CONVERSATIONS
Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland and Beit Polska are proud to initiate a series of popular conversations in Polish, Hebrew and English, “Freighted Legacies.” Using the multi-channel opportunities of zoom we will present experts in the fields of history, religious thought, drama, and music on the legacy of Polish Jewish heritage. Much of that Polish Jewish legacy is alive in current Jewish communities in Diaspora freighted with complex issues of memory, anger, confusion, nostalgia and uncertainty.

WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE?
Jewish communities in Israel, the United Kingdom, South American, Australia and Poland itself are seeking their roots in Polish lands. With the passing of time and especially the generation that grew up in Poland, the intensity of interest in the Holocaust has expanded to include a searching for understanding the rich diverse cultures that Poland’s Jews cultivated.

Individuals who inherited these “freighted legacies” through their families are often seeking a more solid historical footing to understand who they are. Relying on sparse factual information and some incoherence is no longer enough. Expressions of grief often obscured the rich legacy of Polish Jewry’s profound cultures. Our hope is that this series will also find viewers from all walks of life seeking to inform themselves of the “1000 year old” civilization created by Jews in Poland.

WHY NOW?
We will foster learning and connection to the incredible research of scholars from Poland, Israel and North America and other countries. It is important to note much of this work among scholars is now done cooperatively and internationally. Yet, we are commencing our efforts in a time of extreme Polish nationalism that is attempting to re-write the pluralistic and liberal restorative efforts from the immediate past – Communist era. Increasingly, a state “historical policy” is being funded, fostered and insinuated into the memory narratives of Poland. The Polish government’s policy cannot be allowed to stand without a forthright rebuttal in our forums.

Because these programs will be in Polish as well as English and Hebrew we anticipate that the mutual encounter will foster not only our Progressive Jewish community in Poland but new audiences of learners. We believe many Catholic Poles and secular Poles will find these programs compelling. We will intentionally feature scholars from Poland – Jews and non-Jews – on this platform who will address fact based history. We believe that this will benefit all our viewers. We recognize this as an example of fostering forums for the discourse that is being suppressed in many quarters in Poland. It is also the case that there is a surprising active collection of writers, researchers, and thinkers in Poland and out that are reflecting on Jewish life in Poland as part of their academic and private lives. We anticipate these individuals having a broader audience that will at minimum create a more diverse set of themes. More about the themes and participants below.

Serious and on-going contention exists around important events in history especially the Holocaust but no exclusively. Initially, we will focus attention on the many controversies and their complexities. The aid extended to Jews in Holocaust by Catholic Poles is indeed remarkable given the larger context of Poland occupied by Germany war-time society. The largest group of The Righteous Among the Nations comes from Poland. In the hands of the current Polish government a “history policy” seeks to substitute history for indoctrination and an “end of the pedagogy of shame.” The heroic Catholic Poles are employed to obscure from Poles and others, a larger and darker narrative.

FEATURING IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL TOOLS
Educational tools created by Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland and Beit Polska have published or fostered the publication of educational materials in Polish directed primarily to the Progressive Polish Jewish community but of interest to the Polish reading public. These publications will be featured. Many of these books, articles and weekly sermon reflections appear also in English. These zoom seminars will focus significance of a modern Polish translation of the Shabbat, Weekday, and Holiday prayerbook, Siddur Beit Polin: Modlitewnik Na Dni powszednie Szabaty I Swieta or the Polish translation of the Honey and the Sting.

HOW DID POLAND BECOME A CRADLE OF JEWISH LIFE?
Over 75 years have passed since the Holocaust, but little in current Jewish understanding or that matter Polish school curriculum acknowledges the on-going influence of this important Diaspora community. Internally, for the Jewish community, it is hard to imagine an aspect of contemporary Jewish life that does not have its analog in Poland. From religious perspectives of Hassidisms, Neo-Hassidisms, and Mussar to Progressive Judaism. Poland was the birth place of Zionisms and Socialisms that were inflected in Yiddish and Hebrew as well as Polish. Every cultural expression in music, theater, and literature in Yiddish or Hebrew and even in Polish finds its echoes in our contemporary Jewish expression.

