RESEARCH ON THE ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE JEWS AND THEIR HERITAGE, COOPERATION WITH LOCAL PARTNERS IN 15 SELECTED TOWNS, EDUCATION FOR TOLERANCE

The goals of the project are:

To gather viable information on attitudes towards the Jews and their heritage;
To make the information gathered available to a large number of people;
To educate for tolerance;
To initiate local cross-sector collaboration towards the implementation of projects for tolerance.


Description of the project

First stage - Research on attitudes
During the first stage of the project sociological research was conducted in 15 selected localities to determine local attitudes towards the Jews and the material remains of their heritage. The research (surveys and interviews with the inhabitants) was carried out by students from the University of Warsaw in cooperation with the Foundation.

The research report was prepared by the Center for Research on Prejudice - an interdisciplinary unit of the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Psychology.

Second stage - Local cooperation
The information gathered during the research phase became a starting point for discussions with local partners. As a result, projects aimed at the promotion of tolerance and openness as well as knowledge about local multicultural heritage were created in every locality.

The projects were prepared and implemented in cooperation with our local partners: local authorities, centers of culture, non-governmental organizations, museums and several other partners. Our goal was to create projects that would answer the needs of local communities. All of them met with great interest.

Over 4600 participants were involved in over 90 actions taken in 2008 in 15 localities participating in the ‘Research on the Attitudes Towards Jews’ project. Over 150 people participated in multicultural dialogue workshops for teachers and local leaders, carried out by experts from the Holocaust Research Center of the Jagiellonian University, and 60 teachers took part in additional Jewish culture workshops. Over 3000 students participated in youth activities (history and culture of Polish Jews and Jewish music and dance workshops, trips along Jewish heritage trails, cleaning up Jewish cemeteries). Finally, over 1400 people came for the open meetings - lectures and encounters with representatives of the present-day Jewish Community.

Completion of the above actions would not have been possible without a great amount of help and involvement from our local partners. We cordially thank all those who contributed to our project. We would also like to express our hope that our cooperation will continue in 2009, and that together we will carry out further actions promoting tolerance, openness and knowledge of the multicultural heritage of Poland.

Third stage – promotion
Actions taken in the localities included in the project are promoted as good practices. The materials created as the result of the project were published as a training resource and distributed on CD-ROM.


The project is implemented in the following towns and cities:

Lubelskie province
- Frampol
- Krasnik
- Łęczna
- Tarnogrod
- Zamosc

Podkarpackie province:
- Dynow
- Medyka
- Niebylec
- Sieniawa
- Sokolow Malopolski

Podlaskie province:
- Milejczyce
- Przerosl
- Suchowola
- Tykocin
- Wasilkow


The project is implemented thanks to the grant of the STEFAN BATORY FOUNDATION within the framework of the PROGRAM FOR TOLERANCE – PREVENTING INTOLERANCE.


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