Summary of the 3rd edition of our educational project ‘The story of bicultural, pre-war Mszana Dolna. Edition 2024’

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 there was a much larger audience. The recordings can be viewed on our @sztetlmszanadolna profile on YouTube.

We experienced a variety of forms together with the participants: lectures, presentations, concerts, a monodrama and a trip of bicultural Krakow. Topics were also varied: cultural, religious, historical, psychological, artistic.

We learned about and recited the Psalms together, presented the work of Marc Chagall, the fate of Holocaust survivors and the various ways they were saved. We delighted in the music of the marvellous Con Affetto and the pre-war hits authored by Jewish artists. We learned about the mechanisms of transgenerational trauma and the extraordinary fate of the Jewish ghetto doctor Adina Blady-Szwajger, told by her daughter, an actress Alina Świdowska. We read Jewish poetry, fulfilling the dream of the author of the anthology, Samuel Hirszhorn, who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The project received the Honorary Patronage of the Mayor, Agnieszka Orzeł, for which we are extremely grateful. We are also grateful to the previous Mayor, Anna Pekała. We would like to thank the Director of the Municipal Library, Ms Aneta Mazgaj, for her kind hospitality. For their help in preparing refreshments for the participants, we bow to the Senior+ Club of Mszana Dolna. 

For the funding we are grateful to: the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland and the National Cultural Centre with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.