News
News
B'nai B'rith International has announced the winners of the first edition of the Gratitude Award - הכרת הטוב - honoring Polish citizens involved in the preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland and the...
On 23.06.2023 another meeting in our educational project "Story of bicultural, pre-war Mszana Dolna" edition 2023 took place. It focused on Christians of Jewish origin in Mszana Dolna. They were somehow separate,...
On the 27th of June, a gala ceremony was held to present the "Gratitude-Gratitude-הכרת הטוב" award, granted for the first time by B'nai B'rith International. The award honors individuals and institutions...
Shalom Rebhun, grandson of Amalia and David Pesach of Mszana Dolna, celebrated his 90th birthday, and the daughter of his grandson, Avi, Chana Miriam, her Bat Mitzvah. A Bat Mitzvah is a celebration of a girl's...
The grandson of those resting in the mass grave on the Lord's, Amalia and David Pesach Rebhun, Shalom Rebhun, celebrated his 90th birthday! The whole family gathered on this occasion: Shalom's sister Miriam,...
We would like to invite you to the first of the summer meetings of the 2nd edition of our "Tales of Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna". This time a real treat: a literary workshop with writer Patrycja Dolowy! Under...
The 81st Anniversary of the Shoah in Mszana Dolna is fast approaching: on 20. and 21.08.2023 we will commemorate and mourn over a thousand of our murdered fellow citizens. The most important commemorative event is...
On the 4th of August 2023, in the Meeting Room of the Town Hall in Mszana Dolna, the fifth meeting in this year's edition of our educational project "The Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna" took place....
On 18.08.2023 an amazing volunteer action at the Jewish cemetery and mass grave at Pańskie. Twenty great volunteers work hard to get everything's done before the predicted storm, and it was also necessary to...
The official commemoration of the 81st Anniversary of the Holocaust in Mszana Dolna will take place on 20-21.08.2023, to respect the Sabbath rest, but the calendar 81st Anniversary of the horrible crime against a...
On 20-21.08.2023, ceremonial commemoration of the 81st Anniversary of the Shoah in our town took place. 19.08.1942 is a symbolic date, when the occupants: SS-men from Nowy Sącz, with the cooperation of the mayor...
On 31.08.2023, at the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna, a photography workshop was held. It was led by well-known photographer, artist and film producer, Agnieszka Traczewska. Since 2006 she has been creating...
During the second day of the commemoration of the 81st Anniversary of the Shoah in Mszana Dolna, on 21.08.2023, ceremonies were held at the memorial sites: at the mass grave of the Victims on Pańskie and at the...
After the weather sensations, there were many broken branches in the Jewish cemetery, which, fortunately, did not damage the gravestones, but needed to be collected and tidied up. The windstorms also carried a lot...
To those celebrating Rosh Hashanah: we wish you all a good, blessed, and sweet year 5784! Shana tova!
On 15.09.2023, the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna hosted a meeting around the question of the determinants of the Shoah tragedy. Rachela Antosz-Rekucka, a psychologist/doctoral student at the Doctoral...
We wish all our friends, the descendants of the Jews of Mszana Dolna, and everyone else a joyful Sukkot: Hag Sukkot sameach!
On 6.10.2023, at the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna, we met with the participants of our educational project "The story of bicultural, pre-war Mszana Dolna". This time we went on a virtual journey to one of...
Another, the third in this edition of the project "The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna", action of cleaning up our historic necropolis is has taken place on 10.10.2023. We want to thank everyone who...
On 20 October 2023 we concluded this year’s edition of the educational project “The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna” at the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna. The event was connected with the...
On 16 November 2023 Rachela Tauber, the granddaughter of Amalia and Pesach Dawid Rebhun from Mszana Dolna, passed away. She was 88 years old. She was one of the first Jewish persons we learnt about when we were...
Z głębin ziemi znowu nas wyprowadzisz Ps 71,20 From the depths of the earth you shall bring us up again ומתהומות הארץ תשוב תעלנו Monument Commemorating Shoah Victims in Mszana Dolna...
Happy Hanukkah! Light, peace, blessings!
Summary of Sztetl Mszana Dolna activities in 2023. EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS In 2023, we prepared more than 20 events for the residents of our town. These included lectures, workshops, vernissages, exhibitions, games,...
2.05.2024 marks the opening of the "Guardians of Memory" exhibition at the Hebrew University of Education and Social Work Library, Mount Scopus in Jerusalem The exhibition showcases restoration efforts and the...
