Five Polish citizens have been presented a new award, the Laurel Crown of Memory, honoring Poles who protect, preserve and/or promote Jewish heritage, culture, and memory. The award, whose first edition coincides with events this year marking the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Poland and Israel, was organized by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage (FODZ), in cooperation with the Israeli Embassy in Poland and the the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. At a ceremony June 21 at her residence in Warsaw, Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari presented the award statuettes and certificates to:
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Eugene Gradek, pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Zywiec, who along with his congregation care for the local Jewish cemetery.
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prof. Jerzy Mizgalski, of the Faculty of Philology and History of the Jan Dlugosz Academy in Częstochowa, who for many years has engaged in the protection of the heritage of Częstochowa Jews.
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Małgorzata Motor, a journalist of Lezajsk who has written extensively on Jewish themes.
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Major Marek Wrona from the prison in Wadowice, who for the past nine years has organized the clean up of the Jewish cemeteries in Andrychów and Wadowice by prison inmates.
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School team in Strzegom, where students and teachers have organize care for the local Jewish cemetery since 2011.
The institution of this new award means that there will be two award ceremonies this month honoring non-Jewish Poles who care for Jewish heritage, culture and memory. Next Sunday, June 28, the 18th — “Chai” — edition of the “Preserving Memory” awards will take place in Krakow, as usual, during the Jewish Culture Festival there. The Preserving Memory awards were founded by the American Jewish lawyer Michael Traison, as a way to show thanks to the many Polish citizens who honor Jewish memory and preserve and promote Jewish history, culture and heritage. Since the first such awards in 1998, more than 220 people have been honored. This year’s awardees are:
The creators of the movie “Aftermath,” which dealt with memories of Jews and the Holocaust in a remote Polish village, including the impact of its Jewish cemetery. One of the lead actors, Maciej Stuhr, is expected to be on hand.
Three members of Poland’s “Strongman” Association, who have taken part in efforts by the Matzeva organization to return scattered Jewish gravestones to the cemeteries from which they were uprooted. They are: Jarosław Nowacki, Grzegorz Wisniewski and Tomasz Kowal.
Anna Jeziorna, who has implemented the “Poetry Workshop Mordechai Gebirtig” project, which aims to revitalize the space at Berek Joselewicza 5 in Krakow, where the poet lived. She is also honoured for her many years of work on behalf of the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow. Marianna and Stanisław Zybała, who have spent decades gathering and disseminating of knowledge about the history and culture of Jews from the town of Radecznica.
Prof. Sławomir Jacek Żurek, a literary scholar at the Catholic University of Lublin, for his contribution in promoting knowledge about Polish-Jewish literature among students
The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the City of Radomsko, Anna Milczanowski and Wioletta Pal, for the implementation of the Open Jewish Museum in Radomsko. The project is an initiative of Rachel Kasselman, whose father came from Radomsko. As part of the “Open Museum” project, some 50 tablets were place around town to mark synagogues, prayer houses, schools, factories and residential buildings that were part of the fabric of Jewish life and heritage before World War II.
Prof. Jerzy Mizgalski, of the Faculty of Philology and History of the Jan Dlugosz Academy in Częstochowa, who for many years has engaged in the protection of the heritage of Częstochowa Jews. Mizgalski is the only person this year to be receiving both the Preserving Memory award and the new Laurel Crown of Memory award.
Receiving a special honor at the awards ceremony will be Holocaust survivor Sigmund Rolat, a New York-based businessman and philanthropist who was born in Częstochowa and who has provided generous support to many endeavours in Poland aimed at fostering Jewish life, culture and memory.
In past years, the Israeli ambassador to Poland has presented the Preserving Memory award certificates to those honored, and a representative of FODZ took part in the ceremony, but with the new Laurel of Memory award it appears that that will no longer be happening.