Dear JewishGen Community,
JewishGen.org is proud to announce its JewishGen Future Scholars Fellowship Program.
This immersive program, created in partnership with The Matzevah Foundation, Inc., will provide an experiential opportunity for younger audiences to appreciate the application and impact JewishGen, and Jewish genealogy can have in everyday life.
Specifically, it will focus on the role of Jewish cemeteries today in preserving the memory and legacy of former Jewish communities. Our six highly qualified Fellows will learn about symbols on tombstones, the state of Jewish cemeteries in Poland after Holocaust, efforts to preserve them, and what lessons can be gleaned to inform our own life choices today.
Throughout the 10-day experience, from June 12-June 20, Fellows will have an opportunity to visit many Jewish heritage sites including Warsaw and Lublin, spend an inspirational Shabbat in Krakow, and visit Auschwitz/Birkenau.
The group will then spend time in Krzepice, Poland, where they will participate in the clean-up and preservation of the Jewish cemetery in partnership with the local high school.
The trip will be led by highly experienced staff (including Avraham Groll, Dan Oren, and Steven D. Reece), and participants will have an opportunity to learn from rabbis, scholars, dignitaries, and community leaders, who will offer first-hand insights regarding the imperative (and challenges) of cleaning-up cemeteries in accordance with Jewish law. They will address how local Polish communities view Jewish cemeteries in their towns, the need to preserve Jewish memory, and more.
Upon returning home, each Fellow will write an essay reflecting on his or her experience. These essays will be made available on the JewishGen website.
Please be sure follow our JewishGen Fellows, and check our JewishGen.org facebook page often for profiles of the Fellows, ongoing updates, photos, live-streams, and more!
Please click here to visit our page.
Nancy Siegel (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Communications Coordinator
JewishGen.org
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