Radomyśl Wielki – in search of traces of the Jewish past

In 2021, we organized a project entitled "Radomyśl Wielki – in search of traces of the Jewish past", which was funded by the National Board of Heritage in Poland as part of the "Together for heritage" competition. As part of this project, during a 5-day volunteer camp, which lasted on October 11-15, 2021, together with young people from the Economic and Horticultural School in Tarnów, we managed to clean up a part of the Jewish cemetery in Radomyśl Wielki. The youth took an inventory of 50 matzevot, created a map and made photographic documentation of the tombstones. Then, this material was developed to provide 1 catalog of inventoried tombstones, 1 database and a map of the necropoly. On October 27, 2021 at the Primary School John Paul II in Radomyśl Wielki, there were additionally two workshops on symbolism at the gravestones and two workshops on genealogy.

Thanks to the project, the visual improvement of the cemetery was made, and young people deepened their knowledge not only about Jewish culture, but also about genealogy, which they will be able to use to research the history of their own families. The inventory of matzevot will contribute to the increase of knowledge about the members of the Jewish community in Radomyśl and will constitute an available base for further scientific research and genealogical research. An immeasurable impact will also be the dissemination of topics related to the local heritage among the inhabitants of Radomyśl Wielki – especially students of the local school.

We would like to express our gratitude for the principal of both schools and Mrs. Maria Przybyszewska for assistance during this project.

4th Day of Remembrance in Jasło

On August 17, 2021 in Jasło we were a commemorating the 79th anniversary of the extermination of the Jewish community from Jasło and the surrounding area to the death camp in Bełżec. In a moment of reflection and prayers at the Jewish cemetery in Jasło and under the plaque commemorating these events, the president of our foundation, Tomasz Kocur, together with the employees of the foundation, paid tribute to all those murdered at that time. Magdalena Białek read a letter from Georges Feniger – a descendant of the Jasło Jews, who this time will not be able to be with us personally, while Tomasz Gebner led the prayer. The commemoration was attended by representatives of the city authorities of Jasło and the district office in Jasło. There were also school principals from Jasło and the inhabitants of Jasło. We thank all those who came for praying together and for keeping the memory, which means a lot to our foundation.

Media coverage:

The commemoration in Sedziszow Malopolski – 2021

On July 23, 2021 at 10.00 am in Sędziszów Małopolski at the Jewish cemetery there was a commemoration of the Jewish community from the Ropczycko-Sędziszów region. These events took place 79th years ago. During the commemoration, among others were present: Ms. Bernadetta Frysztak – Deputy Starost, Mr. Marek Pająk – City Council, Mr. Jan Flisak – Director of the Secondary School in Sędziszów. It is worth remembering that the Director and Mrs. Vice-Star are teachers from the hometown of Sędziszów, Tomasz Kocur the president of our foundation. He was the one who guided today’s prayer. During today’s ceremony, Mrs. Bernadetta Frysztak gave a very moving speech, especially to the youth which was also present today. We would like to thank all those who came to remember with us the victims of the Holocaust.

Commemoration in Radomysl Wielki – 2021

The commemoration in Radomyśl Wielki on July 19, 2021 was very intimate but full of reflection. After a prayer by Tomasz Gebner, Maria Przybyszewska – a local history teacher, read the memories of citizens of Radomyśl Wielki on July 19, 1942, who saw the Jews led to death. They were very moving testimonies of witnesses of these events from 79 years ago. The commemoration was attended by Jarosław Godek – the Deputy Mayor of Radomyśl Wielki, paying tribute to the Jews murdered there. The editor from Radio Rzeszów was also with us. Thank you for your presence and joint memory.

The clean-up of Jewish cemetery in Jasło – May 2021

Last week, together with 15 volunteers, we cleaned the Jewish cemetery in Jasło. We mowed the grass, raided old leaves, and picked up branches. We also managed to start creating a map of the tombstones located in this cemetery and complete the documentation of tombstones by taking very detailed photos of them. These activities were possible thanks to the financial support of our donors – the descendants of Jews from Jasło. We would like to thank again our wonderful volunteers for their time and help!

