THE UNION OF JEWISHE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN POLAND (JRCP) (Warsaw)

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During the last few years, JRCP’s position as the umbrella organisation for all the Jewish community has been successfully strengthened. Sound foundations for operation have been built that now enable JRCP to carry out further activities and to implement more and more ambitious plans.
JRCP’s main objective is to help and support the Communities and its branches that do not have their own property and have considerable needs connected with the every day life of their members. Social aid for the Holocaust survivors living in solitude, operating kosher cafeterias, renovating the derelict buildings, maintaining cemeteries are the activities that use up most of the financial resources.
Above that, JRCP carries out varied educational activities - lectures, discussion sessions and meetings all over Poland. The main subjects are Jewish history and tradition and the contemporary life. On an every day basis, the Communities and JRCP branches serve the local community as an information centre and knowledge base on Judaism and Jewish culture. Frequently, community members voluntarily conduct classes at schools and culture centres. Education is the priority objective for this coming year.
JRCP is the organiser and co-organiser of events that play a very important social role. The “Shabbat in Pińczów” has began a series of all-Poland Shabbat meetings, organised in cooperation with the local authorities of small towns that, before WWII, were Jewish shteytls. Such events are often the only possibility for participation in Jewish life for people from small centres.
Last year JRCP organised many events connected with holidays: Tu b’Shevat open fair, Purim ball, Lag b’Omer picnic, or co-organised of Jidysz Disco.
Together with the Midrasz magazine JRCP is the co-organiser of “Dni Książki Żydowskiej” (Jewish Book Fair).
JRCP helps in organising many cultural events, such as the “Żydowskie Motywy” (Jewish Themes) film festival.
Besides education, another priority objective in the nearest future will be intensifying the activities aimed at informing the members of the community about the every day Jewish life in Poland and the possibility of active participation.
The web portal www.jewish.org.pl is continually updated and developed. Many Jewish organisations and hundreds of people use the jewish.org.pl server and have their free email addresses there. An Internet discussion forum has been created, thanks to which people from all over Poland and abroad can now communicate.
In early January 2006, a Public Affairs Department has been created at JRCP, whose responsibility are all the relations of JRCP with Jewish and Polish communities and the media in Poland and abroad. The information about the most important events in the life of Jewish community in Poland is updated systematically. Thanks to JRCP’s efforts, more and more often reports from all major events organised by JRCP appear in the press and on TV. Currently, JRCP is working on a regular television programme for and about today’s Polish Jews.
JRCP is also involved in publishing – calendars and almanacs containing articles, copies of Jewish works of art, information on JRCP and each of the Communities and Branches. This activity will be extended to publishing textbooks for people of Jewish origin; textbooks from the series “Tradycja żydowska krok po kroku” (Jewish Tradition Step by Step) and textbooks for learning the basics of Hebrew, Yiddish or Jewish songs.
JRCP also cares about the safety issues. The programme, MAGEN monitors acts of anti-Semitism and helps those affected by such acts. There are plans for training courses for teachers and social leaders, especially in areas where anti-Semitism is pronounced.
JRCP is and organisation committed to social and inter-religious dialogue. During the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the representatives of the Central Roma Council in Poland, the Polish Committee of Christians and Jews, the Polish Committee of Christians and Muslims, the Reformed Evangelical Church, and the Chaplain of the President’s House prayed in the synagogue.
As an organisation aiming to unify the Jewish community in Poland, JRCP has started a series of common training sessions for leaders of all major Jewish organisations.
As part of JRCP strategy implementation, there are plans for creating a Development Department, which would research new attractive activity forms that would meet the current social needs and a Fundraising Department that would enable the implementation of a growing number of all-Poland programmes addressed to all the community of Jewish origins.