For more than twenty years, Forum for Dialogue has grown into an internationally-acclaimed organization inspiring connections between contemporary Poland and the global Jewish community. In that time, we have become experts with a unique perspective on the complexities of Polish/Jewish dialogue and history. As an organization that is growing in order to better realize our mission, we have also developed meaningful connections with scholars working in Poland and abroad on similar issues. In order to ensure an even better exchange of knowledge and to ensure that we are always providing the same level of excellence in all our programs, we have created the Scholarly Advisory Board, a group of experts who share our mission and values.

Established to support Forum for Dialogue’s mission and operations, the Board gathers ten eminent scholars, representing various academic disciplines and institutions, with Michał Bilewicz, Forum’s former Vice President and director of the University of Warsaw’s Center for Research on Prejudice, as its chair. The newly formulated interdisciplinary body thus offers guidance, expertise, and experience in building Polish/Jewish dialogue to ensure best quality of Forum’s programs and further integration with the academic world. We are thrilled and honored that the following scholars accepted Forum’s invitation to become even more involved in what we do:

Barbara Engelking and Agnieszka Haska are affiliated with the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Kamil Kijek lectures at the University of Wrocław’s Department of Jewish Studies, while Łukasz Krzyżanowski is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Representing University of Warsaw, Stanisław Krajewski is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Justyna Kowalska-Leder leads the Holocaust Remembrance Research Team at the Institute of Polish Culture, while Mikołaj Herbst is a lecturer at the European Regional and Local Studies. Roma Sendyka works at the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Polish Studies and last but not least, Dariusz Stola, the former director of the POLIN Museum, is associated with the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Forum for Dialogue is one organization that does perhaps the biggest and most important job here. It works organically with young people, teachers, and local activists, Leaders of Dialogue in various communities, not only in big cities. They don’t just commemorate the Jews who lived there, but actually learn about them, to start seeing them as fellow citizens. It seems to me that without this, it is impossible to restore real memory.

Łukasz Krzyżanowski, member of the Scholarly Advisory Board

It is a great privilege for us to work with esteemed representatives of Polish academia, who strongly believe in our mission of fostering people-to-people connections and mutual trust in the field of Polish/ Jewish relations. The expertise in the subject that requires not only deep knowledge but most importantly, sensitivity and understanding, is a value which the members of the Scholarly Advisory Board demonstrate through their scholarship and academic recognition. Their presence in Forum’s activities adds nuance to our long-term goals and guards the quality of our present and future endeavors.