TIME OF CHANGE: THE REVIVAL OF JEWISH LIFE IN POLAND 1989-2004-2014 by Service culturel de l'Ambassade de Pologne

TIME OF CHANGE: THE REVIVAL OF JEWISH LIFE IN POLAND 1989-2004-2014 Krak贸w 2014

Published by: Galicia Jewish Museum ul. Dajwór 18, 31-052 Kraków www.galiciajewishmuseum.org Copyright © by Galicia Jewish Museum and individual authors, 2014 ISBN: 978-83-940542-1-2 Editor: Monika Stępień Translation: Gina Kuhn, Jamie Sisson, Anna Wencel, Grzegorz Zajączkowski Book and cover design: Karol Mizdrak Project coordination: Anna Janeczko, Monika Stępień Published thanks to the ﬁnancial support of:

Taube Foundation

Koret Foundation

TIME OF CHANGE: THE REVIVAL OF JEWISH LIFE IN POLAND 1989-2004-2014

CONTENTS TIME OF CHANGE 9

JAKUB NOWAKOWSKI

IN TIMES OF CHANGE

TAD TAUBE

RETURN TO POLAND

SHANA PENN

OFF THE BEATEN "KITSCH" TRACK

HELISE LIEBERMAN

LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD

JEWISH LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND – HOPES AND CHALLENGES 23

MICHAEL SCHUDRICH

AN AMERICAN IN POLAND: HELPING TO BUILD A MODERN JEWISH IDENTITY

STANISŁAW KRAJEWSKI

OUR DEBT TO FOREIGNERS

KLAUDIA KLIMEK

CREATIVITY VS. LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

PATRYK PUFELSKI

EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO THEIR STORY

SELECTED JEWISH INSTITUTIONS IN POLAND 37

EDYTA GAWRON

THE INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES AT JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY

BENTE KAHAN

THE BENTE KAHAN FOUNDATION

MONIKA KRAWCZYK

THE FOUNDATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH HERITAGE IN POLAND: HOPES AND CHALLENGES

JANUSZ MAKUCH

THE JEWISH CULTURE FESTIVAL

JONATHAN ORNSTEIN

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE IN KRAKÓW

KRYSTYNA PODGÓRSKA

THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY OF KRAKÓW

ZUZANNA RADZIK

THE FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AMONG NATIONS

DARIUSZ STOLA

POLIN MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWS: A JOURNEY OF A 1000 YEARS

ARTUR SZYNDLER

THE AUSCHWITZ JEWISH CENTER

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

TIME OF CHANGE

IN TIMES OF CHANGE JAKUB NOWAKOWSKI

From the point of view of Jewish history, the area of the former Galicia province is a special one. Nowhere else do traces of Jewish life stand side-by-side with those of the Holocaust and destruction in such a literal and visible manner. Nowhere else in Europe is the presence of the void created by the Holocaust as tangible as in the lands of modern Poland and Ukraine. Nowhere else is the evidence of destruction as lasting and ubiquitous as it is here – because nowhere else in Europe was Jewish life as developed as it was in historic Galicia. The political and social reality shaped by the Second World War caused those physical elements that survived to be forgotten for years. Instead of remembrance, a lack of memory appeared – a shared amnesia – which sanctioned further mass devastation of those fragments of the broken world that somehow remained. Jewish cemeteries were plunged beneath concrete and converted into bus stations; matzevot with still-visible inscriptions and decorative art became a cheap and in-demand building material for new inhabitants. In towns without Jews, synagogues were re-adapted as schools, cinemas or ﬁre stations. Buildings and objects that not long ago served Jewish communities became enigmatic artefacts obscurely remaining in a world that once existed. This was the reality of post-communist Poland just 25 years ago.

manifesting its presence here in Poland. This new, contemporary Jewish world is founded not only on remembering the Holocaust, but also on the awareness of the centuries of the Jewish presence in this country and its contributions to every aspect and sphere of life. For the ﬁrst time in over 70 years, Poland is ﬁlled with a polyphony of Jewish voices, an emphatic testimony to the variety of opportunities and trends – from Orthodox to Progressive, to completely secular. This polyphony, the tumult, noise and pluralism – and even the related tensions and problems – are a meaningful testimony to this world’s true vitality.

But Jewish life, which for decades of communism smouldered under the surface, has begun to recover in the last few years and is proudly

The people and institutions involved in this revival process cannot change the past, but they can change the world around us. Although much

Jakub Nowakowski. Photo from the Galicia Jewish Museum archive.

In celebrating 10 years of the Galicia Jewish Museum, we are also celebrating 10 years of the Polish presence in the European Union and 25 years of freedom. In this publication, we have invited our partners and friends to share how Poland and Polish-Jewish relations have changed in those years from their perspective. After all – whether they are individuals or members of organisations or foundations – all of them were not only part of this change, but are also the foundations for the future. Opening of the exhibition An Unﬁnished Memory (2014). Photo from the Galicia Jewish Museum archive.

remains to be done, today, looking back at the 25 years since the end of the communist system in Poland, and the 10 years since Polish accession to the European Union, we can clearly see how much we have achieved together. From a country that in the 1980s could claim almost no visible Jewish life and no hopes for a Jewish future, Poland has become a country bustling with Jewish culture, rebuilding Jewish communities that, for the ﬁrst time in decades, are optimistic about their future. But today’s Poland is also a country where many non-Jews are interested in engaging with Jewish culture and history, actively taking part in preserving its monuments and celebrating the revitalisation of Jewish life and culture. Such changes would not be possible without the work and devotion of many individuals and organisations in Poland and abroad, including: the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Taube Centre for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland, the Jewish Culture Festival, JCC Kraków and JCC Warsaw, the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Centre for Holocaust Studies at Jagiellonian University, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute and many others.

The Galicia Jewish Museum – redefining role of the Jewish museum Since its establishment in 2004, the Galicia Jewish Museum has been trying to address the most difficult questions connected with the activities of a Jewish museum in a predominantly post-Jewish Poland of the early XXI century. What should be the role of the Jewish museums in such a specific and complicated environment? Should these institutions, located in a space so inseparable from the Holocaust, focus on the detailed aspects of this process? Or, on the contrary, should they create a narrative in which the Shoah would be described as one chapter – perhaps the most important – in the broader picture of Jewish presence in this part of the world? This problem is related to an issue of how post-communist Europe is perceived by many outsiders: in most cases, it is not merely the place where the Holocaust took place, but rather the very heart of darkness, an area of eternal antisemitism, a land of ashes. Of course, stereotypes also exist among the inhabitants of post-communist Europe. Here, though, the picture is often the total opposite, largely based on an idealised memory of the past with reference to the centuries of Jewish pres-

Rabbi Tanya Segal during workshops for children. Photo from the Galicia Jewish Museum archive.

ence and, in the context of the Holocaust, to the actions of the Righteous Among the Nations. In these narratives, the notion of Polin and peaceful cohabitation counterbalance pogroms and persecutions. The glorious stories of the Righteous, with their courage, devotion and sacriﬁce, obscure the dark shadows cast by traitors and collaborators. In these narrations, the burning stable in Jedwabne is a reaction to the actions of Judeo-Bolshevism. In these narrations, Poles will always be victims—never perpetrators, as if one cannot be both a victim and a perpetrator at the same time. It seems, therefore, that, in addition to the obvious educational goals, Jewish museums in post-communist Europe should deal with the contradictory stereotypes visible among its visitors. Yet the museums will have to (sooner or later) face not only the area’s extremely complicated past, but also contemporary matters connected to the issue of identity and responsibility for

the surrounding world: for example, by raising questions of who should take responsibility for commemorating the history of local Jewish communities in the towns and villages where those communities no longer exist, and to what extent. All of this perhaps means that Jewish museums in this part of the world should not devote themselves only to presenting history. After all, visible fragments of the past exist around us and are direct reflections of the history of Polish and Eastern European Jews. Conceivably, rather than solely presenting history, the Jewish museums should devote more effort to restoring consciousness of the existence of those very traces in the landscape of present-day Poland as well as those traces’ value as part of our shared heritage. Since its establishment, the Galicia Jewish Museum has endeavoured to adjust to this very special and unique space, while at the same redefining the goals and tasks standing in the foreground of Jewish museums in post-communist Europe.

As a result, it seems that there is no other Jewish museum in Central and Eastern Europe of a comparable size that is as innovative as the Galicia Jewish Museum in terms of its positioning vis-à-vis exhibiting Jewish culture, the Holocaust and present-day Jewish life all under one roof. The compact size of the Museum, which is a well-designed and well-structured site, means that a visitor can learn a very great deal about the subject in a (typically) rapid visit. This learning experience can be built not only by way of a passive visit to the Museum’s exhibitions, but also through active participation in a wide range of cultural, artistic and educational programmes. The uniqueness of the Galicia Jewish Museum is also connected to its location. The Museum is located in the old Jewish district of Kraków, Kazimierz. The city is famous mostly because of its very well preserved medieval Jewish district, but also because of places inextricably connected with the Holocaust: original fragments of the ghetto wall, Oskar Schindler’s former factory (today, the Museum of Occupied Kraków) or the remnants of the Płaszów concentration camp. Nevertheless, because of the existence of institutions like the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Jewish Community Centre and the Jewish Culture Festival, Kraków is an ideal place for learning not only about past Jewish life and the Holocaust, but also the continuity of the Jewish presence in this part of the world despite of the horrors of the Holocaust. In addition to its educational tasks, the Galicia Jewish Museum meets a range of speciﬁc community- and heritage-based needs: 1.

Through a rich and diverse exhibition programme, the Museum oﬀers a platform for contact with Judaism, Jewish culture, history, tradition and even contemporary art.

The Museum provides an engaging, welcoming environment for people from all backgrounds and age groups within the context of Kraków. The exhibition programmes target visitors from the local Jewish community as well as their non-Jewish neighbours, Jewish tourists visiting the place of death and/ or country of their ancestors and non-Jewish tourists arriving every year to Poland.

The Museum provides a perfect space in which, in an accessible and engaging manner, local visitors may come into contact and interact with exhibitions devoted to the Jewish past of this region and sometimes of their own hometowns. As the exhibitions document traces of the Jewish presence in dozens of places, they allow us to localise the story, relaying to visitors a narrative not of strangers but rather their former neighbours. The creation of an interesting and diverse exhibiton programme in a safe and friendly Jewish space enables local non-Jewish communities to start exploring Jewish heritage as a part of their own heritage, arousing curiosity, breaking stereotypes and overcoming prejudices.

By the range of exhibitions on view, the Museum suggests a feeling that the Jewish experience as seen from present-day Poland is not at all stuck in a rut, but rather is an expanding universe with a great deal to say about contemporary issues and perspectives.

Through all of those actions, the Museum not only commemorates the past, but also takes part in the revival of Jewish life in contemporary Poland.

RETURN TO POLAND TAD TAUBE

My interest in my native land was awakened in 1975, when I traveled with my mother to Kraków for the first time since we had left for the U.S. in 1939. As she had lost many family members in the Holocaust, she found the trip emotionally draining. I, on the other hand, dreamed of a free Poland. In 1999, I had the opportunity to follow this dream when my foundation underwrote the archive transfer of Cold War era documents to the Polish Government. This allowed me to develop strong ties to senior Polish officials, some of whom I brought together alongside scholars and policymakers in 2002. Shana Penn, a 20th-century Polish historian, became my partner in planning the Taube Foundation’s Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP). The initiative’s mission was to strengthen the institutional life of Polish Jewry and to create an inclusive view of Jewish life that saw Poland as an influence on modern Israeli and American Jewish life. The JHIP is committed to broadening the world's understanding of Jewish peoplehood as viewed through the lens of Polish Jews. We prioritized funding for Jewish organizations in Poland that had the potential to become sustainable foundations of Jewish life. During the first few years of operation, grants went to three institutions that Shana and I had identified as institutionally sustainable: the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) in Warsaw, the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków and the

Tad Taube. Photo from the Taube Foundation archive.

