JewishGen Talks: Caring for the Jewish Cemeteries of Poland

With perhaps 1,600 Jewish cemeteries in Poland and a Jewish community of fewer than 10,000 responsible for the burial places of over 1,000,000 of our ancestors, the task is immense and seemingly impossible. And yet, dedicated Polish Jews and non-Jews and worldwide supporters are doing their best to bring hope and dignity to the memory of the deceased. This presentation will review the work being done—both the challenges and the successes.

About the Speaker:

Dan A. Oren, M.D., is an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University. He has worked for more than thirty years as a psychiatrist and faculty member at Yale University, as a Fulbright Visiting Professor of Physiology at the University of Rzeszów in Poland, and as a researcher. Dr. Oren is the author of The Wedding Photo, a book on Jewish genealogy and family history, and has published other books and articles on Jewish history. He has been tracing his genealogy for more than forty years and has co-led the JewishGen travel fellowship to Poland since 2019. Dr. Oren founded and leads Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland as a volunteer devoted to helping Jewish descendants partner with Polish organizations to preserve their ancestral cemeteries.