B’nai B’rith International honored three Polish individuals and one grassroots organization on Sunday for their contributions to preserving Jewish heritage, commemorating Holocaust victims and strengthening relations between Jews and Poles.
The fourth annual Wdzięczność–Gratitude–Hakarat Hatov Awards were presented at the historic Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin in Lublin, Poland. Established in 2023, the awards are the first annual honors created by the global Jewish community to recognize Poles for fostering Jewish-Polish dialogue and preserving Jewish heritage.
The ceremony was held at the historic yeshivah, one of prewar Europe’s leading centers of Jewish learning, founded in 1930 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro. The institution was devastated during the Holocaust and has since become a symbol of the preservation and revival of Jewish heritage in Poland.
Named Wdzięczność (“Gratitude” in Polish) and Hakarat Hatov (“recognition of the good” in Hebrew), the awards reflect the Jewish value of recognizing those who have made exceptional contributions to preserving Jewish heritage and fostering dialogue between Jews and Poles.
Keeping memory alive
This year’s ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Polish-Jewish journalist, historian and Holocaust survivor Marian Turski (1926–2025), a member of the B’nai B’rith Poland Lodge.
The individual awards were presented to Roman Catholic priest Wojciech Michał Lemański, historian and photographer Zbigniew J. Nita, and local activist Jakub Wójcik. The institutional award went to the Sitwa Organization, a grassroots initiative that combats antisemitism and anti-Zionism through education, advocacy and public outreach.
Lemański was recognized for more than two decades of commemorating Holocaust victims at sites including Treblinka, Jedwabne and other locations, as well as for promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue despite conflicts with church authorities.
Accepting the award in a letter, Lemański wrote that he was “surprised and honored” to receive the recognition.
“I am an ordinary Polish Catholic priest who, some time ago, noticed Jewish graves and decided that he could not pass them by indifferently,” he wrote.
Nita was honored for his decades-long work documenting Jewish cemeteries, memorial sites and the history of Jewish communities in Poland through historical research, photography and educational initiatives.
“It is important, now, when brutal and primitive antisemitism is returning with renewed force … to say loudly, clearly, and fearlessly: We do not accept this,” Nita said.
Wójcik was recognized for preserving the memory of the Jewish community of Grójec through restoration of the town’s Jewish cemetery, annual Holocaust commemorations and efforts to document and translate the community’s history.
“In Grójec we had tensions between Poles and Jews, but those were our internal tensions, like in every family,” Wójcik said. “But the Germans killed 60% of our town’s population, our neighbors. Those were our people.”
The Sitwa Organization, founded in Wrocław, received the institutional award for combating antisemitism and anti-Zionism through educational programs, advocacy and community initiatives.
Accepting the award on behalf of the organization, Samuel Maruszewski warned that “anti-Zionism is not merely a critique of the Israeli government. Anti-Zionism is a racist ideology of hatred directed against the right of the Jewish people to exist as a nation.”
Building bridges in difficult times
Israeli Ambassador to Poland Yaakov Finkelstein praised the recipients, saying they were helping preserve Jewish heritage not only for Jews but for Polish society itself.
“It is important that your labor of love will be seen and acknowledged,” Finkelstein said. “You are the beautiful face of Poland.”
In a recorded message, Poland’s ambassador to Israel, Maciej Hunia, thanked the awardees for demonstrating “courage, perseverance and a profound sense of responsibility for preserving memory and historical truth.”
B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin said the organization, which had been Europe’s largest Jewish membership organization before the Holocaust, remains deeply committed to preserving Jewish memory.
“We sincerely thank the individuals and entities recognized this year and in previous years for their dedication to preserving Jewish heritage in their local communities,” he said.
Alan Schneider, director of the B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem, said Poland is unique in hosting the Gratitude Awards because of its central place in Jewish history.
“The ongoing antisemitism in Poland is the atmosphere in which our award winners are working—and succeeding—to preserve the heritage of a nearly vanished people and to build bridges to the State of Israel,” Schneider said. “We salute your courage and persistence.”
Past recipients have included the Forum for Dialogue, the Brama Cukermana Foundation and the Association of the Museum of Bialystok Jews.