Judaica Foundation/Center for Jewish Culture. The ŻIH and the Festival have received annual grants since 2004. After we had embarked on our grant-making initiative in Poland, the Galicia Jewish Museum opened in Kraków. The GJM provided an exquisite Jewish cultural center, attracting visitors from around the world. It has also been the ﬁrst stop for heads of state on their visits to Kraków and Auschwitz. Shana and I attended the opening of the GJM and foresaw its potential as a sustainable partner institution in Kraków. The JHIP awarded its ﬁrst grant to the GJM in 2004 and has continued to provide annual support. Our partnership with the

GJM has grown in several ways. We host its traveling exhibits in the Bay Area including Traces of Memory (Osher Marin Jewish Community Center) and Polish Heroes (Hillel at Stanford University). We are pleased that we made a shidduch (Heb: "introduction") between the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) and the GJM. Our Warsaw branch, the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland, has consistently partnered with the GJM on projects, especially those regarding the center’s Jewish Heritage Tourism program. The tours created a ground presence allowing us to provide direct support and create strong partnerships with our grantees. Since its inception, the JHIP has funded over 300 grants, totaling $26 million, to grantees including the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center, the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, the Galicia Jewish Museum, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Jewish Community Centers in Kraków and Warsaw and the Oﬃce of the Chief Rabbi of Poland. The JHIP sponsors numerous programs that oﬀer large returns on investment by addressing personal needs (e.g. Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center) and providing educational and cultural opportunities (e.g. Mi Dor Le Dor, Auschwitz Jewish Center, Warsaw Jewish Film Festival). We sought to foster appreciation for Polish Jewish arts, music, literature and heritage throughout the world, with a focus on the United States. Although 85 percent of American Jews trace their roots to Poland, most know little about their own heritage prior to the Holocaust. Through the Taube Jewish Heritage Tour Program, we invested

in changing the experience of Jewish youth travel to Poland from focusing almost exclusively on the Holocaust to promoting discovery of personal heritage, collective history and a promising future for Jewish life. With our partners, we have facilitated and supported more than 100 different programs in Poland and launched successful foundational initiatives on education, tourism and genealogy. These efforts have helped us change perceptions about Jewish life and culture in Poland and perceptions about Poland around the world. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is the capstone project of our efforts, possible through vital partnerships with other grantees such as the GJM, Centrum Taubego, ŻIH, and the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center. In the country that was once the greatest Jewish community in the world, we are helping Polish Jewry regain some of that greatness while linking Jews worldwide to their culture’s East European past. Today, I can proudly show my children a Poland that has become supportive of its Jewish renaissance. As proud supporters of the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Taube and Koret Foundations warmly congratulate you on your tenth anniversary. In commemorating and celebrating the Jewish culture of Polish Galicia, you have simultaneously strengthened the Jewish community in Poland and served to support its remarkable renaissance. As a Kraków native and a U.S. philanthropist, I applaud your work and wish you continued success in the decades to come.

OFF THE BEATEN "KITSCH" TRACK SHANA PENN

Certain encounters are life-changing, though apparent only in retrospect. Such was my introduction to photographer Chris Schwarz and social anthropologist Jonathan Webber in April 2004, in Prague at a conference on Jewish material heritage. The American curator Jill Vexler introduced me to Chris and Jonathan, informing me of their plans to open a Jewish museum in Kazimierz that would revolutionize thinking about Poland’s Jewish past and present – and be an anchor of Poland’s Jewish future. As Chris explained to me, he and Jonathan would base the permanent exhibition on their 12 years of ﬁeld research across Polish Galicia, portraying in photographs and text the "traces of memory" that still existed in towns and villages, indicating the strength and splendor of the region’s once thriving Jewish cultural life. By photographing the sites in color, rather than black and white, Chris explained, he and Jonathan intended viewers to see the relics as they existed in their natural surroundings, to reﬂect on the past through the lens of the present, and to consider how these remnants, not all in ruin and some superbly restored, infused local communities and international visitors with the capacity to connect to and transmit this heritage to younger generations. As it turned out, not only the exhibition, but the architectural structure itself, would alter how people viewed the Polish Jewish past and think about the future of Jewish culture in Poland. The stunning and welcoming building, renovated from a former red brick mill, has a post-industrial feel,

Shana Penn. Photo by Paul Milne.

utilizing glass, metal and woods, while retaining many of the mill’s original elements and structure. The flexible space exudes light and space – and new life. The Galicia Jewish Museum helped pioneer the establishment of a wave of contemporary venues, offerings and interest in Jewish culture. Before it was created in 2004, many historical buildings, such as synagogues and other properties managed by the official Jewish community, could be used for public events, but there were few modern gathering spaces that welcomed the local community and international visitors. The museum became the perfect complement for both the Jewish Culture Festival, which was not yet operating its Cheder Café, a year-round

performance and meeting space that opened in 2009, and the Jewish Community Center, built in 2008 on a former Jewish site next to the Tempel Synagogue. Ten years since the museum opened, a lively Jewish neighborhood and cultural hub exists, attracting residents and visitors year-round.

grand opening in July 2004, we were instantly excited, foreseeing its potential to ﬁll much needed educational objectives for broad and diverse audiences. At that time, Poland’s Jewish community was feeling its way toward a more expansive and assured position among the broader society.

The Taube Foundation shares this 10th anniversary with the Galicia Jewish Museum, because 2004 was also the year that the Foundation formally established our Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP). Tad Taube and I had begun working together in 2003, with a team of advisors, to conceptualize the JHIP’s mission, goals and rationale for disbursement of our ﬁrst multi-year grants (supporting general operations), made at the start of 2004 to Jewish organizations we surmised could be sustainable into the future.

Back in 1990, when I first visited this country, it seemed that Poland was just waking up from World War II – as if Communism had been a welcome anesthetic after the Holocaust’s annihilation of the country’s Jewish population and culture. There were then no formalized Jewish studies and only scant public discourse on "things Jewish." There was hardly any visible Jewish presence in public life – indeed, there was hardly any public life at all, given the prohibitions imposed by one-party rule and martial law. The few Jewish libraries and archives were in dire states of neglect and disuse. Jewish life focused more on Orthodox religious practice than on cultural and educational outreach, and the flow of funds, though growing, was not yet significant.

We had not yet heard about the plans for the Galicia Jewish Museum before my lucky encounters in Prague. When Tad and I subsequently brought a small delegation to participate in its

Shana Penn and the members of Supervisory and Management Board of the Galicia Jewish Museum at the 10th Anniversary Evening. Photo from the Taube Foundation archive.

Shana Penn and Tad Taube at the Galicia Jewish Museum. Photo from the Taube Foundation archive.

The Galicia Jewish Museum oﬀered an appealing example and model of what could be done with the thoughtful, knowledgeable and creative application of talent and funds from British and gradually, American and local government supporters. We at the Taube Foundation realized immediately that our strategic use of resources could make a huge diﬀerence in building an institutional infrastructure for Poland’s Jewish cultural life. Since JHIP launched in 2004, our grantees have become the mainstays of Jewish cultural life in Poland. Each is an integral part of the infrastructure supporting the revitalization of Jewish culture today. The central address for Polish Galician heritage is of course the Galicia Jewish Museum, which is one of Taube’s grantees, together with the main archive for Polish Jewish research, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute.

We also support the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center, which offers extensive resources for those who are searching Jewish roots in Poland, as well as the world’s largest Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, the original program that restored Kraków’s prominence as a Jewish destination site. The focal points for Jewish residents and visitors in Warsaw and Kraków, the JCCs, receive funding from us, and so does the center for traditional Judaism, the Office of the Chief Rabbi of Poland. And most spectacular is the home of the only exhibition showcasing 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, for which the Taube Foundation and our partner the Koret Foundation are the major American donors. It is easy today to forget the impact of these hard-earned efforts to revitalize Jewish culture in Poland. Developments in Kraków and its Jewish

district, Kazimierz, illustrate the progress made. As many of us recall, in 2004, Kazimierz was still being harshly criticized as a "Jewish Disneyland." The establishment of the Galicia Jewish Museum, a cultural and educational facility that focuses responsibly on Galician heritage, legitimized not only its own institutional mission but also the important work performed by existing NGOs, such as the Jewish Culture Festival and the Center for Jewish Culture. Amid fake Jewish storefronts, Jewish-style restaurants, and irksome vendors selling tours of Spielberg’s Kazimierz, the museum opened its doors, slightly off the beaten "kitsch" track, and inspired those of us who had been involved in comparable initiatives to move beyond deflecting attacks toward asserting our cultural program for a Jewish future in Poland (and Europe, more broadly). We were driven to stop fixating on the rest of the Jewish world’s mulish claims that Poland is eternally anti-Semitic and the notion that Jews should cease to live in or visit that forsaken place. Ten years later, it appears the rest of the world is undergoing a 180-degree attitude adjustment and catching up to us. Today’s Jewish community, with its day schools, synagogues, Jewish studies and Holocaust education programs, young adult groups, JCCs, museums and archives, a genealogy center and the world’s largest Jewish culture festival, is alive and well because Poland was finally freed, because government and world Jewish organizations provide significant support, and because growing numbers of people have begun not only embracing Polish Jewishness but celebrating it.

Celebration, indeed, is the word that I would use to describe the life-changing impact of the Galicia Jewish Museum. The late Chris Schwarz and Jonathan Webber were among the pioneers who showed us how to do it and helped the world change. Now, a decade later, we can recognize the significance of the change. *** The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture is aware that many of our grantees are preparing for a generational shift in leadership. Who will fill the shoes of the cultural leaders who founded and directed successful Jewish programs in Poland? The Galicia Jewish Museum faced this question early on, due to the untimely death of its founder Chris Schwarz, who died at age 58, only three years after the museum opened. His deputy director Kate Craddy ably succeeded him until she decided to return to Great Britain. The museum’s education director Jakub (Kuba) Nowakowski, who was born and raised in Kazimierz and earned his Jewish Studies graduate degree at Jagiellonian University, was appointed the museum’s first Polish director in 2010. Since then, it’s been a pleasure to observe both Kuba and the museum flourish in the last four years. His accomplishments can be an inspiration to other organizations, which will eventually transition from founder-director to new leadership. On behalf of the Taube Foundation, we take our hats off to Kuba and the Galicia Jewish Museum on your 10th anniversary! May you carry on to 120, as we say in Yiddish, hundert tzvanzig!

LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD HELISE LIEBERMAN

The Taube Center congratulates its partner organization, the Galicia Jewish Museum, on its 10th anniversary, marking a decade of cooperation with the shared goal of transmitting a living Polish Jewish heritage to Poles and to visitors from around the world. 2014 is a year of reflection. As we commemorate 25 years of democracy in Poland, and ten years since Poland entered the European Union, I personally am celebrating 20 years of living and working in Poland. What has transpired, what has been achieved, and how can we contribute to strengthening what is becoming an increasingly open, tolerant and multi-cultural Poland? I have been privileged to experience the past two decades from several different vantage points: as the founding director of the Lauder-Morasha School, as a consultant to various Jewish Polish and European organizations and foundations, and now as the director of the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation. When my family and I first arrived, there was a palpable sense of relief, hope, and optimism among the Polish people we met. The feeling of "freedom from and freedom to", to paraphrase Eric Fromm, was pervasive among many Polish Jews emerging from the long shadows. Each new Jewish program that was created was met with curiosity and interest. Learning aleph, led to learning bet, and so on through taf, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A sense of community was slowly developing, in which each mezuzah was

Helise Lieberman. Photo from the Jewish Historical Institute archive.

homemade, and each challah was home-baked. While we continued to pick up our matzot each year delivered from abroad to the Jewish Community oﬃce, our Passover Seders had become homegrown. As with many evolutions, realities replaced idealism, and structured programs replaced ad hoc projects. As Jewish communal infrastructures – some rooted in Polish Jewish traditions and others shaped by external contemporary inﬂuences – began to weave the fabric of Polish Jewish life, Jews in Poland found themselves with new challenges, among them: how to convince the Jewish world that Polish Jews not only were, but are and will be,

an integral part of the Jewish peoplehood puzzle? This ongoing challenge became compounded by other challenges to Polish Jewish life as diversity in Polish Jewish identities emerged. The questions became which kinds of institutions and initiatives were needed to support our complex identities and to create sustainable communities. New portals were needed to match the needs of those who were searching for their Jewish roots or planning for their Jewish futures. What kinds of religious, cultural, social and cultural constructs would best serve Poland and its growing Jewish communities? The decade was also filled with retrieving histories and memories, which were often painful and suffused with great passion. There were challenges to personal and national narratives, which encouraged and even forced long over due confrontations with conflicting histories. The years were also infused with creativity and new opportunities for public discourse and debate. It had become increasingly clear that Jewish institutions and Jewish spaces could not and did not need to be created by Jews alone, but rather by all those committed to honoring Poland’s Jewish historical legacy and in promoting a vibrant Jewish cultural tradition. In 2004, the Galicia Jewish Museum was a timely response to our challenges. The Museum provided a new structure with a mission to enrich and strengthen Polish Jewish life, transmit its 1,000 year history, and ensure that Polish Jewish heritage becomes a living bridge between the past and the present, between Jews and non-Jews, and between Polish Jews and the Jewish world.

Five years later, it was time to further broaden the Polish Jewish horizon, and the Taube Center was established. The Taube Center supports the development of Jewish life in Poland, deepening knowledge about Polish Jewry in Poland, and promoting mutual understanding between Jews and non-Jews in Poland and abroad. The Center, through its special partnerships such as we share with the Galicia Jewish Museum, is meeting these goals through an array of innovative programs such as our ﬂagship initiative, the Taube Jewish Heritage Tour Program, Mi Dor Le Dor Jewish heritage educators and leadership training program, now in its fourth year, and the Sefarim Book Publishing Project, which is supported by the Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund. The Center is preparing the next generation of Polish Jews, as they take on the responsibility for Jewish and civic life, serve as communal leaders and as stewards of Polish Jewish heritage, and assume their place at the Jewish world’s round table. So much has been achieved in the last 10 years that there are too many accomplishments to name. Yes, challenges remain and new ones will emerge, but we all have much to be proud of. We must strengthen a viable network of institutional partnerships and build living bridges, inspire and empower new leadership and expand the base of committed, engaged and knowledgeable participants. We must transpose models from Poland’s past to meet our contemporary needs, thereby honoring our common heritage, while investing in a shared future. May we all go from strength to strength.

