We will commemorate Yom HaShoah with a Memorial Service on Wednesday 7th April, at 6:30pm. The service with be followed by a talk from director of JCC Krakow,  Jonathan Ornstein, who will explore the rejuvenation of Jewish Life in Poland.  Jonathan will discuss Poland's Jewish rebirth, how Krakow's JCC is building a community of survivors and their descendants down the road from Auschwitz, and what that means for the Jewish World.

Since its opening in April 2008 by HRH, The Prince of Wales, Jonathan has served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, an organization devoted to rebuilding Jewish life in Krakow. The JCC boasts over 750 Jewish members, welcomes 10,000 visitors a month and has become one of Poland’s most visible signs of Jewish revival.

Prior to the JCC’s opening in 2008, he lectured in Modern Hebrew at Krakow’s Jagiellonian University Department of Jewish Studies for 6 years and founded the “Gesher” association for Polish-Israeli dialogue. A native of New York City, Jonathan moved to Israel in 1994, living for 7 years on a kibbutz in the Negev desert and served in a combat unit in the I.D.F. before making his way to Poland in 2001.

He is a founding member of “Przymierze,” the Krakow Association of Christians and Jews where he serves as vice president. He also serves on the boards of the Krakow branch of the Child Survivors of the Holocaust organization and JCC Global.

Jonathan, a primary architect of Poland’s contemporary Jewish rebirth, is a frequent international lecturer on issues relating to Jewish Poland.