Poland -- Conference announcement and upcoming Zamosc synagogue dedication

 Zamosc synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland announces a conference in April that will coincide with the formal rededication of the synagogue in Zamosc after its restoration.

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Polish-Jewish Literature Studies of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin invite for an INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC CONFERENCE “HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE JEWS IN ZAMOSC AND THE ZAMOSC REGION” WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE ON APRIL 5-7, 2011.
The conference will be held in the Renaissance synagogue in Zamosc. It will be combined with the official opening of the synagogue which is being restored by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland within the framework of the project “Revitalization of the Renaissance synagogue in Zamosc for the needs of the Chassidic Route and the local community”. The project received a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.
The conference will inaugurate a multi-year research project devoted to Zamosc Jews, gathering researchers representing different academic disciplines interested in the subject.

Romania -- Conference in Bucharest

This year's annual Internation Jewish Studies conference at the Goldstein Goren Center at the University of Bucharest will take place May 27-28 and focus on Jews and the City -- on  "how the Jewish minority shaped and was shaped by the urban space along history. The diverse Jewish lifestyles, relations and spirituality patterns, which created a characteristic space within the rich context of urbanism, and their economic expression, artistic values and social ties."

I haven't see the list of speakers yet.

Czech Conference -- Declaration on Restitution etc

At the Prague conference on Holocaust Assets, forty-six countries have ratified a document aimed at easing the restitution process for Jewish property seized during the Holocaust.

The first comprehensive, multi-country document of its kind covering the issue of land confiscation together with survivor care, the declaration states: ''Noting the importance of restituting communal and individual immovable property that belonged to the victims of the Holocaust (Shoah) and other victims of Nazi persecution, the Participating States urge that every effort be made to rectify the consequences of wrongful property seizures, such as confiscations, forced sales and sales under duress of property, which were part of the persecution of these innocent people and groups, the vast majority of whom died heirless.''

Here's a link to the JTA story by Dinah Spritzer.

Prague -- Holocaust Era Assets Conference

By Ruth Ellen Gruber


The Holocaust Era Assets Conference convenes in Prague this weekend, gathering representives from many countries to deal with the unresolved issues of property restitution and recovery of art and other objects looted from Jews (and others) during and after the Shoah. You can see the program HERE. The meeting is a follow up to several other major international conferences on these issues.

More than six decades after World War II the terrible ghosts of the Holocaust have not disappeared. The perverse ideology that led to the horrors of the Holocaust still exists and throughout our continents racial hatred and ethnic intolerance stalk our societies. Therefore, it is our moral and political responsibility to support Holocaust remembrance and education in national, as well as international, frameworks and to fight against all forms of intolerance and hatred.

The stated aims of the conference are:

• To assess the progress made since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets in the areas of the recovery of looted art and objects of cultural, historical and religious value (according to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the Vilnius Forum Declaration 2000), and in the areas of property restitution and financial compensation schemes.
• To review current practices regarding provenance research and restitution and, where needed, define new effective instruments to improve these efforts.
• To review the impact of the Stockholm Declaration of 2000 on education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust.
• To strengthen the work of the Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, a 26-nation body chaired by the Czech Republic in 2007-2008.
• To discuss new, innovative approaches in education, social programs and cultural initiatives related to the Holocaust and other National Socialist wrongs and to advance religious and ethnic tolerance in our societies and the world.

Romania -- Late News on a Jewish Heritage Conference

Siret synagogue, Romania. 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I just found out today about what could have been an interesting conference on Jewish heritage that took place this past week in Bucharest. I'm posting it in the "it's frustrating, but better to know about it late than never" category. This category, alas, is a big one! So many initiatives take place on an individual level that it is often hard (or impossible) to keep track.