JEWISH LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND – HOPES AND CHALLENGES N

AN AMERICAN IN POLAND: HELPING TO BUILD A MODERN JEWISH IDENTITY1 CHIEF RABBI MICHAEL SCHUDRICH

When I came to Poland for the first time in an official capacity in 1991, the question was, "Why are you going there? There are no Jews." Now people abroad ask, "Is the community viable?" This change reflects the positive developments in the community, but my answer must be, "Who knows?" There is nothing logical about how Jewish communities function and survive. As long as there is a community, I, as a rabbi, feel an obligation and honor to be there to help people connect to their Jewish identity. The Polish Jewish community I work with every day is a growing one, and the average age of its members is declining. The median age of the Warsaw Jewish community in the last three years has declined from over 65 to about 45, and new members are all under the age of 40. The parents and grandparents had given up being Jewish, but some of their children are among the number of Jews discovering their Jewish origins and wanting to "do something Jewish." Membership in the Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw is now about 700, and a number of new rabbis have arrived in Poland from abroad in recent years. I could tell thousands of stories about men and women of all ages and backgrounds who are only now returning to Judaism. This year more than a hundred people sought me out to discuss their Jewish roots, while many others went to other 1

This article was ﬁrst published in 2014 book Deep Roots, New Branches. Personal Essays on the Rebirth of Jewish Life in Poland Since 1989, edited by Shana Penn, published by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture.

Rabbi Michael Schudrich. Photo from a private source.

rabbis. This phenomenon is likely to continue. We must always keep in mind that from 1939 to 1989, when Poland suﬀered under Nazi occupation and the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party, nothing gave a Jew the impression that it was a good idea – or even a safe one – to say that he or she was Jewish. Poland has known democracy only since 1989. Some people, even those who knew that they were Jewish or had Jewish roots, have needed a long period to conclude that perhaps the time has come to "do something Jewish." Fear often dissipates slowly. A few months ago a man of about 60 approached me and said that his Jewish mother had died. They had buried her next to his non-Jewish father in a nonsectarian cemetery. He told me that he had never done anything Jewish,

but now felt the need to say Kaddish. So, on a Friday morning, I taught him this prayer for the dead, then said, "Shabbat begins this evening. Why don’t you come to the synagogue?" He mentioned that his wife was also Jewish, and therefore also their 21-year-old daughter. I invited all three of them. They came and were moved. Another story: A young woman, in her early twenties, discovered that her mother’s mother was Jewish. She became observant, met a young Jewish man from the United States, and they fell in love. Her mother wants the wedding to be in New York so that the neighbors won’t see that they are having a Jewish wedding. This is more proof that fear doesn’t dissipate easily. This does not so much concern current anti-Semitism, but mainly what might happen again. This is based rationally on what people have experienced during most of their life. As a rabbi I have a major responsibility: I don’t feel I should say that one can be sure it won’t happen again. People often ask me how I, an American rabbi from New York’s Upper West Side, became the Chief Rabbi of Poland? In 1973 just after graduating from high school, I was hoping to make my first trip to Israel. A friend was joining a program that first went through Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and then on to Israel, and I jumped at the chance to go along. In Poland, we were told that only a few thousand old Jews were left and that very little remained of the Jewish past. It didn’t make sense; the sums didn’t add up. If, as is commonly believed, about 10 percent of three and a half million Polish Jews survived the war and 90 percent of the survivors emigrated, that would still leave about 30,000 Jews in Poland. Many of these people would now have children and grandchildren. Where were they? I wanted to find out.

In 1976, accompanied by my American-born father Z"L, I returned to Poland so I could check it out for myself. The following year, I became the assistant leader of the program I had taken in 1973. In 1979, after spending my third year of rabbinical school in Israel, I decided to study Polish at the Jagiellonian University for the summer. (I 2 nicknamed it an ulpanski .) That summer I met several young Jewish dissidents, such as Staszek and Monika Krajewski and Kostek Gebert, and realized that there were indeed some young Jews left, and they were asking for my help to gain Jewish knowledge. The Jewish friends I made in Poland and other Eastern European countries had done nothing to "deserve" to grow up with no Jewish education or experience, just as nothing I had done had brought me the tremendous blessing of a Jewish day school education and a full, rich Jewish life. That gift was presented to me by decisions made by my grandparents and parents. I felt that the time had come for me to give something back. Yes, this is ironic, because before World War II, American rabbis would come to Warsaw to study Torah with the greatest Talmudic scholars of their time. This city was the heart of Jewish tradition. Now an American rabbi has to come here to help the Polish Jews. Another sign of the Jewish community’s development is that the number of rabbis in Poland has increased greatly in the last few years. There are now thirteen rabbis: seven are traditional, three are Reform, and three are Chabad emissaries. One of the traditional rabbis is Polish-born. Rabbi Mati Pawlak discovered that he was Jewish at age 16. He later studied at Yeshiva University 2 Ulpański – from Heb. ulpan, meaning a school oﬀering intensive Hebrew language course, originally designed mainly for new settlers in Israel.

and came back to Warsaw as the director of the Lauder Morasha Day School, which has over 240 pupils from pre-kindergarten to ninth grade. He has a challenging job, because it is problematic to teach Jewishness at a school where only half the children have Jewish roots. Rabbi Pinchas Żarczyński was born in Warsaw in 1981 and went to Israel with his parents in 1985. He has now returned to Warsaw as a rabbi. The traditional rabbis include new ones in Kraków, Katowice, Łódź and Wrocław; of the Reform rabbis, two are in Warsaw, and the other in Kraków. There 3 also is a new Zionist kollel in Warsaw where ﬁve young Jewish men study our tradition. In such a small community we should make great eﬀorts to avoid division among Jews as much as possible. On Israel’s Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day), I invited both the rabbi of Beit Warszawa and the local Chabad rabbi to participate in the ceremony. When Israel’s President Shimon Peres visited Poland in 2008, all of us sat together near the Holy Ark. Part of what keeps the Jews in Poland united is that we don’t want Hitler to have won the war. I am aiming for the day when Poland’s Chief Rabbi will be Polish but, as of now, it doesn’t seem likely that this will happen in the immediate future. Developing local leadership remains a slow process, as local people often don’t want to take leadership positions. More people are coming to synagogue and attending activities, but that’s where it ends. As for the economic and social status of the Jews, there are no philanthropic Polish Jewish billionaires such as the Jewish oligarchs in Russia 3 Ko(l)lel – a yeshiva for young, married men or a group of young, married men engaged on advanced Talmudic studies.

or Ukraine. If that were the case it would have made the financing of Jewish activities in Poland much easier. At present we remain significantly dependent on Jewish foreign aid. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is active in Poland, mainly in welfare but also in community leadership training, as are the Jewish Agency, World Zionist Organization and Shavei Israel, an organization that reaches out worldwide to people with Jewish roots. Among the private foundations active here are the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and Rothschild Foundation Europe. My main obligation is toward the living Jewish community: to help them with their identity and assist them in expressing their Judaism. Yet there is a profound Jewish past in Poland, whose memory must be preserved and material sites protected. This heritage raises many complex issues that call for resolution. For example, how many synagogues and cheders can we possibly afford to restore? Which ones will we rescue, and why those over others? When teaching young and old, the question remains: how much does one focus on what will be and how much on what was? There has to be a balance; neglecting the future for the past is not reasonable. What, for instance, is the Jewish community’s attitude toward the 1,300 unattended Jewish cemeteries? We cannot save all of them because we cannot raise such massive funding. My first priority is that we will not permit their further desecration. It is unacceptable, for example, for somebody to build a road over a Jewish cemetery. In that case we will take action. In Ostrów Mazowiecka, for example, one-third of the Monday flea market is located on the old Jewish cemetery. The mayor told me that if I said this was wrong according to Jewish laws, he would move the market. Another example: in Sierpc, in order to develop the land behind the cemetery, the

town planner wanted to curve the road, and thus it would go over the cemetery. I suggested an alternate route for the road. The mayor agreed. Why hadn’t he come up with this idea earlier? He might not have wanted to oppose his city planner, who might have thought it better to have the road curve rather than make a right angle. Or, perhaps decisions were inﬂuenced by the fact that in Poland, Christian cemeteries are closed after decades of disuse and one can build over them. As Poland develops, unused land becomes more valuable. If no one has paid attention to a Jewish cemetery for ﬁfty years, there is an inclination to build over it. This now becomes a matter of public education for us. Over the last ten years, I have found increased sensitivity to our tradition among the authorities. We often do not know why a mayor or town council is ready to be helpful. I only encountered one substantial exception, in Leżajsk, where the great Hasidic master, Rabbi Elimelech is buried. Thousands of Hasidim and other Jews visit Leżajsk every year, but despite that or perhaps because of it, the town has too often been insensitive to Jewish needs. In recent years we have learned that there are hundreds of unmarked Jewish mass graves all over Poland. They have various origins. The Germans, as they entered a town, would often take several tens of Jews out to the forest, shoot them, and bury them there. Also, during the deportations to the death camps in 1942–1943, often several hundreds of Jews the Germans didn’t feel like bothering to send to the camps were just shot somewhere between the town and the cemetery. Furthermore, during the death marches from Auschwitz and other camps to the west, when the Russian army advanced, many Jews died and were buried on the sides of the roads.

There is a Baptist fellow, a very unusual denomination in Poland, who now travels by bicycle through villages in eastern Poland asking old people if they know where Jews are buried. Since he is a Pole, elderly witnesses speak to him more easily and often are relieved to talk. They may have seen some of the killings at a young age, not having been careful enough to run away. Those who now come forward are often traumatized by these memories, which they have kept to themselves for sixty-five years. We already have information on tens of sites of mass graves. We might, in the future, make a large effort to gather additional data. A very different issue is that of assisting Righteous Gentiles. We cannot do enough to help these precious people. There is a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous that assists some of them, and there are also some other organizations. The last few hundred remaining in Poland should be enabled to live out the rest of their lives in dignity and some comfort. Now that there are hardly any Jews left, some Poles miss them. Furthermore, it was taboo under the Communists to talk about Jews, and as soon as something that has been forbidden is again permitted, it becomes interesting in the public domain. There are also those who work toward a new Poland and are proud to be part of the European Union. As a result of all this, small groups of people want to "do something Jewish" – save a synagogue, celebrate a Jewish festival, teach about Jewish history, etc. A few dozen young non-Jewish Poles, for example, work to preserve Jewish cemeteries around the country, even though they often face local opposition. How do we nurture such a phenomenon? Adept at identifying and fighting anti-Semitism, we are far weaker at identifying potential allies and

friends. And yet, when we give them moral support, it gives them the sense that they are doing worthwhile work, and they want to do more. In recent years the number of Poles who advocate for the preservation of Jewish memory has grown signiﬁcantly. We have to realize that close to six million Poles, three million of whom were Jewish, were murdered by the Germans during the Second World War. When dialoguing with Poles and wanting them to feel our pain, we must feel their pain as well. As far as Jews are concerned, I have always believed that our work in Poland is to revive the Jewish identity of individuals. I want to give people the chance to decide to be Jewish.

Until a few years ago the problems in Poland were predominantly post-Holocaust, post-communist matters. As far as we can look ahead, the Jewish community will continue to live in the shadow of the Shoah. Yet most problems are becoming more "normal" and familiar – in the context, say, of Israeli or American Jewry. A young woman says to me, "‘Rabbi, I am 23 years old. I know all the boys in the community and don’t like any of them. How am I going to get married?" Or parents will say, "Our son is 15. He has decided to become Orthodox, but he has no Orthodox friends. What is he supposed to do?" These are the typical problems of a quite normal small community.

OUR DEBT TO FOREIGNERS STANISŁAW KRAJEWSKI

The late, lamented Chris Schwarz created a unique work, but from a distance one can see that it is a fragment of an entire array of undertakings which significantly influenced Jewish life in Poland after 1989. In fact – they created it. The point is that a great many, maybe almost everything new and creative going on among Polish Jews in the last quarter-century was initiated by people from abroad, mainly from the USA. An influence of this kind was felt even when, some 35 years ago, I was part of a group that attempted to create something Jewish and, at the same time, our own and Polish as well. Even then, when we in the underground ŻUL (Jewish Flying University) were trying to learn about Judaism and Jewish culture, we were primarily using American books and the expertise of occasional visitors from overseas such as Gershon Hundert or Mira Brichto. And the stimulus for organising this private, self-educational group was the participation of several of its co-founders in workshops for psychotherapy led by the American psychologist Carl Rogers. American support then became more and more crucial. Already before 1989, there was the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which allowed the teaching of the basics of Judaism. It is difficult overestimate the role of the Ronald Lauder summer camps in Rychwałd for shaping the new generation of Jewish activists. From that time on, there have been among us people such as Rabbi Michael Schudrich, who for many years has served as the Chief Rabbi of Poland, and regular visitors such as Rabbi Hershel Lieber. They were able to come thanks to the commitment to the revival

Stanisław Krajewski. Photo by M. Krajewska.

of Jewish life in Poland demonstrated by Rabbi Chaskel Besser. The establishment and functioning of the new Jewish schools in Warsaw and Wrocław would probably be unthinkable without the Lauder Foundation and especially the vision of Helise Liberman. The foundation was represented by other people, including Rabbi Sascha Pecaric, who not only made many translations of Jewish religious texts but also after leaving Poland created an internet yeshiva where Jews and non-Jews alike could study in Polish. All of the people mentioned here were either born in New York or made their homes there. During the past 25 years the primary American philanthropic organisation, the Joint (JDC, Joint Distribution Committee), has been present as it had always been (except for breaks imposed

by the authorities), and aided all the initiatives. It co-financed social services as well as the operations of organisations from the largest, such as the TSKŻ (the Jewish Social-Cultural Society), to the smallest, and moreover developed leadership training programmes, all of which a number of people born after the war, the generation which gradually took over the leadership roles, benefitted from. It is thanks to the Joint that the Polish edition of Limud has been organised; its breadth and diversity have created a new quality and new hopes. Even such specifically Polish organisations as the Association of Children of the Holocaust was established as a result of a meeting in New York. Several people who were Jewish children during the occupation came from Poland to be among others similar to themselves from other countries, and came to the conclusion that it would be worthwhile to try and reach out to people with this experience. To their surprise, there were hundreds of them. The emergence of the organised presence of Reform synagogues owes much to Americans living in Poland. Among the people who created the Beit Warszawa community, Americans, not necessarily of Polish heritage, played a key role. The Ec Chaim synagogue, which functions within the Warsaw Jewish Community, took advantage of the support of Jim and Agnieszka Van Bergh. And of course we must remember that almost all of the rabbis working in Poland, both as part of the Jewish Religious Community and outside of it, have been "imported" from the USA. In the current century, there have also been rabbis from Israel – Orthodox like Rabbi Boaz Pash, Reform like Rabbi Stas Wojciechowicz and Ultra-Orthodox like Rabbi Eliezer Gurary of the Chabad movement.

