Due to the pandemic, this year’s edition of the Kielce Christian-Jewish Meetings was held online. Our guests included the Dominican Maciej Biskup, the painter Mira Żelechower-Aleksiun and the art historian Teresa Śmiechowska. The theme linking all three events included the words “Image and Likeness” from the Book of Genesis. As part of the Meetings, another Hanukkah-Advent retreat was also held.
Wednesday, 2.2.2020 The mysticism of open eyes. Lecture by Maciej Biskup OP Father Maciej Biskup, a Dominican who is involved in ecumenical dialogue and dialogue with Judaism, talked about the way of looking at man from the biblical perspective common to Christians and Jews. His understanding was inspired, among others, by the words and actions undertaken by Pope Francis. Number of participants:
Friday, 4 December 2020, Judaism explained through images. “Calendar of Remembrance by Bruno Schulz” by Mira Żelechower-Aleksiun The painter talked about her series of paintings, which are exhibited on a daily basis in the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław. In several works, she presented the Jewish calendar with its holidays, as well as important events in the history of Jews that were associated with each month of the year. Marcin Wodziński, head of the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław commented on the works in the video prepared for us.
Thursday, 17.12.2020, Image and Art in Judaism. Lecture by Teresa Śmiechowska. “Image and Art in Judaism”- this could be the subject of a several semester lectures. Meanwhile, at our invitation, Teresa Śmiechowska, an art historian who for many years served as the head of the Art Department of the Jewish Historical Institute, presented a two-hour synthesis of this topic, in which she spoke about a plethora of the most important Jewish artists.