The program as a whole looked terrific. Many of the topics were of particular interest to me because of my own research and writing -- and my own interest in regarding Jewish heritage as part and parcel of national, regional and European heritage -- and also because of my new "(Candle)sticks on Stone" project centering on the respresentation of women on Jewish tombstones, particularly on the richly carved stones in the Jewish cemeteries of Radauti and other towns in northern Romania.

Annual International Conference on JEWISH HERITAGE
PART OF THE WORLD AND NATIONAL HERITAGE
Bucharest, May 28-29, 2009

The University of Bucharest and the Goldstein Goren Center for Hebrew Studies
invite you to the annual international conference on Jewish Heritage Part
of the World and National Heritage.

Prominent scholars from Romania and abroad (Israel, France, Hungary, Turkey) will
lecture and debate on the Jewish intellectual heritage - its influence on local
and world culture and the current state of rehabilitation, restoration and
conservation options; a special panel will be dedicated to the Jewish monuments
of worship, synagogues and their art.

The event is open to the public and will take place on May 28-29, 2009, at the
Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest (5-7 Edgar Quinet St., room 120 and
Council Hall).

On the occasion of the conference, the photo-documentary exhibition "Colors of
Time: The Synagogues of Moldova", belonging to the Romanian Cultural Institute
in Tel Aviv, will be on display.

The photographs presented in the exhibition are the work of Teodor Rafileanu, a
journalist and a photographer. These photographs were taken in the spring of 2007,
during the trip for the research of synagogues in Romanian Moldova, in which he
accompanied Dr. Ilia Rodov, lecturer at the Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan
University. This tour was part of a research project supported by the Romanian
Cultural Institute in Israel.

----

JEWISH HERITAGE –
PART OF THE WORLD AND NATIONAL HERITAGE
Bucharest, May 28-29, 2009

Partners: Academia Romana – Institutul de Istorie a Religiilor
Federatia Comunitatilor Evreiesti din Romania – Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania
Institutul Cultural Român – Tel Aviv

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Opening, Council Hall
Chair: Andrei Oisteanu, Institutul de Istorie a Religiilor, Academia Romana – Romania

9.30 – 9.45
Welcome address by Prof. Dr. Liviu Papadima, Dean, Faculty of Letters/ Director, The
Goldstein Goren Center for Hebrew Studies, University of Bucharest

9.45 – 10.00
Welcome address by Traian Basescu, President of Romania, delivered by Dr. Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban, State Counselor for Culture and Religious Affairs

10.00 – 10.15
Welcome address by Prof. Dr. Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania

10.15 – 10.30 Coffee break

Morning Session, Council Hall
Jewish intellectual heritage and its influence on local and world culture
Chair: Felicia Waldman, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

10.30 – 10.50
“Patrimoniul cultural evreiesc – document istoric prea putin uzitat”
Liviu Rotman, SNSPA; Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.50 – 11.10
“ ‘In Nehardea There Are No Heretics’ – The Purported Jewish Interaction with Christianity in Sasanian Babylonia”
Barak Cohen, Bar Ilan University – Israel

11.10– 11.30
“From Monologue to Dialogue: the Varying Relationships of Jewish Thinkers to European Intellectual Culture”
Raphael Shuchat, Bar Ilan University – Israel

11.30 – 11.50
“Jews and Central Europe – A Double Legacy”
Raphael Vago, Tel Aviv University – Israel

11.50 – 12.10
Discussions

12.10– 14.15 Lunch break

Afternoon session, Council Hall
Jewish monuments of worship – Synagogues and their art
Chair: Mariuca Stanciu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

14.15 – 14.35
“Ars brevis, vita longa: On Preservation of Modern Synagogue Art”
Ilia Rodov, Dept. of Jewish Art, Bar Ilan University – Israel

14.35 – 14.55
“Tradition and Innovation in the Romanian Synagogues – Structure and Decoration”
Ariella Amar, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Israel

14.55 – 15.15
“The Great Synagogue of Budapest”
Rudolf Klein, St. Stephen University, Budapest – Hungary