In the last decades, the Taube Center, founded by the Kraków-born Tad Taube, has financed and supported cultural events as well as the education and development of young leaders. It also supports Jewish cultural festivals, beginning with the most important one in Kraków, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and other projects intended for a wide audience. It is very important for Jewish life, even in the strict sense of the term, that there are popular events open to everybody: they induce people with Jewish roots to cultivate closer contact with Jewish institutions. A similar role is played by another American donor, Zygmunt Rolat, who comes from Częstochowa. Another type of significant foreign presence, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, together with the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland established the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) dealing with property restitution of the pre-war communities. Yet another actor, the American Jewish Committee, which mainly develops political contacts, co-financed the construction of the monument memorial at the Bełżec Death Camp. The vigorous, diverse activities carried out by JCC Kraków owe their momentum to Jonathan Ornstein. He, like some of the other people who have been mentioned, underwent his own sort of Polonisation without losing his Americanness. Some of those people after many years received Polish citizenship. They have greatly enriched our Jewish life. The facts above illustrate the importance of the American contribution – personal, financial and institutional – to Polish-Jewish life. We must add that it is not only American, because there are Israeli contributions and also British, the crowning example of which is the Galicia Jewish Mu-

seum, Chris Schwarz and Jonathan Webber, and even Norwegian, as evidenced by the current Jewish life in Wrocław. This contribution is also seen in less tangible aspects. The example, help and inspiration of people from abroad has been invaluable for the process of what one can call empowerment, the acquisition of faith in one’s causative abilities. This process is not yet ﬁnished. For all these things I am deeply grateful to the people mentioned above as well as to the many who have not been mentioned; and this feeling is certainly shared by the majority of us. However, one should ask whether this colossal contribution has only good aspects, or does it also have negative aspects? Maybe the participation of people from abroad makes us dependent on them? Maybe it inhibits our own maturation, our independence? And maybe it introduces foreign patterns and eliminates Polish ones? I believe that although each of those suppositions contains a grain of truth, is it, however, diﬃcult to speak of any permanent damage caused by

foreigners. Financial dependence does not have to be permanent: there are funds from restitution and, furthermore, one can hope that there will be more native-born Jews wealthy enough to support our institutions. Our maturation in this regard is actually not easy – both due to the lack of a habit of privately financing public life and also due to the influx of outside money. I would add that we have so far generally avoided one sort of dependence – namely being fully financed by one rich benefactor, which has caused complications in some other countries. When it comes to adopting American models, it is a fact, but this seems unavoidable: it is the result of the presence and generosity of Americans, and also the fact that their proposals fit the contemporary, Americanised world better; finally, the new developments result from the fact that the pre-war Ashkenazi and Yiddish culture has virtually disappeared from among contemporary Polish Jews. Luckily, American Jews developed their culture and habits from Polish traditions. So, let us enjoy rather than worry: the circle is closing.

CREATIVITY VS. LEARNED HELPLESSNESS KLAUDIA KLIMEK

I have been working for Jewish non-governmental organisations for already 10 years. This work, mostly voluntary, enabled me, a young person, to get closer to the Jewish community, but also to gain some skills in designing projects, human resource management, PR and fundraising. All these skills are required in order to carry out a project or to run an organisation like an association/foundation. At the beginning, I had a chance to develop, participating in seminars organised by the Joint (Joint Distribution Committee), which was a good base for helping me learn how to be the leader of a group or a larger community. Then I gained more experience as a children’s summer camp counsellor, also organised by Joint, and later I was a co-ordinator of the Kraków Jewish Community’s Sunday school. I was trained well enough to be able to move around existing structures of Jewish organisations in Poland with ease. I appreciate the time and effort of the many people who stand behind this type of teaching. They awaken not only the leader in me, but also my Jewish identity, which pushed me towards further involvement in Jewish life in Poland. Around four years ago I realised a significant deficit in my informal education. And although I was able to fill the gaps in a programme of a specific institution, I was, however, not given any tools to be able to create larger-scale projects, e.g. international ones. On one hand I was creative and full of ideas for broadly-defined programmes, and on the other I was lacking connections, funds, and the knowledge of how international organisations function. I felt dependant on many factors

Klaudia Klimek. Photo from a private source.

and many people, and this limited my creativity and involvement. Owing to my work, some luck, and a certain willpower, I have managed to establish some contacts in Israel, America, and a handful of European countries. I started being invited to conferences, seminars, and workshops, which equipped me with tools that helped me establish my own foundation, Jewrnalism. The foundation enabled me to develop my imagination and myself, freeing me from compromises and the ﬁnancial dependence in which I was tangled while working for Jewish organisations in Poland. My story is, in a sense, a reﬂection of the changes that took place in Polish-Jewish NGOs. By virtue of international donations, mainly from

the USA, the Jewish community of Poland managed to "get back on their feet". Many organisations have been formed, and their members have the opportunity to choose among a wide range of programme offers and have the chance to educate themselves; we still, in my opinion, have not managed to acquire independence. Personally, I am worried about the passive approach of many young Jews who do not have the power to distinguish themselves and their ideals from the so-called establishment of Polish-Jewish organisations. The understanding of inter-organisational cooperation, fundraising, and promotion is still limited within Polish boarders. It is not the fault or ill will of young activists, but a lack of information about opportunities that await them abroad. Another problem is "learned helplessness". The Jews in Poland are used to the fact that there is no need to work for donations because they simply are and always will be there. Since the young generation remembers that we have always been financially supported, it is difficult to get used to the fact that this aid may one day come to an end. Non-governmental Jewish organisations in Poland should start to learn how to earn for themselves and for their projects. Knowing this, we will be able to become independent of

"the system", and also to become an equal partner in the discussion on the global Jewish community. I get the impression that the Jews from the West still treat us as "younger sisters" that, due to historical events, should not be abandoned, but also bring nothing of value to the Jewish world. Being ﬁnancially dependent on foreign support will not get us international respect or attention. We deserve attention, seeing as exciting projects are being created more and more often in Poland, and young people with their experience could bring value to the life of the Jewish community abroad. Young Jews in Poland still have a lot of work ahead of them in terms of international projects; meanwhile, the establishment should help these people, providing them with as much information as possible and access to opportunities and further education. It will happen only when the establishment will understand that young people should not be perceived only as future competition, but as representatives of Polish Jewry in the international arena. For many years, Jews from various countries invested in us—now is the time to repay through work, creativity, and a wise voice in the discussion on the future of the Jewish nation, its religion, and its culture in the world.

EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO THEIR STORY PATRYK PUFELSKI

I started to think about writing this text a few days before Tisha b’Av, the day of remembrance of the destruction of both Temples of Jerusalem. I am not religious. Moreover, I don’t even believe in God, so naturally all of the rituals related to this holiday, such as the strict fast, exclude. That doesn’t mean, however, that Tisha b’Av is a normal day in my calendar. Each year, I think a lot about what Judaism and the Jewish community would look like if both of the temples had not been destroyed. Or, what would Judaism and the Jewish community look like if the Temple were to be rebuilt. For instance – tomorrow! Nobody really knows for sure when the Messiah will favor us with his presence; and, after all, we do also pray for his prompt arrival on Tisha b’Av. Each year, I come to the very same conclusion, perhaps a bold one, I will not deny it but I also won’t be sorry for that. I don’t want the Temple to be rebuilt. Perhaps because my Judaism is dispersed and varied – one which includes the stories of the wise and pious tzaddikim from Izbica, Kock, Radzymin and Góra Kalwaria as well as an orange put on the seder plate on Pesach by feminists. I have a friend who often says that the most touching thing for her is the fact that when she lights the candles on Shabbat, other people are doing so as well at the same moment in so many places around the world. Completely diﬀerent people, often thinking in diﬀerent ways – after all, the famous sentence that wherever there are two Jews, there are three opinions, is far from a lie – and they still do the very same thing. Something that unites them, that allows them to be part of something bigger.

Patryk Pufelski. Photo by B. Koczenasz.

If the Temple was rebuilt, what would our feeling of belonging to a community be like? I believe I am not able to imagine a Jewish sense of community in one, single spiritual center. I was born in 1990, in free, democratic Poland. I know the Polish People’s Republic only from family stories, various books and pop culture images which celebrate waiting in a line as a happy social gathering. Not long ago, on the 25th anniversary of the first free elections, I spoke on the phone with my grandma. I was hoping that she would tell me how Poland changed for her since then. I asked her directly: "Look, how do you recall the last twenty-five years?" My grandma put me off with a short: "Quite well", then she began to intricately explain, how, when she went to by the newspaper in the early morning which, ironically,

Patryk Pufelski with JCC Kraków Sunday School participants. Photo by B. Koczenasz.

is called Gazeta Wyborcza (The Election Gazette) – and she suddenly stood still in the middle of a sidewalk. "They smelled so beautiful, the lindens!" I have to honestly admit that the story about the lidnens disappointed me a bit and I impatiently began to ask my grandma if she would be willing to tell me anything more about the elections and the new Poland; in short – the important things. "Wait! Now the lindens! And, by the way, if you really must now," my grandma said. "My lindens have a huge advantage over your new Poland and important things. My lindens smelled as beautifully twenty-ﬁve years ago as they do now." My grandma is not ignorant. She is also not stupid. I am convinced that she knows perfectly well about the free elections and how important other democratic values are. I believe that my grandma wanted to remind me about one of them – that everyone has a right to their story, their narrative, or, as Magdalena Tulli says, their yarn. That the huge power of democracy, as well as of contemporary Judaism, lies in variety. In the times of the Polish People’s Republic, they tried to prove to everyone by force that Poles are a national monolith without minorities. Everyone had to be alike: have the same furniture and everyday watch the same news on TV. Only now, after over twenty years since the system changed, we are

discovering (or, rather, reminding ourselves) how diﬀerent our ancestors were. It is meaningful especially for the Jewish community where most of the families are mixed. My generation, the third generation of Polish Jews, is learning the tradition of their grandparents from a scratch in order to bring their parents closer to it. When I found out about my roots, I wanted to do everything from lighting the candles on Shabbat to wearing tzitzit, to listening to Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song on YouTube. Then, I understood that I don’t have to. That I can choose my own way that will be good for me; and that other people in Poland can choose it as well. After all, the anniversary of free elections is not only about the authorities. On the occasion of this text, please allow me, a young man who has been working in the ﬁeld of informal Jewish education for a few years, to give my best birthday wishes to the Galicia Jewish Museum! I hope that you will continue to be an important spot on the map of Kraków – for the Jewish community, tourists, educators who can learn about Jewish history, heritage and the present day in your museum about Jewish history. I hope that every year on your birthday, as my grandma would wish, Poland will still have the beautiful smell of the lindens!

SELECTED JEWISH INSTITUTIONS IN POLAND

THE INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES AT JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY EDYTA GAWRON

The Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University is currently one of the most dynamic academic centres engaged in Jewish studies in Poland and, more broadly, in Europe. The Institute, located in the heart of the Jewish part of the Kazimierz district (Collegium Kazimierzowskie, Ul. Józefa 19), has become an integral element supporting the rebirth of Jewish culture and life in Poland, particularly in Kraków. The history of the Institute dates back to the mid-1980s, when the Research Centre for Jewish History and Culture in Poland (Międzywydziałowy Zakład Historii i Kultury Żydów w Polsce), the ﬁrst research centre of its kind in Poland, was established in 1986. The operations of the

Research Centre were inaugurated by the international conference Jewish Autonomy in the Nobles’ Republic, which took place in 1986 and was the first meeting since the Second World War of many scholars of Jewish topics from France, Israel, Poland, the United States and Great Britain. The huge interest not only in research, but above all in education in the field of Jewish history and culture contributed to the growth of the Research Centre and the development of its teaching offer. After a period where Jewish studies was unavailable in post-war Poland, in the 1980s and 1990s there was a great need for a wide-ranging knowledge of Jews and Jewish history, culture and religion. The success of the first lectures, courses, seminars and language

Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University, ul. Józefa 19. Photo from the archive of the Institute of Jewish Studies at UJ.

