The Jan Karski Society

The Jan Karski Society was founded in March 2005. Its main aim is to act for popularization of openness and respect for people and groups different in terms of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or culture; to counteract any forms of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, racism or other behaviors which humiliate human beings; to act for saving Polish national heritage - monitoring and condemning all acts of its violation.

The Chairman of the Jan Karski Society is Bogdan Białek

The most spectacular events by the Jan Karski Society:

• Co-organizing the ceremony of giving the name of Jan Karski to Gimnazjum Integracyjne in Kielce. The program included the holly mass in the cathedral in Kielce, kadish at the Jewish cemetery and the Polish Council of Christians and Jews meeting held the first time in Kielce. Marek Edelman, who came to Kielce for the first time since the Pogrom, said to the youth: "It is a different city".

• Setting the Jan Karski sculpture in the high street in Kielce nearby the place where the Pogrom took place. Its author is Karol Badyna - sculptor from Kraków. Its full cost was covered by the Society. The relatives of the legendary Home Army courier, the American Embassy representatives, the youth from Gimnazjum Integracyjne in Kielce took part in the ceremony of its unveiling.

• Series of meetings „Kazania Świętokrzyskie". Its main participants are clergymen of different religions dedicated to the interreligious dialogue. They were: priest Michał Czajkowski, Brother Moris, Father Jan Bereza.

• The Icons Exhibition arranged in cooperation with Muzeum Diecezjalne in Kielce and publishing on this occasion the album titled "Icons".

• As part of activity for Polish national heritage the Society published the book "Suche liście" by Michał Płoski and "Na rozkaz serca" by Henryk and Zbyszka Pawelec. Michał Płoski describes in his book the story of his family who has lived in Kielce for centuries. Henryk Pawelec, former soldiers of Home Army (AK, Polish underground resistance movement), recalls the years of war and 47 years he spent on emigration and he returned together with his wife in 1992. The events that accompanied the promotion of the books gave opportunity to collect the money for fulfilling Kielce cultural needs.

• Co-organizing the IX Day of Judaism in Kielce.

• In 2007 on the 65th anniversary of ghetto liquidation in Kielce and the murder of more than 20 thousand of Jews the Jan Karski Society founded the Menora sculpture made by Marek Cecuła - a worldwide known ceramist from Kielce who was saved from Holocaust and the Pogrom. The Anniversary reminded Kielce society that in their city there was a ghetto and on this land the Holocaust took place.