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Jewish Holocaust Survivors from Poland Recognized at California Capitol and through The Next Chapter Project

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Survivior Miriam Wilner

In October 2006, the Taube Foundation sponsored a series of cultural and academic events entitled "Where We Come From: Our Jewish Heritage in Poland--Past, Present & Future," bringing Polish grantees to the San Francisco Bay Area. The festival's fundamental message was a revelation to many: that Jewish culture is being rediscovered and renewed by both Jews and Christians in Poland and that the flowering of these cultural, intellectual and social institutions is not only reclaiming Jewish heritage but also strengthening the future of both Judaism and democracy in Poland.

One of the most memorable events was a public gathering at the Jewish Family and Children's Services in San Francisco in which Polish Jewish and Christian speakers met with local Holocaust survivors and their families. The audience listened with great interest to the visiting Poles as they recounted their personal histories of how they became involved in the renewal of Jewish culture in Poland. A number of audience participants asked how they could create connections with contemporary Poland and learn more about what happened to Jews who remained in Poland, as well as what happened to the birthplaces of those survivors who left Poland and settled in the Bay Area.

Out of this meaningful gathering was born the inspiration for The Next Chapter Project.

Survivors Mella Wendell-Katznelson and Mini Fox

The Foundation, through its Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland, had access to the kind of information that the survivors were eager to receive. Magdalena Matuszewska, the JHIP's Program Associate in Warsaw and one of the presenters at the October 2006 event, served as the lead researcher in Warsaw to document the historical backgrounds of a dozen or so Bay Area Holocaust survivors who lived in Poland before the war and also document what had happened to their birthplaces and communities after the war. Genealogical information about the survivors' families was contributed by Yale Reisner, Director of the Jewish Genealogy Learning Center (a program of the TFJLC) at the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw.

Survivor Ben Altman with student Rabindra Hayashi

Bay Area Students Interview Polish Jewish Holocaust Survivors

In the Bay Area, Dr. Anita Friedman, Executive Director of Jewish Family and Children's Services (founded in 1850), assembled a team to coordinate the interested members of their Holocaust Survivors Program with Bay Area high school students who wished to serve as liaisons and oral history interviewers. The teens, organized and directed by JFCS YouthFirst Program Coordinator Taylor Epstein, spent months interviewing the survivors about their experiences both during and after the war and helping them to answer the basic questionnaire prepared by the researchers in Warsaw. To culminate this work, the teens prepared an album of each survivor's life and the hometowns they left behind.

Survivors Morris and Guta Piotrkowski with student Aaron Tartakovsky

Not only did the project create cross-generational links by giving the teens a personalized connection to the Holocaust and to prewar Poland, it also created new bridges between the Bay Area and contemporary Poland, opening the eyes of all who participated to the current revitalization of Jewish life in Poland, a message of hope and progress both surprising and profound.

The Taube Foundation continues to support the ongoing revival of Jewish culture in Poland and is committed to furthering awareness of this resurgence. In this respect, the Next Chapter Project advances this mission. ""Poland has changed considerably since these survivors left," said Tad Taube, chairman of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and honorary consul to Poland. "My hope in supporting The Next Chapter is to show people that Poland's Jewish community is once again thriving, and to help heal the wounds of those who left."