IRENA SENDLER AWARDS

The Irena Sendler Award ‘For Repairing the World’ has been announced in the United States. 

The award (a $10,000 monetary gift) goes to Sarah Powley, an educator from West Lafayette, Indiana.  Ms. Powley teaches English at McCutcheon High School in Lafayette, Indiana.  The ceremony will be held at the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Tippecanoe School Board Corporation -7:30PM—Wednesday, August 12th at 21 Elston Rd., Lafayette, Indiana.

She has to her credit numerous contributions of teaching about the Holocaust and other genocide.  Her work includes an active part in a state wide reading program of The Children of Willesden Lane, presenting Holocaust workshops for the Indiana Department of Education, teaching in Rwanda and researching patterns of African genocide, instructional initiatives with Holocaust and genocide studies, work with the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference and the work with the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

The awards are given annually to one teacher in Poland and one in the United States for their innovative and inspirational teaching of Holocaust education, in a way that reflects Irena Sendler’s respect for all people regardless of background.

The presentation of the Irena Sendler Award to a Polish teacher was held in the Warsaw on June 30th.  The Polish recipient was Beata Maliszkiewicz, an educator from Opole, Southern Poland, who has initiated numerous educational projects focusing on national minorities in the local community, particularly Jews, Germans and Romanies.

A large thank you goes to Metuka Benjamin of Los Angeles and the Goldrich Family Foundation for their contribution and effort in supporting the award.  The award originated with the Life in a Jar Foundation and Irena Sendler in 2006.

The Irena Sendler Award ‘For Repairing the World’ has been presented in Warsaw during a ceremony hosted by the Polish Ministry of Education.

The award went to Beata Maliszkiewicz, an educator from Opole, Southern Poland, who has initiated numerous educational projects focusing on national minorities in the local community, particularly Jews, Germans and Romanies.

She has to her credit numerous publications, runs a school theatre and has launched a program of cooperation with the Leo Baeck College in London, Leo Baeck College is the largest Jewish Progressive University & Rabbinic College in Europe. Born in the Polish town of Leszno, at the end of the 19th century Rabbi Baeck worked in the Opole synagogue.

The presentation of the Irena Sendler Award to an American teacher will be held in the United States this month.

The awards are given annually to one teacher in Poland and one in the United States for their innovative and inspirational teaching of Holocaust education, in a way that reflects Irena Sendler’s respect for all people regardless of background.

A large thank you goes to the following: Metuka Benjamin and the Goldrich Family Foundation for the contribution and effort in supporting the award, Elzbieta Ficowska and the Children of the Holocaust in Poland for the activities, and the Life in a Jar Foundation. Megan Felt and Jaime Walker (cast members) represented Life in a Jar at the ceremony in Poland.

Below is a photograph of Beata Maliszkiewicz receiving the award.