The woman was a survivor of ghettos, concentration camps, and death marches, but at the end of the war, she remained in Poland. Despite the hardships of Communism and despite the periodic anti-Semitic slurs, she was one of several thousand who stayed on. She never thought her sons would have a Jewish life, and, indeed, few options were open to them as they grew up, married and had children of their own. But on a September morning in 1994, this elderly Holocaust survivor collected her grandchildren and took them across Warsaw to a modern building in the suburbs. Stepping inside, she placed them before the administrator and smiled. "I can hardly believe I'm here," she said. "A Jewish school in Poland! So I want to enroll these two -- I want them to have the chance I couldn't give my sons."

The establishment of The Lauder-Morasha School in Warsaw, the first Jewish school in Poland in more than a quarter of a century, marked a watershed in an extraordinary reawakening of Jewish life on Polish soil. Just a decade ago, a viable Jewish future seemed impossible to contemplate. With the loss of over three million Polish Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, many observers believed that Poland's thousand-year Jewish history had come to an end. Any Jews left were simply remnants.

We at The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, felt differently. We knew that a small Jewish revival had been sparked in the early 1980s. We were convinced that we could help fan those sparks into flames, and, today, those flames are burning brightly. Not just in Warsaw but in Lodz, Wroclaw, Krakow, Walbrzych, Katowice and Gdansk, where thousands of young -- and not so young -- Poles are reclaiming their Jewish identity through a myriad of programs, which the Foundation now sponsors.

The Lauder Jewish Community Youth Center of Warsaw
The epicenter of Poland's Jewish revival is just next to the Nozyk Synagogue, at 6 Twarda Street, the main address of The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Poland.

Here, in an energized atmosphere, young Jews meet to learn fundamental aspects of their religion through classes in Torah, Talmud, Jewish music and prayer. One can also find the office of Jidele, a monthly Jewish student magazine, a Judaica library, the office of the Polish Union of Jewish Students, and a center for elderly Holocaust survivors. In addition, the magazine, Midrasz, a publication initiated and supported by the Foundation. Edited by one of Poland's best-known journalist, Midrasz, is a forum for Polish Jewry: a polished, professional monthly that aims to be among the best periodicals anywhere.

6 Twarda also houses and supports the newly established Jewish Visitors Information Center, replete with resource materials and friendly faces.

The Lauder Morasha School and Kindergarten
The Lauder Kindergarten opened in a small apartment in 1989 with six children. Today in it's new home at The Lauder Morasha School, 65 children now take their first steps toward exploring Judaism. Here these youngsters sing Jewish songs, learn Hebrew words, and celebrate Jewish holidays.

As a result of the success of The Lauder Jewish Kindergarten opened in 1989 in Warsaw, The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation established The Lauder-Morasha School in 1994. Building on the remarkable legacy of Jewish tradition and culture that flourished among the three million Jews who resided in Poland before W.W.II, The Lauder-Morasha School grew quickly from 18 first-graders to its current enrollment of 185 students in Grades 1-8.

Indeed, the School now plays such a pivotal role in revitalizing the all-but-lost morasha (heritage) of Polish Jewry that its need for a permanent home became a pressing issue. Thus, to accommodate its increasing numbers and help assure a viable Jewish future, the Foundation acquired and renovated the new facility that we proudly dedicated on October 12, 1999.

The site of The Lauder-Morasha School has special significance for the Warsaw Jewish Community. Not only was the original designer of the building in the 1920's the famous Jewish architect Henryk Stifelman, but the structure also served as a Jewish senior's facility until W.W.II.

The Lauder-Morasha's new campus enables the combined pre-school, primary and middle schools, each fully accredited by the Polish Ministry of Education, to enrich their innovative curricula as well as to offer Jewish programs, workshops, and activities for parents and community members.

By providing a high-quality Jewish and general education in such a magnificent facility, the Foundation is certain that Lauder-Morasha students will develop into proud, informed, and responsible adults helping to reclaim the richness of Jewish life, tradition and culture which had been denied to so many for over half a century.

The Lauder-Etz Chaim Primary School, Wroclaw
At The Lauder-Etz Chaim Primary School, 58 first and second grade students currently receive the building blocks for a lifetime of Jewish learning. The children learn Israeli folk dances, sing songs, create arts and crafts projects and perform in theater productions, all while exploring their Jewish heritage.

The Lauder Jewish Community Youth Centers of Poland: Gdansk, Krakow, Lodz, Warsaw and Wroclaw
In the Foundation's continuing effort to reach out to Jewish youth all over Poland, The Lauder Jewish Community Youth Centers were established in five cities. These are not just places to meet friends and play table tennis; rather, they are vibrant venues of Jewish tradition that offer Jewish and religious study programs, host open-invitation Shabbat dinners and arrange guest lectures and other events. The Centers' success is proven every Passover, when hundreds of guests attend the Seders they sponsor around the country.

The Lauder Educational Retreat and Summer Camp, Srodborow
When summer comes to Central Europe, Jewish renewal continues at a Campsite near Warsaw. Each year, more than 500 children, teenagers, adults, as well as entire families spend several weeks immersed in a rich Jewish experience.

Guided by rabbis, counselors and friends, participants explore Judaism in a relaxed and natural environment while also enjoying recreational camp activities. With its heated facilities, Srodborow reopens during winter school holidays.