Tehillim - Psalms. A Jewish and Christian treasury of prayers On 26.04.2024 in the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna, the first meeting of the third edition of our educational project 'The Story of the...
Dear Friends, You can now support our activities by donating through Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland: https://jewishheritagepoland.org/mszanadolna.html. You can find information about our Foundation under the...
There are nice moments in our work on memory and dialogue. These include moments of appreciation of our efforts. This time the commitment of the co-founder and vice-president of our Shtetl Mszana Dolna Foundation,...
You are invited to the opening of the exhibition "Guardians of Memory" organised by the Embassy of Poland in Israel that will take place on Monday, 3.6.24 at 11:00 in the Mashmaut Center in Kiryat Motzkin. The...
On the 16th of May 2024, with another group of young people from the Complex of Technical and Information Schools in Mszana Dolna, we visited the mass grave of the Holocaust Victims on Pansky Street. It is moving...
On 14.06.2024 at the Mszana Dolna Town Hall, the 3rd meeting, and the 4th event, of the 3rd edition of our educational project 'The Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna' took place. It concerned the...
"I don't know where he gets these images from. He must have an angel in his head". - another great artist, Pablo Picasso, is supposed to have said of Marc Chagall. On 2.8.2024, the fifth meeting of this year's...
On Friday, 16.08.2024, a group of volunteers worked on cleaning the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. At the beginning, the new volunteers were trained on the rules of behaviour at Jewish cemeteries, the scope of...
Eighty-two years ago, on 19.08.1942, the Jewish community of Mszana Dolna and many surrounding villages ceased to exist. Almost all of them were exterminated in a mass execution on Pańskie Hill. This date has...
The region naturally links human destinies: in life, but also in death. People move, meet, merge, marry within a closer or farther area. This cobweb of human fates made us realise the need to show the Holocaust in...
An important and beautiful part of our commemoration of the 82nd Anniversary of the Holocaust in Mszana Dolna, was an evening with music: a concert by the female string quartet ‘Con Affetto’. We had several...
On 13.09.2024, a group of 30 volunteers – mostly students from Primary School No. 2 in Mszana Górna, with the Headmistress, Ewelina Płachczyńska-Struś and Mrs Marta Malarz – cleaned up the Jewish cemetery...
On 15.09.2024, as part of the European Heritage Days, our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation organised a guided tour of an important and one of the few monuments in the town, the Jewish cemetery on Zakopiańska Street....
On 20.09.2024, a concert of pre-war hits entitled ‘Piosenka ci nie da zapomnieć...’ (“The song won't let you forget”) took place in the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna. The event was extremely popular....
On the last sunny Sunday of this summer, 22.09.2024, our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation organised a painting workshop at the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. It was led by Magdalena Komenza-Regnard: a Romanist,...
We particularly value the opportunity to work with the younger generation. On 24.09.2024, we were invited by the Headmistress, Ewelina Płachczyńska-Struś, to a meeting with the older classes of Primary School...
Another meeting with young people on the subject of the memory of the Jewish community of the town and municipality of Mszana Dolna. This time we were invited to the Primary School No. 1 in Mszana Górna, where we...
On 11.10.2024 in the Mszana Dolna Municipal Library, another meeting took place as part of this year's edition of ‘Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna’. It was devoted to the fate of Holocaust...
As part of the project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna. Edition 2024’, we visited another school, this time in in our town. However, before the older classes of Primary School No. 1 listened...
We spent entire Thursday of 17.10.2024 at the Jewish cemetery in our town. Two schools from the town and the municipality, namely Primary School No. 2 in Mszana Dolna and Primary School No. 2 in Mszana Górna,...
On 21.10.2024 we had the joy and honour, to take part in the Ecumenical Bible Marathon held at the Evangelical Church of St.Martin in Krakow. A word that unites. That is how it should be. It is meant to, and more...
On 25.10.2024, in the Mszana Dolna Municipal Library, we summarised this year's edition of the educational project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna’. It was combined with the vernissage of an...
On 29.10.2024, a group of volunteers from Primary School No. 1 in Kasina Wielka, under the supervision of Ms Kinga Kołodziejczyk, cleaned up the area of the mass grave of Jews in Mszana Dolna. Kamil Strużyński...
