What you see above is a lapel pin (enlarged) which says "Remember." This pin was given to me by a Polish Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, whom I met at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. You can find similar pins at the Museum's store, but mine is special to me.
Be sure to visit Anna Poray's site about the Polish Righteous: savingjews.org.
The Washington metropolitan area is home to two important organizations involved in the dialogue between Jews and non-Jewish Poles.
For more than twenty years, individuals from the Polish and Jewish communities in America have used the Council as a unique forum to exchange information and discuss issues of common concern. Guy Billauer is the Council's Executive Coordinator. Formally speaking, the Council is a project of the American Jewish Committee. The Council's Board of Directors is traditionally co-chaired by a Polish American and a Jewish American. The Board includes prominent representatives of both communities. The group meets several times a year. Members of the Board of Directors select Executive Committee members to deal with the Council's on-going organizational issues. In addition to serving as a forum, the Council issues public statements, drafted by persons representing both perspectives. These statements, for example, express condemnation of anti-Semitic and anti-Polish statements made by others in America. The Council has been involved in various initiatives designed to bringing the Polish and Jewish communities in America closer together, including a joint Polish-and-Jewish mission to Jedwabne, Poland. For more information, visit the Council's new Web site at npajac.org.
A grass-roots initiative started by several American Poles and American Jews from the Washington metropolitan area. PAJA promotes activities for Jewish and Polish high school and college students during which participants discuss what they think of each other, dispel myths and learn more about each other's cultures. In addition, PAJA organizes events honoring the Poles who saved Jews during World War II. More info