Forging Futures: My Visit to Poland

Earlier this fall, I had the privilege of spending a week in Poland. This week was filled with opportunities, living and learning, relationship-building, eye-opening sights and situations, and activism in action.

I was fortunate to be one of six Americans and four folks from Germany who took part in the experiential study visit, “Forging Futures: Civic Activism & Sustainable Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland,” which was offered thanks to the initiatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Poland. This engagement was part in heralding a new era of mutual understanding and collaboration with international memorial institutions, nonprofits, and members of the Jewish community. We were exposed to original and progressive approaches to conserving, commemorating, and safeguarding Poland’s extensive Jewish heritage, achieved through wide-ranging collaborations with local stakeholders, innovation and activism, strong relationships and dedication.

Throughout our time in Wrocław (vrowt-swaaf) and Warsaw (wor-saa), I was in awe and inspired by the three partners in this trip, who live in Poland and take part in the activist efforts to remember and protect Polish Jewish heritage. Agnieszka Jabłońska of Urban Memory Foundation, Aleksandra Janus of Zapomniane, and Magda Rubenfeld of FestivALT organized the content of the study visit, shared their expertise, their challenges and successes, and the storied past of Poland’s Jewish history.  These three outstanding women professionals embodied the strength and power of sisterhood, spirituality, and social justice. Their individual actions have mobilized into collective action; they empower each other and work together with one another within their communities, and they imbue the present with creative spiritual opportunities to remember and reflect on the past, inspiring spiritual growth through commemorative practices and artistic projects.

I was continually struck day after day by the depth of rich juxtaposition that exists in Poland. I walked through the Old Jewish Cemetery at Ślężna Street and saw the exhibition of Jewish Breslauers “Putting Things Back. Jewish Breslauers and Their Objects” at OP ENHEIM in Wrocław. I learned invaluable insight from folks at the Jewish Studies Department of the Wrocław  University and toured the former concentration Gross-Rosen camp. I visited the Upper Silesian Jews House of Remembrance and stood in pre-war shtiebels and former hideouts.  

Everywhere I turned, I experienced an enormous amount of push and pull to do the work that all the incredible people we met are doing in order to pursue justice. Throughout Poland, there exists a legacy of apathy, resilience, devastation, and solidarity. There is so much old and new; a resistance to change and a desire to grow, material and immaterial. Presence and absence, memory and non-memory, decline paired with regrowth, resolution and vigor, destruction and creation; working within a discourse of void while living in an excess of materiality.

What stands out to me, even today, was the vibrancy, the life, the contributions, and the spirit that persists in what was—for most of our trip—dark, dreary, and cloudy (both physically and metaphorically).  

This trip highlighted an immense amount of resilience and resistance. The folks we met and the sights we saw were deeply committed to building social change in the communities in which they live, through education and a grassroots approach, combining activism and social engagement to work with the past in the present so that the history will be remembered in the future.  

On this study visit, I found inspiration, built relationships, and further developed my sense of self as a Jewish woman, a Jewish professional, and as someone involved in justice work. As I previously mentioned, this visit was titled “Forging Futures,” and that we did. Then and now, alone and together; before we all met and as the days carry on after we’ve returned to our respective homes and workplaces, we continue to do so. We have the power to forge our own futures, but this time spent with others who are doing important work in their own right, in their own city, even in their own country, reminded me that we work better in relationship and collaboration with those who are also socially-minded and mission-driven.

Together, we can make an even bigger impact, do more, and make change. Together, we are able to forge a future those we care about would be proud of. Together, we can build the community we want, we can build power, and we can build up one another through the bonds of sisterhood, spirituality, and social justice. No matter how complex, apathetic, and impenetrable our surroundings are, through the strength and dedication of those in partnership and relationship, we will always be able to cultivate, inspire, and mobilize toward action.