Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland

06/03/2026

This week, Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland is helping to lead a clean-up effort in Tarnów, Poland. For the FJHP volunteers—some of whom are descendants of Jewish residents of Tarnów—along with volunteers from the AntySchematy 2 Foundation, the work has so far entailed clearing moss and overgrowth from the matzevot and cleaning up the cemetery grounds. One exciting discovery made already was that among the long-hidden graves of the cemetery was the tombstone of a group member’s ancestor!

The effort is multinational, with volunteers from the United States, Austria, Poland, and Israel, and it is being carried out with additional local partners, including Tomasz Grebner, the cemetery manager and employee of the Jewish Community of Kraków; Jola Wojciechowska, master tombstone finder; and Jewish Heritage Travel, who is sponsoring the trip.

05/14/2026

With gratitude to the producers of "Among Neighbors" for their support of our efforts to protect Jewish cemeteries in Poland, we are pleased to call your attention to their powerful film now available on Apple TV and Amazon Prime. This unique and immensely powerful and engaging documentary focuses on Jewish-Polish relations during and after the Shoah through the prism of one family and two people who survived the war. It is nothing short of outstanding!

05/13/2026

Our partner, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ), is seeking a new director to lead the organization’s work preserving and commemorating Jewish cultural heritage in Poland. The Krakow-based organization recovers and preserves physical Jewish heritage sites, including hundreds of synagogues and cemeteries, especially in areas where Jewish communities would otherwise face challenges in maintaining their cultural patrimony. Potential candidates interested in the Director role at FODŻ may learn more on FODŻ’s website or at the link below:

Announcement of recruitment for the position of Director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ)   The Board of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) is seeking a Director for the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Herita...

05/13/2026

Wednesday, June 10 in Klimontów.
You are invited!

03/31/2026

FJHP is now raising funds for Przysucha’s Jewish cemetery, where years of effort by multiple partners—including our organization—have resulted in incredible progress. The Jewish cemetery of Przysucha is over 300 years old, but it was destroyed during the German occupation, which saw many gravestones removed and used for building materials, with damage continuing in the post-war years. Efforts to clean and maintain the cemetery accelerated in the last half-decade with the work of the Jewish Przysucha Association. In 2022, FJHP joined clean-up and reconciliation efforts along with our partners and fellows from the JewishGen Future Scholars Fellowship. Since then, collaborative efforts led by Prof. Radosław Ptaszyński and the Jewish Przysucha Association have seen many gravestone fragments returned to the cemetery, including several hundred gravestone fragments embedded in a World War II-era warehouse constructed by the Germans. We are raising money to help the Jewish Przysucha Association integrate these gravestone fragments into a permanent memorial to the Jews of Przysucha, many of whom were murdered during the Holocaust.

You can help preserve and honor the memory of the Jewish community of Przysucha by supporting our fundraising, with more information available at this link on our website: jewishheritagepoland.org/ourlocations/przysucha

03/07/2026

In Mszana Dolna, our partners at the Sztel Mszana Dolna Foundation are actively restoring and protecting the town’s Jewish cemetery, as well as preserving and sharing the history of the town’s Jewish residents. For their work in caring for the Jewish cemetery, heritage, and memory of their town, the volunteers at Sztel Mszana Dolna won the 2025 POLIN Special Award from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

We are aiming to support the ongoing work in Mszana Dolna by raising money this year to restore 20 Jewish tombstones in Mszana Dolna, with the goal of ensuring long-term preservation. To learn more and make your donation to support the preservation of the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna, please visit our website at jewishheritagepoland.org/ourlocations/mszana-dolna

03/02/2026

For those who value the statistics, see ESJF's new post: .

02/04/2026

Applications are now open for the Bennett and Robin Greenspan L’Dor V’Dor Legacy Program! Sponsored by JewishGen and Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the 10-day program will bring participants to Poland to inspire and train the next generation of leaders in Jewish genealogy. Participants of the subsidized trip will visit important Jewish heritage sites around Poland and meet with key stakeholders who protect Jewish memory & vitality in Poland today. Led by Dr. Paul Radensky, Dr. Dan Oren, and Dr. Steven Reece, this unforgettable experience will provide participants with a unique, hands-on opportunity to learn about Jewish genealogy, cemetery revitalization, and the long & ongoing history of Jews in Poland.

The program will run from July 7 to July 16, 2026 and applications are open to currently-enrolled first through fourth year undergraduate students in accredited colleges or universities. The application is available at jewishgen.org/ldorvdor and is due on March 5, 2026.

01/13/2026

Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland honored Piotr Puchta and Natalia Romik for their profound impact on the preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland at our second annual “Distinguished Service” Awards today.

Mr. Puchta is the former Director General of FODŻ and a former Polish Ambassador-at-Large. Dr. Romik is an architect, researcher, and curator whose work centers on Jewish survival.

Host: Dr. Dan Oren, Testimonial Speakers—Dr. Jill Leibman, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Elizabeth Szancer, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Ph.D.

See the video of the event at .

01/04/2026

As we enter 2026 and look forward to another year of meaningful work, we hope that you will help support us in our mission: uniting descendants and supporters to preserve and commemorate Poland's remaining Jewish cemeteries and cultural heritage sites.

Why do supporters contribute to our work? One testimonial from Emily Farber Rubin Jennewein, below, shows how our impact motivates supporters to contribute to FJHP:

"My contribution was in honor of the excellent work of Bill Brostoff and Friends of Jewish Heritage Poland to begin to restore the Jewish cemetery of Trzcianne. My great grandfather, Hymie Rubin, emigrated from Trzcianne in 1899. It was a thrill to visit Trzcianne last summer and for Mayor Ewa Piekutowska to personally es**rt us to the sites of the mass grave and the Jewish cemetery. I'm very grateful that ... there is now an explanatory sign at the entrance to the cemetery in Polish and English."

The attached photo shows Emily with Mayor Piekutowska and guide Witold Wrzosiński at the cemetery entrance.

Please visit our new website at the following link to learn more and contribute to our work: http://jewishheritagepoland.org/donate