Letter from Andrew Rajcher from Australia

After his visit to Poland

Authorized by the Author

28 November 2005

Hi gang....

Tomorrow I leave Poland and head back to Melbourne. I can't believe that almost 5 weeks has gone by so quickly and that I'm going home already - so much done, yet so much still to do!

I guess I should "report" a little of what happened during the trip:

(1) Czestochowa

During this visit to Poland, I had the chance to go to Cze-wa twice staying with the Mizgalski's both times. During these stays, I got to know them quite well . Prof Jerzy Mizgalski is SO committed to preserving the memory and history of Czestochowa Jewry, that I am quite moved. We had some very long conversations together which were so interesting, that I quite forgot that I had a problem with Polish grammar when speaking the language. Either my grammar improves when I get absorbed into a subject, or Jurek and Krysia Mizgalski are polite enough not to notice my grammatical blunders. :-)

One side benefit to staying with Jerzy is that as we drove around the district, he would stop and tell the most amazing stories about what I was looking at. I'm sure that most people would have driven straight past what otherwise looked to be "nothing special". But when you have a local Professor of History as your guide, just about everything comes to life and is of interest. It was an amazing experience.

(2) Our Website - New Projects

During my stay with Jerzy, I had the chance to sit with him and go through a CD containing literally 100's of photo's of old Czestochowa. Until now, I've been reluctant to use them on the website unless I could identify the subject of the photo and also the approximate year the photo was taken. Thanks to Jurek, most of the pics have now been identified and, when I have some time after my return to Melbourne, I will start to put them up onto our website.

Two new projects are now beginning and will use our website as one of the major points of data collection - from mainly you, the Landsmann. Briefly these are:

(a) a Dictionary of Biographies of as many Jewish individuals as possible who roots are in Czestochowa. This will be a major undertaking and will probably be a never-ending "work in progress". But thinking about the possible end-result, the effort will be more than worthwhile.

(b) a Calendar of Events beginning from the moment the Nazis entered Czestochowa until the Russians arrived and liberated the city. The Calendar will obviously be drawn from current historical resources, but will also rely on input from survivors. The Calendar will be year by year, month by month - even minute by minute - the more detail people can input the better.

But more about these two projects will be posted onto the website once I return. Jerzy has written all the material in Polish and I need to translate it into English before I can make it public - I've already begun.

(3) Sigmund Rolat

Last Monday. Sigmund Rolat, Jerzy Mizgalski, Piotr Stasiak and I met over lunch in Sigmund's Warsaw office.

The commitment with which Sigmund is devoted to the Exhibition is truly amazing. It looks as though other cities in North America are in line to get a visit from "The Jews of Czestochowa" - more in this email group and on the website when they are firmed up.

But the REALLY big news is that Sigmund is about to finally join us on the Internet. Alan told me very early in the piece that "Sigmund just doesn't do email". Well, it seems that all that is about to change - Sigmund is finaqlly buying a laptop and will have a direct email address - welcome to cyberspace, Sigmund!

I'm also pleased to announce that the lack of communication between the opening of the Exhibition in NYC and your humble Webmaster (namely, ME) has also been fixed. So now, when future openings take place, hopefully you guys will have words and pictures up on the website within 24 hours of the event. NYC pointed out some communication problems which Sigmund has now taken steps to remedy.

(4) Warsaw

My time in Warsaw has been amazing. Working with several Jewish organisations here has been incredibly rewarding. They have plans to become as self-sufficient as possible and are developing medium and long-term strategies with this in mind. This has been the area in which I have been working with them.

The people in these organisations are incredibly dedicated to what they do and what they wish to achieve in an environment where resources, right now, are limited. But with vision and some imagination (and a little outside help and advice), I believe that their goals are achievable.

What I've started with these organisations is only the beginning. It needs to be followed up and, yes, I'll be back again in 2006 - maybe more than just once.

A couple of interesting asides:

Today, in Plac Konstytucii, there was an Equal Rights demonstration which just about filled the square with people. This was in protest against the Mayors of Warsaw and Poznan banning certain equal rights marches in their cities. Even though my Polish citizenship hasn't as yet come through, I felt obliged to go and lend my presence to protest the attitude of the new government in Poland to peaceful demonstrations which are an integral part of any healthy democracy. The new President-Elect of Poland is Lech Kaczynski - who, in his previous job, was the Mayor of Warsaw who banned the march in this city. So I felt it was important for the protest message to ring loud.

An amazing array a Polish celebrities turned out. Konstanty Gebbert was one of the speakers - proudly with a yarmulke on his head. Within the crowd I saw a rainbow-flag with a Magen David firmly in its centre. This was a flag which someone had brought from Tel Aviv's gay pride march - and around it was a gathering a Warsaw's Jews adding their voice to the general protest. I guess that the flag was quite symbolic in that, in Poland, both Jews and gays have had their fair share of discrimination and prejudice. The overall crowd was drawn from all levels of society and the feeling in that square was quite electric.

My second aside, I guess, came from my visits to the Nozyk Synagogue on Friday nights. You know when you've been accepted as an integral part of the Warsaw Jewish community when the security guard at the door welcomes you with a smiling "Shabbat Shalom!" instead of a quite gruff "Show me your passport and why are you here?"

I must admit, the my first "Shabbat Shalom" greeting from the security guard gave me quite a buzz.

That's it for now. Once the dust has settled after my return home, I'll be posting a lot more onto the website and, as usual, I'll notify you all through this email group.
Regards to all,

Andrew (Aragorn)

Andrew Rajcher (Axiom Compusat Services)
Melbourne, Australia
aragorn@vicnet.net.au
http://www.czestochowajews.org
Check out our website!!
The International Landsmannschaft of
Czestochowa Jews and Their Descendants