Opening of the exhibition on the history of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Galicia Jewish Museum. Photo by Jacek Kabziński.

courses on Jewish topics caused in 2000 for the Research Centre to become the Department of Jewish Studies (Katedra Judaistyki), which was an autonomous unit of the UJ Faculty of History and offered a full degree in history with a specialisation in the field of Jewish history and culture. The head of the Department of Jewish Studies during the entire period of its existence was Prof. Dr hab. Edward Dąbrowa. He also became the director when the Department of Jewish Studies was transformed in to an Institute. This transformation took place just after another important change – the moving of the institute, both its research and classes, from its first location on Batorego Street to the university building on Józefa Street. This change increased the comfort for research and teaching, but primarily meant that Jewish Studies classes would be held in the centre of the preserved Jewish district, near important Jewish communal institutions and surrounded by the material heritage of the Jews of Kraków.

The Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University began functioning in October 2012 and, almost parallel to this, a new and innovative study course was introduced for the 2012-2013 academic year – Jewish Studies. Even earlier, when the Department of Jewish Studies was functioning, the institution, as the only university unit of its type in Poland, offered first evening (BA and MA), extramural and graduate studies in the field of Jewish Studies, and from 2000-2001 also offered a five-year full-time MA programme in history with a specialisation in Jewish history and culture. From the beginning, the programme of study included Jewish history from Biblical times to the present (with a particular focus on Diaspora Jewish history), the history of Judaism, Jewish thought, Jewish culture and literature as well as required studies of Yiddish and Modern Hebrew. Currently, more than 130 students study at the Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University. The Institute’s research and educational team

The faculty, doctoral candidates and students of the Institute of Jewish Studies during the visit of Jagiellonian University rector, Prof. Wojciech Nowak, and the Dean of the Department of History, Prof. Jan Święch (15.04.2013). Photo from the archive of the Institute of Jewish Studies at UJ.

is constantly growing and specialising. There are currently 13 researchers working at the Institute who, possess at least a PhD. Faculty members at the Institute are also supervising several dozen doctoral theses in the field of Jewish Studies. As part of its educational activities, the Institute of Jewish Studies also offers regular courses in English and has an offer for foreign students as part of its summer courses. There are currently three units in the Institute of Jewish Studies: the Department of Jewish History, the Department of Jewish Culture, and the Department of the History of Judaism and Jewish Literature. The Institute’s seat is also home to the Centre for the Study of the History and Culture of Kraków Jews at Jagiellonian University. The Institute of Jewish Studies also has a specialised library with a collection that currently numbers around 10,000 volumes. In recent years, the library’s holdings have considerably increased

thanks to foreign and local donors. Since the 2004-2005 academic year, the library also has had a reading room allowing all interested parties to use its resources on location. The Institute of Jewish Studies is a research partner with many universities and academic, cultural and social institutions from Poland and abroad. International and domestic conferences, seminars, workshops and study trips are regularly organised. As the Institute has grown, the list of institutions with which the Institute has signed contracts of co-operation and jointly implementing a number of projects – both research as well as museum, archival, documentary, educational and social – has also increased. Furthermore, the Institute of Jewish Studies has a variety of bilateral contracts of co-operation as part of the Erasmus programme. Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia is the academic jour-

nal currently published by the Institute, with texts published in congress languages, has served for years as a way to present research in an international forum. The Institute also regularly publishes academic and popular science works, both individually as well as in printing series developed by the Institute’s faculty and collective publications. Furthermore, the Institute of Jewish Studies has conducted a number of inventorying, digitising and bibliographic projects. Several student organisations are active at the Institute of Jewish Studies. Among these, the most important role is currently played by the Students of the Institute of Jewish Studies Research Circle (since 2001), which publishes its own journal, Słowik. Jewish Studies students are also involved as volunteers, interns and employees in Jewish

institutions or those involved with Jewish history and culture on the local or national level. A reason for great pride for the directors and staﬀ of the Institute is the increasing number of alumni who are more often joining the faculties of prestigious research, museum, educational, social, diplomatic and business institutions. During its operations as an Institute, and earlier as the Department of Jewish Studies, this institute has taken on many challenges, introduced a number of innovations and increased both its scope of specialisation and its oﬀer. Currently, the most serious challenge facing the Institute – as well as a major honour for it – will be to prepare and organise the Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies in 2018 in Kraków.

THE BENTE KAHAN FOUNDATION BENTE KAHAN

The Bente Kahan Foundation commenced its activities in 2006 with the speciﬁc goal of restoring the historic White Stork Synagogue (1829) and creating there a Center for Jewish Culture and Education to honor and preserve the nearly 1000-year-old history of Jews in Wrocław and Lower Silesia. Since the very beginning, the Center has been administered by the Bente Kahan Foundation in cooperation with the Wrocław Jewish community and co-ﬁnanced by the city of Wrocław.

The restoration project was completed thanks to funds from a European Economic Area grant (EEA – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), the city of Wrocław, the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland and its Wrocław Branch, as well as the Foundation, the project leader. The White Stork Synagogue oﬃcially reopened on 6 May 2010. Today this unique building serves as a prestigious venue for concerts, theatre performances, and lectures, as well as an additional prayer house for the Jewish community.

Opening of the White Stork Synagogue in Wrocław (May 2010). Photo by Mirosław Emil Koch.

The White Stork Synagogue during the Night of the Museums (2013). Photo from the Bente Kahan Foundation archive.

Our permanent exhibit, History Reclaimed: Jewish Life in Wrocław and Lower Silesia, on display in the synagogue, captures a journey that spans from medieval Breslau, the German Jewish Enlightenment, total destruction by the Nazis, post-war communism, to democratic Poland. This is the unique story of a community and its outstanding individuals that made an indelible contribution to the region and the world. The Foundation prepared the exhibition in cooperation with the Jewish Studies Department of Wrocław University and was made possible thanks to an EEA grant, Norway grant, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as funds from the Oﬃce of the Marshal of Lower Silesia and the city of Wrocław. The White Stork Gallery, the curator of which is Yoav Rossano (an Israeli-born artist who has been working for the Foundation since 2008), is part of

the Center for Jewish Culture and Education and is located on the second ﬂoor of the synagogue. Since the Center was established in 2005, over 25,000 school children have attended professional theatre performances especially prepared by the Foundation for elementary, junior high, and high schools from all over Lower Silesia. Local performing artists appear in all four productions, which were written and directed by Bente Kahan (Voices from Theresienstadt, Wallstrasse 13, Mendel Rosenbusch, and Songs from the Ghetto). The annual Summer in the White Stork Synagogue concert series presents a wide variety of artists and musical ensembles with an emphasis on Jewish music and European folk. Each year the Sygit Band opens the series, with well-known local professionals performing on behalf of the Foundation. Throughout the rest of the year, the

Foundation opens the synagogue for outside events including the Jewish Festival Simcha, Ethno Jazz Festival, Brave Festival, and the annual Actors’ Song Review. Prior to World War II, Breslau (now Wrocław) was home to the third largest Jewish community in Germany after Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. The Breslau Jewish Theological Seminary was one of the most important Jewish institutions of learning in Europe. On the night of the 9 November 1938 (Crystal Night), the Nazis brutally attacked Jews living in Germany, destroying synagogues, homes, businesses, and other properties. Each year the Foundation commemorates these events during the Days of Mutual Respect with performances for schools, lectures, ﬁlms, and exhibitions, culminating in a March of Mutual Respect from the White Stork Synagogue to the site of the former New Synagogue. The Foundation organizes an ongoing lecture series entitled Meetings with… that presents outstanding Polish and foreign scholars of Jewish studies to the general public. To further develop our educational projects, the Foundation has joined forces with the Jewish Studies Department at Wrocław University. The greater goal is to develop an international center for Jewish studies in our city. A major step in this direction is the establishment, as of the fall of 2015, of a new position in Holocaust Studies in the Jewish

Studies Department. This position is co-funded by the University of Wrocław, the Bente Kahan Foundation, and private donors. Currently, the foundation is implementing a three-year project funded by the City of Wroclaw to conduct the Center for Jewish Culture and Education in the White Stork Synagogue. The foundation is also currently administering a three-year project entitled 'Yiddish far ale' or 'Yiddish for all': Promoting Knowledge of Yiddish Language and Culture in Poland and Norway, a three-year project ﬁnanced by the EEA and national funds. Our Norwegian partners are the Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, the Jewish Museum in Oslo, the Jewish Culture Festival in Trondheim and Franzisca Aarﬂot Productions. The Bente Kahan Foundation is committed – within the context of the tragic European Jewish experience – to furthering mutual respect and human rights. We believe that Wrocław, by virtue of its shared German, Polish, and Jewish history, its new Jewish community in free Poland, its dynamic Jewish Studies Department at Wrocław University, its restored White Stork Synagogue, and its location in the center of Europe can again aspire to a prominent role on the Jewish map of Europe.

THE FOUNDATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF JEWISH HERITAGE IN POLAND: HOPES AND CHALLENGES MONIKA KRAWCZYK In 2012, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Polish: FODŻ) celebrated its 10th anniversary. Along with the Board, co-workers, and friends, we were contemplating how to specially honour this anniversary. We have ﬁnally decided to develop an album that summarises our activities. It is a modest operation, far from triumph. This decision was motivated by the fact that, although much has been achieved in terms of the conservation and restoration of material culture of Polish Jews (but also German Jews, taking into account the so-called Recovered Territories) and in commemoration of those communities slain by the Nazis during World War II, there is still an enormous amount of work ahead of us. The starting point for FODŻ activities was adoption of the Act on the Relation of the State to the Jewish Religious Communities in Poland on 20 February 1997, which constituted the current Jewish community in Poland and gave it the op-

portunity to apply for restitution of certain real estate owned by the Jewish community before the war. At the same time, an accurate inventory of recoverable assets was conducted. It turns out that Poland claims about 1,200 Jewish cemeteries and 200 other historically important sites, of course including, at the top of the list, synagogues. In the context of this fact, the Union of Jewish Religious Communities along with the World Jewish Restitution Organisation decided to establish the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in order to save these unique signs of the times for future generations. The Galicia Jewish Museum, established in 2004, has been presenting photographs of many destroyed and abandoned synagogues. Today, thanks to the activities of FODŻ, many of Chris Schwarz’s photos should be recognised as a commitment to this archival status quo.

Opening of the restored Jewish cemetery in Myślenice (2012). Photo from the FODŻ archive.

Commemoration at the Jewish cemetery in Radom (2011). Photo from the FODŻ archive.

FODŻ brought about the restoration of the synagogues in Zamość (which we consider to be our greatest achievement), Kraśnik, and Rymanów. There is ongoing work on preserving the synagogues in Przysucha and Ziębice. Out of a total 1,200 cemeteries, FODŻ realised the complete renovation of 45 of them and has commemorated several others, actively cooperating with numerous donors. Many of these sites became available for tourists. We are nevertheless far from triumph. Renovation of these objects consumes a great amount of money, which is acquired with diﬃculty. We realise that our work cannot be done in a vacuum; hence, we are cooperating with many non-government local organisations, local authorities (e.g. the Chassidic Route project), and many individual enthusiasts of this topic. We can see

the lack of educational initiatives, especially in small localities. Between 2006–2010, FODŻ led a project called To Bring Memory Back (Polish: Przywróćmy Pamięć), which involved 85 schools and cultural centres from all around Poland, with emphasis on smaller places. Unfortunately, due to a lack of governmental financial support, which in recent times is directed towards other priorities, the project could not be continued. The case is similar regarding resource allocation for landmarks. Oftentimes we get the impression that Jewish buildings are treated as second-class objects, which, despite our efforts, are not seen as an integral element of the multidimensional culture of Poland. There is a need for broader informational activities in this field. There is also a need to realise that responsibility for the destruction of unique synagogues and cemeteries obviously lies on the Nazi occupiers, but also on Polish authorities, especially those from the PRL1 period when synagogues were deliberately appropriated for other functions (e.g. waste or fertilizer warehouses, as in the case of Przysucha), while many buildings were registered as objects of cultural heritage. One cannot expect that the destruction incurred for 70 years will be rectified in any less time. There is also a need for greater involvement from Jews living outside of Poland, principally in discussion of strategic approaches to the preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland and the rest of the world. Are activities oriented to the existence and sustainability of people more important? Are issues from the past significant? Which objects have priority? These and many other questions must be answered because, due to simple technical reasons, our generation is the one that decides on there being, or not being, Jewish heritage in Poland. 1

PRL – Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (People’s Republic of Poland)

THE JEWISH CULTURE FESTIVAL JANUSZ MAKUCH

Willingly or not, I was born and raised in a world without knowledge of the Holocaust, but imbued with knowledge of the Polish victims. This view of history was so pervasive – at school, at home, on television, in books, the press – that at times it was hard for me to breathe normally. When I came to Kraków in 1980 – I discovered Kazimierz, then a city of ghosts, memories, inhabited by strangers and a tiny handful of bowed Jews reconciling their daily life with the requirements of faith. The Jewish spirit of the city was recalled each Friday evening in the lights of two of the synagogues, the Remu and Tempel. The 1 constant repetition: shamor – zachor . Observe and remember. Every day though, the reality of Kazimierz was gray and hopeless, and there were no signs that – after a relatively short number of years – Jewish culture would return to Kazimierz, followed by something even more precious: Jewish life in all of its independent, diverse and contradictory aspects. Yes… not to such an extent as it once was, but it is also not about the quantity, but always about quality. I remember Andrzej Kuśniewicz’s visit during the ﬁrst Jewish Culture Festival. I walked with him through the abandoned streets of Kazimierz. The writer stopped at one point and said: "Never forget – the body can burn, but the spirit can1

Shamor, zachor – (Heb. observe, remember) - words symbolised by the two Sabbath candles lit on Friday evening in Jewish homes. They come from two verses of the Torah establishing the mitzvah (commandment) of the Sabbath - "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8), "Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Deuteronomy 5:12).

