Czulent Jewish Association

The Czulent Jewish Association was established in 2004 as an independent association of Jews in Poland. Association  members have different interests and views but share the belief that Jewish identity is something precious that needs  to be nurtured and strengthened.

The Society is open both to those who are inclined to religion and to those whose Jewishness has a secular dimension,  because the foundations of our association are: pluralism, diversity, openness and tolerance.  The Association aims to create a space where members, individually or collectively, may define their identity and  meet the challenges posed before them as active members of the Jewish community of Poland.

Priorities of the Association are:

1) Integration of the Jewish community

Our actions are directed primarily to the Jewish community in Poland. Projects implemented by us integrate a variety of age groups and organizations. We build the same strong sense of community within a community of Jews and Jewish women in Poland

2) Advancing our knowledge of Jewish culture and tradition

We create projects that offer improved access to Jewish knowledge, such as the creation of a public Jewish library and Poland’s largest Sunday School.

The Remuh Jewish Library was founded in June 2005, and is the only public and completely free of  charge Jewish library in Krakow and in southern Poland. The Library consists of 7000 books from different  genres, which combined together crate valuable source of knowledge about Jewish heritage and culture. Readers  can choose from more than 20 different sections (such as : The Country of Israel, Memoirs, Biographies, Poems, Identity and gender or Children’s Books). We have books in Polish, Hebrew, Yiddish and English. Keeping the  memory about Jewish life in Poland, as well as spreading the knowledge about Jewish history and culture is one  of the main goals of Library. Library has it’s own website: www.biblioteka.czulent.pl as well as a Facebook page.

We also have library operation system MAK+, which allows people to check the library’s collection on-line. The Jewish Library Remu was awarded by Fundację Sztuki Nowej. Znaczy Się as “Miejsce Przyjazne Czytaniu” (Friendly Place for Reading). We publish books, organize exhibitions, lectures, and meetings with artists to give students and other individuals the ability to interact with Jewish culture and Jewish tradition. In 2014 “Majn Alef Beis” – a series of publishing educational books for children in Yiddish and Polish – was awarded the Polish Section of IBBY Book of the Year 2013, award Bienal Internacional de ILUSTRARTE Ilustra.ao couple Infancia in Portugal and silver in EDAwards for ilustrations. Association, as a publisher, received the main prize BolognaRagazzi Award, in the category of nonfiction in 2014. That is the most prestige award for publishers comparable to the Oscars.

In 2014 we organized the Sunday school in Krakow. School is financed through the Żydowska Gmina Wyznaniowa w Krakowie. (the Jewish Community of Krakow) and Ministry of the Interior and Administration. 40 kids have lessons about Judaism, Hebrew and artistic workshops. In 2014, the Sunday school officially became recognized as a formal education institution and it is the biggest Sunday School in Poland.

3) Promotion of tolerance, shaping the attitudes of openness to differences in national, ethnic and religious minorities, with particular emphasis on condemning anti-Semitism

We have organized workshops and classes devoted to anti-discrimination education, as well as more informal settings aimed at teaching anti-discrimination. We support activities aimed at an exchange of experiences among organizations working towards wider tolerance.

We organized, along with KPH (Campaign Against Homophoby), Association Szterndlech, and Israeli Gay Youth, a series of events relating to anti-Semitism and homophobia. We co-organize an educational publishing project, “Jewish women – Krakow emancipated. History and the Present for equality and diversity”.

We co-organized conferences and seminar on  “The Roma Genocide – Young Europeans commemorate the extermination of Roma People during World War II.”  We co-organized an exhibition on  National and Ethnic Minorities, called “I’m here. Poland of many nations”. This project was implemented in partnership, among  others, by the Anne Frank House and the Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

We co-organized a seminar “Intercultural and Democracy-Learning in Europe of Diversity” with the Gustav Stresemann Institute in Bad Bevensen in Germany. We work with institutions working to promote human rights.
We are a member of the coalition: Religions for Peace, Coalition  for Equal Opportunities, “Equality and diversity – practically”.

In 2014 we started an important anti -discrimination project “Antysemityzm nie jest poglądem” (Antisemitism is not an opinion). In this initiative, we started innovative actions which will increase the social awareness about fighting, recognizing and learning about the modern forms of antisemitism in Poland. This project has patronage of Rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich (Human Rights Defender) and Pełnomocnika Rządu do Spraw R.wnego Traktowania (Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment).

Website: www.czulent.pl