15.15 – 15.35
“The Mural Painting of Romanian Synagogues – a surprising documentary source”
Mariuca Stanciu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

15.35 – 15.55
“Sinagogile din Bucuresti – perspective arhitecturala”
Alina Popescu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

15.55 – 16.15
Discussions

Friday, May 29, 2009
Morning session, Council Hall
The Jewish Cultural Heritage – A Multifaceted Approach
Chair: Liviu Rotman, SNSPA; Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

9.30 – 9.50
“The transformed Jewish Heritage of Târgu Neamţ – Romania”
Felicia Waldman, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

9.50 – 10.10
“Patrimoniul iudaic din Romania – reabilitare, restaurare si optiuni de conservare”
Rudy Marcovici & Lucia Apostol, Federatia Comunitatilor Evreiesti din Romania

10.10 – 10.30
“Reportajul interbelic prin textele lui F. Brunea Fox, ilustrate de Iosif Berman ”
Anca Ciuciu, Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.30 – 10.50
“Evolutia artei funerare evreiesti din Cimitirul Filantropia – Bucuresti in secolele XIX-XX”
Gabriela Vasiliu, Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.50 – 11.15
Discussions

11.15 – 11.30 Coffee break

Midday Session, Council Hall
Jewish heritage lost and found
Chair: Raphael Vago, Tel Aviv University – Israel

11.30 – 11.50
“Spatiul corpului si irealitatea targului”
Voichita Horea, University of Bucharest – Romania

11.50 – 12.10
“The preserved Jewish Heritage of Bursa – Turkey”
Bulent Senay, Uludag University, Bursa – Turkey

12.10 – 12.30
“The entirely lost Jewish heritage of Ştefăneşti – Romania”
Laurenţiu Ursu, Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi – Romania

12.30 – 12.45
Discussions

12.45 – 14.45 Lunch break

Afternoon session, Council Hall
Jewish heritage lost and found (continued)
Chair: Carol Iancu, Paul Valery University Montpellier III – France

14.45– 15.05
“The lost and found Jewish heritage of Montpellier – France”
Michael Iancu, Moses Maimonides Institute, Montpellier – France

15.05-15.25
“Patrimoniul evreiesc din sudul Franţei – exemplul sinagogilor din Carpentras si Cavaillon”
Carol Iancu, Paul Valery University Montpellier III – France

15.25 – 15.45
“Intre exclusivism şi inclusivism: CazulRonetti Roman”
Michael Shafir, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj – Romania

15.45 – 16.05
“Romancero sau Istoria unei comori de suflet”
Cristina Toma, Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune – Romania

16.05 – 16.25
“Leaving the Jewish heritage behind: Wartime Jewish emigration from Romania”
Mihai Chioveanu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

16.25 – 16.45
Discussions

Moldavia -- Bob Cohen on East European Comfort Food

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is preparing an exhibition on Food and Religion, and I've been asked to write an essay on Jewish-style restaurants in East-Central Europe for the catalogue (mainly the kitschy ones, but I'll have to add a couple of the real thing, I think). Coincidentally, I just received an email announcement of conference on "Culinary Judaism" to be held in England this summer:

Call for Papers: BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR JEWISH STUDIES Conference
12-14 July 2009, Durham, UK:
`Culinary Judaism'

THEME AND VENUE

The 2009 annual conference will take place at St Aidan's College,
Windmill Hill, Durham, 12-14 July 2009. The theme of the conference
will be `Culinary Judaism'. Speakers are invited to present papers
concerning all issues related to food and the use of food in Jewish
texts and cultures, addressing such issues as commensality, cooking,
creation of boundaries, identity, symbolism, sacrifice and material
cultural objects related to or symbolic of eating, etc. The term
`culinary' is interpreted broadly and as suggested extends to
sacrifice and other symbolic uses of food or food related objects. It
is hoped that this broad interpretation of the theme will encourage
members of BAJS from a wide range of research fields to participate.

