Autumn 2022 Issue of HAYNT Out Now!
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HAYNT is the magazine of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants.
It is published three times annually and features articles on the ASPJ’s events and other activities, as well as articles on Polish-Jewish issues in Australia and Poland.
Click HERE to read this current issue!
2021 "Henryk Sławik Award" Presentation
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Melbourne, Australia
The Henryk Sławik Award is presented in honour of the spirit of the life and deeds of Henryk Sławik, (saving over thirty thousand lives in occupied Hungary, five thousand of those being Jews). The Board of Management of the ASPJ has decided to honour individuals who, or organisations which, have worked towards enhancing mutual respect and understanding between the Polish and Jewish communities.
The recipient of the 2021 Henryk Sławik Award is:
Arnold Zable, writer, novelist, storyteller and human rights advocate.
Presentation of this year’s award was at a COVID-safe event held at Melbourne’s Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre,on Wednesday 15th December 2021, in front of an audience comprising of members of the Jewish and Polish communities. Many more were able to view the event live online.
Arnold Zable is the author of numerous short stories and novels in which he touches upon the issues of migrants, themes of historical memory, refugees and the Jewish diaspora. In speaking about Arnold, ASPJ Past President Bernard Korbman OAM, stated that Arnold embodied all that is best in a person and exemplified the perfect example of someone who works for justice, countering religious prejudices and the protection of human rights.
In addition to the presentation of this year’s Sławik Award, the ASPJ Board of Management presented ASPJ Life Membership to two ASPJ foundation members and Past Presidents – Bernard Korbman OAM and Izydor Marmur OAM.
Since its foundation back in 2009, Bernard Korbman OAM has been the philosophical and spiritual driving force behind the Australian Society of Polish Jews & Their Descendants. It was his ideal and motivation that inspired the rebirth of a Polish-Jewish organisation after what had been a hiatus of more than twenty-five years.
For the past eleven years, Bernard has served the ASPJ as its Founding President, President, Co-President, Vice-President and Board member. However, he has felt that now was the right time for him to step down and allow others to take the reins.
Izydor Marmur OAM is one of the foundation members of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants. Since its foundation in 2009, Izy has served our organisation in many capacities, including as President, Vice-President and, until today, as Editor of the ASPJ’s publication “Haynt”.
He was a co-Instigator of the Friends of Poland Victorian Parliamentary Group. In 2014, he was presented with a Volunteer Award by Jewish Community Council of Victoria. Izydor, along with others, has been a driving force in bringing Victoria’s Polish and Jewish communities closer together.
Click below to watch video highlights of the event:
Summer 2022 Issue of HAYNT Out Now!
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HAYNT is the magazine of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants.
It is published three times annually and features articles on the ASPJ’s events and other activities, as well as articles on Polish-Jewish issues in Australia and Poland.
Click HERE to read this current issue!
Dariusz Popiela Named Winner of 2021 POLIN Award
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It is with immense pleasure that we learned that the great friend of the ASPJ, Dariusz Popiela, has been named as the winner of the 2021 POLIN Award, presented at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. This honour, awarded annually since 2015, is presented to people or organisations whose activities protect the memory of the history of Polish Jews and who contribute to the shaping of a common future, mutual understanding and respect.
The Award jury acknowledges those who have demonstrated important, extraordinary activity which has made a significant impact on the social awareness of the history of Polish Jews and on building Polish-Jewish relations.
Polish champion kayaker, Dariusz Popiela, is the founder of the “People, Not Numbers” project, which researches the names of Holocaust victims who are buried in mass graves inside cemeteries and elsewhere. Monuments are then erected bearing the names of these victims, so that their memory will live on.
Through his efforts, more than 5,000 Holocaust victims from Krościenko nad Dunajcem, Grybów, Czarrny Dunajec and Nowy Targ have, thus far, been commemorated by name. The Award jury recognised Dariusz’s incredible energy to act and to inspire others to become involved in this project. For many years, Dariusz has also co-organised anniversary commemorations related to the Jewish history of his home town of Nowy Sącz.
