Summer School Program "Memory - Place - Presence"
The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin in cooperation with the University College of Enterprise and Administration in Lublin and Panorama of Cultures Association launches the first edition of the Summer School Program, inviting students and professionals (scholars, educators) engaged in the work on Jewish memory and heritage.
Program “MEMORY – PLACE – PRESENCE”
Since 1994, Grodzka Gate - NN Theatre Center in Lublin, Poland, has been running the MEMORY – PLACE – PRESENCE program, which aims to preserve, commemorate and disseminate knowledge about the Jewish heritage and history of Lublin. Using the most innovative artistic, educational and technological means such as exhibitions, performances, multimedia libraries, Internet platforms, etc. the center wishes to widen the exposure of both the local community and a broader audience to Jewish heritage and culture in order to develop the potential of this region. Within this project, we collect oral history testimonies of witnesses to history, organize Polish-Jewish youth meetings and implement educational activities such as workshops and seminars.
After over twenty years of this work the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre Center in cooperation with the WSPA University College in Lublin and the Panorama Kultur Association is opening a new summer school program within the MEMORY – PLACE – PRESENCE project designed for students and professionals (educators, teachers etc.) who are engaged in the field of Jewish studies and/or are of Polish-Jewish descent.
DATES
June 25 – July 2, 2015
AIMS
Our aim is to impart knowledge about the Jewish cultural heritage of Central and Eastern Europe using the example of Lublin and the Lublin region. All of the important cultural phenomena of Ashkenazi Jewry can be discovered in this microcosm. With the help of scholars from Poland and the United States, participants will be able to explore this past.
We intend participants not only to obtain a certain amount of knowledge, but also to challenge themselves by creating a short project of their own in the course of the seminar. This project will be the result of a creative processing of all the information and experiences gained during the summer school.
OUR OFFER
We offer theoretical learning combined with practical activities that provide context for the place you will be learning about. The program will include lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and meetings with members of the local Jewish community as well as a three-day study tour of the localities that played an important role in the Jewish history of the region and are well known from the literature of I.B. Singer and other Yiddish writers (towns such as Kazimierz Dolny, Zamość, Szczebrzeszyn, Józefów, Biłgoraj and others). Visits to the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the museum of the concentration camp at Majdanek and the death camp at Bełżec are also a part of the curriculum.
All of these activities will be held under the supervision of recognized scholars from the USA and Poland such as Prof. Michael C. Steinlauf, Prof. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Prof. Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Dr Adina Cimet and others.
MAIN TOPICS
The program offers a unique, complex 10-day seminar on the Jewish cultural heritage of the Lublin region – located in the heart of Yiddishland. We will focus on the following topics:
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The history of Polish Jews - an overview
We will introduce you to the history of Polish Jews, giving you a general historical overview of their situation, including the political conditions that shaped the position of Jewish community in Poland until today. To give you a more complete experience, we will visit the most significant institutions working in the field of the history of Polish Jews: the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. -
The history and specificity of the Jewish community in Lublin
We think that the history of Jewish community in Lublin brings into focus major issues relevant to the history of Polish and Ashkenazi Jewry. Using the example of Lublin we will show the diversity within the prewar Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and the specificity of multicultural provincial centers of Jewish life. We will also highlight some aspects of local culture that made Lublin a distinguished center of Jewish religious and cultural life.
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Lublin is situated in the heart of the historic Yiddishland, surrounded by hundreds of small towns that before the Holocaust were vibrant centers of Jewish life. Through our program, including visits to some of these towns, we will help you discover both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage related to the shtetls (architecture, film, literature, etc.).
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The linguistic pillars of local Jewish culture
The main languages of local community were Yiddish, Polish and Hebrew. We will introduce you to the literature and press of Polish Jews in these languages as well as to the local Jewish printing movement. We will also give you an opportunity to do some practical work related to Jewish texts in the old traditional printing house.
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Jewish biographies of the 20th century
Using the examples of well-known Lubliners, we will familiarize you with the identity problems that shaped lives of many Polish Jews, especially in the prewar and postwar period. We will give you the opportunity to meet members of the Jewish community and to discuss with them the opportunities and challenges that Jews in Poland are facing nowadays.
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The Holocaust in Lublin and the Lublin Region
The city and region of Lublin became the center of the Operation Reinhardt, which was to be a final solution of the Jewish question. In this special place we will invite you to face the issues of physical and cultural extermination, to become familiar with the personal stories of the victims, to reflect on the diversity of attitudes of bystanders observing the Holocaust and to meet the Righteous among the Nations.
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Memory work and education in Poland
Is it possible to live where the Holocaust happened? How should we commemorate the victims? Was the Holocaust only about physical annihilation? What can we do not to forget? We would like to present you examples of the memory work that is being done whilst trying to answer these questions. We will encourage you to discover the educational and artistic initiatives that aim to commemorate and preserve Jewish cultural heritage in Poland. We will also encourage you to reflect on the multiple narratives related to the memorial sites and the city spaces that have become places of memory.
The summer school program is created for all those who want to experience and explore the lost Yiddishland and its fascinating history, the forgotten continent of shtetls and cities, the cradle of the Jewish diaspora, a source of inspiration for countless writers and artists, and a mute witness to the Holocaust.
Coordinator:
Magdalena Dziaczkowska
[email protected]
MEDIA O WYDARZENIU
Szkoła Letnia w Lublinie. Obcokrajowcy poznali historię Żydów lubelskich
Szkoła Letnia w Lublinie. Obcokrajowcy poznali historię Żydów lubelskich, 23.06.2015, fot. Mirosław Trembecki
23.06.2015 „Aktualności Radia Lublin”
http://moje.radio.lublin.pl/23-06-2015-aktualnosci-radia-lublin.html