Special On-Line, No Charge Event Happening Now in Radom, Poland: The Trace
In Radom, Poland where my dear friend and Holocaust Survivor, Joe Rubinstein, was born and raised, a dedicated group of very special people host an event each year called The Trace. Because of the coronavirus, this year’s event will be held online. (See schedule below.) It is a wonderful opportunity to experience the event, without having to travel. https://www.facebook.com/ResursaObywatelska/
The Trace Festival celebrates and remembers the beautiful and rich Jewish culture that once thrived in Radom.
Prior to WW2, over 30% of Radom’s residents were Jewish, including Joe and his family. After Germany invaded Poland, the Jewish residents were rounded up and imprisoned in two areas of town called ghettos. In 1942, Joe’s beloved family—his widowed mother, his sister, and three brothers, including Joe’s identical twin, perished, along with nearly everyone else, over 30,000 people, when the Radom ghettos were “liquidated” and the people sent to the Treblinka Death camp. Joe had been taken from the ghetto earlier and sent to Auschwitz for slave labor.
In 2017, for the 75th commemoration of the liquidation of the Radom ghettos, I had the tremendous (and emotional) honor of being asked to share Joe’s remarkable story in Radom as part of The Trace event. While there I was able to meet family members of Holocaust survivors from around the world. I also had the pleasure of meeting Holocaust survivor, Sal Birenbaum, (pictured) here holding the book I wrote about Joe Rubinstein. Joe and Sal do not recall ever meeting in their youth.
The residents and community leaders welcomed me and my husband with open arms. We were able to tour the ghettos, find the apartment where Joe was born, walk the streets where his family had lived for generations, and visit the Jewish graveyard where Joe’s father and a brother, who died before the war, were buried. All the headstones from the graves were destroyed by the Nazis during the war. Recently, fragments of those headstones have been located.
Author Nancy Sprowell Geise with Jakub Mitek in Radom, Poland 2017
Holocaust Survivor, Sal Birenbaum, holding the book about Joe Rubinstein Auschwitz #34207 - The Joe Rubinstein Story. Both men grew up in Radom, Poland but were not acquainted.
12th The Trace Encounters with Jewish Culture
Radom, May 14th - 17th 2020
Chasidim – Piety
Resursa Obywatelska Culture and Arts Center invites You to join us on our website,
at our Facebook profile and on Dami TV channel
May 14th (Thursday)
18.30 - "Chasidim means Piety" - virtual meeting with rabbi Symcha Keller at the tomb of legendary Zaddik – the Seer of Lublin
19.15 – "Broad St. 28 – in the house of the Seer" – Hassidic music and tales by violinist Marcin David Krol
19.25 - "Balconies" – theatre play performed by the Resursa Theatre, directed by Robert Stępniewski and Dorota Lewandowska, based on the novel by Marcina Kępy
19.55 – "For ages from here..." - Piotr Puchta – director of The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland invites to the Jews of Southern Mazovia Memory Trail
21.00 – only on TV Dami regional channel:
- „Michel Schwalbe. Concertmaster from Radom” - documentary movie (16 min.)
- „Lamentations….” - concert of the Ha Shir band from Toruń
May 15th (Friday)
18.30 – "Piety from Przysucha" - virtual meeting with rabbi Symcha Keller, exploration of Przysucha synagogue
19.00 – "From Przysucha: Holy Jew and Symcha Bunam" - Hassidic music and tales by violinist Marcin David Krol
19.15 - „Jewish Radom on the poster” - virtual exhibition by Renata Metzger
21.00 – only on TV Dami regional channel:
- „Salomon Birenbaum's Radom” (28 min.) - documentary movie
- „Beit Radom” (33 min.) - documentary movie
May 16th (Saturday)
18.30 - "Maggid from Kozienice" - virtual meeting with rabbi Symcha Keller
18.45 - "From Kozienice" - Hassidic music and tales by violinist Marcin David Krol
18.55 - "Chojze – the Seer of Lublin" - Hassidic music concert
The video is going to be available at Resursa Obywatelska Facebook profile only during the livestream
21.00 – only on TV Dami regional channel:
Documentary movies about the Righteous Among the Nations from Radom:
- „Silent hero. Doctor Jerzy Borysowicz 1903 – 1980” (15 min.),
- „Righteous Among the Nations from Radom” (14 min.),
- „To the memory of Wanda Pawłowska-Ajdels” (13 min.)
May 17th (Sunday)
18.30 - "Radom before the storm" – music memoirs of rabbi Ben-Zion Gold
The video is going to be available at Resursa Obywatelska Facebook profile only during the livestream
19.10 - "In Góra Kalwaria" - virtual meeting with rabbi Symcha Keller
19.25 – "A woman in Judaism” - Iza Rachel Rifka Foremniak invites to the Synagogue in Warsaw
21.00 – only on TV Dami regional channel:
- "Crown Jewel" (29 min.) - documentary movie
- „Cziribom, cziribom” - Magda Brudzińska Klezmer Trio concert
Under the following link: http://www.resursa.radom.pl/?pl_wirtualna-galeria-sztuk-plastycznych,48 – Virtual Art Gallery of Resursa Obywatelska, on May 14th we are going to open an exhibition ”Jewish Radom on the posters”. It presents the Jewish posters from the period of the 2nd Republic of Poland (interwar period). They inform about the cultural, political and other kind of events.
All of the video materials are going to be presented permanently on Resursa Obywatelska Facebook profile and ResursaRadom YouTube channel. The exceptions are the livestreams of "Chojze – the Seer of Lublin" - Hassidic music concert on Saturday, May 16th at 19.30 and "Radom before the storm" – music memoirs of rabbi Ben-Zion Gold on Sunday, May 17th at 18.30.
All of the video materials are produced by the Resursa Obywatelska Culture and Arts Center
The hours of the events in the program are planned in the Central European Time (CET).