Our Korczak USA not-for-profit organization is eager to expand our reach in the USA and your ideas and your donations for new projects are greatly appreciated.
Marcia Talmage-Schneider’s book, Janusz Korczak: Sculptor of Children’s Souls, has been translated so far into Ukrainian and Russian.
Over the past year and a half, Marcia’s dream of translating her book into Polish has taken shape. Following the Ukrainian example, in 2022, we “hired” students from the Korczak Camp in Poland and from the Polish Saturday School in New Jersey and New York to translate some of the stories of Korczak’s orphans. Then, their teachers edited the translations and passed them to Ewa Lukowicz-Oniszczuk and Mariola Strahlberg for further editing. Once the second round of editing was done, the 10 chapters were sent to Marta Ciesielska, senior researcher at Korczakianum Archives in Warsaw. She reviewed and corrected the text and added extensive footnotes. In March 2023, we started looking for a publisher in Poland. After many “no” responses, we made a positive contact with Stapis Publishing in Katowice and Marcia’s book is going to be published through them in Poland this year.
This year is the 100th anniversary of King Matt the First. That fact did not pass unnoticed by Brian Hull and Mary Tanner. They were invited to present at this year’s World Association of Puppetry and Storytelling Arts Conference in Colorado during the summer, and they decided to concentrate their presentation on the making of King Matt the First.
Brian created a beautiful 17-minute video that explains Mary’s and his background and how together they create their incredible Korczak stories. On the video you will also be able to hear the first song Sarah Hart wrote for King Matt and learn the steps that it takes to create a marionette. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRstO8yrQe4.
We wish Mary and Brian a wonderful time creating their new show and we all look forward with great anticipation to seeing it by the end of 2023.
Danuta Świątek is a member of the North American Association of Teachers of Polish, chief editor and journalist for portal Dobra Polska Szkola Nowy Jork, and a mental health counselor.
In 2022, together with some of her students from Polish Saturday Schools, she helped with thetranslation of Marcia Talmage Schneider’s book, Janusz Korczak Sculpture of Children’s Souls from English to Polish. Also in 2022, Danuta Swiatek became one of twelve recipients from ten countries of the prestigious Janusz Korczak prize for spreading Korczak’s legacy in the US.
During the winter and spring of 2023, Danusia gave three presentations on “Dr. Korczak—Children’s Friend” to students in grades 5-11 in three New Jersey Polish Schools.
Students were inspired by Dr. Korczak and his children and their ideas of a children’s council, their own newsletter, etc. The topic of Dr. Korczak and his ideas on how to raise children will be further explored with students during the 2023/2024 school year.
We are also creating a bilingual brochure in English and Polish about Dr. Korczak and his pedagogical ideas for parents, along with a special bookmark with quotes for children.
We are in the process of reaching out to universities on the east coast to find an appropriate place where Korczak’s exhibit and books can find a home and be used by students working on their theses or dissertations. We currently have one collection with 110 books for both children and adults, written by and about Dr. Korczak, in both English and Polish. We also have a few smaller collections and some of the US members are getting ready to “release” some of their Korczak’s books. Letter to the universities has been created and you can now browse through our book catalog. If you are an alumnus of a university with a strong education program, please check with them—they may be interested in receiving the Korczak collection. If you have ideas of universities where this collection would be well used, do let us know asap.
Download a copy of the catalogue here.
Plans are underway to have a week-long, overnight Korczak camp in Columbia County, New York, for 12 to 20 American teens in August of 2024. We plan to bring counselors from Korczakowo Camp in Poland to help us with the activities.
In April of 2023 (for the 10th Anniversary of Korczak USA), Marcia Talamage Schneider established the Korczak Camp Scholarship Fund to help us with this new project.
We are looking for ways to collaborate with Irving Roth’s Holocaust Center at Temple Judea in Manhassett, New York. There is a possibility to show our exhibit, Educational Moments, at the center and to create Korczak’s Archive. To listen to Irving’s introduction about his hero, Janusz Korczak, click here.
Irving Rothwas a Holocaust survivor, the director of the Holocaust Resource Center at Temple Judea in Manhasset, Long Island, NY, and the member of the Advisory Board of the Janusz Korczak Association of the USA. Irving Ross crossed the threshold on February 16th, 2021. To learn more about him, visit: https://korczakusa.com/touched-by-the-spirit-of-janusz-korczak/irving-roth/
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