Forum for Dialogue & Polin Museum

UW Study Abroad - RachelHello, my name is Rachel Bogatay. I’m currently attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as a Secondary Education Major. My main areas of focus are Psychology, History, and Sociology. This trip has been very educational and I intend to use as much of my experience to reach students as I can.

Today our group got to visit the office of the Forum for Dialogue. There we met a woman named Olga who guided us through the organizations efforts to educate Junior high and High school students about their specific town’s Jewish history and how it’s connected with the Holocaust. At the end of the 4 day event, the students are given a task of guiding anyone they choose around their town. One girl even coordinated with a group from Israel to have them flown out to Poland so they could share different cultural and historical experiences. It was a very powerful presentation that specifically stuck out to me since I want to be a High school teacher.

After that meeting, we moved on to the Polin Museum. This museum is dedicated to the 1000 year history of Polish Jews. Not only was this a very educational experience, it was also extremely fun. They had different prompts that would guide us through books and a traditional Jewish town. I can’t wait to go back and see it all again!  View the trip’s photo album here.

– Rachel Bogatay, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee