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WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh's Agency for Jewish Learning's mission is to provide educational programs, professional development and services across the education spectrum within the Jewish Community and has now expanded services to include professional development opportunities for local public and private teachers responsible for Holocaust Education; and,
WHEREAS, the Agency for Jewish Learning, under the direction of Dr. Tzipora Gur, has been coordinating, creating and conducting Study Tours to Poland for the last several years for local area educators, lay leaders, teens and survivors of the Holocaust, providing an experiential learning program in Holocaust education under Pennsylvania's academic standards; and,
WHEREAS, the Agency for Jewish Learning will be taking a group of 45 adults and teens , a professional photographer and one survivor and her family to Poland for this year's Study Tour from June 25-July 2, 2007, where they will learn about Poland's diverse culture prior to WWII, the rise of Hitler and the horrors of the Holocaust by learning about the resistance movement, the once thriving Jewish cultural center, the history of pre-war Warsaw, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and by visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau and stand in the very spot where one million men, women and children perished; and,
WHEREAS, an important component of this trip is the recognition of the Righteous Gentiles during where the group's participants will hear testimony and delve deeper into the experiences of survivors and heroes of the era and participate at an event sponsored by the Embassy of Israel at the Galicia Museum in Krakow honoring non-Jewish Poles who rescued Jewish heritage in Poland by cleaning and rebuilding Jewish cemeteries and synagogues; and
WHEREAS, the Righteous Gentiles will be honored in a ceremony on June 26, 2007, attended by Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, Hanna-Gronkiewicz-Walt, Mayor of Warsaw, Shimon Peres, President of Israel and Rabbi Meir Lau, Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi of Israel as well as a special delegation from the US who will deliver a letter from President Bush. The Honorees are Mr. Karol Glebocki,, Mr Szymon Modrzejewski, Mr. Andrzej Moskwa, Mr. Marek Staniek, Mr. Jaroslaw Jacek Samela, Mr. Karol Jerzy Babiarz, Mr. Adam Marczewski, Mr. Krzysztof Bielaawski, Mr. Zbigniew Nizinski, Mr. Jacek Szwic, and Mr. Marcin Dudek.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby recognize the eleven non-Jewish Poles who are to be honored for their noble work on behalf of the Jewish Community of Poland; and ,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby recognize and honor the Agency for Jewish Learning for furthering the mission of education through their 2007 Study Tour to Poland.