Arts & Entertainment

Building. Bridge. -

Jakob Hasklowlez

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Wavle KA

Reaching out
to ecumenical
audiences,
exhibit profiles
one of Poland's
most vibrant
prewar Jewish
communities.

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Suzanne Chessler

Special to the Jewish News

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C Z.ST OCI-AOW

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The Jews of Czestochowa were
owners and co-owners of many fac-

tories and medium and small indus-

trial enterprises. Here are examples
of decorative letterheads of these

Jewish enterprises.

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,

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dith Jacobson, a retired
urban planning professor
living in Ann Arbor and
writing a book on international
trade, has an early memory to
connect her with her parents'
place of birth, Czestochowa,
Poland. She recalls a time just
after World War II, when her
mother took her to a Red Cross
office to track relatives who might
have survived the concentration
camps.
Jacobson's mom and dad
came to America as the very
young children of friends plan-
ning a shared move in the early
1900s. Despite the distance
between their Eastern European
hometown and their new city,
they grew up with a strong fam-
ily commitment and wanted to
sponsor relatives who needed
help after suffering through the
Holocaust.
Recollections of CzestochOwa
were passed down from
Jacobson's grandparents and oth-
ers, who talked about a thriving
Jewish community destroyed
by the Nazis. It was a place that
reached a population of 40,000
Jews before Hitler came to power.
The very happy and the very
sad stories that Jacobson heard
are understood firsthand by
Sigmund Rolat, 75, a business-
man sponsoring a touring exhibit,
"The Jews of Czestochowa," which
can be seen July 16-Aug. 20 at

Building Bridges on page 40

July 6 a 2006

39

