There is a continuing effort by educational organizations at every level in Poland to bring a better understanding of Jewish culture to the people and especially the youth of Poland. Through education we can bring understanding and through understanding, respect, if not friendship.
Recently an international photographic contest was sponsored by the Youth Center of Czestochowa, under the auspices of Mr. Sigmund Rolat, Chairman of the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and chairman of the World Society of Czestochowa Jews and their descendants, and Mayor of Czestochowa, Tadeusz Wrona. Contest entries came from Poland, Israel and Argentina and had to depict a Jewish theme as well as be artistically pleasing.
“Concentration,” by Ireneusz Tasarz, of Czestochowa, Poland
The photographs were on display at the Polish Consulate in New York, sponsored by the Honorable Krzysztof W. Kasprszk, Consul General of Poland. Filling the exhibit space the photographs drew on the long history of the Jewish people. It highlighted synagogues in Poland and in Argentina, graves in Poland but also Jews studying in a beit medrash in Israel.
They portray both the past as well as the living present and hope for the future. An understanding that Jews and Judaism are not a thing of the past, something only to be seen in museums, but that we are still alive for everyone to see.
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