Bob Cohen takes a far far less academic approach in the blog entry from his Moldavia trip he has just posted, describing in lush (luscious) detail the market foods he found there, many if not most of which form the gustatory core of Ashkenazi eating. You know, pickles, prunes, smoked fish....

Fish was everywhere - interesting given that Moldova is landlocked, but Odessa is only an hour away and as former CCCP appetites know, if you want to drink you need some zakuska to eat with your vodka, and that means some smoked fish. In many ways, if you are used to New York jewish foods, you won't be dissappointed in fressing in Moldova. Jewish culinary traditions have been deeply absorbed into Moldovan cuisine - supermarkets are packed at the arrival of hot, fresh baked challah on friday afternoons.

Italy -- Archeology of Jewish Settlement in Sardinia

There will be a conference this weekend about Jewish history in Alghero, a small town on the northwest coast of Sardinia where Jews settled in the mid-14th century. One of the principal speakers will be Mauro Milanese, an archologist who has directed excavations in Alghero's old Jewish quarter.

Mauro Milanese ha diretto invece gli scavi nel quartiere ebraico di Alghero, il “kahal” o “juharia”, con interventi nel cortile del vecchio ospedale, all’interno della chiesa di Santa Chiara e sopratutto in Piazza Santa Croce dove era ubicata la sinagoga, il luogo di culto della comunità ebraica, l’“aljama” algherese; quest'ultimo intervento ha riportato alla luce, al di sotto dei ruderi della chiesa di Santa Croce, i resti di alcuni fabbricati ascrivibili al quartiere ebraico, e, proprio in occasione della chiusura degli scavi, un vano sotterraneo, probabilmente il “mikvé”, ovvero la vasca annessa ai locali della sinagoga utilizzata per alcuni rituali della comunità.

I primi ebrei sefarditi arrivarono con la conquista di Alghero (1354) da parte di Pietro IV il Cerimonioso, provenienti dalla penisola iberica (“Sefarad”, in ebraico) dalla Provenza e dalle Baleari. Ben presto si dotarono di una prima sinagoga, di una macelleria per la vendita di carne “kasher”, di un cimitero (“fossar iudeorum”), ed ottenerono il privilegio, fra gli altri, di amministrare autonomamente la giustizia, tutti elementi essenziali per la sussistenza di una comunità rispettosa dei numerosi precetti previsti dalla religione giudaica.

It's a sad sign of the times and of the mentality that identifies anything Jewish with the current policies of Israel, that the organizers, according to an article in the local newspaper, in announcing a conference about local Jewish history in the 14th and 15th centuries, felt that they had to mention the situation in Gaza and their hope that "it cannot and must not transform itself into an occasion that can give rise to racist outbursts," that is, anti-semitism. The organizers also used the announcement of the conference to voice their hopes for a peaceful settlement that would "leave space for tolerance and reciprocal respect" between Israelis and Palestinians.

«Per concludere – dichiarano gli organizzatori - la situazione politica nella Striscia di Gaza, di tragica attualità, non può e non deve trasformarsi in un’occasione che possa dare origine a rigurgiti razzisti; l’auspicio è che le armi cedano il passo alla diplomazia affinché si possa trovare una soluzione ed una prospettiva di pacifica convivenza fra le parti in guerra, cosa che forse potrebbe essere possibile se l’integralismo, religioso o politico che sia, lasciasse spazio alla tolleranza e al reciproco rispetto».

Read Full Article (in Italian)

Berlin - Major Conference on Jewish Cultural Treasures in Europe after the Holocaust

A major conference on Jewish Cultural Treasures in Europe after the Holocaust will take place at the Jewish Museum in Berlin on Jan. 24-25. The conference comes at the conclusion of the exhibition "Looting and Restitution. Jewish Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present," which has been running at the museum since September.