Spiritual Skateboarding, Rabbi Dovid Tsap (2013). Photo from the Jewish Culture Festival archive.

not." And I lived then still with the belief that this world was ashes! Then I met two people, two Kraków Jews who restored my faith in the imperishability of this world: Miriam Akavia and Raphael Felek Scharf. I learnt to see Kazimierz and Kraków through their eyes... . A Kraków that was, as Felek Scharf said, "wonderfully overﬂowing with Jews"… And, paradoxically, the more we talked about the past, the more for me it took on the form of the world that lies ahead of us. The former president of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, once said that imagination is much more important than memory – "to imagine is more important than to remember." Today, just like at the beginning, I still live imaginatively. I am painfully aware of being born in the shadow of Auschwitz, and I shall never be free of it, no matter how much I would like to be. Similarly, I cannot change history. I also cannot see in peo-

Mural by the Israeli collective Broken Fingaz, inspired by the art of M. Lilien (2014). Photo from the Jewish Culture Festival archive.

ple any intellectual characteristics that would allow for the believe that they are able to learn anything from this history. In this sense, history is always repeated. The same mistakes, the same naiveté that the world will last forever and we and our dear ones will survive. Hence, my constant admiration and respect for the State of Israel, which was taught by history to understand that in depending only on yourself, on your own strength and imagination, you will survive and will never again be packed into cattle cars. In 1988, together with my dear friend of many years Krzysztof Gierat, we established the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków. Then, a year before the fall of Communism in Poland, the Jewish Culture Festival was a manifestation of the emerging new consciousness of Jews and Poles who belong to a shared world treated with mutual aﬀection and authentic fascination. The world of Jewish culture. The thing that today is so obvious for everyone – which has become a subject of everyday research, a focal point for work, a natural element of the mutual Polish-Jewish landscape – then was the object of desire for a small group of intellectuals and spiritual archaeologists who

immersed themselves in the fresh ruins in searching for some foundations with the hope that something can be reconstructed on them. But we did not want to only be the victims of History! We did not only want to reconstruct, build heritage parks or new museums. We wanted to make an attempt – and we did! – to build a new world, and new relationships unencumbered by the past. Today, 26 years after that ﬁrst, timid attempt, I see that this is the only road for me: to remember what was and at the same time to observe the realm of the living. The Kraków Jewish Culture Festival is thus always a festival of life, for which what happens next is of much greater signiﬁcance than that for which we are merely helpless chroniclers. I thus cannot think of the "achievements" of the Festival in any other light than that in the course of 26 years it has become a common good for us all – Poles, Jews, people of goodwill who are truly interested in what is indestructible: authentic culture. This is our space for culture and life, sanctioned with mutual respect. Has it had an impact on the transformation of Kazimierz? That is obvious. Has it become a clear sign of the revival of Jewish culture and return of Jewish life to Kraków, to Poland? This is obvious. More importantly, however, is that it was and is an artistic, spiritual and intellectual expression, not to say: a community of nearly 30,000 people from aroun d the world who each year come to Kraków – the place where History meets the Present – to take part in most than 200 events, exchange among themselves all these historic calling cards of identity, having trust and respect in their curiosity about each other despite the increasingly common phenomena of antisemi-

Shalom on Szeroka Street (2014). Photo from the Jewish Culture Festival archive.

tism, radical nationalism, the returning ghosts of history taking the forms of xenophobia and intolerance. And war. In a year, we will celebrate the 25th edition and, simultaneously, the 27th year of the existence of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków. When we began – we were alone. Today, one of its greatest achievements is, I believe, the fact that we create a festival that restores to Kraków’s Jewish quarter – Kazimierz – its Jewish character. Its Jewish identity. Because it is not the "former" Jewish district converted into a huge pub, a haven of bars and clubs! This is the Jewish district in all its centuries-old richness that we are discovering and nurturing together. As long as it is in us, it will last. In this way, we bring to Kraków one of the most precious of values – cultural pluralism. We prove that in the shadow of the Holocaust that the revival of Jewish life is not only possible, but is necessary; despite all the judgments and evil in this world. New life is always formed on the rubble of the old; fallen civilisations give beginnings to new. I am thus a passionate believer in contemporary Jewish life in all its variety, in all corners of the earth; and because it was and is held that the centre of the earth is Israel and the centre of

Israel – Jerusalem, I literally and symbolically turn my face to my city where the many steams from this cultural source come together, cross one another and mix. In this is also the history and culture of the Jews of Kraków and Poland. But it doesn’t dominate my world. It is one of the lights in a many-branched menorah – its brilliance is more or less close in harmony with other lights radiating hope towards the dark horizon of History which is yet before us. I have no worries. Indeed, as Rabbi Nachman of Bracław once said, it is most important not to be afraid. I am often asked about the meaning of the festival, because there are, after all, hardly any Jews in Kraków and in Poland. For whom is all of this? And what for? How many of them are Jews? Leaving aside the absurdity of these accusations, I can say that the new history of Polish Jews – as it is itself arranged and in which we participate as a festival – let it be heard again – it is not and should not be a mathematical question, but only an ethical one. It is impossible to predict what history has in store for us. Let it shape our Jewish brethren in harmony and with clear vision. It is also impossible to say what fate is in store for people like me – the hundreds, thousands of "Jewish Poles" from whom it once all started, before anyone asked the questions above – who is all this for? And why?

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE IN KRAKÓW JONATHAN ORNSTEIN

of diﬀerent programs including: holiday celebrations, education, arts, culture, language and sports classes. The JCC provides genealogical consultations and all types of programming to reconnect these individuals including young people walking in oﬀ the street, many of whom have only recently found out about their Jewish roots. All are welcome at JCC Kraków, from toddlers to elderly Holocaust survivors (100 of whom are members), those who are communally engaged and those who have only just begun to rediscover their Jewish roots. Opening of the JCC (29.04.2008). Photo from the Jewish Community Centre archive.

The Jewish Community Centre of Kraków (JCC Kraków) was opened in April 2008 by HRH, The Prince of Wales…and our royal lineage, while fascinating, is not nearly the most amazing thing about us. In a Kraków that is young, vibrant, and growing, JCC Kraków serves as the focal point for the resurgence of Jewish life, which has been increasing exponentially since the completion of Poland’s transition from a Communist state to a Western-style liberal democracy in 1989. The JCC seeks to build and strengthen the Jewish community of Kraków by serving its current 500+ Jewish members and reaching new people. The community here was largely cut oﬀ from Jewish life for 50 years and it is our duty and obligation to give them a chance to reconnect to the Jewish world. This is achieved through a multitude

Workshops with Rabbi Avi Baumol for Senior Club members and volunteers. Photo by Joanna Fabĳańczuk.

Shabbat dinner for 430 people during Jewish Culture Festival (2014). Photo by Paul Gee.

"I’m 78 years old and besides the Nazi occupation which I survived by being hidden with my mother, I’ve lived my whole life in Kraków. The JCC over the past five years has become the focus of my life. I eat meals here. Learn skills here. Meet with my friends here. And simply feel at home. I can’t tell you how important this place is to me, and other people like me. Thank God we have this center." – Zofia Pivotal to the revolutionary attempts of the JCC to rejuvenate what was a community facing extinction are its immensely popular Shabbat dinners. These serve as a meeting point for the different elements of the community to come together and share the experience of a communal Friday night dinner. For the recently completed 24th Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, the JCC hosted the largest post-war Shabbat dinner ever held in Kraków – with over 430 attendees.

The JCC is also the de facto Jewish visitor center for Kraków. Over 85,000 visitors from around the world come to the JCC every year to meet community members and partake in Shabbat and holiday programming. These individuals, families, Jewish Federation missions, and synagogues are seeking to engage with local Jewish life and it is our mission to help them understand that the Jewish community in Kraków did not end during the Holocaust. Moreover, as a thriving Jewish community situated an hour’s drive from Auschwitz, we aim to be a symbol of the resilience and strength of the Jewish people. JCC Kraków is focused on building a Jewish future in Kraków. We cannot change the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, but we have the opportunity to aﬀect the number of Jews lost to the Jewish World due to the Holocaust.

THE JEWISH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY OF KRAKÓW KRYSTYNA PODGÓRSKA

The Jewish Religious Community of Kraków is a fellowship of people living in the area of south-eastern Poland who are connected by the multigenerational traditions and religion of Judaism. Currently, the Community has 126 members, who, together with their families, create a large Jewish community in this region. The Community functions according to Jewish law as well as the tradition established over its 700 year history by rabbis such as the Remu, Yom-Tov Lipmann 1 Heller and the BaCh , who were among the most outstanding scholars of the Jewish world. The post-war religious life of the Kraków Jewish Community has continued since 1945, when the ﬁrst synagogues began functioning again. Since then, Shabbat services and the High Holy Days have been celebrated strictly according to the Jewish calendar. The Community is based in Kraków on 2 Skawińska Street. There are four synagogues used for the purpose of religious practices – the Remu, Tempel, Kupa and Izaak – where Kraków’s Jews and followers of Judaism visiting Kraków from around the world pray. Here, Kraków Jews currently living abroad come 1

Remu – Moshe Isserles, nicknamed the REMUH/REMA; a 16thcentury rabbi, Talmudist, author of religious literature such as the commentary Mapah (Heb. tablecloth) on the Shulchan Aruch (Heb. set table) by Yosef Karo. Yom Tov – Gershon S(h)aul Yom Tov Lipmann Halevi Heller (15791654); a rabbi, Talmudist and author of religious literature, including commentaries on the Mishnah, the Tosafot Yom-Tov, which (either in full, or in the form of summary) became a part of almost every issue of the Mishnah printed since then. BaCh – Joel Sirkes (1561-1640); a rabbi, Talmudist and author of Bayit Chadash, a commentary on the Arbaa Turim by Jakov ben Asher.

Rabbi Eliezer Gurary during Matthew Rae Karger’s bar mitzvah in the Tempel Synagogue (2012). Photo from the Jewish Religious Community archive.

here along with their families to celebrate their grandchildren’s bar or bat mitzvahs. There is a communal mikvah which serves as a place for performing ritual ablutions. Ritual burials take place in one of the few active Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Each year before the holiday of Sukkot, a traditional booth is constructed next to the synagogue, matzoh is distributed on Pesach and chanukiahs and candles are distributed before Chanukah so the members of the Community can light them in their homes. The headquarters of the Community’s kosher kitchen serve meals every day in the dining room, where the community also meets for Passover seders, New Year’s dinners on Rosh Hashanah, and Purim and Chanukah celebrations. Shabbat dinners are held in the Kupa synagogue on Fridays after evening prayers. There is a social welfare system for members of the Community

Introduction of a new Sefer Torah in the Tempel Synagogue (2012). Photo from the Jewish Religious Community archive.

and their families, as well as a Senior Club that also runs a program for psychological support for Holocaust survivors. The bulletin Nasza Gmina [Our Community], which recounts events that have occurred in Kraków’s Jewish community, has been published monthly since 2006. One of the most important tasks of the Community is the material preservation of Jewish heritage. The Community takes care of old synagogues as well as Jewish cemeteries and memorial sites in the Community’s area. The Community also protects Kraków’s synagogues, old prayer houses and buildings where charity associations, schools and Jewish fraternities were located. These structures are landmarks of the Jewish past; many of them are leased on favourable terms to Kraków’s cultural and educational institutions – the Old Synagogue houses a branch of the Historical Museum of Kraków with a valuable collection of Judaica, the Popper Synagogue is home to a branch of the Old Town Youth Cultural Centre in Kraków, the High Synagogue currently hosts the publisher Austeria and the former Chevra Ner Tamid prayer house exists as the headquarters of the Jewish Culture Festival and Cheder café year-round.

Further, other institutions promoting Jewish culture use real estate assets belonging to the Kraków Community: the Czulent Jewish Association received a local award for its activities; during the Jewish Culture Festival, the Community let the synagogues to be used for lectures, concerts and presentations for many Festival guests; the Tempel Synagogue holds conferences organised by the Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University; and Jewish music concerts as well as other artistic events are free for Kraków’s residents. The Community also supports Jewish artistic and intellectual creativity activities: publishing religious and historic books, conducting research on the pre-war Kraków Jewish Community and associations, and exhibiting commemorative measures. The Jewish Religious Community of Kraków is also one of the three founders and a donor to the Jewish Community Centre Foundation, leading the Jewish Community Centre since 2008. The Centre building was erected on the Community’s property next to the Tempel Synagogue. According to the Foundation’s statutes, the Jewish Community Centre also serves Cracovians interested in Jewish culture and tradition.

