Irena Sendler Award at the 21st Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków

The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture supports initiatives devoted to the reinforcing of Jewish identity and, above all, activity focused on the rescuing of Jewish heritage. Its founder is Tad Taube, Honorary Consul for the San Francisco peninsula region and one of the main benefactors of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

The Irena Sendler Memorial Award was created by the Foundation in 2008 in order to award those who actively support the revival of Jewish life in Poland. In 2009 its winner was Jan Jagielski from the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, creator and director of the department of the documentation of Jewish monuments in Poland. In 2010 the award was presented to Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the former President of the Republic of Poland.

During the 21st Jewish Culture Festival, on June 25th at noon will be held the awarding of the medals of the Righteous Among the Nations, organized by the Embassy of Israel in Poland. On July 2nd at noon in the Galicia Jewish Museum will take place a presentation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

The program of this year’s festival includes numerous lectures (Jewish and Israeli cuisine, „Who is Jewish?” – a lecture given by Stanisław Krajewski etc.), seminars („How to teach the Holocaust to the next generations”), trips („Synagogues of Kazimierz”, „Jewish Kraków”, „The former Podgórze ghetto”, „Famous Jews from Kraków”), workshops (Yiddish, Hebrew, Jewish dance, Chassidic dance, comic books, Yemenite jewellery) and exhibitions („Macewot of everyday use”, „Inhabitants of Kazimierz”, „Painting of Polish Jews”). Many concerts will also be held, among them the Concert of the Cantors Benzion Miller and Alberto Mizrahi, the concert „Galicia Night Songs”, Bester Quartet, „Chassidic songs of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach”, Daniel Kahn&The Painted Bird.

The program of the 21st Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków can be found on its official website.