The conference topics look fascinating and important, and I wish I could go, but logistics (and finances) will probably not permit me...

More information about the exhibition and the conference can be found at the Jewish museum web site.

Meanwhile, here is the program:

Saturday, 24. January 2009

PANEL I: CONFRONTING LOOTING AND DESTRUCTION: NEW STRATEGIES
10.00 Introduction
Inka Bertz, Jewish Museum Berlin

10.30 Reconstructing Jewish Cultural Landscapes - The »Tentative Lists«
Project 1944-1948
Elisabeth Gallas, Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at
Leipzig University

11.15 Hashavat Avedah: JCR, Inc. and the Rescue of Heirless Jewish Cultural
Property After WW II
Dana Herman, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives,
Cincinnati

PANEL II: GERMANY AND AUSTRIA
13.30 To Whom Do the Jewish Cultural Treasures Belong after 1945? Conflict
of Interests in the City of Frankfurt am Main
Katharina Rauschenberger, Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main

14.15 The Situation in Berlin 1945-1953
N.N.

15.00 Displaced on Three Continents. The Fate of the Material Heritage of
the Jewish Community in Vienna
Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Jewish Museum Wien

PANEL III: EAST CENTRAL EUROPE I
16.15 What Happened in Prague?
Michaela Sidenberg, Jewish Museum in Prague

17.00 Dealing with the Jewish Cultural Assets in Post-War Poland
Nawojka Cieslinska-Lobkowicz, Art Historian and Provenance Researcher,
Warsaw/Munich

17.45 The Jewish Historical Institute as a Repository for Jewish Cultural
Treasures in Poland
N. N.

Sunday, 25. January 2009

PANEL IV: WESTERN EUROPE
10.00 A Matter of Conscience? Legal and Moral Aspects of Dutch Restitution
Policy
Julie Marthe Cohen, Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam

10.45 The Fate of Jewish-Owned Cultural Treasures in Paris and in France
Laurence Sigal, Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris

11.30 Looted Jewish Art and Cultural Properties in Italy. The Difficult
Restitution and Compensation after 1945
Paola Bertilotti, Sciences-Po, Paris / Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et
Sciences Humaines, Lyon

PANEL V: EAST CENTRAL EUROPE II
13.45 Lviv 1944 - Now. Jewish Cultural Objects and Property. Some Cases and
Tendencies
Tarik Cyril Amar, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv

14.30 Restitution Issues in Post-War Romania
Hildrun Glass, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

15.15 »Disappeared?« The Fate of Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts in Hungary
after 1945
Eszter Gantner, ELTE University of Budapest - Center for Central European
German Jewish Culture

16.00 Final discussion: Open Questions, Ongoing Controversies

Ukraine -- L'viv Conference and Travel

I haven't posted anything for a week, as I have been in L'viv, Ukraine, where I took part in the Oct. 29-31 International Conference on Jewish Heritage and History in East-Central Europe, organized by the recently established L'viv Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. The Center, established by a Swiss-Austrian historian, Harald Binder, aims to be not only a center for research and projects, but also a facilitator, providing a "neutral space" where the sometimes conflictual elements of L'viv's political and cultural society and policy-makers can come together for discussions. The conference coincided with the opening of an exhibition on L'viv's multi-ethnic history, "Wo Ist Lemberg/L'viv A World A Way."

I gave the keynote presentation for the conference -- "Touching and Retouching: Balancing Real, Surreal and Real Imaginary Jewish Spaces," a paper that drew from my previous work and tried to provide some context for the various topics that were being addressed in detail by speakers.

The meeting gathered prominent scholars and other experts from Western Europe, Israel, and the U.S., as well as from Ukraine (among participants was my brother, Samuel Gruber, who I am sure will post some of his reflections on the meeting on his blog).

