Tag: Poland

The 17th Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow just concluded and has lived up to the promise of being one of the most exciting Jewish festivals around the globe.

When traveling, it is best to do a little homework first - the more you know and prepare for a trip the more you will get out of it.

As summer approaches, people are making vacation plans. More and more people are traveling to Poland, to the old shtetl, to see where their families lived for hundreds of years, before coming to America.

This summer, from June 23 to July 1, the city of Krakow will play host to the 17th annual Jewish Cultural Festival, which as usual, is expected to be a resounding success.

While Polish-Jewish relations have grown more and more friendly in Poland, Israel and the U.S., Poland has also been reaching out to Jews around the world.

It has been more than 10 years since its conception, but finally the long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the Museum of Jewish History of Polish Jews has been set for June 26, 2007.

The synagogue buildings that survived are among the last remaining vestiges of Jewish life in Poland today.

Correct Distinctions    Kenneth Levin's April 20 front-page essay ("The Empty Rage of Jewish 'Progressives'") makes precisely the correct distinctions between Alvin Rosenfeld's monograph and...

One of the most frequently asked questions about Jewish life in Poland is, "Are there still Jews there?"

Whenever I meet people, and they find out I write about Jewish life in Poland, invariably they have questions.

The exhibit "And I Still See Their Faces," at the Yeshiva University Museum in the Jewish History Center in N.Y., was the site of a gala reception honoring two of Polish Jewry's greatest friends, Mr. Sigmund Rolat and Wayne Zuckerman.

Whenever I go to Poland I make a point of visiting the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Half of the 20 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Swidin were broken March 1, according to Albert Stankowski of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw. "This was done during the same time as the Claims Conference was visiting in Poland, and I have no doubt that the act against the cemetery was related," he said. Stankowksi was referring to a Claims Conference meeting last week with the government about compensation for Jewish property stolen by the Nazis and Communists.

When people hear of those honored as Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem, they automatically think of the most renowned, such as Oscar Schindler or Raul Wallenberg.

It has been said that Poland is a country of ghosts and for the past 68 years, since the invasion of Poland by the Germans in 1939, there has been little to celebrate.

I am often asked, "Where do you get all the information that you write about in your weekly column?"

The city of Lodz had once been the second largest Jewish community in all of Poland.

As of December 4, 2006, an exhibition recapitulating the international project, "Do Not be Afraid to Know Me" is being presented in the Opole town hall.

Saul Wahl's story is one of the most intriguing of all the legendary stories concerning Polish Jewry.

The Polish Jewish community held its first public menorah-lighting ceremony Sunday evening, the third night of Chanukah.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened an exhibit last week remembering the children of the Lodz Ghetto.

Recently the Jewish cemetery at Wysokie Mazowiecie held a ceremony marking the first stage of its restoration project.

It is a little known fact in the Jewish world that Poland is famous for its artistic posters.

On Yom Kippur, I was in Kiev after having participated in the commemorations at Babi Yar.

As of Tzom Gedalia, Sept. 25, I will be on a trip to Ukraine and Poland.

Last week, President Lech Kaczynski of Poland visited Israel, where he participated in many events in support of Israel and the Jewish community in Poland.

For the last two weeks I have written about cemetery restoration in Poland. This week I present a report from the Foundation for the Preservation of the Jewish Heritage in Poland, which has done tremendous work in the field. The first half of 2006 has been a busy time for the Foundation for the Preservation of the Jewish Heritage in Poland. The Foundation has cleared up ten Jewish cemeteries and fenced four of them, erected monuments or memorial plaques commemorating pre-war Jewish communities in five towns and is currently restoring four synagogues.

I recently interviewed a Holocaust survivor who was present as the Russian army entered the town of Czetachowa.

Last week's conference on Jewish genealogy in New York featured many sessions dealing with the issues of tracing Jewish lineage.

While most of Europe is critical of Israel's war against Hizbullah, the country that most Jews think of being the most anti-Semitic is hosting a group of Israeli youth from northern Israel to ease their trauma.