Seminar in Poland „Third Generation E ncounter” Tamar

TaMaR Poland
Pl. Bankowy 2/1914
00-095 Warszawa
Seminar „Third Generation E ncounter”

Project description
Warsaw, Poland
28.04 – 01.05

Seminar overview
The seminar is a pilot project of TaMaR Poland focused on expanding the Jewish
educational programming and community development schemes. Its target group is Jewish young adults 18-35 – visiting from abroad and those based in Poland. The seminar seeks to facilitate an encounter of the visiting groups with the Polish Jewish community in a setting that allows for a meaningful learning experience to take place. The programme creates an opportunity to learn from various educators and individuals working in Poland. Both the formal and the informal encounter will enable the participants to learn about the contemporary Polish society and its Jewish community. The polish participants, on the other hand, will benefit from taking on a role of a host community. Lastly, we are aiming to create a
framework of Jewish learning that resonates with and empowers the needs of young adults.
Seminar Mission Statement
 To enhance Jewish educational programming focused on the Holocaust by employing
educators working in Poland
 To facilitate an encounter of the visiting groups with the Polish Jewish community and foster networking opportunities
 To enable participants to take part in Holocaust commemoration ceremonies (Yom
HaShoah and March of the Living) outside of an institutional framework
Seminar structure
The seminar is scheduled to take place on the 28.04 – 01.05 in Warsaw and is
constructed as an alternative to a delegation-type trip. It aims to expose participants to the complexities surrounding history, Shoah memory and the building of personal identity. It directly seeks to move away from binary narratives of Jewish history and identity built on the 1 fear of “the other.” A distinguishable feature of the seminar will be learning, among other,from educators (by this we mean rabbis, professors, researchers, writers, activists, etc.) based in Poland. Furthermore, there will also be space for presentations and activities of the Polish
young adults, represented by both TaMaR activists and the MiNYanim group (Sochnut
organized leadership training for young adults from across Poland). Being a TaMaR
organized seminar we seek to, above all, give voice to and empower Jewish young adults within the bigger Jewish community framework. The seminar will end the day before Yom HaShoa Day and the March of the Living and will give the participants a chance to take part in and experience those ceremonies intimately, outside of an institutional framework. However TaMaR Poland will offer help with the making of the necessary arrangements.
Seminar agenda
The seminar will commence late afternoon on a Thursday 28th April with an informal
icebreaking and a movie screening. The following morning on Friday 29th April, we will travel to Treblinka Concentration Camp and return to the hotel in time to prepare for a Kabbalat Shabbat service. On Saturday we will begin the day with a discussion panel, hosting young adults. This will be followed by four block of study sessions. Each study block will have an option of 3 - 4 different workshops to choose from. They will take a format of either a lecture, presentation, movie followed with a discussion or a creative workshop. The day will be concluded with a socializing event after we’ve done Havdala. On Sunday we will have one more session and will shortly leave for a tour of Jewish Warsaw. The seminar will end there.
Focus of the educational content of the seminar
The four Saturday study blocks will each focus on the following areas of study –
1. Post-Shoah culture and education
2. Jewish history in Poland pre 1989 (incl. pre-war, Shoah, Communism)
3. Israel-Diaspora connection (identity, culture, community relations, etc.)
4. Contemporary Polish Jewish community (post 1989) –
· presentations and activities prepared by the MiNYanim group
· conversations on the sofa with the rabbis working in Poland
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