The Righteous as honorary guests of the Day of Judaism in Poznań

Maria Zawadzka, 16 November 2016
On January 17th, 2011 in Poznań were held the celebrations of the 14th Day of Judaism in the Catholic Church. This event was initiated by the Conference of the Polish Episcopate and its first celebrations were held in 1998.

This year’s celebrations were held in various towns of Poland and included both ecumenical prayers and exhibitions, debates and concerts. The central celebrations were organized in Przemyśl.

In Poznań took place a service conducted by the archbishop Stanisław Gądecki with the participation of representatives of the Jewish Communities Union.

Rev. Prof. Joseph Siebers, lecturer of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome gave the lecture “Who was a Pharisee? Prosopological perspective”. The exhibition “Judaism – religion, tradition” was also presented.

The participants of the Day of Judaism in Poznań had the opportunity to play the city game “Pojzn, tej! Following the traces of Poznań Jews”: they jointly visited places connected with Jewish culture, among them a reconstructed part of the Jewish cemetery with the grave of rabbi Akiva Eger, the building of the former synagogue and the seat of the Jewish Community.

Apart from that in Poznań was held a concert of Jewish songs performed by the famous cantor Tom A. Fürstenberg from the Netherlands.

The events being part of the 14th Day of Judaism were organized by Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and Janusz Marciniak. The main goal of the project was to improve the inter-religious dialogue.

Among the participants of the concert were such personages as the Ambassador of Israel Zvi Rav-Ner, the archbishop Stanisław Gądecki and the vice-mayor of Poznań Sławomir Hinc.

The honorary guests of the celebrations were people honored by the Yad Vashem Institute with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” for rescuing Jews during the Second World War.