News from FORUM-znak-org.pl

Zydzi Polacy Chrzescijanie
The Celebration of the Anniversary in Rzeszow 10 July 2003

Rzeszow on July 7th, 2003 at 6 PM started the 1st march to commemorate the liquidation of the Jewish Ghetto. The liquidation was synonymous with the extermination of all Jews from that region.

The route of the march followed the path from the Old Synagogue to the train station Rzeszow Staroniwa. The organizers of the march hope that also in other smaller cities of Poland the tradition of marches shall be cultivated; the goal of the marches is the remembrance of the nation that lived among us, cultivated its culture and tradition, which was brutally murdered.

The march should also remind us of our passivity during the Holocaust. The sadness and reflection over those events should be present in every Polish city, where a ghetto existed.

Janusz Korbecki

The Death of Dora Kacnelson
3 July 2003

On July 1st, 2003 in Berlin. Dora Kacnelson died. Kacnelson was a doctor of Slavic philology specializing in the writings of Adam Mickiewicz, an author of numerous studies related to the participants of the November and January Uprising. She lived in Drohobych for over thirty years.

A Medal for Szurmiej
3 July 2003

On June 18th, Szymon Szurmiej, the long-term director of the Public Jewish Theater was honored by the President of Poland Aleskander Kwasniewski with the Grand Cross of the Rebirth of Poland.

How Many Jews are there in Poland?
3 July 2003

According to the preliminary report based on last year's census in Poland only 1,100 people have declared a "Jewish nationality". This number is much smaller than recent estimates of the ministry of interior affairs and administration - and than the estimates of the Jewish community itself. Konstaty Gebert and Stanislaw Krajewski expressed their opinion regarding this matter.

The Days of Remembrance of the Tarnow Jews
3 July 2003

The Days of Remembrance of Jews have been organized in Tarnow for the eight time. On June 12th through 15th celebrations of the anniversary of the extermination of the local Jewish population took place, along with a few events dedicated to the history and culture of the Tarnow Jews.

Bima, the fragment of the historic synagogue (17th century) destroyed by the Germans in 1939;/ photo M. Tobolewski

The main celebration of the Year of Remembrance of the Tarnow Jews took place on June 12th, 2003.The celebrations begun with an event at the Buczyna forest in Zbylitowska Gora, where during the war the Nazis murdered six thousand Tarnow Jews. The ecumenical prayers over the mass graves of thousands of Jews and Poles were conducted by rabbi Berni Lappe from London and prelate Tadeusz Bukowski, the director of the Diocese Museum.

On the same day in the Tarnow City Hall the former Israeli ambassador to Poland Mordechaj Dawid Palzur was awarded the Tarnoviae Merentiby the Hetman Jan Tarnowski Foundation. Palzur, who was born in Tarnow, is an outstanding ambassador of this city in Israel and largely contributed to the restoration of relations of former Tarnow citizens with their hometown. The district museum in Tarnow prepared two exhibitions under the title "Jews in Tarnow". The first one, "The world that no longer exists", tells the story of the Tarnow Jews since their arrival to this area in the 15th century until World War II. Many of the presented exhibits were displayed for the first time. The visitors were particularly interested in the models of the two biggest Tarnow synagogues. Both The New and the Old Synagogue were burned by the Germans in November 1939. The second exhibition "And the sun shone shamelessly..." is dedicated to the extermination of Tarnow Jews. It presents documents and photographs related to the Tarnow ghetto and its liquidation in 1943. In Tarnow itself the nazis killed were over 40,000 Jews, including almost 25,000 inhabitants of the city.
The City Gallery also held an exhibition related to the Days of Remembrance. Within the framework of the international artistic biennale "The Climates of Tarnow" works of art were presented dedicated to the topic "The Judaica of Galicja".

During the 8th celebration of the Days of Remembrance of the Tarnow Jews traditional concert "Pod Bima" (Under the Bima) took place, along with the Sunday sightseeing of the historic Jewish Tarnow Cemetery.