See this Times of Israel review. More to follow.
Bogdan's Journey:the Memory of Kielce and Beyond. In this film you will meet a courageous teacher, psychologist, and charismatic public intellectual Bogdan Bialek. Bogdan's life work has been devoted to building trust and understanding in one town, Kielce!
Bogdan's Journey tells his story and that of Jews and other Poles he invites into the effort of reconciliation. View a trailer here.
For information about screenings, please contact RabbiBeliak@JewishRenewalinPoland.org.
June 15 - 30 2017 Insiders' Tour of Poland Led by Rabbi Haim Beliak, Executive Director of Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland (Beit Polska), and Prof. Richard Hecht of UC Santa Barbara. This fascinating tour will focus on the diversity of viewpoints that made Polish Jewish life the source of modern Jewish life from Jewish socialism, to Yiddish culture, to the various branches of Zionism, to Hassidic communities. View successfully concluded 2016 trip here. A participant in the 2015 tour praised it as "a wonderful and memorably meaningful trip -- really a kind of pilgrimage where we learned and learned." For information, write to RabbiBeliak@JewishRenewalinPoland.org
A New Prayer Book, a New Moment For Jewish Rebirth and Development!
Beit Polska is most pleased to announce the publication of a historic prayer book for the Union of Progressive Congregations in Poland – Sidur Beit Polin.
This first Polish Progressive prayer book since before World War II, features a contemporary Polish translation with Hebrew facing and a complete transliteration of all the Hebrew prayers.
To obtain your first edition copy of the Sidur and support its continuing publication, please contact RabbiBeliak@JewishRenewalinPoland.org. To learn more about the Sidur, click here.
Musical Celebration of Jewish Renewal in Poland. Three concerts in October 2016 in the Los Angeles area featured Holocaust survivor Cantor David Wisnia, his grandson Avi Wisnia and contemporary Polish cantors Rivka Foremniak and Menachem Mirski. The concerts, a fundraiser for Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland, were sponsored in part by Jewish Renewal in Poland/Beit Polska; Temple Aliyah of Woodland Hills; Temple Beth Israel of Pomona; and UCLA Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music. We will soon post videos of the concerts.
A new brochure for Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland is available to print or download. The brochure describes our work supporting Beit Polska, the umbrella organization of Progressive Judaism in Poland, and offers exciting opportunities to sponsor projects. A two-sided trifold with a mailing-address panel, the brochure is a PDF file. Click here to see it.
Recent Blog Posts
Torah Sent to Poland On March 20 a new Torah began the third leg of its journey to Poland. The transmission of a practically new scroll — only 150-years-old — of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah is a cause for celebration!! This beautiful scroll is a gift from a Conservative congregation Shaarei Tefilah in Norwood, ... Polish Jews Reviving
Bogdan’s Journey- Special Screening and Discussion (Poland & USA, 2016, 83 min) Bogdan’s Journey will screen on March 8, 2017 at 7 pm at the Laemmle Theater, Music Hall 3, Beverly Hills, CA, followed by Q&A with: Bogdan Bielak, film protagonist Professor Michael Barenbaum, Director of the Sigi Zieirng Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust, AJU Michal ... Rabbi Beliak's Blog