Preserving Memory & Building a More Tolerant World

In partnership with my cousins in Israel, who we “rediscovered“ in 2010, following an extended U.S. family trip back to our hometown origins in Sosnoviec and Bedzin in Poland, I was introduced to the extraordinary work of the Brama Cukermana Foundation in Bedzin, whose founders and circle of volunteers have been working tirelessly since 2009.

This past August, 2026 my son and I spent an extraordinary few days in Poland, joining our Israeli cousin, for a first-hand look at the Brama Cukermana historic sites alongside its on-site and community-based educational work in action.

We participated on August 3rd in the local 83rd Anniversary Memorial observance of the Liquidation (in 1943) of the Sosnoviec and Bedzin Jewish Ghettos, which takes place two days after the National observance of the Warsaw Uprising (of 1944).

(Rabbi Ben’s brief public remarks at the local Bedzin ceremony can be viewed on the YouTube video on this page, starting at 8:30 standing alongside Piotr Jakoweńko, BK Foundation Co-Founder, who provided Polish translation. Watch the first 8 minutes for a beautiful introduction to the event by Karolina Jakoweńko, BK Foundation Co-Founder—turn on English translation!)

We have committed ourselves to personally supporting its work and are encouraging others who care about preserving Jewish memory to join us in the service of nurturing a more complex understanding of history that can lead to a more tolerant world.

With your help we will enable this cutting edge program to make a huge leap forward in its mission, nurturing new understanding and relationships locally, nationally and internationally, and fully developing the recently discovered intact Jewish Ghetto Fighter’s House in Bedzin.

Thank you for joining your support to ours and for any help you might lend to reach out to others.

—Don