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Warsaw to Open First Modern Jewish Community Center on October 27

19 października, 2013

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jews of Warsaw will inaugurate the city\'s first-ever modern Jewish Community Center in the Polish capital. Funded by JDC, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, the Koret Foundation, and many other donors, the new JCC is the second in the country and will serve as a boutique hub for a vast array of Jewish cultural, educational, and community programs and activities, many taking place outside the JCC\'s walls, for Warsaw\'s multi-generational Jewish community.

“The opening of the JCC is yet another chapter in the remarkable story of the revival of Jewish life in this country,” said JDC CEO Alan Gill. “It’s a testament to the perseverance of Polish Jews that they are continuing to rebuild their institutions after surviving near annihilation followed by decades of oppression. JDC is delighted to have teamed up once again with the Jews of Warsaw and esteemed funding partners and passionate activists like Tad Taube to help facilitate this new flagship for Polish Jews to be empowered, innovate, and create their own brand of Jewish identity.”

Warsaw Deputy Mayor Włodzimierz Paszyński, Israeli Ambassador Zvi Ravner, U.S. embassy representatives as well as Jewish community members – including the Beit Warsawa, Beit Polska, and Etz Chaim progressive congregations and the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland – will also be in attendance. The dedication ceremony will include a jazz band, kosher food, an exhibition of photography of JCC Without Walls programs, and activity demonstrations by JCC members. Poland\'s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich will hang the mezuzah and recite the dedication prayer.

The 3,000-square-foot free-standing building will serve as the boutique center for Jewish activities that will take place in the space and also continue outside its walls in venues like museums, cafés, and other alternative spaces. Located in one of Central Warsaw\'s hippest neighborhoods, the JCC will offer a range of activities around the year including cooking classes, childcare, training programs, Jewish education, theater classes, and a book club to the 900 preregistered members. Before its conversion, the building was a popular café.

The JCC will also be the central hub for the numerous “JCC Without Walls” programs that have become popular in Warsaw in the last number of years. These have included Jewish street festivals, artistic sukkah installations, and cafe educational programs that draw newly engaged, curious, and fully involved Jews in Jewish life in the city. This formula – a small, centrally energized building that creates programming inside and on the street – addresses the new reality of Jewish engagement that requires various entry points for involvement.

Today, Poland is home to an estimated 25,000 Jews who have access to synagogues of every Jewish denomination, community-wide Sabbath dinners, camping experiences, Jewish learning conferences, Jewish music and food, as well as youth clubs, urban holiday events, study groups, and classes for those who have just discovered their Jewish roots. Poland\'s first JCC opened in Krakow in 2008, is supported by JDC, and has quickly become a fixture in the life of the local community.

www.washington.mfa.gov.pl