The last summer session is traditionally devoted to those adults in particular need of attention: adults who only recently discovered they are Jewish. Many were Hidden Children adopted by non-Jewish neighbors at the onset of the Holocaust. Upon learning that their parents are really not their parents, they must confront painful memories and difficult problems of identity. These Jews cling tenuously to a new sense of belonging that must be sensitively and respectfully nurtured.

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Honoring Poland's Jewish Past:
The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation also sponsors several projects outside the sphere of Jewish education and community development, which further honor and commemorate Poland's illustrious Jewish history. These programs draw on the greatness of the past to help our youth create a Jewish future within the context of contemporary Poland.

The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Genealogy Project, Warsaw
Chief among these is The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Genealogy Project at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. The Foundation's Director of Archival Research spends his days here sifting through a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of fragile documents including: dog-eared birth certificates, torn sepia photographs, yellowed death records, carbon copies of deportation schedules and Photostats of housing records.

By piecing together clues yielded from this remarkable record of Polish Jewry, family connections are re-established, genealogical histories unearthed, lost relatives found and identities traced or recovered. Requests pour in from around the world and individuals from around the globe often come in person to the Institute. Some are seeking family documents. Others simply want to find the date of death of a loved one murdered in the Holocaust in order to observe a proper Yahrzeit commemoration.

Still others visit and make shocking discoveries about who they really are; teenage boys in ponytails and blue jeans with vague suspicions that they have not heard the complete truth about the realities of their origins; middle-aged men and women, their eyes streaked with tears after hearing the death-bed confessions of parents who did not want to take a fifty-year secret -- their child's Jewish identity -- to the grave with them; and elderly Jews on crutches hoping to find the child given away over the walls of the Warsaw ghetto.

The following story illustrates the incredible discoveries that result from the Project:
A well-dressed woman in her forties entered the office one morning. "My grandmother just passed away," she began quietly, "and I was cleaning out her desk, I found some papers I would like to ask you about." Our archivist looked at the documents and came back with an answer. "Your grandmother," he told the woman, "was born Esther Heisel. She was Jewish and converted just after the war."

The woman sat quietly for a moment, considering. "If I understood you correctly," she said, "that means my mother was a Jew and so am I." The archivist nodded. "But I don't know if that's good news or bad news for you," he said.

She thought for a moment and smiled, "Sir, I wouldn't have come if I didn't think it would be good news. Please, what is the address of The Lauder Community Center -- I want to become a member."

The International Auschwitz-Birkenau Preservation Project, Poland
The Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau is the universal symbol of the destruction of European Jewry. The physical remains of this site of unspeakable horror stand as a visual reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust. Yet many of the buildings are crumbling. Dynamited and burned by departing Germans in 1945, they have also fallen victim to time and weather. Without intervention, this authentic reminder of Nazi brutality is in danger of disappearing.
To address this critical issue, we at The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation formed, in 1990, The International Auschwitz-Birkenau Preservation Project under the aegis of two prominent survivors. A team of conservation experts to work with the Foundation to recommend appropriate preservation measures. The Foundation then proposed that this project become an international undertaking with the costs to be borne by the various European nations from where Jews had been deported.

This project was undertaken with the full support of the Polish government and the International Council of the Auschwitz Museum. The Foundation is proud to report that, in an unprecedented gesture of unity, to date, 11 countries have joined together to contribute over 25 million dollars for preservation: Germany (largest giver ), Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France Greece, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Russia and Switzerland. Israel has also committed funds. Efforts to obtain additional necessary financing from other governments are continuing. It is the our hope of the Foundation that this endeavor will ensure that Auschwitz-Birkenau remains a memorial and a place of learning for generations to come.

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The Jewish Heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund; The Restoration of Tempel Synagogue, Krakow
Through its support of The Jewish Heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund, The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation is the key sponsor of an effort to preserve historic Jewish sites worldwide.

A major project now underway is the restoration of the magnificent Tempel Synagogue in Krakow. Tempel was built in the 1860s at the edge of Kazimierz, Krakow's legendary and colorful Jewish quarter. An impressively ornate building, it is virtually the only 19th century synagogue in Poland to survive the Holocaust intact.

At the invitation of the Krakow Jewish community, The Jewish Heritage Program team has worked closely with skilled local artisans and conservators to effect a complete transformation of the building. Fully restored Tempel Synagogue will soon open its doors as a functioning house of worship and host cultural events for people of Krakow and visitors from around the world.
Tempel is but one of Ten Endangered Historic Synagogues throughout Europe identified as priority sites by The Jewish Heritage Program after lengthy and exhaustive research. In urgent need of repair, these significant structures will completely disappear from the Jewish landscape without immediate intervention and financial aid. It is the Foundation's fervent hope to help them to remain proud survivors of a Jewish past.

Publications
Midrasz, Jidele and Szterndlech Magazines, Warsaw

Midrasz is a Jewish magazine that was first published in 1997. Edited by one of Poland's best-known journalists, Konstanty Gebert, Midrasz is a forum for Polish Jewry: a polished, professional monthly that aims to be among the best periodicals anywhere. Its circulation has grown to more than 2600 readers monthly.

Szterndlech is a family magazine, first published in 1998, that aims to teach families about Judaism. Szterndlech focuses on Jewish holidays and explores Jewish life and traditions with humor, games and stories. The magazine also contains sections that can be cut out to form a personal prayer book and encyclopedia just for kids.