We are glad to invite you to read a newsletter of the Wielkie Oczy Foundation.

The Wielkie Oczy Foundation Newsletter
This communication is directed to those who have subscribed to the Wielkie Oczy mail list and to friends of Wielkie Oczy. This communication cannot be published in any public forum or web site without prior written authorization of the authors.  You may, however, mail this message to others who may be interested in events concerning Wielkie Oczy, Poland and the Jewish community that once lived there.
While we have and will continue to have a focus on the Jewish past in Wielkie Oczy, the information we seek to discover and the projects we undertake undoubtedly have wide appeal and impact. We therefore welcome all those with a connection to and an affection for Wielkie Oczy, without regard to ethnic origin or religious affiliation.

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Wielkie Oczy ShtetLinks Website
The are many new additions to the website. Of particular note is the featured link to the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and their Jewish calendar for the year 5767, which features a photo of the synagogue in Wielkie Oczy. In addition, the Wielkie Oczy Foundation has funded the translation of a number of reminiscences translated from the Polish or Hebrew originals. Those that have been translated are now on our website. As additional translations are completed, these will be posted, so be sure to visit the Wielkie Oczy web site from time to time.

Photo Project
We are working on putting together a photographic exhibit to be published on the Wielkie Oczy English and Polish websites. The exhibit would feature photographs of various memorials around the world where the Jewish community of Wielkie Oczy is memorialized. Among the places where such memorials exist are: Holon Cemetery Monument (Israel), Mount Zion Remembrance Cellar (Israel), Belzec (Poland), Yad Vashem Communities (Israel), United States Holocaust Museum (Washington, DC).

If you are aware of other such memorials, please let us know... better still, please send us photographs that show the memorial setting and the reference to Wielkie Oczy.

Wielkie Oczy Participates in EU-Sponsored "Chassidic Route" Project
The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (known by its Polish acronym FODZ) has launched a project to develop "heritage tourism" initially focusing on the multicultural heritage of Poland and Ukraine:  "The aim of the project is to create in the Carpathian Euroregion an international heritage-focused tourist route, called the 'Chassidic Route' that will join the monuments of Jewish culture and religion in Poland and Ukraine. At the first stage the route will cover 10 localities in Poland [of which Wielkie Oczy is one, ed.] and 5 in [the] Ukraine....The 'Chassidic Route' project is supported by the European Union INTERREG III A Program for infrastructural projects preparation." You can learn more about this project here.

Future English-Translation Projects
Unfunded at this time are the following translation projects that may be undertaken. 
·    As previously reported, the Wielkie Oczy Foundation had sponsored a study of the Jewish Cemetery in Wielkie Oczy by the scholar Andrzej Trzcinski of Lublin. This copyrighted study in Polish and Hebrew was published in 2002 and is a physical survey of the cemetery and the headstones that remain in various states of disrepair and disintegration. We also reported to you efforts of local prosecutors in Poland to secure headstones that had been taken from the cemetery during the Holocaust and used as support for a farmhouse. We expect that these will one day be returned and that information about them will be contained in a supplement to the earlier study.
·    David Majus is at work on a 2nd edition of his definitive publication entitled, simply, Wielkie Oczy. Originally published in 2002, Wielkie Oczy has been favorably reviewed in Polish sources, and having this work in English will make Wielkie Oczy more accessible to those with a genealogical, cultural and historical interest in the town. One reviewer noted, "This book is a valuable historical contribution and without reservation should be added to the libraries of those interested in regional history." Another reviewer writing in the scholarly Ukrainian Bulletin no. 10 of the Southeast Institute in Przemyśl noted the value of this book to the younger generations of Wielkie Oczy and others who are unacquainted with the history and the people who lived there, for - as the reviewer noted - Majus brings to light the different cultures and beliefs (the Polish Catholic, the Ukraine Eastern Rite and the Jewish) that once came together at the crossroads of Wielkie Oczy.

Project Updates
The Cemetery:
David Majus recently returned from Poland where he held useful talks with Władysław Strojny, the wojt (or administrator) of Wielkie Oczy. The wojt took the initiative and declared that the town (that is,  the gmina) would take over the care of the Jewish cemetery in the same way as it takes care over the military and war cemeteries in its territory. The gmina will be responsible for cutting the grass two or three times a year and painting the fence when needed. School children will keep the cemetery clean, as they will do with the sidewalk along the cemetery. The Foundation has been funding the cemetery cleanup by paying 1,000 zloty (US$ 320) a year to a caretaker. When asked how the Foundation should transfer this amount to the gmina, wojt Strojny said that such payment was not necessary. Instead the Foundation will use these funds for various projects at the local school. Arrangements will be made with Jadwiga Palczynska, the principal of the local school (the Jan Kochanowski Gimnazjum No 1).
The School:
Later, David and Mrs. Palczynska went to a book store in Lubaczow and purchased various school books, atlases, encyclopedias, etc. for 1,000 zloty. David's rental car was full of books and Mrs. Palczynska was very grateful to us for them. David also told her about the suggestion of wojt and took the account number of the Parents Council of the school. This is an independent account of the school (controlled by the principal and head of the Parents Council) to which our Foundation will transfer 1,000 zloty each year on or about June 10.
The Synagogue:
A clear direction on restoring the synagogue has been elusive because of the cost and the difficulties of clearly defining the conditions under which title and license to restore and use such property can be held or assigned. If that sounds a bit vague, well then so is the solution, as you will see... read on. Wojt Strojny indicated that before the gmina can begin restoration of the synagogue, the gmina would have to have title to the property (the roof is in awful condition and will not survive next winter). The property title is a real condition for starting any activity by the gmina because they have heard of similar situations with other synagogues in the Podkarpackie region (Przemysl, Jaroslaw) where regional authorities restored synagogue buildings and re-opened them as schools or libraries, and subsequently FODZ took the buildings from them and sold title to others. We cannot confirm this, but the fact is that people of the region believe it and will do nothing before receiving title to the building. After renovation the gmina would open the building as a public library. This appears to be the best way to secure funding from the district and regional authorities. Based on talks with wojt Strojny and with other serious people in the region, the Wielkie Oczy Foundation believes that the gmina offers the best hope of rescuing the synagogue building.  The crucial issue is if FODZ, which holds title to the building, will be ready to give or to sell it for a nominal price to the gmina.
David Majus on behalf of the Wielkie Oczy Foundation remains in contact with all parties, including the head of FODZ. We will let you know how things go in a future issue of this newsletter.
Stephen Landau
David Majus
Rabbi Murray Stadtmauer

English: www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/WielkieOczy
Polish: www.wielkieoczy.itgo.com

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The Wielkie Oczy Foundation is financed by private donations. The foundation supports the restoration and ongoing maintenance of the Jewish cemetery in Wielkie Oczy, has sponsored essay contests for students at the Jan Kochanowski Gimnazjum No 1 in Wielkie Oczy, maintains the Wielkie Oczy web site on JewishGen, undertakes various projects to recover the genealogical, cultural and historical records of the Jewish community of Wielkie Oczy  and is working with local authorities in Poland, government and non-government entities to restore the still standing but threatened synagogue building.

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