High-school students sit side-by-side, Poles and Jews. They talk about love, music, and sports, but also about situations in Poland or Israel, or the Holocaust. For the last ten years, the Forum for Dialogue Among Nations has been organizing youth meetings for Poles and Jews, during which students can get to know each other and confront their stereotypes.
The results are outstanding!

Each year, thirty thousand young Jews from Israel, the USA, Canada, and Australia come to Poland. They are in a country, which is still perceived only as the Jewish cemetery, a land that causes great emotion in Jewish visitors. The Forum for Dialogue Among Nations wants to introduce them to contemporary Poland.

Each meeting is carefully prepared by the Forum's experts and follows a proven scenario. The trainers carry out integration activities, which deepen knowledge about Polish-Jewish relations and create understanding of the other side's perspective. The success of these efforts is substantial. According to a survey of students' attitudes done by the Forum's sociologists, the positive attitude among Polish students towards Jewish students rose by 20% after a single meeting. Jewish students' perceptions of Polish students improved similarly.

From the start, the Polish-Jewish Youth Meetings have been well received by highschools. These meetings create foundations for the future of Polish-Jewish relations.

“The Jewish-Polish youth meetings provided a great opportunity for people to talk with each other, to discover each other's cultures, and to learn about each other. As an American Jew with Polish roots, I was deeply moved by these two parts of my heritage coming together to reconcile their differences.”

Sarah Turbow, student, New York

“The Jewish youth were really open. We were able to create a bond despite the difficult and often painful memories of the past.”

Justyna Pieńkosz, student, Warszawa