Memory gardeners

Here are community activists, passionate people who work tirelessly to reclaim Podlasie`s Polish-Jewish history. We called them Gardeners of Remembrance, because - like gardeners - they work in a garden. But this is a special garden - the Podlasie Garden of Remembrance. Working in it - they protect the remnants of Jewish presence, revive what has been forgotten, tirelessly cultivate multiculturalism and memory. 

And each does it in their own way - in their own projects, in the privacy of archives, in their small Podlasie homelands.  Some do titanic work on documentation. Others come up with great ideas to integrate different communities. Still others roll up their sleeves and work physically (including cleaning Jewish cemeteries). And still others manage to combine it all.

And so - sometimes overcoming quite considerable obstacles - they change the world around them. Saving a piece of Jewish heritage, teaching young people respect for the past.     

What a colorful multi-generational company these gardeners are: they include historians, artists, entertainers, businessmen, scientists, journalists, representatives of many different professions and backgrounds, among others. Some have been working to restore memory for several decades, others started much later. They all share a common passion: to save as much as possible from the Jewish past of Podlasie. And to breathe life into a forgotten garden.

We have already counted more than 50 such community gardeners, and we have placed their names on a section of the wall in the “Place” (a meeting place dedicated to Jewish history, run by the Association of the Museum of Jews of Bialystok, at 6 Malmeda Street). We scattered the names - like a gardener scattering seed - from the ceiling, placing them among the flowers on small pieces of paper, resembling quitelech. The “Gardeners of Memory” wall was created thanks to the support of Monika and “Bialystoker” Leon Ejdelman

However, we realize that there are more Memorial Gardeners among us, we may have left someone out. Who do you think is missing? We are waiting for suggestions (with justification) at: jewishbialystok@gmail.com

MG coordinator Monika Żmijewska

Memory gardeners