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Dr. Robert Bernheim Will Discuss “Citizen Diplomacy in Poland: Have A Bagel.”

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Robert and Patricia Bernheim live in China, Maine. Robert is an Associate Professor of History (Holocaust and Genocide Studies) at the University of Maine at Augusta and the founder of Feivel’s Old World Bagels and Bakery. Patricia is a consultant with Mary Kay and the CEO of ReUse ME, a nonprofit providing makers and tinkerers opportunities to use their skills for local and global good while inspiring a repurposing revolution as a collective of bona fide craftivists. In the spring of 2024, Robert & Patricia began reintroducing bagels to Southeast Poland as part of a concerted effort at bagel diplomacy.

Whitewash: Poland and the Jews

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Poland, the epicentre of the Holocaust, began denying responsibility as soon as the Nazi atrocities ended. The nation’s distortion of history continues today – with disturbing consequences. World-renowned Holocaust historian Jan Grabowski examines how the government, museums, schools and state never came to grips with the dark past. This tour de force reminds one of the power of historical research based on documents and historical reasoning.

The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust

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Dr. Dynner will introduce his newest study followed by a response from Dr. Cichopek-Gajraj. We invite people to ask questions of the author at the end of the webinar.

The Light of Learning tells the story of an unexpected Hasidic revival in Poland on the eve of the Holocaust. In the aftermath of World War I, the Jewish mystical movement appeared to be in shambles. Hasidic leaders had dispersed, Hasidic courts lay in ruins, and the youth seemed swept up in secularist trends as a result of mandatory public schooling and new Jewish movements like Zionism and Socialism. Author Glenn Dynner shows that in response to this, Hasidic leaders reinvented themselves as educators devoted to rescuing the youth by means of thriving networks of heders (primary schools), Bais Yaakov schools for girls and women, and world-renowned yeshivas.[…]