L to R: Jeffrey Farber, Chief Executive Officer, Koret Foundation; Dianne Taube, Vice-Chair, Taube Philanthropies; Shana Penn, Executive Director, Taube Philanthropies; Hon. Joanna Kozińska-Frybes, Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles; Tad Taube, Chairman, Taube Philanthropies; Aleksandra Kurzak, Polish National Opera soprano; and Waldemar Dąbrowski; at a reception honoring Mr. Dąbrowski in the home of Ann and Gordon Getty, San Francisco.
L to R: Dianne Taube; Jeffrey Farber, Chief Executive Officer, Koret Foundation; Barbara Farber.
L to R: Tina Frank, Director of Grant Operations, Koret Foundation; Waldemar Dąbrowski; Shana Penn; Tad Taube; Aleksandra Kurzak.
During the first week of September, the Taube and Koret Foundations were honored to host the Hon. Waldemar Dąbrowski, Plenipotentiary for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in San Francisco. Mr. Dąbrowski met with San Francisco Jewish community leaders and was given a private tour of the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The Foundations also had the great pleasure to welcome the extraordinary Aleksandra Kurzak to San Francisco. Ms. Kurzak and Mr. Dąbrowski attended a reception in his honor at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty. Director of the Polish National Opera, Mr. Dąbrowski also was the guest of Dianne and Tad Taube and the Koret Foundation at the San Francisco Opera and its Opera Ball on opening night. The opera season opened with Verdi's Rigoletto featuring Ms. Kurzak in the role of Gilda, for which she received exuberant press reviews. Dianne Taube serves on the San Francisco Opera Board of Directors, and the Taube and Koret Foundations are major supporters of the San Francisco Opera.
During Mr. Dąbrowski's visit, he was interviewed by JWeekly newspaper about his role in leading the Museum's opening ceremonies in 2013; please click on this link to read the article, and find the text below:
New museum will focus on history of Polish Jews: Project chief visits S.F.
by Dan Pine
9/13/12
For Waldemar Dąbrowski, the countdown has begun. Thirteen months from now, he will preside over the official opening of Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Between now and then, he has a lot of work to do.
Dąbrowski, who made a visit to the Bay Area last week to talk about the museum, serves as plenipotentiary of the $37 million, 150,000-square-foot facility, set for a grand opening Oct. 20, 2013. Planned around the opening will be a series of concerts, theater productions and film screenings. Oh, and the exhibitions, too.
The arts emphasis explains why Dąbrowski, a seasoned film producer, opera impresario and Poland's former Minister of Culture, was offered the position — which effectively makes him the museum's Interim Director.
One thing not on his resume: Jewish affiliation. Dąbrowski, 61, is not Jewish, but he said his respect and reverence for the 1,000-year history of Jews in his country spurred him to take the job.
During his visit to meet with donors, he said his family always was friendly with Jewish families, and he often heard "overwhelming" stories about the Holocaust from them. "And then I made many fantastic Polish Jewish friends," he added.
The museum — which will open for a special one-day preview on April 18, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising — is a joint public-private project funded by the Polish government and philanthropic groups, including the Bay Area–based Koret Foundation and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture. The two latter institutions together donated $16 million to the museum's construction, by far the most of any private funders.
Polish-born philanthropist Tad Taube chairs Taube Philanthropies and serves as president of Koret. He played host during Dąbrowski's recent visit, which included a reception at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty, a tour of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and opening night at the San Francisco Opera.
Dąbrowski and his staff are still developing programming and operations for the museum, which faces the Ghetto Heroes Monument, on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, where 300,000 Jews were imprisoned by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
His aim is to make the museum one of Poland's leading educational and cultural institutions.
"It's very important," he said of the museum, "especially as far as education of the younger generation. We have to care about the historical memory of the nation [including] the Jewish part. For 1,000 years, it meant a lot."
The museum's core exhibition will include artifacts, audio-visual displays and recreations of Polish Jewish landmarks, such as the 17th-century Gwoździec Synagogue. Moshe Rosman, a noted professor of Jewish history at Bar Ilan University in Israel, was duly impressed. After surveying the exhibition, he said the museum "will rank with the best in the world."
Because of his sterling arts background, Dąbrowski was a logical choice to preside over the grand opening. However, there is another feather in his cap: He personally persuaded Steven Spielberg to film "Schindler's List" in Poland.
The short version: At the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, Dąbrowski met an executive from Universal Pictures, who mentioned the "Schindler's List" project and that Spielberg was going to shoot it in Hollywood.
Dąbrowski begged her to visit Poland first, which she did — and from there, Dąbrowski received an invite to meet the filmmaker on the set of "Jurassic Park."
"[Spielberg] looked at me and said, 'Give me one reason why should I go to Poland for three months,' " Dąbrowski said. "I gave him a simple answer: 'I give you my word of honor, if you come to Poland, come to know the place and the people, your movie will be artistically much more important.' And he did."
Dąbrowski got a credit on the 1993 Oscar-winning film.
And now his connection to the Jewish history of Poland runs even deeper.
