A Portal to Pre-War Jewish Life in Warsaw: The Okopowa Cemetery

The Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning  TJHTalks session on Wednesday, July 30:

A Portal to Pre-War Jewish Life in Warsaw: The Okopowa Cemetery

The 83-acre Okopowa Street Cemetery, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, offers profound insight into Warsaw’s rich Jewish history. Through its gravestones and mausoleums, it tells the story of a community that once numbered nearly 350,000—rabbis and scholars, writers and artists, architects and industrialists, Bundists and Zionists, educators, and community leaders.

In this online session, speakers will reflect on the cemetery’s historical significance and introduce several of the remarkable individuals buried there. With diverse backgrounds and expertise, they will share personal stories and historical context that bring these lives—and this sacred site—into focus.

Witold Wrzosiński, Director, Okopowa Jewish Cemetery, Warsaw

Katarzyna Person, Director, Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Warsaw

Franciszek Bojańczyk, Guide and educator, POLIN Museum, Warsaw 

in conversation with: 

Helise Lieberman, Director, Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

11:00 am PST 1:00 pm CDT 2:00 pm EST 8:00 pm CET 9:00 pm IST

CLICK TO REGISTER

Franciszek Bojańczyk is the Global Outreach Coordinator at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, he studied Hebrew, spatial planning, and history, with academic exchanges in Prague and Tel Aviv. He has worked as an educator and guide for various institutions, including POLIN, the Taube Center, and the Jewish Historical Institute, where he led cultural projects and communications initiatives. He is the co-founder of Muzeum Kamienicy, a project exploring everyday life in Warsaw’s tenement houses. Franciszek leads tours in Polish, English, and Hebrew, and has guided groups across Israel, Jordan, and Scandinavia. His work centers on Jewish heritage, local history, and how cultural memory shapes our understanding of place.

Katarzyna Person was awarded her Ph.D. by the University of London. She served as director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, specializing in the history of Jews in Poland during the Holocaust and the immediate post-war period. Dr. Person also serves as the chief editor of the complete edition of the Ringelblum Archive. Dr. Person lectures widely and has published extensively on these topics. Among her recent publications are “Warsaw Ghetto Police: The Jewish Order Service during the Nazi Occupation” (published by Cornell University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2021) and “Przemysłowa Concentration Camp: The Camp, The Children, The Trials” (co-authored with Johannes-Dieter Steinert; published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2023).

Witold Wrzosiński is the Director of the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw and co-founder of the Foundation for Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland. A trained Hebraist and genealogist, he has led the indexing of over 100,000 tombstone inscriptions in more than 90 cemeteries and oversees an open-access database. Since 2020, he has directed restoration, conservation, and archaeological efforts in Okopowa, including leading student excavations under strict guidelines for Jewish burials. He also contributed to the POLIN Museum’s core exhibition and published scholarly articles on Polish–Jewish heritage. A board member of Warsaw’s Jewish Community, Witold brings deep expertise in cemetery history, cultural preservation, and public education.

Helise Lieberman has directed the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning since 2009. A dual U.S.–Polish citizen, she began her journey in Poland in 1994 as the founding principal of Warsaw’s Lauder-Morasha Jewish Day School — the city’s first since 1949. A former Hillel director and Melton Senior Educator alumna, she has also consulted for the POLIN Museum, Rothschild Foundation Europe, JDC Baltics, and the Westbury Group. Under her leadership, the Center’s Taube Jewish Heritage Tours and Mi Dor Le Dor learning programs have brought thousands to explore Jewish Poland. In 2015, she received Poland’s Bene Merito Medal, honoring her contributions to Polish–Jewish relations. In May 2025, Helise was elected to the board of AEPJ. Known for championing Jewish cultural renewal and education, Helise continues to help shape Poland’s vibrant Jewish present and future.