Appointment of Eliezer Gurary as the new Rabbi of Kraków (15.06.2014). Photo from the Jewish Religious Community archive.

The Jewish Religious Community has worked continuously because its oldest members, survivors of the Holocaust, were fundamental to its revival in the early years of post-war Jewish life in Kraków. Even in the most diﬃcult times, they did not hide their identity or religion, passing on religious tradition to their children and grandchildren. As they pass away, the number of Community members has decreased – in 1958, there were 704 members, in 1985 there were 204 members, and in the last 20 years the number has remained constant at 130 people. However, the demographic structure of the Community is signiﬁcantly changing: many people from the Second Generation have joined, as well as young people from the Third Generation, including families with small children. This is a peculiar phenomenon – as time passes, the Community gets younger. Recently, the Community took over the patronage of the Sunday school led by Czulent, under which early-education activities on Judaism for children are organised in a way that combines fun with learning. One of the goals is also to prepare children for life in a modern, multicultural and civil society in Europe, whilst preserving their Jewish identity. The Jewish Religious Community of Kraków is a partner of the City of Kraków Government in shaping Polish-Jewish relations, and of the Archdiocese of Kraków in creating Jewish-Christian

dialogue. Representatives of the Community are invited to official ceremonies related to celebrations of national holidays and participate in cultural and academic events organised in the city. The tradition of creative coexistence of two cultures in Kraków – Jewish and Christian – is still alive. The annual Day of Judaism in the Catholic Church is celebrated on alternating years in the Franciscan Basilica and Tempel Synagogue. City officials, the Church and the university rectors participate in the celebration of Jewish holidays in Kraków. On 15 June 2014, Rabbi Eliezer Gurary, previously the Community rabbi, was the first rabbi after the Second World War to be nominated and appointed Rabbi of Kraków in accordance with Jewish law and tradition. The inauguration ceremony, with the presence of authorities from Kraków and the Małopolska Voivodeship, took place in Tempel Synagogue. This is an important act in terms of the role and position of the Kraków Jewish Religious Community. In the last 25 years, many institutions involved in the dissemination of Jewish history and traditions have been established and shined and still function, but it is due to the comprehensive activities of the Jewish Religious Community that Jewish life in Kraków is present and real.

THE FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AMONG NATIONS ZUZANNA RADZIK

The Forum for Dialogue Foundation has been working for Polish-Jewish dialogue since 1998. From the beginning of its existence, we wanted first of all to create spaces where Poles and Jews would be able to get to know each other and gather together over historical divisions. These were meetings not for politicians, but for people. "People to people," as they say. The first such space we took note of was in the visits of young Jews to Poland. We had our own experience of their visits, but it was clear that there needed to be more of these meetings, which need to be wisely planned. A team of researchers linked to us closely observed effects of the interactions, and assessed what works and what does not. For many years, we were the first group in Poland organising a programme of Pol-

ish-Jewish Youth Meetings, creating thoughtful and evaluative scenarios for the participants. From the beginning, we knew that we would be active in education against intolerance and antisemitism. The first presidential campaign in a free and democratic Poland was already marked with antisemitism – we never had a doubt that fighting it is a current and important task. Knowing how much misunderstanding and ignorance that is difficult to talk about there is, we published a book which was supposed to resolve it. More than a thousand young Poles and Jews from the US, Israel, Canada and Australia submitted questions which seemed to be the most sensitive and which they are afraid of asking for fear of hurting the other side. For this reason, in 2007 with the co-operation of the Forum for

School of Dialogue workshops in Węgrów. Photo by A. Kulińska.

School of Dialogue workshops in Warsaw. Photo by W. Radwański.

Dialogue and the American Jewish Committee the book Diﬃcult Questions in the Polish-Jewish Dialogue was published. We picked 50 of the most important questions, seeking answers from experts from Israel, Poland and the United States. The book is still used today, both by us as well as Polish diplomatic agencies. Today, our most important programme is the School of Dialogue, an educational programme working mostly in smaller locales with a rich Jewish heritage. Every year, our educators travel to almost ﬁfty schools throughout Poland to help young people discover the history of the Jews from their town. We most often go where no one is engaged in educational activities or ones that lead to the commemoration of the local Jewish community. We most often visit places where no one is doing anything and no one remembers. Eventually, the Jewish history becomes a part of the local history, which for many local residents is a ground-breaking discovery. This triggers actions

such as tiding up the cemetery, commemorating the Jewish community and a ﬁnal project consisting of a tour of traces of Jewish history in which everyone in the community can take part. The participants of the School of Dialogue are aware that along with knowledge comes responsibility for how their fellow Jewish residents will be remembered. This programme makes changes not only in the hearts and souls of the participants, but also in their families and communities. We have been to 200 schools, and every year we visit another 50. We are slowly working towards making Poland diﬀerent. For the last 25 years, Poland has been changing, and the landscape of Polish-Jewish relations with it. We are trying to show this to participants in the annual study visit, to which we invite Jewish leaders from around the world. We present contemporary Poland to them honestly, competently and completely – without embellishment, but also without only depicting it in dark colours. We

School of Dialogue workshops in Zaręby Kościelne. Photo by M. Maślak.

have them meet experts and politicians, as well as young people from the School of Dialogue and local activists. This is a week in Poland that has changed life of more than one person. "I have a feeling that I belong to Poland, that I have created a relationship with a country that is part of me, my heritage," writes Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand of London, one of the more than 200 participants in our study visits. We began in Gliwice as an organisation whose activities have a local dimension. We then had the opportunity many times to work with local community leaders, people involved in the Polish-Jewish dialogue dealing with the preservation of Jewish heritage in their localities. Seeing that they are doing great things but feeling isolated, we decided in 2013 to launch the Leaders of Dialogue programme – a community that can be a source of support, a place to look for partners and a forum for exchanging best practises for those involved on the local level in building Polish-Jewish dialogue, a dialogue of people engaged in dialogue. The local stage of the Forum’s activities on the

local level culminated in the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Jewish community of Gliwice and a meeting of their descendants with current inhabitants of Gliwice. Today, we are trying to arrange similar meetings in many other places in Poland. More and more often young people from our Schools of Dialogue host Jewish descendants from their locations. The experience of those meetings goes far beyond talking about the past. We want these meetings to be the foundation of closer Polish-Jewish relations. This happened in Zamość, where Eva and Robert Wisnik decided to celebrate bar mitzvah of their son Jake, thanks to the Forum’s study visit. In the synagogue where his grandfather’s bar mitzvah was made impossible due to the Second World War, Jake read from 1 parshat Balak . The guests of this ceremony were former apprentices of Schools of Dialogue from 1

Parshat Balak – a fragment from the Torah, the Book of Numbers (22:2-25:9). The term parsha is one of 54 fragments of the Torah, which are read in the synagogue in the Sabbath morning and afternoon, and every Monday and Thursday, as well as to celebrate the holidays, fasts and the beginning of a new lunar month. Each parsha is called from the words of the beginning or the most important in the ﬁrst verse.

Visiting a Jewish cemetery during School of Dialogue classes in Warsaw. Photo by W. Radwański.

Zamość, Hrubieszów and Szczebrzeszyn, as well as the local Leaders of Dialogue. The family of the Forum for Dialogue.

on really well with each other. We are certain that the friendship between the two organisations will bring a surprisingly positive outcome.

The Forum for Dialogue also has been partnering with other organisations for many years. For several years we are closely co-operating with the American Jewish Committee. This is an effect of many years of partnership between Polish non-government and this American Jewish organisation, the effect of which is best exemplified, besides the book we published together, in the Polish-Jewish Exchange Program. This bilateral exchange with the co-operation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the only influential one conducted between Polish non-governmental organisations and important American Jewish organisations. No less important is the recently initiated close co-operation with Facing History and Ourselves, an American educational organisation. We have a similar philosophy of work, which is why our teams as well as schools and teachers involved in our educational projects get

The Forum is the largest and oldest Polish organisation dealing with Polish-Jewish dialogue. We are growing wisely, selecting new areas of action, focusing on work with young people and leaders of public opinion. We have built in Poland as well as in Jewish environments in the States, Israel, Canada and Australia a network of people who understand our mission and want to get involved. We bring to Poland several dozen Jewish leaders every year. 1,200 students from Poland participate each year in our educational project: the School of Dialogue. Apart from working with young people, we also emphasise cementing and building the circle of those who work with local Jewish heritage. We are active locally and globally. So, what are our plans? We have been working for dialogue for 16 years and are planning to grow and work with more eﬀort.

POLIN MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWS: A JOURNEY OF A 1000 YEARS DARIUSZ STOLA

The history of Polish Jews is an important and integral part of the history of Poland. For historians, this is obvious, but the truth of our country’s multicultural history – especially its Jewish chapters – is still unknown to many Poles. On the other hand, for many people abroad, the history of Polish Jews is limited to the Holocaust, as if the 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland was merely a prelude to the six years of this tragedy. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews presents their fates as entwined with and co-creating the history of Poland, prompting a reﬂection on the importance of cultural diversity as well as the challenges it brings. Restoring and protecting the memory of the rich, original culture of Polish Jews, the Museum stimulates dialogue, mutual understanding and respect – and not only between Poles and Jews. Its message is universal, directed to Europeans and the world. The Museum was established thanks to the commitment of thousands of people of good will: Poles and Jews living in Poland and abroad, public institutions, NGOs and companies. The key role in its establishment was played by its three founders: the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the City of Warsaw and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute, as well as a distinguished group of donors. It is a symbol of the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland after 1989 and of interest in Polish-Jewish history, as well as of broader changes that have transformed Poland over the last 25 years. This is evidenced by the gallery of distinguished people in our public life

The museum building - a real architectural jewel, with its undulating, dynamic wall cleaving the entire building. Photo by Wojciech Kryński.

who have supported the idea of the Museum, including three presidents of the Republic of Poland: Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Lech Kaczyński and Bronisław Komorowski. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was established in the symbolic place of Warsaw: in the centre of a district once inhabited by a vast majority of Jews, which the German occupiers transformed in 1940 into ghetto. Built opposite the Ghetto Heroes’ Monument, it is its symbolic complement: the memorial commemorates the martyrdom and death of Polish Jews, while the Museum recalls how they lived.

Replica of the painted ceiling of the wooden synagogue from Gwoździec — a fragment of the core exhibition of the POLIN Museum. Photo by M. Starowieyska.

The Museum building, designed by the Finnish studio Lahdelma & Mahlamäki is a true pearl of contemporary architecture. It has just received the Grand Prix award of the Association of Polish Architects. Its exterior is geometric, simple, almost modest in form, covered in glass. But in its front wall, a crack opens up – a gap for the main entrance. It leads into an unusual lobby, whose undulating, dynamic walls cut through the entire building, leading to the completely glassed west wall with a view of a park. The role of the Museum is to restore memory and build bridges between the past and present – just like the footbridge running high over the lobby connects both of its sides. The heart of the Museum is the interactive core exhibition, the oﬃcial opening of which will take place on 28 October 2014. Developed by an international team of historians and curators, it presents the thousand-year history of Polish Jews, from the middle ages to the present day. Visitors will have a chance to learn answers the questions: how did the Jews arrive and live in Poland? How

did our country become the centre of the Jewish diaspora and home to the largest Jewish community in the world? How did it cease to exist and how was Jewish life revived here? The eight galleries of the main exhibition occupy more than 4,000 m2 and present successive scenes of the Jewish presence in the Polish lands: from the ﬁrst settlements to the present. The visits begin with an art installation referring to the legend of the beginning of the Jewish presence in the country they called Polin. It ends with recently made interviews with contemporary Polish Jews. The main exhibition is narrative in character. It is not a traditional museum exhibition, presenting artefacts in glass cases, but a kind of theatre of history, engrossing and engaging many senses, awaking feelings and encouraging reﬂection. Visitors are immersed in the history told through old objects, paintings, interactive installations, reconstructions and replicas, video projections, sounds and texts. Trained guides and docents will assist the visitors in taking most of the experience.

Dance workshops in the museum’s hall led by dancer and choreographer Michał Piróg. Photo from the POLIN Museum archive.

The Museum began its activities in its new building in April 2013. Although the main exhibition was not yet ready, 300,000 people visited the Museum in its first year of operation. They were attracted not only by the unique beauty of the building, but also its rich cultural and educational offer. Our auditorium (for 450 people) hosted symphonic orchestras and rock bands, theatrical and cabaret presentations, scientific conferences and public debates on important current topics. The educational events are attended by pupils and students, families with children and seniors, police and military officers, guests from around Poland and abroad. The Museum also organised several temporary exhibitions, presenting artistic works and installations, collections of memorabilia, as well as of events and historical phenomena. The last of these, presenting the old Jewish Warsaw, attracted 33,000 visitors. The next, on the participation of Jews in Piłsudski’s Legions and in the fight for Polish independence, promises to be equally interesting. A travelling exhibition – the Museum on Wheels, visits small

towns around Poland. The Museum is also active online. It runs websites dedicated to local Jewish history (Virtual Shtetl: www.sztetl.org.pl), to Polish Righteous Among the Nations (www. sprawiedliwi.org.pl), and on archival and museal resources related to Polish Jews. The establishment of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is part of a broader, extraordinary process of restoring the memory of the Polish Jews. This process includes hundreds, if not thousands, of initiatives in research, culture, preservation of heritage and memory: from the great national discussions on the Polish-Jewish past and Jewish culture festivals the gather tens of thousands of people, to research and academic publications, to local initiatives to take care of cemeteries, erect memorial plaques and educate young people. All of them share the conviction that lies in the foundations of the Museum: that the history of Polish Jews is an integral and wonderful part of the history of Poland.

