March 15, 2022 at 6:04 pm
Ukraine and our Jewish experience Like the rest of you, we are fixated and horrified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine — the murder of civilians and the destruction of communities and institutions. One can’t avoid seeing the parallels to the eve of WWII, when Nazi armies invaded Poland, and our Gombiner landsleyt either fled or faced imprisonment and death in the ghetto. We are once again witnessing an era of tyranny and its consequences.… Read More »
February 15, 2022 at 3:55 pm
“We go on living” A plaque commemorating the Jewish community of Gąbin was unveiled in the Old Market Square on June 9, 2021. The installation was an initiative of the Gombin Jewish Historical and Genealogical Society and the Mayor of Gąbin. Thanks to online communication, descendants of Gąbin’s Jews and others from all over the world participated in this emotional, historical moment. Engraved photographs are either historical images or photos of Wasilewski’s model synagogue reconstruction. … Read More »
April 9, 2021 at 10:51 am
Lindsey Max wrote an article for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage called “History Lost and Found: Tracing My Gombiner Roots Through the Jewish Diaspora”. In personal and authentic language, Lindsey describes the genealogical journey that took her to discover her Gombiner roots. That journey took her around the world, to the Gombin shtetl in Poland and back to New Jersey, where she delved into the history of the Gombin Society.
March 31, 2021 at 2:23 pm
As we return to our roots in Gombin and Gostynin in Poland, walk with us, experience the sights of today and hear the stories of yesteryear. This movie, made by our Polish friends Grzesiek Mart, Michał Sroka and Wojtek Wasilewski, invites you to remember and honor those who have gone before. Click here to watch the video.
February 17, 2021 at 10:35 am
The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Israel’s leading Center for Holocaust Remembrance, has launched a new educational program dedicated to the topic of the shtetl. To give both students and the general public an idea of how prewar Jewish shtetl life looked, they selected the Jewish community of Gombin. Using images from the 1937 Sam Rafel film of Gombin and material from the Gombin Yizkor Book, they create a powerful and compelling… Read More »
February 16, 2021 at 10:55 am
Abraham Mastbaum’s interview about his experience during the Holocaust, including Auschwitz and liberation, is now available. The video is in German, but an English translation of the video has been provided. English captions of the video are coming soon.
July 20, 2020 at 5:36 pm
Click here to check out this interview with Gombiner George Nosal. George Nosal was born in Poland in 1922 and may be the oldest living Jewish Gombiner at the time of this interview filmed during a Gombin Society Board meeting in Cleveland in the summer of 2019. He is a marvelous story-teller and recounts some of his remarkable life, escaping Poland during the Nazi invasion, surviving the Russian internment, joining the British army, and eventually… Read More »
May 21, 2020 at 2:59 pm
In January, 2020, the Gombin Society entered into an agreement with the Nissenbaum Foundation of Warsaw to repair and refurbish the metal fence around the Gombin Jewish Cemetery. This fence was originally built in 1998 through a similar agreement with Nissenbaum, but had gradually rusted and deteriorated over the intervening 20 years. The first phase of a multiyear project is now completed with the reinstallation of 70 refurbished spans of the fence in the front… Read More »
March 24, 2020 at 9:41 am
Jewish settlement on Gąbin dates to the Middle Ages, and the Jewish Kehila (community) was already established in the 13th Century. That community was destroyed during World War II, but its history lives on. This Master’s Thesis represents the most comprehensive and scholarly historical overview of Jewish Gąbin, with a particular focus on the 20th Century, inter-war period. The original was written in Polish and translated into English by Leon Zamozc. Click here to view… Read More »
January 24, 2020 at 11:13 am
Who Will Write Our History Airing on the Discovery Channel at 3 PM on Sunday Jan. 26. This is a moving film reenactment of the Emanuel Ringleblum group inside the Warsaw Ghetto who wrote and buried an archive that documented their experiences. “About the Film”, From the Who Will Write our History’s website: “In November 1940, days after the Nazis sealed 450,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, a secret band of journalists, scholars and community… Read More »
