Local News
May 9, 2008
Emissary To Poland: Remembering Dennis Misler
Bill Repsher
Special to the Jewish Times
Dennis Misler died in Konstancin near Warsaw, the capitol of Poland, his adopted country.
At the time of his death, Dennis was a President of a not-for-profit organization called PAJA which stands for the Polish American Jewish Alliance for Youth Action. Dennis and his Polish American friend started PAJA in 2000 with the desire to help young Poles and Americans with Jewish and non-Jewish roots develop friendship and understanding.
According to a story Dennis was very found telling, a seed of desire for PAJA was planted one evening in early 1992, on his chance visit to Poland, in the living room of an apartment in Krakow where he was a guest of good friends of his Polish friend from America. The hosts were a very warm and friendly catholic family. The walls of their apartment were decorated with beautiful crosses and paintings of religious significance.
In addition to Dennis, there was another quest that evening; a middle-age Pole, living permanently in Germany, who was visiting Krakow, his hometown. The conversation was in Polish, the language Dennis did not understand. As the evening progressed, Dennis, who was warned about Polish anti-Semitism by his American friends and was strongly advised against visiting Poland, all of the sudden started questioning his own decision to come here. In his mind, he convinced himself that the other quest’s parents may have helped Nazis to kill Jews during the WWII and now he, Dennis, a Jew, is sharing the dinner table with the son of killers of his people.
He came very close to following his instinct and flee the apartment, when the hostess, who spoke some English, as if sensing Dennis’ internal struggle, told Dennis that the parents of their friend from Germany risked their and their family lives during the WWII to aid in rescue of several Jewish families. The power of this revelation was so strong that Dennis felt literally propelled to do something concrete about shattering other people’s fears and prejudices.
In his quest for a vehicle to do so, he became interested in Polish art with Jewish themes, He brought works of several Polish artists to the US and organized art exhibits here. When PAJA was born, he became a President of PAJA’s Board of Directors and from the very beginning, PAJA became his life’s passion.
The first big accomplishment of PAJA and Dennis was a workshop for high school and college students of Polish and Jewish roots titled Developing Connections conducted at the Polish Embassy in Washington DC. The Washington Jewish Week published a highly complementary article about the workshop titled Discuss the Undiscussable – Polish American Jewish Alliance Works to Open Minds.
In 2003, Dennis’ chutzpa and his commitment to PAJA took him to Poland where he lived and worked on PAJA’s mission ever since. In spite of the fact that he found Polish language impossible to learn, his youthful enthusiasm helped him make many friends in Krakow, Wroclaw and Warsaw. In Krakow, where he lived, he gathered a talented group of Polish college students, Jewish and non-Jewish, committed to PAJA’s goals.
With Polish members of PAJA, Dennis organized several workshops with the participants of the March of the Living to give the international Jewish students visiting Poland more rounded understanding and knowledge of Poland today. In collaboration with the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the second oldest university in Central Europe, Dennis organized an event to honor twenty one surviving Polish Righteous Among the Nations. During this event, which took place in the Collegium Novum Hall, and was witnessed by the paintings of the Pope, Copernicus, King Jagiello and Queen Jadwiga, the students honored the Righteous , had a chance to hear their stories and get to know them personally. Speakers during the event included the Rector of the Jagiellonian University, the former Ambassador to Israel from Poland, the President of Krakow’s Jewish Community, and others. The event drew close to 200 participants.
There were other events and accomplishments that would not be possible without Dennis:
* On July 2, 2004 PAJA organized a ceremony during which the Ambassador of Israel to Poland bestowed a title of Righteous Among the Nations to two Polish citizens who saved lives of a Jewish family during the WWII and whose sacrifice and courage was not previously recognized.
* In 2005 and 2006, PAJA coordinated meetings between Polish Righteous Among the Nations and students and educators from the Auschwitz Jewish Center, America, and Czech Republic.
* In 2006 two students, members of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City, were selected to be the first Fellows in the PAJA/Rodeph Sholom Youth Leadership Program. The main objective of the program was for Fellows to observe and participate in Jewish life in Poland, meet Polish and Jewish students, engage in the Polish/Jewish Dialogue and finally to return to America and discuss and present their experience and what they learned about Poland and Jewish life to members of their congregation and others.
The students lived in Krakow with Polish students for two weeks. They participated in many organized activities and had ample free time to explore life in Krakow on their own. Activities included concerts and other programs of the Krakow Jewish Festival, a 2-day, an overnight tour of four schtetles in the Katowice area, attendance at the 60th anniversary commemoration of the Kielce Pogrom, a visit to Auschwitz, visits to both the orthodox Jewish community as well as the progressive Jewish community in Warsaw, including Shabbat services and dinner in Warsaw, a tour of Warsaw, a picnic at the home of the parents of one of their host/companions and visits to numerous cafes and restaurants. The 2006 Fellows gave a speech to their congregation about their experiences and what they learned.
* In partnership with the Auschwitz Jewish Center and the Galicia Jewish Museum, PAJA created the exhibit Polish Heroes: Those Who Saved Jews. This exhibit comprises magnificent photographs of 21 Polish Righteous Among the Nations from the Krakow area, their stories in Polish and English, vintage photos, a video of four of the Righteous telling their stories in their own words and a banner that includes the names of the almost 6,000 Polish Righteous. A beautiful catalogue accompanies the exhibit. The Exhibit was funded by a grant from the Task Force for International Cooperation Education Remembrance and Research in PAJA’s name. The first display of the exhibit opened at the Opera House in Warsaw on October 10, 2007 as part of the Polish President’s ceremony to honor the Righteous. Currently, the Exhibit travels through the United States.
* Since 2003 PAJA was actively involved in bringing Polish participants into the March of the Living and the March of Remembrance and Hope. In the past, with few Polish students participating, the Jewish students came away from the March with the typically erroneous negative view that Poland and death camps are somehow synonymous. However, in recent years, March leaders have seen the need to correct this image and to do so by having more Poles participate in the March. PAJA has had a major role in fulfilling this need. Polish students do an excellent job of representing the modern perspective of Poles toward the horrific events that befell 6 million Jews during the Holocaust and at the same time are able to inform many of the suffering, torture, and murder of hundreds of thousands of Poles during the war. They have made a major contribution to correcting perspectives about the Holocaust and toward greater understanding between Poles and Jews.
Although since PAJA’s creation, many larger organizations with similar goals were born in Poland, PAJA was on the ground floor of the movement to begin a new and better era in relations among Poles and Jews. Many of its programs were unique and thanks to Dennis’ boundless energy, creativity and his love for Jewish and Polish people accomplished with very little of financial resources.
So many of us, throughout our lives, struggle with existential questions: “why am I here”, “how can I bring meaning to my life”, “how can I make a difference”. More often than not, we get stuck on asking such questions. Dennis’ motto was “Just do it.”
This father, brother, uncle, and grandfather with his American family that he loved more than life, this proud Baltimorean Jew (as he liked to refer to himself), with a distinguished career as a middle level manager in a well-to do community, felt strong pull to make difference beyond his immediate circle of love and comfort, and had enough of chutzpa to move to a country whose language remained foreign to him and devoted the rest of his life to bringing friendship and understanding to people of Polish and Jewish roots.
He helped repair our broken world and left a big hole in the hearts of people that knew him.