About Shalom Fundation

    The Shalom Foundation has been active in Warsaw for nearly twenty years. Its founder and director is Golda Tencer, an actress and director of the Ester-Rokhl and Ida Kaminska Yiddish Theater in Warsaw. The goal of the Foundation is the promotion of Yiddish culture and the expression of its rich heritage. The Foundation carries out its mission through numerous national and international undertakings: it collects historic documentation of Polish Jewry, including photos, documents and memorabilia, teaching history and tolerance to young people and adults, promotes the study and use of the Yiddish language, publishes books and albums and organizes Jewish cultural gatherings in Warsaw. In 2007, supporters of the Shalom Foundation established the “Friends of the Warsaw Shalom Foundation” in New York City, chaired by Mr. Sigmund A. Rolat.

    One of the Foundation’s more important projects is the “I.B. Singer’s Warsaw” annual Jewish cultural festival which has been operating for the last five years. On Próżna Street and around Grzybowski Square, the atmosphere of pre-war Jewish Warsaw returns once a year, as outstanding artists and Jewish cultural figures from around the world gather. Cantorial chant, klezmer music and Jewish folk melodies blend with the sounds of Hasidic and classic music. Different artistic forms, large- and small-scale, films and exhibits are presented. Large public concerts and artistic workshop sessions enjoy tremendous popularity.

    The Shalom Foundation created the remarkable photo exhibit And I Still See Their Faces,” based on over 9,000 photos of Polish Jews received from all ends of the earth in response to an appeal from Golda Tencer in 1994. Since that time, the exhibit has been invited for display in some of the world’s most prestigious museums and galleries. It has been shown, for example, in Jerusalem, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Mexico City, Detroit, Boston, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, London, Warsaw, Poznań, Lodz and Cracow, as well as in New York. The Foundation is planning a permanent exhibition and continues to promote its travelling exhibition.

    Every two years, in cooperation with the Polish and Israeli Ministries of Education, the Foundation organizes a national high-school essay competition entitled “The History and Culture of Polish Jews” (eight editions to date) and a primary-school version entitled “On Common Ground” (four editions to date). Thus far, more than 15,000 pupils from all over Poland have taken part.

    The Shalom Foundation has also been publishing for many years. The Foundation has published the exhibit album I Still See Their Faces, a four-language edition of Julian Tuwim’s poem We, the Polish Jews, the Holocaust anthology Jewish Children Accuse, a five-language edition of Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska’s poems entitled Nothing’s a Gift (including first-ever translations of her work into Yiddish), as well as the text Memory: The History of Polish Jews Before, During and After the Holocaust (Prof. Feliks Tych, ed.), which is being systematically distributed -- free of charge -- to schools and libraries throughout Poland. An English-language edition of Memoryis due to be published in April 2008.

    The Foundation created and is operating a Center for Yiddish Culture. Yiddish languages courses and workshops are being conducted for beginners and advanced students in Warsaw and Lodz. International summer seminars for future Yiddish teachers and translators are being organized in cooperation with the Israeli organization Natsionale Instants far Yidisher Kultur. In 2007, the Foundation inaugurated a series of encounters with Jewish culture to which fans of that culture are regularly invited.

    The University of the Third Age and the Shalom Foundation jointly offer several hundred senior citizens a broad program of studies on Jewish topics, including lectures, seminars and field trips through Warsaw. Also offered are foreign language courses, workshops of various kinds and exercise classes.

    For the last three years, the Shalom Foundation, with the honorary patronage of the President of the Polish Republic, has been organizing Poland’s official commemoration of the annual Holocaust Memorial Day established by UN General Assembly resolution. Each January, torches are lighted at the Ghetto Heroes Monument and the kaddish mourners’ prayer is recited.

The Shalom Foundation restored the Ghetto Heroes Monument in Warsaw and erected a Nazi Victims Monument in Falenica, outside Warsaw.

    For years, the Foundation has consistently promoted the principles of the Polish-Jewish educator and writer Janusz Korczak. As a result of the untiring efforts of the Shalom Foundation and the Polish Janusz Korczak Foundation, a Korczak monument was erected in the center of Warsaw. The Foundation also created the first post-war Jewish pre-school in Warsaw and a Sunday school for Jewish children.

    All the projects of the Shalom Foundation are linked by a common goal, best expressed in the words: to rescue our heritage from oblivion. To rescue from oblivion not only for sentimental reasons, but, above all, in the conviction that preserving that memory is a task for the future and the realization of the last will of the generations of Polish Jewry that dreamt of a world free of prejudice, intolerance and xenophobia.

Shalom Foundation
Pl. Grzybowski 12/16
00-104 Warsaw, Poland
tel.: (+48-22) 620-3036, 620-3037
fax: (+48-22) 620-0559
E-Mail: shalom@shalom.org.pl
Website: http://www.shalom.org.pl