New Jewish Year 5778 and High Holidays – Rosh Hashanah in Lower Silesia

This Autumn the Cukunft Jewish Association,EWST,  Socio-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland (TSKZ), Beiteinu Chai Foundation with Rutika Synagogue, Polska-Izrael Association, Stara Kopalnia Centre and Halal Panui-Free Space (TLV) organized many unique Jewish events in Wrocław, Dzierżoniów, Żary and Wałbrzych in the Lower Silesia (Poland) and Tel Aviv (Israel) related to the Rosh Hashanah 5778 and the High Holidays.

The Idea of the Project – Lower Silesian Festival of Jewish Culture

In October 2016 the Municipal Office of Walbrzych (Poland) along with the Socio-Cultural Association of Jews in Walbrzych (TSKZ Walbrzych) led by Sabina Chrapek organized the Open Jewish New Year Day at the Stara Kopalnia Centre. The event included a concert of Jewish music, degustation of the Jewish cuisine and a performance of Israeli Dances presented by pupils from Janusz Korczak Primary School no. 6 in Walbrzych. The event gathered 300 people.

That is why Sabina Chrapek, the representative of the Jewish community in Walbrzych invited Aleksandra Wilczura and the Cukunft Jewish Association to continue, develop and lead this initiative towards a full project of the Lower Silesian Jewish Festival in Walbrzych and Lower Silesia that will be accompanied by lectures, workshops, concerts, performances and exhibitions led by members of the all small Jewish communities in the Lower Silesia Region of Poland. The event that would be devoted to the history and culture of the Lower Silesian Jews and the Jewish heritage of small Jewish communities of this region (Dzierzoniow, Legnica, Swidnica, Walbrzych, Wrocław, Ziebice and Zary).

As Cukunft we decided to apply for Grassroots Initiative of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation grant to undertake this challenge, support small Jewish communities of Lower Silesia as well as secular local Jewish organizations in the region, popularize and bring the Jewish history, heritage, values and culture closer to Jewish and Polish audience and integrate them based on mutual respect and cultural dialogue.

The project of the Lower Silesian Jewish Festival will include numerous of activities such as: exhibition on Jewish secular life before and after the WWII in Breslau/Wroclaw and Lower Silesia, a Shabbat dinner, Jewish cooking workshops and degustation, lectures, workshops for children and adults, a concert, Jewish crafts, Jewish paper-cutting and theatre performances.

Cukunft’s idea for the first edition of the project – Lower Festival of the Jewish Culture was to involve as many members of the small Jewish communities of Lower Silesia as possible in order to integrate both Jewish and non-Jewish groups, set up a cultural and interfaith dialogue in practice and actively work on the preservation of the Multicultural Heritage of Lower Silesia Region.

Cukunft’s aim  was to continue this project in years to come as a part of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)  celebrations in Lower Silesian small Jewish communities. In future the Lower Silesian Jewish Festival will be open to public and  will bring a clear social and cultural benefit both for the local Jewish communities as well as citizens of Lower Silesia Region (tikkun olam that focuses on the preservation of the Jewish community). Because the Lower Silesian Jewish Festival will take place during the Pride and Equal Rights March in Wroclaw we would like to organize also a Jewish event related to the necessity of the Inclusion of Jewish LGBT people in the Jewish World).

The Project of the Lower Silesian Festival of Jewish Culture was the first such a project aiming to integrate all Jewish organizations in the region and introduce the Jewish values such as Tikkun Olam (Reparing the World), Kehila (Jewish community), Klal Israel (Jewish Unity with Israel), Shalom (Peace between Poles and Jews),Tzedakah (Charity),  Zikaron (remembrance about the German-Jewish-Polish heritage of the Region), Herut (Freedom) and Inclusion in one time.

These events intended to serve 4 purposes:

1. Integration of local Jews associated and non-associated within any Jewish organization/community,
2. Strengthen local Jewish voice/position of the Jewish communities in the region in relations with Polish authorities and Jewish national authorities in Warsaw.
3. Preservation of the German-Polish-Jewish heritage in the Lower Silesia.
4. Establishing the cultural and educational cooperation between secular members of the Jewish community in Lower Silesia and Tel Aviv that will build the Polish-Jewish Unity with Israel based on the Jewish values in Future.

The Lower Silesia Region in Poland used to be known as the Jewish settlement on the Polish recovered territories with rich Polish-German-Jewish past. At Cukunft we believe that these small Jewish communities deserve for help in order to strengthen them, and preserve the Jewish heritage of the region.

PROGRAM:

8 Sept 2017 – workshops of baking Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) bread and challot – Wroclaw – EWST – 14:00-17:00

22-23 Sept 2017 – Jewish Culture Days in Dzierzoniow

22 September 2017 Rutika Synagogue

16:00-16:30 Jewish and Israeli Dances

16:30-17:30 Jewish New Year 5778 – official opening with music and kosher Israeli wine

16:30-17:30 Rutika synagogue sighseeing with Jewish music

17:30-18:00- Jews in Sowie Mountains – meeting with Adam Lizakowski

18:00-19:00 – 142 Years of Ruika synagogues from the artist’s perspective – exhibition of Marian Wodkiewicz’s painting.

