Poland in US

The Embassy of the Republic of Poland, together with the American Jewish Committee (AJC), co-organized an event at the Residence of the Polish Ambassador to commemorate the outbreak of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The program of the event included:

1. Opening speech from the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Marek Magierowski

2. Address by Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of the AJC for International Jewish Affairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman for combating anti-Semitism

3. Speech by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy at the Department of State for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism

4. Presentation by Katarzyna Rybka-Iwańska, Head of Cultural and Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington on Jewish women fighting against Germans in occupied Poland 

5. Speech by Marcy Kaptur, Member of the United States House of Representatives (D-OH9), and President of the Congressional Caucus on Poland

6. Concert of works by Polish Jewish composers Ignacy Friedman, Aleksander Tansman, Mieczysław Wajnberg and Szymon Laks, performed by the duet Karolina Mikołajczyk, and Iwo Jednocki, violin and accordion. 

In addition, there were several distinguished guests amongst the audience which included: Ida Schmidt-Chait (Holocaust survivor and recipient of the Siberian Deportees' Cross), Max Miller (Member of the United States House of Representative, R-OH7), Linda E. Rosenzweig (President of the AJC Washington Regional Office), Joel Lichterman (cantor of the BHM0BJ Congregation), Arnold Podgorsky (former Chairman of the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington), Ivy Barksy (managing director of the Jewish Capital Museum), Eugene Sofer (Treasurer of the Jewish Captial Museum), Ambassador Susan Esserman (former deputy representative U.S Trade Office and Steptoe Co-Chair for International Trade Policy), and Arthur Sandman (Director of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History). 

The event saw a turnout of approximately 120 guests, members of the diplomatic corps in the United States, and representatives of Jewish and non-governmental organizations. The Embassy cooperated with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, in the promotion of the socio-educational campaign "Daffodil", which donated over 150 paper flowers for this event, and with the Museum of Ghetto Fighters in Israel, which provided a short recording dedicated to the Uprising, and also agreed to use photos from their own archives in the presentation about the fighters. 

The event commerating the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was intended to bring closer and to deepen the issue among representatives of the Jewish community in the U.S. It was met with a great reception, and the facilty received a number of of thanks for its unconventional, educational, yet sensitive approach to commerating the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. A skillful juxtaposition of officials, politicians, and activists, along with the substantive presentation and artistic portion of the program, engaged the audience with great interest, and a large number of guests commented on the individual points of the program during the event, and also in correspondence with the Embassy. Depsite the abscene of some some important individuals and activists partcipating in the main commemoration of the anniversary in Warsaw, and in the simultaneous celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the event organized by the Embassy and its distinguished partners had a great turnout and saw several high-level guests.