The action at the Jewish cemetery is the primary step of the project “Before it’s too late” financed by the Forum for Dialogue.

http://dialog.org.pl/en/

3rd Day of Remembrance in Jasło

On August 17, 2019, the 2nd Memorial Day was dedicated to the Jewish community of Jasło. All gathered at the gate of the cemetery in Jasło, where they were welcomed by the president of the AntiSchemes 2 Foundation Tomasz Malec and dr hab. Leszek Hońdo from the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University. The aims of the project “Before it is too late”, which today’s commemoration is part, were presented, after which the assembled went to the railway station, where Magdalena Białek recalled the history of the deportation of Jews from Jasło to the extermination camp in Bełżec and read the names of the victims found at the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute. The central element of the celebration was the unveiling of the commemorative plaque and the speech of the representative of the descendants of the Jews from Jasło, Georges Feniger, who in 2017 after 50 years first came to Jasło, where his family came from and called for bridges to allow the younger generations to learn about the facts of the tragedy that destroyed so many lives and hurt generations of survivors. The last element of commemoration was the lecture by dr hab Leszek Hońdo presenting the specifics of the Jewish cemetery in Jasło. There were many prominent people at the ceremony such as: Adam Pawluś – Foreman of the District in Jasło, Stanisław Pankiewicz – Deputy Foreman, Patrycja Bimkiewicz – Head of the Promotion, Culture, Sport and Tourism Department at the City Council in Jasło, Hubert Czerwonka from the City Council, Agata Koba City Council spokesman, Katarzyna Koczwara representing the management of the Municipal Public Library in Jasło, major Piotr Chmielowski representing the management of the Prison in Jasło, residents of Jasło, Nowy Żmigród, representatives of the Righteous family – family Pikul, Leaders of the Dialogue Forum and representatives of local media. After the ceremonies, the participants went to a restaurant at U Schabińska’s restaurant, on which a plaque was placed. We are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to the fact that this commemoration could have taken place. In the speeches of both local authorities and organizers, the leitmotif was to remind that Holocaust victims were Polish citizens, and now, looking at the past, learning and accepting it, we should build foundations for dialogue for future generations.

 

Press on the event:

http://www.terazjaslo.pl/2020/08/iii-dzien-pamieci-o-zydach-jasielskich/

https://www.jaslo365.pl/galerie/539-jaslo/40-iii-dzien-pamieci-w-jasle

https://www.powiat.jaslo.pl/aktualnosci/kultura/1226-iii-dzien-pamieci-poswiecony-zydowskiej-spolecznosci-jasla

Save from oblivion – Ryglice 2020

In September and October 2020, the AntySchematy 2 Foundation organized a research and educational project entitled Save from oblivion. Activities at the Jewish cemetery in Ryglice ”. The Ryglicki project consisted in cleaning up, carrying out an inventory of tombstones and tangible ornamentation workshops. Students from the School of Economics and Horticulture in Tarnów participated in the cleaning and inventory, while the workshops were attended by participants from the Primary School in Ryglice. Students and graduates of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow took care of the compilation of the collected material and the preparation of the publication in pdf format under the substantive supervision of dr hab. Leszek Hońdo. The project was coordinated by Dr. Katarzyna Suszkiewicz, and Tomasz Malec was responsible for the logistics and digitization of materials.
The project partners were the City Hall in Ryglice, the Primary School in Ryglice, the Complex of Economic and Horticultural Schools in Tarnów and the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The project was funded by the National Heritage Board of Poland as part of the “Together for Heritage” program.
The results of the activities in Ryglice include a change in the cemetery landscape, which has been thoroughly cleaned, collected materials and a preliminary inventory of about 300 tombstones located in the Jewish cemetery, a list of people buried in this cemetery and a pdf publication with inscriptions from the tombstones.

Links:

Map of the cemetery:

Table with the list of people

Publikacja - Ryglice 2020

PDF publication for download


New project partner

Today we would like to present you the partner of our project – Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Tarnów. The aim of the Committe is taking care of monuments of Jewish culture on territory of former Galicia Region and dissemination of knowledge on history and culture of Polish Jews. The Committee also aims at Polish-Jewish dialouge.

We encourage you to watch the short movie in which the chairman of the Committee – Adam Bartosz tells the story of Jewish cemetery in Tarnów.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlUUrarSOt8

We also present you a short guidebook in English which was prepared by A. Bartosz and J. Kozioł.
http://www.muzeum.tarnow.pl/multimedia/Cm_zyd_ang.pdf