Kaluszyn Cemetery Restoration Project

In August 2021, I traveled to my grandfather's hometown of Kaluszyn, Poland to learn about his experience as a young man displaced by the Holocaust. While there, I visited Kaluszyn's elementary school and spoke about my family with the local students and staff. As we laughed, reflected, and connected, the value of these connections became clear.

I have visited the elementary school several times since, while also working in collaboration with their principal, Jewish cemetery experts, anthropologists, religious leaders, and our landscape architect. These conversations developed into Projekt Sadzonki - Seedling Project - a program that works with Polish children in classrooms and in WWII mass grave sites in an effort to reconcile the town's difficult past.

Through Projekt Sadzonki, each local student will be given a tree sapling to plant in Kaluszyn's Jewish Cemetery, which was desecrated and turned into a mass grave throughout the Holocaust. This planting is the initial stage of an eco-commemorative project, where trees will be strategically placed around the cemetery's perimeter to define its boundaries - enclosing the space naturally, restoring dignity, and honoring those who rest in the land. *All planting is being done in accordance with Jewish Rabbinical Law.

After planting, the students will engage in aftercare, watering their trees and weeding the earth. We hope that through meaningful conversation and tending to the land, those involved will process, reflect, and develop a personal relationship with the mass grave space. The students, staff, and their families will also witness the trees grow alongside them, a reminder that even in a place marred by trauma and death, beauty and rebirth are possible with intention.

To bring this project to fruition, we are seeking your support. Your contribution will help us complete our final surveying of the land, purchase and place stone markers to define the boundaries, and buy 600 tree saplings for our initial planting this October. By investing in this project, you will play a crucial role in preserving our shared history, honoring the memory of those lost in the Holocaust, and creating a greener future.

Thank you so much :)