The JEWISH BOOK DAYS are not only a fair that features books on Judaic subjects, but also a multifarious event that includes meetings with authors, panel discussions, exhibitions, concerts as well as calligraphy and paper cutout workshops.
Jews speak of themselves as "The People of the Book" (Hebrew: Am Ha-Sefer), and books have indeed been a part of Jewish culture throughout its history. The first part of this history in fact became the subject of the Book that Jews imparted on the world.
Until the Holocaust, it was the territories of the Polish Republic that were the most important center of Jewish intellectual and spiritual life, and it was here that Jewish writing and publishing bloomed most intensely. Jewish books - in Yiddish and Hebrew, as well as in Polish, Russian and German - were still being written and published in Poland as late as during the country's World War II occupation by Germany. The Jewish book has survived in Poland and has a permanent place in many Polish households. This has occurred in spite of both the Holocaust (during which a vast section of Poland's Jewish population was murdered) and the ensuing decades, when anti-Semitism was broadly tolerated. The survival of books on Judaic subjects in Poland is a potent example of the triumph of culture over barbarity, one that is hard to surpass. This fact also testifies to the vitality of Jewish culture, which proved capable of surviving under the most adverse conditions, and to the openness of Polish culture, which has shown itself capable of assimilating and utilizing themes deriving from often very different traditional currents. This is undisputable proof that inter-cultural dialogue always benefits all its participants.
The opening celebration of the 7th JEWISH BOOK DAYS will take place at noon on Sunday, October 10, at Warsaw's Jewish Community Center, located at 6 Twarda Street. Celebrations will be accompanied by an exhibition of paintings by Bartlomiej Michalowski titled PODROZ DO PAMIECI - SZTETL / A VOYAGE INTO MEMORY - SHTETL. The sale and presentation of books in Polish and English will take place over the ensuing five days and will be accompanied by meetings with authors, as well as film screenings and workshops in singing, calligraphy and paper cutouts. This symphony of events will serve to familiarize participants with elements of the Yiddish language and Jewish culture.
The JEWISH BOOK DAYS are organized by the "Midrasz" Association in cooperation with the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of Poland, the Embassy of Israel in Poland, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Jewish Congregation in Warsaw, the Shalom Foundation and Apollo-Rida Poland. The event provides an opportunity to present the richness of joint Polish-Jewish tradition and achievements.
Guests of this year's festival will include Natalia Aleksiun, Anna Bikont, Alina Cala, Konstanty Gebert, August Grabski, Uri Huppert, Stanislaw Krajewski, Zofia Kunert, Jacek Leociak, Maciej Nawariak, Ryszard Matuszewski, Malgorzata Melchior, Szymon Rudnicki, Dorota Szwarcman, Pawel Spiewak and Janusz Tazbir.
During last year's JEWISH BOOK DAYS, guests included several dozen writers, journalists and scholars like Shevach Weiss, Ambassador of Israel in Poland at the time,
Wilhelm Dichter, Michal Friedman, Jan Tomasz Gross,
Henryk Grynberg, Jozef Hen, Ewa Hoffman, Joanna Olczak-Ronikier, Theo Richmond and Krystiana Robb-Narbutt. Special events included a discussion on anti-Semitism in the media (based on Magdalena Tulli and Sergiusz Kowalski's book ZAMIAST PROCESU. RAPORT O MOWIE NIENAWISCI / INSTEAD OF A TRIAL - A REPORT ON HATE SPEECH), with Professor Michal Glowinski, Professor Jerzy Jedlicki, Sergiusz Kowalski (Ph.D.), Professor Hanna Swida-Ziemba and Bozena Uminska (Ph.D.) serving as panelists. "Dokument i pamiec - Archiwum Ringelbluma" / "Documents and Memory - The Ringelblum Archive" was another panel discussion that featured participants like Eleonora Bergman, Tadeusz Epsztein, Ruta Sakowska and Feliks Tych and a presentation of new volumes of the most important existing collection of resources useful in studying the history of Jewish ghettos. The books CZARNE JEST CZARNE / BLACK IS BLACK by Father Stanislaw Musial and CO NAS LACZY? ABC RELACJI CHRZESCIJANSKO-ZYDOWSKICH / WHAT DO WE SHARE? THE ABC OF CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS by Father Michal Czajkowski served as the focus for a panel discussion on tolerance and Polish-Jewish dialogue that featured participants Stanislaw Krajewski and Konstanty Gebert.
Evenings with authors are another important element and constitute an opportunity to discuss Jewish culture, identity and customs, contemporary Israel, Polish-Jewish issues and the links and relations existing between Judaism and Christianity. The book presentations that are organized during the festival number in the hundreds and prove how important inter-cultural dialogue is.
Since the event's inception, the JEWISH BOOK DAYS have sought to promote the idea of Polis-Jewish dialogue. The organizers wish to contribute to replacing conflict, hatred and lack of understanding with cooperation, tolerance and respect for different cultures and identities.
Program of events:
www.midrasz.pl. Free admission for all events.
Organization: Stowarzyszenie Midrasz
Information: (+48 22) 654 31 56, 654 64 24
www.midrasz.pl