This was believed to have been the first conference of this nature held in L'viv -- the presentations were pertinent and interesting, and the discussion was very lively and intense. In addition, several of us met after the conference with various officials and others, including the L'viv deputy mayor and the director of the History of Religions Museum. Hot-button topics included the promotion of Jewish heritage and the future of L'viv's derelict former Jewish quarter off the main square, including the ruins of the famous Golden Rose synagogue, and plans for a new Judaica exhibit space in the Jewish quarter.

Questions that were raised echoed those raised in other countries years ago; models for development, the legitimacy of commercial and tourist exploitation of Jewish heritage; the danger of promoting stereotype, etc. Lots was said about the goods and ills of Krakow's Kazimierz district... along these lines, a new "Jewish style" cafe that opened a weeks or so next to the ruins of the Golden Rose stole the show, or part of the show.... We all (or, at least some of us) trooped over to take a look....to me, the interior decor is not bad at all -- rather subdued, with no kitschy carved Jews clutching money, as in Kiev's Tsimmes restaurant or the Ariel in Krakow (and Anatewka in Lodz). There are reproductions of historic photos and motifs based on Bruno Schulz's work.

BUT (and it's a big BUT) -- the cafe displays a collection of black hats complete with long, fake sidelocks (which patrons are encouraged to try on and clown around in). The barman wears a yarmulke -- and patrons are supposed to "haggle" over prices. No prices are listed in the menus -- the waitress is supposed to tell you a price and you have to bargain her down to the actual price the management has (secretly) set..... It's sort of Jewish self irony, without the Jews, or the self or the irony..... The same owner apparently runs several other (debatable) "theme" restaurants in town.


It may take some time to sort my thoughts, so I will try to write some posts on specific issues that came up.

After the conference, I was able to spend a day traveling to four Jewish heritage sites, and I am posting separately on this trip.

Mega Conference on Jewish Art in Poland to Begin

The first Congress of Jewish Art in Poland, a mega-conference drawing dozens of speakers, is due to be held Oct. 27-29 in Kazimierz Dolny, a beautiful town on the Vistula River. It will be devoted to Jewish artists (painters, sculptors, graphic artists, architects) who from the period of the Haskalah until WWII created art centres in Central-Eastern Europe or were connected with these centres, active in Western Europe, Russia, America and the Palestine.

Click here for the program.

Kazmierz Dolny has a long Jewish history and striking Jewish heritage sites.


Holocaust monument at Jewish cemetery, photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber


These include the stone synagogue, originally built in the second half of the 18th century, which stands just off the main market square, and a striking Holocaust Memorial, a mosaic-like wall made of fragments of recovered tombstones, at the site of one of the town's two destroyed Jewish cemeteries.

Conference of Poles who Preserve Jewish Heritage

(Momument at Jewish cemetery, Kazimierz Dolny, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber)


The first national conference of (non-Jewish) Poles who care for Jewish heritage sites in Poland takes place next week -- Sept. 15-16 -- in the small town of Zdunska Wola, near Lodz in central Poland.

Supported by state and local authorities, the conference came about thanks to the local activist Kamila Klauzinska, one of scores of non-Jewish Polish volunteers who have been honored by the Israeli Embassy over the past decade for their work in preserving Jewish heritage in Poland. (Klauszinska is a graduate student in Jewish studies at Krakow's Jagiellonian University. You can email her at kamila.klauzinska@poczta.onet.pl.)

The conference is organized in association with the Yachad Historical Society, a group dedicated to the preservation of Zdunska Wola's Jewish history and heritage sites, and is dedicated to the memory of Ireneusz Slipek, who until his death in 2006 spent 20 years caring for and cleaning up the Jewish cemetery in his hometown, Warta.

