in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews), Barbara Engelking (director of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research), Helena Datner (historian and sociologist from the Jewish Historical Institute), Mikołaj Grynberg (photographer and author focusing on issues connected to Holocaust), Rabbi Stas Wojciechowicz, and Konstanty Gebert (journalist, Jewish activist, founder of journal “Midrasz”), as well as the experienced Forum for Dialogue educators.