The first national conference of non-Jewish Poles who care for Jewish heritage sites in Poland is set to begin.
The conference will take place next week in the small town of Zdunska Wola, near Lodz in central Poland.
Supported by state and local authorities, the Sept. 15-16 conference is the brainchild of local activist Kamila Klauzinska, one of scores of non-Jewish Polish volunteers who have been honored by the Israeli embassy over the past decade for their work in preserving Jewish heritage in Poland. Klauszinska is a graduate student in Jewish studies at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University.
Organized in association with the Yachad Historical Society, a group dedicated to the preservation of Zdunska Wola’s Jewish history and heritage sites, the conference is dedicated to the memory of Ireneusz Slipek, who until his death in 2006 spent 20 years caring for and cleaning up the Jewish cemetery in his hometown of Warta.