An important historical focus will note the period of loss of Polish independence in 1795 under the influence of the three imperial powers of Russia, the Austro-Hungarian and Germany to the end of World War I (1918) and the remarkable re-emergence of an independent Poland.

Celebrating literary achievements in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish from the writing of detective mysteries with a Jewish sub-plot to historical novels that continue invoke a multicultural Poland. Despite attempts to rewrite history, serious imaginative literature continues [A Grain of Truth (Polish State Prosecutor Szacki Investigates) Zygmunt Miloszewski to The Books of Jacob (Olga Tikarczuk) to Yiddish writers Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Satan in Goray and Sholem Asch’s Kiddush HaShem.

WHO WILL BE OUR GUIDES?
Who will be our guides? will feature emerging Polish born talent Please join us in formulating the initial proposals for a series of zoom discussions that are being planned. involve Rabbi Haim Beliak along with Marek Jezowski and Dominika Zakrzewska as moderators.

Marek Jezowski is the chair of Beit Polska. His professional work is in translation from Polish to English and English to Polish. He hold a Ph.d. from
Dominika Zakrzewska is the coordinator of Beit Polska and assistant professor at Warsaw Pedagogic with expertise in educating for tolerance.
Dr. Menachem Mirski Polish speaking rabbinic student at Ziegler Rabbinic School (fourth year). Completed doctorate in philosophy as well as a master of various musical genres including Flamingo guitar and Klezmer.

Miriam Klimowa a third year Rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Klimowa entered HUC with extensive training in Hebrew language and Cantorial skills gained in Poland and Ukraine.

Rabbi Mati Kirschenbaum is the rabbi of Bromley Reform Synagogue in London as well as serving as the adjudicator for Beit Polska’s Step by Step class and editor of the forthcoming Polish translation of the High Holiday Machzor.

Cantor Anna Silverman a recent graduate of Jewish Theological Seminary’s Cantorial Program Polish-Jewish scholars and Polish scholars of note
Yosef Holy is a Hebrew language instructor specializing in teaching Poles modern spoken Hebrew. He is from Zakopane but now lives in Israel.

Dr. Joanna Auron is a scholar and translator. Dr. Auron’s “Describing Who?: Poland in Photographs by Jewish Artists”

A world of Polish speaking academic experts on Jewish matters include many Jews and non-Jews that we plan to call upon to educate us.

THEMES AND TOPICS

• Cultural developments in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew language
• Music and cross-fertilization
• Religious communities: Hassidism, Progressive, Neo-Hassidism
• Nationalisms – Poland in the age of nationalisms and empires: Polish, Jewish, Ukrainian, German, and Russian
• Holocaust and Post-Holocaust
• Personal Remembrances
• The Legacy of Polish Life in Contemporary Jewish Life
• Sociologists and Philosophers –  Zygmunt Bauman
• Polish Jewish Mathematicians in Exile
• Polish Jewish Authors in Yiddish, Hebrew, German and Polish
• Jews in Polish literature

HOW WILL THE PROJECT GROW?
Where possible we will endeavor to provide excerpted readings from informed sources as well as more extensive bibliographies.  Where possible we provide suggestions for reading that will enrich each program.  This will allow greater engagement for individuals or groups to pursue the various themes.

The recorded programs will be archived on our website in English and Polish. We will build an archive that will be available to diverse communities most especially high school students, educators, and travelers.

We hope that our many friends will make suggestions and expand our list. All the topics need further framing and development. Many topics will lend themselves to expanding as a conversational mini-series.

As news and controversies, develop there will be topics that are of greater moment in people’s work and we invite your suggestions as to the urgency of certain topics. We recognize many more scholars and cultural mavens could be included and we welcome their participation. At the same time, we recognize we are presenting only a small corner of the scholarly work. We hope to eventually cover more ground.

Funding for this project is a challenge and if you have suggestions or wish to make donations we welcome your interest.

We solicit your individual and collective wisdom.

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFO:
[email protected]