The “People, Not Numbers” project also holds meetings with young people in schools, during which the history of the local community is presented. It conducts educational trips to the Extermination Museum at Bełżec, where young people learn the tragic history of the former inhabitants of their town, and then schools and their students become patrons of their local monument-memorial site.
Dariusz also searches for matzevot and for items left behind by Jewish inhabitants. With the cooperation of and dialogue with local communities, it has been possible to recover tombstones, which have been spent decades in backyards outside of cemeteries. These matzevot undergo specialist restoration and are then placed inside cemeteries.
Dariusz Popiela is a Beijing Olympian, a nine-time Polish Champion (last title in 2021) and multiple medalist of the World and European Championships in kayaking.
The ASPJ sincerely congratulates Dariusz. This honour is well-deserved!
COVID notwithstanding, we hope to welcome Dariusz to Australia in 2022 to deliver the 2022 ASPJ Oration,
and to screen the Australian premiere of his film “Edge of Light”.
Watch this video to learn about this year’s POLIN Award nominees.
Source: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Spring 2021 Issue of HAYNT Out Now!
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HAYNT is the magazine of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants.
It is published three times annually and features articles on the ASPJ’s events and other activities, as well as articles on Polish-Jewish issues in Australia and Poland.
Click HERE to read this current issue!
Congratulations & Mazel Tov Izydor Marmur OAM!
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Autumn 2021 Issue of HAYNT Out Now!
aragorn
HAYNT is the magazine of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants.
It is published three times annually and features articles on the ASPJ’s events and other activities, as well as articles on Polish-Jewish issues in Australia and Poland.
Click HERE to read this current issue!
New Polish Honorary Consul-General in Victoria Appointed
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Andrzej Soszyński has been appointed as the new Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Victoria. He commences his mission on 16th February 2021.
Mr. Soszyński is a Polish-Australian dual national.
He received a certificate in Accounting and Financial Management from the Queensland Institute of Technology in 1982 and, in 1998, he graduated in Marketing & Management at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney. Currently retired, he spent his professional career working at Caltex Australia where, for the last twenty years, he occupied various managerial posts.
Andrzej Soszyński served as a past president of the Polish Association in Hobart, prior to moving to Victoria in 1995. Mr. Soszyński has been an active member of the Polish community in Melbourne. In 1997, he served as Chairman and in 2016 as a member of the Steering Committee of “PolArt” – the biggest Polish culture festival in the southern hemisphere, which in those years took place in Melbourne.
With his vast managerial experience, long-term engagement in the life of the Polish community, as well as good understanding of the local business community, Andrzej Soszyński is well positioned to represent Polish interests in Melbourne and in the state of Victoria.
Source: Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Canberra.
ASPJ President in Conversation with JCC Kraków Executive Director
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On Thursday 17th December, our ASPJ President, Ezra May, featured in an online conversation with Executive Director of the Jewish Community Centre in Kraków, Jonathan Ornstein.
Ornstein has spent almost two decades in Poland, especially Kraków, striving to help revive Poland’s re-emerging Jewish community.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having hit Poland fairly severely, Jonathan has taken to conducting regular ZOOM events – this one, in conversation with Ezra, whom he met during one of Ezra’s visits to Poland.
In this discussion, Jonathan, who has visited Australia in the past, and Ezra talk not only about the history and composition of Australia’s Jewish community – and the role that the ASPJ plays within it, but they also delve into the Polish-Jewish roots of our ASPJ President himself.
Ezra appears 12 minutes into the video. Enjoy!
Summer Issue of HAYNT Out Now!
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HAYNT is the magazine of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants.
It is published three times annually and features articles on the ASPJ’s events and other activities, as well as articles on Polish-Jewish issues in Australia and Poland.
Click HERE to read this current issue!