On 13.12.2024, the dream of Samuel Hirszhorn, the author of the ‘Anthology of Jewish Poetry’, who tragically died over 100 years ago, came true at the Mszana Dolna Municipal Library. This man, social activist...
One of the participants of our reading of Jewish poetry at the Municipal Library, Mr Marian Krzymiński, shared his photographs of the event with us - our warmest thanks!
As we have done every year for many years, we lit Hanukkah candles - in memory of the Jews of Mszana Dolna and out of sorrow that there is no longer anyone to light them in our town.
In 2024, we realised the third edition of ‘Story of the Bicultural, Pre-War Mszana Dolna’. It featured 9 events, which were directly attended by 421 people. Almost all of them were broadcast and recorded, so...
The second project we carried out again in 2024 was ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna. Edition 2024'. As many as 13 events took place as part of the project, in which 302 participants took part....
On the 14th of January 2025, at the headquarters of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia, we met with members of the Club and other interested people, talking about our activities around remembrance and dialogue in...
On the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 26.01.2025, we gathered at 3 of their resting places in our town. The majority of the Victims, coming from Mszana Dolna, died here, in mass and individual...
After almost 2 years since we submitted an application to the government programme for the restoration of monuments, together with the Mszana Dolna municipal authorities, the renovation of the cemetery fence can...
We have received a grant - admittedly symbolic, but nevertheless - from the Limanowa County for the renovation of tombstones. The amount granted is in fact not much more than the renovation of a single matzeva, but...
On 23.03.2025, in the parish of the Divine Mercy in Mszana Dolna, our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation held a meeting devoted to the memory of the Righteous among the Nations from our town, Stefania and Józef...
On 24.03.2025, on the National Day of Remembrance of Poles who rescued Jews under the Nazi occupation, at high noon, we unveiled a plaque in the Mszana Market Square dedicated to the Righteous from our town,...
We are happy to announce that we are launching another new educational project this year: ‘Hitchhiking Guide to Judaism’. Its aim is to introduce audiences to the world of Jewish religion and culture. During...
Anyone who follows our activities knows that the fence of the necropolis, financed in the early 1990s by Holocaust survivor Leib Gatterer, had already been crumbling and falling apart for several years; even one of...
What do the Hebrew letters look like? What are their symbolism, numerical values, additional meanings, and which one did God himself use to create the world? Why do we write Hebrew script from right to left and...
The menorah, mezuzah and mizrachah were the next stops in our ‘Hitchhiking Guide to Judaism’, during the meeting on 5.05.2025 in the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna. The meaning of these three important...
"The sum of your word is truth" - says Psalm 119, the longest of all, celebrating the Torah and its exploration. On 23.05.2025, the 3rd meeting of our educational project ‘Hitchhiking Guide to Judaism’ took...
To all the descendants of Mshan Jews and our friends celebrating the Feast of Weeks: Chag Shavuot sameach!
On 30.05.2025, the Mszana Dolna Municipal Library hosted a meeting on chevruta - a method of dialogue, commenting on and understanding texts that originates from the tradition of Judaism. We were led by Patrycja...
The Małopolska NGO Forum took place in Nowy Sącz on 2.06.2025. We also took part in this conference. Our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation was represented there by the vice-president, Marek Rekucki.
We try to inform you regularly about the progress of renovation works at the historical Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. The fence was crumbling and falling apart to the extent that one of the metal spans fell off...
The Vice President of our Foundation, Marek Rekucki, participated in the XVIII International Forum of Household Museums on 5-7.06.2025. The conference took place in and around Nowy Sącz, Podegrodzie, and was...
One of the most beautiful things a person can do for another is to bless them. Judaism has many blessings, some of which we know well from the Bible. Christianity draws heavily on Old Testament, and therefore...
On 29 June 2025, the Marian Turski Gratitude Award, presented by B'nai B'rith International for restoring Jewish memory and combating anti-Semitism, was ceremoniously awarded at the White Stork Synagogue in...
In the early afternoon of 27 June 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting a group from the Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) Writers' Association, who came to our town for Poetlandia – the 2nd Poetry Meetings in Mszana...
On 3 July 2025, we had the opportunity to meet Mr Krzysztof, who five months ago discovered that he was a Jewish child saved by the Drożdż family from Dobra. He is looking for information about his ancestors....
Someone drew Mila Schächter, of whom only two photographs remain, along with information that she lived with her family on Słomka Street. Someone else drew 6-year-old Dorka, whom a childhood friend remembered...
