Summary of the educational project "The story of pre-war, bicultural Mszana Dolna"
On 2.12.2022 we completed our educational project "A story of pre-war bicultural Mszana Dolna". It lasted less than 8 months, and included 11 meetings at the Municipal Library. The first, on 11.04.2022, just before Easter, was devoted to considering its Paschal roots. In April, 2 more meetings were held: 22.04.2022 with writer Patrycja Dolowy around her novel "Treasures", one of whose heroines is Ursula Antosz-Rekucka, and Jolanta Kruszniewska, who talked about what is enchanted in stone on Jewish matzevot - 28.04.2022. On 25.05.2022, under the guidance of Anna Wencel of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, we tried our hand at Jewish cut-outs, on 3.06.2022 we learned about Jewish families, and on 20.06.2022 we pondered the ties between Judaism and Christianity. We talked about the Holocaust of the Mshany Jews on 12.08.2022, just before its 80th Anniversary. On 4.12.2022 we held a slide show from Israel, on 10.11.2022 we learned about an important witness of bicultural Mszana, Alexander Kalczynski, also naming a traffic circle in Mszana Dolna after him. Finally, on 2.12.2022 we knocked on heaven's door with Dylan and Cohen, and their translator Jakub Antosz-Rekucki, learning about biblical contexts in the works of both Jewish bards, and sang "Hallalujah" together. In addition, on 20.10.2022 in Bilbioteka we organized the promotion of our publication about the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna, authored by Jolanta Kruszniewska and Urszula Antosz-Rekucka.
During all the meetings we were hosted by the Municipal Library in Mszana Dolna, for which we are grateful to Mrs. Agnieszka Orze³, the Director, and we thank Mrs. Anna Pękala, the Mayor, for taking the project under her honorary patronage. All the meetings were broadcast by Mr. Dariusz Ptak; thanks to this they were available online, and the record of them can be found on our Shtetl Mszana Dolna channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@sztetlmszanadolna
A total of 335 people attended the project meetings, an average of 33.5 per meeting. The one devoted to the figure of Mr. Kalczynski (70), the Paschal Roots of Easter (43) and the last one, singing, about translations of Leonard Cohen's and Bob Dylan's melodic poetry (42) were the most interesting. At each meeting we served refreshments and beverages, often related to the topic, such as Passover foods, hummus, Israeli-style coffee and tea, or challah cookies according to a Jerusalem recipe. Due to great interest, we will make efforts to continue the project next year.
The project was carried out with the financial support of: Limanowa District, Malopolska Province, National Cultural Center, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (grants acquisition: Marek Rekucki)
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