THE AUSCHWITZ JEWISH CENTER ARTUR SZYNDLER

The Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) is the only Jewish presence in Oświęcim – the town the Germans called Auschwitz. Following the transition from communism in 1989, Poland began to rediscover its multicultural and Jewish history, which had been distorted and suppressed under communism. The ﬁrst step towards the recovery of the memory of the Jewish community in Oświęcim was the creation of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation in 1995. In 1998, the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot, the only surviving synagogue in Oświęcim, became the ﬁrst piece of Jewish communal property in Poland to be returned to the Jewish community. Donated to the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation by the Jewish Community of Bielsko-Biala, the synagogue was restored in the 1990s by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation. In September 2000, the Auschwitz Jewish Center opened its doors

We Remember/Zochrim (2008). Photo by Tomasz Mól.

to the public. The AJC provides all visitors with an opportunity to memorialize victims of the Holocaust through the study of the life and culture of a formerly vibrant Jewish town and offers educational programs that allow new generations to explore the meaning and contemporary implications of the Holocaust, including prejudice and hatred today. Since August 2006, the Center has been affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York. The Center’s facilities include the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue, Jewish Museum, and the Education Center. Today, the synagogue does not have a rabbi or congregation, but remains the only Jewish prayer house in the vicinity of the former Auschwitz concentration camp, serving as a place for prayer, reflection, and memory.

Together with the historic home of the Kornreich family, the synagogue houses the Jewish Museum. The Jewish Museum’s core exhibition, Oshpitzin, tells the long history story of the local Jewish community, whose origins date to the 16th century. The exhibition contains photographs, documents, objects, and multimedia, including the testimonies of former Jewish residents. Included in the exhibition is an extraordinary collection of Judaica, which was recovered from the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue during archaeological excavation. These objects are now a moving symbol of a destroyed culture. The Auschwitz Jewish Center is dedicated to education and offers programs for students from around the world. The Center offers award-winning initiatives for Polish students and teachers, as well as programs on anti-discrimination and hate crimes for Polish police officers. The AJC’s programs for international students include a program on the Holocaust and military ethics for future officers in the American military and intensive study trips for graduate students and students studying abroad. The Center also holds

Talking Heads Project (2012). Photo by Dominik Smolarek.

events for local visitors, students, and teachers, including book talks, workshops, and lectures. Located in the recently renovated 100-year old Kluger Family House, the home of Oświęcim’s last Jewish resident, Szymon Kluger (1925-2000), is Café Bergson. Café Bergson combines elements of the House’s original interior with minimalistic design, maintaining the soul of the family’s home. The Café brings together local culture, regional and traditional products, and temporary exhibitions in a relaxed, historic atmosphere. Since 2000, the Center has carried out a number of important educational, cultural and commemorative projects that have placed it on the contemporary map of Jewish heritage in Poland and Europe. The Center’s most recent project is Oshpitzin (www.oshpitzin.pl), which includes a website, printed guidebook, and mobile app (app.oshpitzin.pl) on the local history of Jewish Oświęcim. The Center works to build a positive identity for Oświęcim based on its multicultural history and heritage.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

EDYTA GAWRON is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Jewish Studies and the director of the Centre for the Study of the History and Culture of Krakow Jews in the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Dr. Gawron cooperates with various academic institutions and museums in Poland and abroad. She is the president of the Management Board of Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute Foundation, which oversees the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow. Dr. Gawron is a member of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Project’s Advisory Board. The author of many lectures and publications concerning the history of Polish Jews in the 20th century. BENTE KAHAN is a Norwegian-born Jewish actress, musician, director and playwright who began her career in Habima, Israel's national theatre, and Nationaltheatret in Norway. In 2000, she was awarded a Lifelong Stipend for Artists by the Norwegian Art Council for her artistic achievements. In 2001, she moved with her family from Norway to Poland and in 2005 she became the director of the Center for Jewish Culture and Education in The White Stork Synagogue in Wrocław, Poland. The following year, she established The Bente Kahan Foundation. Ms. Kahan has received numerous prestigious awards for her work in Poland, including the Wrocław Mayor’s Award (2006), Ambassador of Wrocław (2010), the German-Polish Silesian Culture Award (2010) and the Order of the Cavalier Cross of Restored Poland from the President of Poland (2013). KLAUDIA KLIMEK is a sociologist, Chair of the Socio-Cultural Association of Jews in PolandKraków Branch, founder of the foundation and website Jewrnalism.com, member of the European Jewish Parliament (EJP), and manager of the cantor Itzchak Horovitz.

STANISŁAW KRAJEWSKI was born in Warsaw, where he received a doctorate in mathematics, a post-doctorate (habilitacja) in philosophy and the title of professor of humanities. He works at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw. He is the co-founder of the Polish Council of Christians and Jewish, of which he has been the co-president from its establishment until now. He is also the chair of the Court of Arbitration of the Warsaw Jewish Religious Community, and a member of the team that created the exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The author of many articles and books on logic, philosophy, mathematics, Jewish Studies, Jewish history and Christian-Jewish dialogue. His most recent book, published by the Austeria Publishing House, is Żydzi i… (Jews and…). He is married to the artist Monika Krajewska; they have two sons. MONIKA KRAWCZYK is a lawyer, a graduate of the University of Warsaw and recipient of the Rotary International Foundation scholarship to the University of Toledo Law School (Ohio, USA). Since 2004, she has been the attorney for the board of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland. In 2009, she was awarded the Oﬃcer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. HELISE LIEBERMAN is the director of the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation. A former Hillel director, she was the founding principal of the Lauder-Morasha Day School in Warsaw and has served as consultant to the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, the Westbury Group, and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well as an educational consultant for JDC - Baltics. In 2007-2008, Ms. Lieberman was awarded a scholarship to participate in the Senior Educators Program of the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew

University. As a Jewish Peoplehood educator, she is a member of the International Task Force on Jewish Peoplehood Education and is helping shape the new Koret-Taube Initiative on Jewish Peoplehood based in San Francisco. Ms. Lieberman, born in the U.S., has lived in Warsaw since 1994 with her husband, Yale Reisner, and their daughter, Nitzan. JANUSZ MAKUCH is the originator of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków and its director since its ﬁrst edition. He holds a degree in Polish studies from Jagiellonian University. He has been the recipient of the Irena Sendler Award for Repairing the World and awarded the Oﬃcer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 1988, together with Krzysztof Gierat, he created the Jewish Culture Festival, which was largely due to the rebirth of Jewish life in Kraków's Kazimierz district and changing perceptions of Jewish culture. JAKUB NOWAKOWSKI was born and raised in Kazimierz, the former Jewish district of Kraków. He has an MA in History from the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University. He also has a postgraduate diploma in Management and Marketing from the Kraków School of Economics and Computer Science, and he holds a Tour Leader’s Licence from the City of Kraków. Since 2005, he has been connected with the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków; in 2010 he was appointed as a new director. Jakub Nowakowski is the co-author of the Museum publications (among others): Guide to Oskar Schindler’s Kraków and map of the Jewish Kazimierz and a co-editor of the publication: Poland: A Jewish Matter. He is also a curator of the Museum exhibitions: Fighting for Dignity. Jewish Resistance in Kraków (2007), A City Not Forgotten. Memories of Jewish Lwów and the Holocaust (2010/2011) and On the Other Side of the Torah. Wartime Portraits from Tübingen (2012). Since 2012 he is

a member of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Project (EHRI). JONATHAN ORNSTEIN has served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Centre of Kraków since its opening in April 2008. He is a founding member of Przymierze, the Kraków Association of Christians and Jews where he serves on the board. Prior to the JCC’s opening in 2008, he lectured in Modern Hebrew at the Jagiellonian University Department of Jewish Studies for six years and fo unded the Gesher association for Polish-Israeli dialogue. A native of New York City, Jonathan moved to Israel in 1994, living for seven years on a kibbutz in the Negev desert and serving for two years in a combat unit in the I.D.F. before making his way to Poland in 2001. SHANA PENN is the Executive Director of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and a scholar-in-residence at the Graduate Theological Union’s Center for Jewish Studies, in Berkeley. Her book, Solidarity’s Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland (University of Michigan Press, 2005) was awarded Best Book in Slavic and East European Women’s Studies by the American Association of Women in Slavic Studies. It is newly published as Sekret Solidarności by W.A.B. publishing in Warsaw. Ms. Penn’s research in Polish Jewish and gender studies has been published widely, including in New Eastern Europe and Krytyka Polityczna. In 2013 she was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. KRYSTYNA PODGÓRSKA is a member of the board of the Jewish Religious Community of Kraków and belongs to the Second Generation of Kraków Jews. A psychologist by training, she runs the Wsparcie psychological help programme for Holocaust survivors and seniors. She is the editor-in-chief of the Nasza Gmina bulletin.

PATRYK PUFELSKI has been involved in informal Jewish education since 2009. He co-ordinates the work of the Sunday School at JCC Kraków and is a volunteer at the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, where he helps co-organise a Jewish summer camp and holiday programmes to stimulate the small Jewish communities in Poland. Additionally, he leads courses in schools, preschools and the prison in Tarnów-Mościce. He is a member of the Gimel Students’ Club operated by JCC Kraków. ZUZANNA RADZIK is a member of the board of the Forum for Dialogue, a theologian and journalist. She specialises in Christian-Jewish relations. RABIN MICHAEL SCHUDRICH was born in New York City. He attended Jewish schools in the New York area and then studied at the State University of New York – Stony Brook. He completed his B.A. in religious studies in 1977. Michael Schudrich was ordained as a rabbi in 1980 and two years later ﬁnished his studies in history at Columbia University. He lived in Japan between 1983-1989, where he took care of the religious needs of the local Jewish community and taught Jewish culture and history. He also worked for the commemoration of the heroic activities of Consul Sugihara. Rabbi Schudrich travelled to Central and Eastern Europe in the 1970s, and made contacts with the Jews living there. In 1990, he began working for the Lauder Foundation. He spent the years 19921998 in Warsaw. Rabbi of Warsaw and Łódź. On 8 December 2004, Michael Schudrich was named the Chief Rabbi of Poland. DARIUSZ STOLA is the director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He is a historian, a professor at the Institute of Political Studies at PAN and at Collegium Civitas, a member of the team at the Centre for Research on Migration at the University of Warsaw. His research

interests include the history of Polish-Jewish relations, the history of the People’s Republic of Poland and the history of international migration in the 20th century. He has published more than 100 academic articles, 10 books and three history textbooks for secondary schools. He is a longtime academic lecturer, participant in research projects and a member of the scientiﬁc editorial boards of a number Polish and international institutions and academic journals. ARTUR SZYNDLER holds a PhD in Religious Studies. His focus is the history of the Jewish community of Oświęcim and Polish Jewry in general. He works at the Auschwitz Jewish Center and lectures at the Institute of Political Science of State School of Higher Education in Oświęcim. He is also a member of the Polish Association of Jewish Studies. His publications have been featured in Auschwitz Studies, Pro Memoria, Karta, Studia Judaica, and Yad Vashem Studies. TAD TAUBE is Chairman of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, President of the Koret Foundation, and Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also Chairman and Founder of Woodmont Companies, a diversiﬁed real estate investment and management organization. Consul Taube has dedicated his life to strengthening civic and cultural life and Jewish communities in both the San Francisco Bay Area and his native Poland, from which he emigrated with his parents in 1939 just before the Nazi invasion. In 2004, President of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski honored him with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2007, after his appointment as Honorary Consul, he established a Sister Cities relationship between San Francisco and Kraków, the city of his birth.

ABOUT THE GALICIA JEWISH MUSEUM

In 2004, British photojournalist Chris Schwarz established the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków. The Museum is a unique institution that was created to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, to celebrate the richness of Jewish history and culture, and to take part in the revival of Jewish life in present-day Poland. Through exhibitions, cultural events, and an educational outreach and community programme, the Museum presents Jewish history from a new perspective. The aim of the Museum is to challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions typically associated with the Jewish past in Poland, educating both Poles and Jews about their own histories whilst encouraging them to think about the future. At the heart of the Museum is the permanent exhibition, Traces of Memory: A Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in Poland. The new permanent exhibition, An Unﬁnished Memory: Jewish Heritage and the Holocaust in Eastern Galicia, complements the core exhibition. With the new exhibition, the Museum realizes its long-held goal of extending its thoughtful and provocative approach to the Jewish past to the whole of historical Galicia, including the eastern part that is today in Ukraine. The Museum houses also temporary exhibition galleries and an education room with a media resource centre and ﬁlm archive, as well as a café and Jewish bookstore. The Galicia Jewish Museum is a registered charitable foundation in Poland (Fundacja Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute) and a member of the Association of European Jewish Museums, the Association of Holocaust Organizations, and the International Council of Museums. In 2013, Museum received a Salt Crystals prize from the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of Poland an the Marshal of the Małopolska Voivodeship, for its "invaluable input in promoting the history and culture of Jews in Poland; the preservation and support of intercultural dialogue; actively leading historical and political education; and promoting the region on an international arena."