Intensive work is underway to renovate the gravestones at the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. More matzevot are being cleaned, subjected to a special ‘treatment’ by the conservation team, glued and preserved....
On 20 July 2025, together with a group of almost 50 people, we set off on a trip following in the trail of multicultural Małopolska. This time, our route took us to Tarnów, Dąbrowa Tarnowska and Zbylitowska...
“Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone” On 25 July 2025, a concert of Bob Dylan's songs was held at the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna, the title of which referred to the lyrics of this very song....
“When you walked through the streets at that time, you could smell the forest and resin. These scents, apart from the mountains and the river, were excellent advertising. So in the summer we had lots of...
On the 11th August 2025, a group of volunteers cleaned up two important memorial sites in our town: the Jewish cemetery and the mass grave at Pańskie. The work was carried out as part of the project ‘The Story...
On 17th August 2025, the 83rd Anniversary of the Holocaust was commemorated in Mszana Dolna. The event was organised by our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation. The aim of the ceremonies was to commemorate those...
The renovation of the fence surrounding the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna and the restoration of another 22 historic matzevot have been successfully completed. The cost of the renovation was covered by our Sztetl...
On 14 September 2025, we gave another guided tour at the renovated Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. It was part of a series of important nationwide events, European Heritage Days. Despite the not entirely...
A large group of volunteers cleaned up the Jewish cemetery before the guided tour on the occasion of European Heritage Days. We are particularly pleased with the presence of young people from primary schools in...
30 September marked the 83rd anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Żelechów to the Treblinka extermination camp. To commemorate this occasion, a memorial ceremony was held in Żelechów Park and a meeting...
‘Tales of the Tombstone Lion’, a guide to the Jewish cemetery (and the basics of Judaism) by Jakub Antosz-Rekucki, published by our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation with funding from the Ministry of Culture and...
On Friday afternoon, October 17th 2025, a group of volunteers tidied up the Jewish cemetery on Zakopiańska Street and the mass grave of Jews at the so-called Pańskie. This time, another group of young volunteers...
On the 20th October 2025, during a meeting at the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna, we summarised the fourth edition of our project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna’. The event was combined...
On 21st and 22nd October 2025, we visited both primary schools in Mszana Górna with our ‘Tales of the Tombstone Lion’ and a lecture on the importance of caring for our historic Jewish cemetery. Jewish...
On 28 October 2025, the Polin 2025 Awards Gala was held in Warsaw. The Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation was honoured with a Special Award! This is a great distinction and recognition of our efforts to preserve memory...
We are delighted to share another piece of good news – we have received a grant from the Jewish Historical Institute Association in Poland for the project ‘Cards of Jewish Memory in Mszana Dolna’. These funds...
On the 3rd November, another event took place as part of our project ‘Hitchhiker Guide to Judaism’. Despite the nasty weather, the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna was filled with people interested in...
On 12th November 2025, a group of 21 people set off on a hike organised by the Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation, following in the footsteps of the still little-known Righteous Among the Nations from Mszana Dolna,...
The first half of November was marked by educational meetings in schools. With our project about the Righteous Among the Nations from Mszana, we visited Primary School No. 1 in Mszana Dolna (7 November 2025) the...
We train to work more effectively and efficiently – Conference of the National Institute of Freedom in Warsaw and the Centre for Civil Society Development “Strong organisations – resilient society” On 17-18...
‘I place myself in your hands and conscience’ - ART AND LITERARY COMPETITION FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS ‘The Righteous Among the Nations from Mszana Dolna: Stefania and Józef Wacławik’, whose aim was to...
Fourteen years of advocating for remembrance, nine months of the latest project, two commemorations in the Market Square, several press articles, preparation of a biography in the Great Book of Limanowa Residents,...
On 20 November 2025, the representatives of the Limanowa County Culture Committee visited our Jewish cemetery. The committee examined the renovated site - this work was co-financed by the Limanowa County Office,...
In December, we are involved in many activities that are not entirely related to preserving the memory of our Jewish community, although we are also training to improve our skills and build a team to face the...
On 5th December 2025, our next and penultimate meeting this year as part of the “Hitchhiker's Guide to Judaism” project took place at the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna. This time, it was devoted to Jewish...
As every year, we kept alive the memory of the former Jewish residents of Mszana Dolna by lighting Hanukkah candles every day in our home and, together with the participants of one of our meetings, by singing...
