October; 2008
Issue
54
In This
Issue:
*Consul General's message
*John Ratajowski's exhibit
*Library conference
*Fran Drescher
*Sobibor Survivor in Poland
*Alex Berenson
*Presidential Candidates
It seems that September just flew by, and now here we are at the beginning of October with universities about to open and the leaves starting to change color. We were delighted to have Ambassador Ashe down in our district in September as he visited Wrocław, Silesia and Krakow. One of the stops he made in Wrocław was to see their new Ronald Reagan roundabout. I had the opportunity to be in Rzeszow last week for the first ever summer school on NATO and Polish security run by the foundation Partnership for Democracy. Many high-level Polish experts participated in the summer school, which gave Ukrainian and Georgian journalists a first-hand look at Poland’s security transformation.
Our Consulate has also been hard at work this month on educational advising. The Consulate works with the Fulbright Commission in Warsaw to help students interested in study in the United States to find the best schools and programs to fit their needs. We have someone on staff here to help prospective undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, please see our web site at: http://krakow.usconsulate.gov/studyus.html. I’d like to also add that there will be more Fulbright study and exchange opportunities in the United States in the next year. We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fulbright program here in Poland in 2009. For information on how to become a Fulbright scholar in the United States or how to host an American Fulbright scholar at your institution, please see the Fulbright Commission web site at: www.fulbright.edu.pl.
We have a very exciting guest coming to Poland in October, Ms. Fran Drescher, who is travelling as the State Department’s Public Diplomacy Envoy. Ms. Drescher, a television and film star best known for her role on “The Nanny”, will be in Krakow and Katowice October 13 and 14 to talk about her experience as a cancer survivor and the importance of early detection. We’re thrilled that Ms. Drescher will be here with us. For more on her visit, please check our web site.
Finally, of course we’re all focused on the American elections, just over a month away on November 4th. I know that many Poles are also following the elections closely. In October, we will welcome David Iverson to Krakow. He is a former PBS journalist and producer who will talk about the significance of debates in presidential elections. We also look forward to a digital video conference in late October on the role of alternative media and the elections. There will be three election evening gatherings in our region on November 4th. Here in Krakow, we will be at Krakow University College (Krakowska Szkoła Wyższa), in Katowice at the University of Silesia, and in Wrocław at our American Corner in the Dolnoslaska Public Library. There will be lectures, music, voting, live election results and more, so we hope you will join us at one of these events. Our website will have details shortly.
Anne Hall
Consul General
American Artist’s Exhibition Opens at Dom Polonii
John David Ratajkowski’s portrait collection entitled: “About Face: Conversations Recollected” will be shown for a month at Dom Polonii, Rynek Glowny 14, Krakow. The opening reception will take place at 6pm on October 1. A native Californian, Ratajkowski divides his time now between San Diego, Mallorca and Ireland. His work has been shown both in the U.S and overseas. Ratajkowski’s interpretation of marginalized cultures fuelled one aspect of his artistic orientation and produced three distinct bodies of work. The first of these was a series of black American blues musicians, exhibited in Poland during the Solidarity period. The second was an exhibition of large black and white portraits of Alzheimer’s patients funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, while the third was a show and an accompanying symposium funded by the California Council for the Humanities of painted photo collages and portraits of European Gypsy communities which the artist had visited and in which he worked.
The Regional Public Library in Krakow and Christian Culture Foundation Znak organize a conference called "The Library of the 21st Century" on October 10 at Rajska 1 in Krakow. The conference will sum up a project entitled "Library: My Favorite Place" and present libraries that have received awards in the competition for their favorite, most reader-friendly library.
During the conference the participants will meet through a videoconference with Brooklyn Public Library staff, who will present the Brooklyn Library's services for senior citizens, immigrants and the involvement of volunteers in their library's activities.
Fran Drescher, Newest Public Diplomacy Envoy in Poland
Fran Drescher, the actress well known for creating the role of the “Nanny” in the TV sitcom, has been named as a State Department Public Diplomacy Envoy. Ms. Drescher is a self-described cancer survivor who has made advocacy for Stage 1 diagnosis of cancer her "life’s mission."
Fran Drescher will visit Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice. She will support U.S. public diplomacy efforts to raise awareness of women’s health issues, cancer awareness and detection, and patient empowerment and advocacy. In Krakow she will meet with the students of Faculty of Health Sciences at the Jagiellonian University to advocate for cancer awareness and prevention. She will also be a special guest of the TVN program, "Rozmowy w toku" where she will be talking about her traumatic experiences as a cancer survivor.
In Katowice, she will participate in a press conference on cancer awareness issues with Senator Krystyna Bochenek and MP Beata Małecka-Libera and will give an interview for TVS.
Sobibor Survivor – Philip Bialowitz Visits Wrocław and Krakow
Author and Sobibor survivor Philip Bialowitz will visit Poland October 11-24, 2008. He will attend ceremonies at Sobibor to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the prisoner escape. He will also travel to several other Polish cities including Warsaw, Krakow, and Lublin in connection with the release of his book Revolt at Sobibor: A Teenager's Story of Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland.
Philip Bialowitz was born in the small town of Izbica, Poland. He is one of only eight remaining survivors of the Nazi extermination camp, Sobibor, where an estimated 250,000 Jews, including most of his family, were murdered. It was there that in October 1943 Mr. Bialowitz participated in a mass prisoner uprising that freed about half of the camp's 600 slave laborers. Subsequently, the Nazis discontinued all killing operations at the camp.
In Wrocław Mr. Bialowitz will speak to the students of Wrocław University on October 21 and will meet with high school students the following day. In Krakow, he will take part in a panel discussion and sign his book during the Krakow Book Fair on October 24 at 1:00 pm.
Writer Alex Berenson at Krakow Book Fair
Alex Berenson, a reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Faithful Spy and The Ghost War, will visit Poland in October and will take part in the Krakow Book Fair. As a reporter, Alex Berenson covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans. He graduated from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics. His debut suspense novel, The Faithful Spy, is an explosive, smart story that takes readers inside the war on terror.
Every presidential campaign is dramatic and historic, but as the fervor surrounding the 2008 election continues to build, U.S. voters and the rest of the world will want to consider the candidates’ personal histories more closely. What sort of people rise to the top in the U.S. political system, what are their attributes, their sensibilities, and their strengths?
The October eJournal USA, The Candidates, is available in HTML and PDF versions. This issue looks at presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, their vice presidential running mates, and their families.
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