Two Polish citizens who have shown commitment to preserving Jewish heritage in Poland and cultivating Jewish-Polish relations were recognized by B’nai B’rith on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at a ceremony at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland. The award, in its second consecutive year, is called Wdzięczność-Gratitude-הכרת הטוב  in Polish, English and Hebrew, and recognizes outstanding contributions of individuals and institutions who have helped preserve Jewish heritage in Poland.

The presentation was part of an international conference “Jews in Krakow: History and Culture” that took place on Sept. 23-25 under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Recipients of the award were Professor Łukasz Tomasz Sroka in the Individual category and The Brama (Gate) Cukermana Foundation in the Institutional category.

Sroka is a Polish historian, professor of humanities, chairman of the History Discipline Council at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, and a former director (2016–2019) of the Institute of History and Archival Studies of the University of Applied Sciences. He is the author of over a hundred scientific works devoted to a number of topics including the history and culture of Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries, Polish-Jewish relations, the history of modern Israel, Polish-Israeli relations, Galician history (particularly Lviv and Krakow), the history of Austria in the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of elites and Freemasonry, social communication and source studies. Sroka is the creator and co-creator of several exhibitions in Poland and abroad that focus on the history of Jews as well as the histories of Krakow and Lviv.

At the ceremony, Sroka expressed his gratitude for receiving the award: “It reminds me of when I was a Ph.D. student and I was doing my research and writing some articles about B’nai Brith. Back then I could not have imagined that one day I would receive such an award from BB International. I also feel uncomfortable, because I feel that it is not the Jewish organizations and people who should express their gratitude—but it should be us, our society, who owe a lot to the Jews.”

The Brama Cukermana Foundation (The Cukerman’s Gate Foundation) was established by Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko in 2009 in Będzin. The foundation was established in response to the urgent need to rescue the Jewish House of Prayer located in the Cukerman’s Gate, where historic polychromes have been preserved. The major goals of the foundation’s activity include caring for and protecting Jewish cultural monuments, commemorating the centuries-long presence of Jews in Będzin and the region, educating the local community to promote mutual tolerance and understanding amongst cultures and conducting research on the history and life of Jews in Będzin and the surrounding area. Since 2013, the foundation has organized and conducted educational classes for middle and secondary school students as part of the “Cheder: The space of social education” project. This initiative aims to arouse young people’s interest in the city’s rich multicultural history and foster tolerance and acceptance of cultural diversity. The classes are held in the monumental interior of the former Jewish House of Prayer in the Cukerman’s Gate and in the city of Będzin, where numerous memorabilia of the Jewish community may be discovered. In 2013, the Cukerman’s Gate Foundation published a report on the condition of Jewish cemeteries within the Silesian district of Poland. Its most recent project established the “Ghetto Fighters House” in Będzin, housed in a building that was part of the ghetto from 1942 to 1943 and served as a meeting place for Jewish youth involved in the region of Zaglebie resistance movement. Receiving the award, Karolina said “We would like to dedicate this award to Alex Dancyg, in his memory. Alex was kidnapped on October 7, and he was brutally murdered by Hamas. He was always for us and supported us. He was the one who put Będzin on the map of Israeli travels and included it in the Hebrew guidebooks”.

Piotr added: “We do our work, we educate, we meet people, we guide—like recently, four buses full of Israeli students. It is a very meaningful experience. We are not Jews, and we do not belong to the Jewish community, but we understand, we think that Jewish heritage and history is also an important part of Polish history.”

Members of the award committee are: Prof. Andrzej Friedman, president, and Dr. Sergiusz Kowalski, former president and mentor of the B’nai B’rith Warsaw Lodge; Daniel Mariaschin, CEO, B’nai B’rith International; Lili Haber, chair, Association of Cracowians in Israel; Prof. Adam Daniel Rotfeld, former Foreign Minister of Poland; Rabbi Eric Fusfield, deputy director, International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy and director of Legislative Affairs, B’nai B’rith International; and Alan Schneider, director, B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem, who serves as the award secretariat.

The award is founded on the ancient Jewish principle of giving due praise to God and man and is informed by Psalms 56:12 “Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.” Presented for the second consecutive year, it represents the first annual award established by the global Jewish community to honor Poles for their contribution to dialogue and preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland and Jewish-Polish relations. Last year’s winners were Urszula Antosz-Rekucka (Shtetl Mszana Dolna) in the Individual category and Forum for Dialogue (founder Andrzej Fowarczny) in the Institutional category.