World Association of Częstochowa Jews congress begins

photo - czestochowajews.org

Wreaths have been laid at the monument to the victims of the Jewish Ghetto in the town in central Poland, which commemorates the deportations of 40,000 of the Czestochowa’s Jews to the Nazi German extermination camp of Treblinka.

The monument was erected in 2009, thanks to the donation from Zygmunt Rolat, a New York-based businessman, patron of the arts and philanthropist, who was born in Czestochowa in 1930.

During the ceremony at the city’s newly-modernized Philharmonic Hall, he received the honorary citizenship of Czestochowa.

The event coincided with naming the Philharmonic the Bronisław Huberman Philharmonic, in tribute to the famous violinist who was born in Częstochowa in 1882 and in 1936 founded the Palestine Orchestra, known today at the Israel Philharmonic.

The programme of tonight’s concert of the Czestochowa Philharmonic includes Baruch Berliner’s symphonic poem ‘Genesis’ dedicated to Zygmunt Rolat.

Three years ago Rolat sponsored a concert in Czestochowa by the world renowned violinist Joshua Bell, who played on a historic violin once belonging to Bronisław Huberman.

Mr Rolat, who came to Czestochowa with his children and grandchildren, has done a great deal to preserve Jewish culture in Poland and promote Polish-Jewish relations.
He serves as Chairman of the North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. (mk/pg)