JRI-Poland

Lublin-Zamość Area Town Hall Meeting
2026-02-08 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York)
If you are researching the towns and villages of the Lublin-Zamość Area, you are cordially invited to attend a 90-minute Town Hall style meeting on Sunday, February 8, 2026 beginning at 1 pm Eastern. You must have a JRI-Poland NextGen account to attend, but for this particular session, you do not need to be a JRI-Poland annual member.
The Lublin-Zamość area was the most densely, Jewishly populated area in Poland and comprised some of the oldest Jewish communities there. The JRI-Poland database includes data from more than 100 towns and villages where Jews lived. The descendents of the Jews of this area include family traditions of descending from both Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewish families, including Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition to Italy, and then were invited in to the area by Count Jan Zamoyski around 1535.
This session will be led by Robinn Magid, Lublin Area Coordinator, and Shelley Pollero, Zamość Area Coordinator. Robinn and Shelley have led joint Lublin-Zamość area meetings at more than 20 of the annual IAJGS conferences. Together they bring decades of experience with the Jewish records of the local towns and they have each visited many of them in person.
The session will include a presentation about the region and the research opportunities in the Lublin-Zamość area. We will include a breakout session into smaller groups by towns of interest, and then will regroup for a Q&A session to develop an understand of what your priorities seem to be as we plan for the next projects that JRI-Poland will address in this document-rich area.
Join us!
Image Attribution: By SANtosito – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95970545

City of Łódź Research Area Town Hall Meeting
2026-05-17 12:00 - 14:00 | https://jri-poland.org/event/city-of-lodz-research-area-town-hall-meeting/
If you are interested in the City of Łódź, Poland or its surrounding suburb towns, you are cordially invited to join us for a City of Łódź Town Hall Meeting, on Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 12 pm Eastern (USA) for 90 minutes. You must have an active JRI-Poland (free) user account to attend, but for this particular session, you do not need to be a paying JRI-Poland member.
Led by our City of Łódź Research Area Coordinator, Joe Ross, this session will be a briefing on the current status of JRI-Poland’s City of Łódź projects and a discussion of potential upcoming projects. Like a traditional “town hall meeting”, this session aims to give Łódź researchers the opportunity to weigh in and comment on their/your Łódź research interests.
As the fourth largest city in Poland today, Łódź continues to play its historically important role as an industrial area and has a colorful Jewish and economic history. Many of us understand the history of Polish industrialization through the lens of Israel Joshua Singer’s classic, “The Brothers Ashkenazi” which focuses on the building of industry in Łódź from the late 19th century through the end of World War I when the Jewish Community of Łódź boomed.
Come join us to learn more about this fascinating and important city and the surviving traces of the rich Jewish heritage there.
Please log in to your JRI-Poland account and then register below by clicking the BLUE button that says “Going”. We know it’s confusing, but you are not registered until you press the button and confirm your JRI-Poland contact information. Within a few minutes of registering, you should receive a reply email that uses the word “Tickets” in the subject line and will include a Zoom link for the event.
If you do not receive a “Ticket” email with the Zoom link – Please check your Spam and “Purchases” folders before using the JRI-Poland AI chat widget in the lower right corner of our webpages. Ask JeRI-bot to send a message to a human telling us you didn’t receive a Zoom link.
We will send a reminder message with a copy of the Zoom link within 2 days of the event for your added convenience.
Image Attribution: The above image was found in the Wikipedia and is in the public domain. The seal of the town since 1577, it depicts a boat – which is the literal translation of the Polish word “Łódź”.

JRI-Poland Book Club Meeting #3 - "Notes from Exile" by Sabina Baral
2026-06-01 20:00 - 22:00 | https://jri-poland.org/event/jri-poland-book-club-meeting-3-notes-from-exile-by-sabina-baral/
Join us for the next JRI-Poland Book Club Meeting!
Led by JRI-Poland board members Hadassah Lipsius and Judy Baston, the book club’s next Zoom meeting will be held on Monday, June 1st at 8 pm Eastern (USA). It will feature special guest, Sabina Baral, award-winning author of the book we are reading, “Notes from Exile”.
Sabina was born in postwar Wrocław (formerly Breslau), Poland. The only child of Esther GOLDMAN and Zygmunt BINDER, quiet, hardworking Holocaust survivors, she grew up in a home shadowed by loss yet determined to rebuild a normal life. Forced to leave Poland due to Communist state-sponsored Antisemitism there in 1968, “Notes from Exile” is a deeply personal generational memoir reflecting the obstacles to and perseverance of immigrants who are sent wandering from their homeland.
Already a celebrated literary success in Poland with six editions and acclaimed adaptations for theater and television, Notes from Exile transcends its origins to touch hearts worldwide. This English edition invites readers of all backgrounds — Jews and non-Jews alike — to reflect on the resilience of those who have endured exile and to draw timeless lessons from history’s profound narratives.
The book can be found here:

Please note that participants in the Book Group must be dues-paying members of JRI-Poland. You can check your membership status by logging into the JRI-Poland.org website and checking the status bubble just under the “HELLO” message at the top of your screen. Hovering over the “HELLO” message will invoke a drop-down menu with the option called “MY PROFILE” where you can join if you have not yet by paying $54 annual dues.
