You are invited to join us for a special meeting with Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko, dedicated Polish researchers, educators, and guardians of Polish Jewish heritage. The event will focus on their latest historical project: the Będzin Ghetto Fighters House. Menachem Z. Rosensaft — general counsel emeritus of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School will introduce the speakers.

Wednesday, October 22 at 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College
1 W 4th St, New York, NY 10012
You can watch the event recording here.

In 1943, the Będzin Ghetto Fighters House was the home of the Jewish Combat Organization, Zionist Youth groups, and a center of resistance in the Będzin Ghetto. Because of Karolina and Piotr’s efforts, this critical site of Jewish memory has become a Living Memorial to Jewish rural resistance and a vibrant Educational Center, with well over 10,000 student visits projected for 2025. Common knowledge about Jewish underground resistance during the Holocaust is limited to the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In their applied research, Karolina and Piotr focus on less well-known narratives of Jewish struggle in rural Poland. Their pioneering research explores themes of resilience, inspiring stories of armed resistance by youth, often young women, fighting and living in the Ghetto. These fighters were ready to resist deportation against all odds. Despite modest weaponry, they fought the Nazis by armed fire, building bunkers, organizing escapes, and aiding the Jews of Bedzin. Karolina and Piotr will talk about the multifaceted significance that this remarkable story can have in the contemporary struggle against anti-Semitism, engaging and inspiring different voices: from local Polish audiences to young Israelis and Jews around the world.

Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko co-founded the Brama Cukermana Foundation in 2008 in Będzin (Poland), where they discovered and renovated a shtiebel (Jewish prayer house), opening it for visits. Their work, continuous for 16 years, includes historical research, collecting survivor and local non-Jewish Polish testimonies, organizing Holocaust Commemoration activities, and publishing books and educational programing. Their work has been recognized by The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage; The Embassy of Israel; The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw; The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow; The Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN; and B’nai B’rith International. They received The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Medal in 2024.

The event is co-organized with the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Lead image: Archaeological excavation photos
Photo credits:

1. Baruch Gaftek – one of Dror leaders, member of the Jewish Fighting Organization leadership in Będzin and Zagłębie.From the collection of the Massuah International Institute for Holocaust Studies

2. Zionist youth meeting, 1943.In the photo: Lea Pejsachson (sitting in a white dress) and Herszel Szpryngier (talking). From the collection of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum Archive

3. A discussion meeting of members of youth movements at the kibbutz – Farm in Bedzin. In the photo: Chajka Klinger from Hashomer Hatzair (wearing a checked shirt) and Baruch Gaftek from Dror (next to her on the right). From the collection of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum Archive

4. Ceremony of unveiling the commemorative plaque on the building at today’s 24 Rutki Laskier Street in Będzin, dedicated to the memory of Jewish resistance fighters fallen in combat, September 1947.In the photo: Dorka Bram (Sternberg), Motl Tereszczanski – Tirosh, Pnina Scheinman, Tuwia Borzykowski and Bela („Wanda”) Elster (Rotenberg).From the collection of Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum Archive