19:00-20100 New Year Lottery with painting of Marian Wodkiewicz and kosher Israeli wine

22 September 2017 DOK

19:00-20:00 Jewish women painted with oranges. Exhibition od Aleksander Gierymski

20:00 We Jews from Breslau – film

23 September 2017 Rutika Synagogue

11:00-12:00 Signseeing of the synagogue

12:00-13:00 Jewish Reichenbach in years 30. XX century – lecture of Ruth Geall (London)

13:00-14:00 – New historical doscoveries – Jewish Dzierzoniow after WWII – lecture of Dorin and Rafael Blau

23 September 2017 DOK

16:00-17:00 Jews from Breslau.Jews from Wroclaw about Jewish life from Lower Silesia – exhibit of Cukunft in Polish/English

16:00-17:00 – Rosh Hashanah and other High Holidays – Aleksandra Wilczura, Jan Kirschenbaum (Cukunft)

17:00-18:00 Jewish poets in Polish literature – Sebastian Runowicz

Jewish Settlement in Dzierzoniow in late 40ties of XXcentury – Anna Gruzlewska

19:30  Rosh Hashanah Klezmer Music Concert – Klezmerado band

24 Sept 2017 – Rosh Hashanah 5778 in TSKZ Zary – Rosh Hashanah celebrations, concert of Reifer Sisters

7 Oct 2017 – Lower Silesian Festival of the Jewish Culture – Walbrzych

-12:00 exhibition – Zukunft:Cukunft – Jews from Breslau, Jews from Wrocław – Jan Kirschenbaum,

– 12:00-15:00 lectures, workshops,

– 15:00 Rosh Hashana cooking workshops with degustation,

– 16:00 painting of Rosh Hashanah plates,

– 17:00 theatrical workshops and etudes,

– 18:45 Havdalah in Stara Kopalnia,

19:00 Concert of Klezmer Music – Klezmerado Band,

19:45 Rosh Hashanah Seder – Aleksandra Wilczura (Cukunft), Sabina Chrapek (TSKZ Walbrzych).

10 Oct 2017 – Tel Aviv -Layla Hoshana Rabba – The Night of Mysticism in South Tel Aviv -21:30-24:00 – Halal Panui (abandoned synagogue), Rosh Pina3, 66058 Tel Aviv, Israel – cooperation with Brit Yacobi and  Halal Panui (Free Space). 

From 21 : 30 till midnight we will gather for an evening of inspiration, creativity, spiritual experience and music in the Beit Yaakov synagogue, a former synagogue that has been abandoned by its worshipers many years ago.

22 : 00 – Prof. Haviva Pedaya – Mysticism, Light and Shade – discussion

23 : 30 – Yemen Blues – Ravid Kahalani, the violinist of the Yemen Blues in a mystical music master classes that will be a great inspirational experience for everyone.

Tickets: 25 NIS in advance
Tickets: 35 NIS on a day of the event

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These events were organized thanks to the generous support of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation’s Grassroots  Events program.

ORGANIZERS:

Cukunft Jewish Association

Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce – TSKŻ Oddział Wałbrzych

Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce – TSKŻ Oddział Dzierżoniów

Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce – TSKŻ Oddział Żary

Stowarzyszenie Polska-Izrael

Stara Kopalnia Centre

Beiteinu Chai Foundation

Halal Panui – Free Space (Israel) – the initiative devoted to the cultural restoration of abandoned synagogues in Tel Aviv.

HONORARY PATRONAGE:

Lower Silesian Voivode

President of Walbrzych City

Mayor of Żary City

PARTNERS / SPONSORS:

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation

Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden

AJDC

EWST

Socio-Cultural Asslciation of Jews in Poland – TSKZ

Beitenu Chaj Foundation – Rutika Synagogue

Jewish Community of Wroclaw

Żyd Niemalowany Foundation

Halal Panui – Free Space

Słowo Żydowskie

Studia Bliskowschodnie

PHOTOS:

Wałbrzych – Lower Silesia – Poland

            

Rosh Hashanah in Dzierżoniów – Lower Silesia – Poland

POSTERS:

חלל פנוי דף מידע

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DZIERŻONIÓW

 

ŻARY

WAŁBRZYCH

Media:

http://db.doba.pl/artykul/warsztaty-kulinarne-podczas-festiwalu-kultury-zydowskiej/18887/13

 

TEL AVIV

 

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HALAL PANUI – FREE SPACE  is a cultural AND educational project establishing a platform for alternative Jewish culture in Tel Aviv (Israel). The project creates cultural and art events in abandoned Tel Avivi synagogues by bringing them to life by telling the stories of the former synagogue communities. The purpose of the HALAL PANUI-FREE SPACE project is to go deeply into the connections between past and present, the sacred and the profane, God who separated himself from the phiscal world and a human being. The main goal of a project is to establish a connection between two public spaces – the Tel Aviv city as such and abandoned synagogues with vivid nightlife centers that are close to each other physically but separated culturally.

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CUKUNFT JEWISH ASSOCIATION – is a non-profit NGO founded in Wroclaw, Poland in 2014 by a group of Polish Jews with a purpose of educating and integrating people of Jewish origin within Polish and European civil society as well as combating antisemitism, xenophobia and all forms of social exclusion.

CUKUNFT(means ‘Future’ in Yiddish) envisages a two-fold path of development for itself. Its primary goal is to support the growth of pluralistic and inclusive Jewish community in Poland. Cukunft runs its projects which aim at integrating and activating the local secular Jewish community (mainly Jews not associated within any Jewish organization and their families) such as ‘Wandering Shabbats’ teaching how to celebrate Jewish holidays at home, Hasmonea Jewish Sports Club, Jewish Cultural Club, FARIDA project empowering Jewish female leaders and women and Jewish culture festivals.

CUKUNFT’s main goal is marking the contemporary Jewish presence in Poland, combating antisemitism, promoting notions of diversity and inclusivity through Jewish values, activism, art and education.