On June 3rd, Megan Stewart and Kenny Felt were married.  Megan is a founder of the Irena Sendler Project and the most active student over the past seven years; Kenny is also active with the project.  They are a wonderful couple.  We wish this beautiful couple the best, knowing they are so involved with repairing the world.

What a great series of Life in a Jar presentations in Maryland.  From Temple Beth Ami in Rockville to Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore to B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, the audiences thrilled us.

From the Palace of the Foreign Minister of Poland in Warsaw: The 1st Irena Sendler Awards were given out. Irena presented the awards to Robert Szuchta, teacher in Poland, and Mr. Conard. A press conference and reception followed. The ceremonies were held at the Palace of the Foreign Minister, with many dignitaries (including the Israeli Ambassador, German Ambassador and three members of the American Embassy). Television, radio and news media told the story all over Poland, teachers making a difference by teaching the Holocaust, by teaching respect for all people in the spirit of Irena Sendler. Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising spoke, and his words were passionate. We offer our deepest thanks to Metuka Benjamin for her effort in making this possible.

Irena looked lovely; she has such energy and always words of wisdom. Time spent with her is more than precious.

Elzbieta Ficowska put these programs together, doing such a magnificent work. We salute her. Renata Zadjman, Tomasz Kasprzak and Ewa Chalinska (Children of the Holocaust organization) provided helping hands.

Irena’s daughter Janka and many others were at the Thursday awards and reception and at the Friday press conference and reception.

We thank the Minister of Education and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for their assistance.

We’d like to give a big hug to Andreas, Ania, Filip and Karol for all the kindness and love.

Tosia Kasprzak and many others helped with translation. Also a thanks to Justyna, Chris, Ludwik, Jadwiga, Jerzy, Jacek, Dr. Glowinski, Andrew, and so many others….who did we leave out?

More notes from Cincinnati – “Life in a Jar, has been the buzz around the Cincinnati community for the last week, all who saw the performance were inspired.”

What a beautiful time in Cincinnati.  Life in a Jar presented at Children’s Hospital to students from the city and at the Yavneh Day School.

Our trip to Poland took us to many places, the beautiful city in the south, Krakow,  where, by the way, we purchased two suitcases from the Jewish Quarter for our performances, both from the 1930s.  Several of the child survivors commented about the authenticity of our performance.

Irena Sendler looked great in our visits.  The attachment on this e-mail has a tender moment as she shares with Jessica Shelton (student member).  She told Jessica, “”you bring hope for the world.””

The students all thought she looked as good or better than our visit three years ago.  She seemed so healthy and so vibrant.  Her words were filled with wisdom and there were many tears, from Irena and our group.  She is a beautiful example of the power of one person to change the world.  Our three visits with her were unforgettable.

Wow!!!!   Our trip to Miami, Florida was powerful.  Over 800 people present for a time to reflect and remember.  We met a fantastic and diverse group (WIZO) of people who are changing the world in many different ways.

What an incredible five days in California!!!

The Milken Family Foundation and Lowell Milken brought us to Los Angeles for six dynamic, standing room only presentations.  The Foundation treated us in a most special way.  The MFF is about repairing the world, and organized a wonderful tour of venues in southern California.  We will talk much about this in the next few days.

We rejoice with Irena over the release of a new book in Warsaw about her life.  The author is Anna Mieszkowska and the book went into the stores on July 23rd.  The room was packed where the press conference for the book opening was held. Bieta Ficowska (saved by Irena) spoke telling briefly the history of this story. In spite of the severe heat in the room, Irena was fresh and very happy.  A well-known Polish actor read some excerpts from the book.  Until late afternoon Irena was signing autographs.

The New York City presentations were wonderful.