leaders during the holocaust

 It's not exactly what we've been talking about today, but I think, that it's a very interesting topic. During Shoah there were many leaders who help Jewish people survive, or at least die with dignity. Some of them, like Mordechaj Anielewicz, Marek Edelman and other leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising decided to lead, because they felt the need to fight the nazis. But there were also official leaders, recognized by Germans, or even collaborating with them.
 The Jewish leader in the Warsaw ghetto was called Adam Czerniakow. He is famous mostly because of the suicide he commited. He didn't support the resistance. His politics was simple: he tried to help people from the ghetto by making their lives as easy as possible. If he had food, he would give it to them, if he could let them rest, he would do it. He was doing everything his people expected him to do.
 A much more interesting person is Chaim Rumkowski, the leader of the Lodz ghetto. He was not a "good" leader, he abused young Jews in his ghetto. His main idea was to become usefull for the Germans, so they won't kill them. He is famous for asking people to give him their children, as the only way to survive. His ego was enormous, he even used money named after him "chaimki". He made Jews work very hard. The people of his ghetto suffered and lived in terror and hunger, but produced much more than other ghettos.
 So which one of them was a better leader? The question seems simple, Jews in Warsaw had easier lives than the Jews in Lodz. From the other side, we can imagine what would happen if the aliants would decide to act earlier. The Lodz ghetto lasted longer than any other polish ghetto, so maybe, just maybe Rumkowski could save many lives. Of course, this does not justify all the "wrong" things he did, but it allows us to see him in a different light.

diaspora - israel

 I think that the relationship between diaspora and Israel is always complicated, but Poland's case is even more. Our country can be called the center of Holocaust, and many people emigrated because of it to Israel.
 Polish jews don't like Israelis' attitude towards us. Young Israelis often ask us "Why are you still here?"  and "Why didn't you come to Israel?". They can't understand that we belong to this country, we're both Jewish and Polish and we don't have why to leave.
 From the other side, Polish Jews are very critical towards Israel's political actions. We think they are too agressive. Of course we understand the reasons and when we talk with goys we defend the Holy Land, but our political views are not always pro-Israeli.
 Besides this Polish Jews like Israel. It's difficult not to like such a hot, beautiful country with sandy beaches and amazing food. We LOVE modern Israeli cuisine, we prefer it to the food which eastern European Jews ate. We also like the fact, that there are so many other Jews in Israel. After all, almost 90% of the Polish population considers themselfs christian.
 The relationship between Israel and the Polish diaspora is complicated, but after all I think we like each other.

my movie club

 My project idea came to me very soon. I love cinema, so I decided to create a movie club for young Jews. There are quite a few movie clubs in Warsaw, but I haven't heard about a Jewish one! My youth movements sometimes organises film screenings, but it's not regular and the movies aren't jewish. We also don't discuss the films we've seen.

 I talked with my mentor, and she said that probably we'll be able to organise the club in an apartment belonging to the jewish community on Aleje Jerozolimskie street. I hope that it'll be possible, because it's a very big apartment in the centre of Warsaw.

 I want to show my friends movies I particularily like. There are many documentaries and other films about the Holocaust, Israel, jewish culture and many other things. Young Jews in Warsaw know a lot about our history, so I think the discussions after the screenings will be inspiring.

Some movies that we could watch together:

„The Pianist”

„Schindler's List”

„Life is beautiful”

„Inglourious Basterds”

„8 stories that haven't changed the world”

„Inheritance” (a movie about the daughter of Amon Goeth)

„Shoah”

Yael Bartana's movies