The New York-based filmmaker, Menachem Daum -- director of the wonderful "Hiding and Seeking" -- told me that Slipek was "a former priest who single-handedly took care of the Jewish cemetery in his hometown of Warta.  He began his work in 1984 during the Communist regime and for many years had to overcome much opposition from local authorities and neighbors.  His surviving brother made available to me years of his home movies, videos and photos in which we see Ireneusz toiling to repair broken tombstones and literally sweating to return them to their original locations.  Kamila was inspired to undertake her own work by the example of Ireneusz who quietly worked on the cemetery every day, even on the day he died ... . Although he was never much appreciated during his lifetime, through her conference Kamila hopes Ireneusz’s example will inspire others just as he inspired her. "

The American lawyer Michael Traison (whom I met in 1995 at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz) a decade ago instituted an annual ceremony to honor non-Jewish Poles who are involved in various projects related to the preservation of Jewish culture heritage in Poland. The awards are presented each year during the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow by the Israeli Ambassador to Poland. Scores of people, mostly volunteers and mostly from small, far-flung towns, have been honored for activities ranging from cleaning up Jewish cemeteries to running Jewish museums to carrying out school project on Jewish history and memory.


(Israeli Ambassador David Peleg presents an award during the ceremony in 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber.)


As Yachad states, it is "a great honor for those who were awarded with diplomas. Some of them, for the first time, could feel that their work and devotion were noticed by such eminent people and institutions, although none of the volunteers did his work for diplomas, awards or ovation. Prof. Szewach Weiss (the former Israeli ambassador) called those who, on their own initiative, put a great effort in saving Jewish heritage – the third generation of the Righteous among the Nations. This is the greatest distinction that could be given to us, modest people from little towns. We would never dare to call ourselves this way. This title can be given only for the bravest, only for large-hearted men."

Organizers of the Zdunska Wola conference hope to hold such a conference every two years to connect people and enables them to exchanges experiences and information.

Funding comes from the Ford Foundation, the Taube Foundation, the Batory Foundation and the city of Zdunska Wola, and support comes from state and local authorities.

At next week's conference, local volunteers from various towns will describe their experiences. Various dignitaries are also expected to attend, including Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and government minister Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, an aide to the Polish president. Jan Jagielski, of the Jewish Historical Institute and one of the pioneers of documenting Jewish heritage sites in Poland, will give a talk on Jewish cemeteries.

Here's the program:


PROGRAM of the CONFERENCE:

15 SEPTEMBER 2008

10:00 – registration
11:00 – opening of the conference, speeches by guests
12:00 – film „Elder brothers” about Ireneusz Slipek, volunteer caretaker of the Jewish cemetery in Warta
12:20 – meeting with Józef Ślipek, Ireneusz’s brother. Presentation of the works done  at the Jewish cemetery in Warta

12:24 – lecture by Jan Jagielski - "Our Jewish cemeteries"

After the lecture volunteers from all Poland will present themselves:

1.Tamara Włodarczyk - Klodzko
2. Agnieszka Piśkiewicz - Szczekociny
3. Grzegorz Kamiński - Toszek, Wielowies

(summary, discussion), (coffee break)

4. Dariusz Walerjański - Zabrze
5.Marcin Dudek - Barcin, Pikosc
6. Artur Cyruk - ATLANTYDA

(summary, discussion), (coffee break)

6. Szymon Modrzejewski - MAGURYCZ
7. Agnieszka Ilwicka - Dzierzoniow
8. Michał i Adam Lorenc - SPOTKANIE RYMANOW

(summary, discussion),
18:00 - solemn supper

16 SEPTEMBER 2008

Beginning at 9:00

1. Elżbieta Bartsch/Kamila Klauzińska - YACHAD
3. Paweł Turlejski - Minsk Mazowiecki
The end of presentations of individuals and associations
4. Prof. Aleks Bartnik
5. Albert Stankowski
6. Rabbinical Commission for the Jewish cemeteries
7. Summary, discussion and official ending of the conference
8. Opening of the exhibition MEMORY KEEPERS prepared by students from YACHAD - at 6 Sieradzka Street
9. Visit at the Jewish cemetery in Zdunska Wola