JGSLA 2010: Major Polish speaker announced

Sociologist Agnieszka Chraboloska will be making her first appearance at the annual international Jewish genealogy conference this summer, announced the organizers.

She is program director of the non-profit Polish group - The Forum for Dialogue Among Nations - whose mission is to foster Polish-Jewish dialogue, eradicate anti-Semitism and teach tolerance through education.

Activities include seminars, publications, exhibitions and exchange programs for Polish and Jewish youth and leaders.

Chraboloska studied at Georgetown University (Washington, DC) and at the University of Warsaw, where she earned an MA. Her thesis was "The Complex Identity of Poles with Jewish Origins."

The Forum also sponsors twice-yearly Polish tours for US Jewish leaders to meet with local Polish communities, and brings Polish students to the US.

School of Dialogue

Of interest to historians and genealogists is the Forum's new program - School of Dialogue - which brings trained teachers into public schools in towns - where pre-Holocaust Jewish communities existed - to educate the communities about their vanished Jewish heritage.

Some 20 communities are currently in the School of Dialogue's pilot program.

As Chraboloska speaks on the program's structure and goals, it is hoped that conference attendees interested in memorializing their ancestral communities may wish to sponsor their towns, if those communities are not already in the pilot program.

Learn more about the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which takes place July 11-16, in Los Angeles.