Nominated for 2020 POLIN Award: Karol Głębocki
Karol Głębocki teaches history and civic studies at the Centre for Vocational Training in Wysokie Mazowieckie. He also works as an educator at the Wysokie Mazowieckie Region Community Centre. He has been engaged in the preservation of Jewish culture and material heritage in his home town for many years now. Aside from teaching the youth Polish-Jewish history of their town, Karol engages his students in tidying up the local Jewish cemetery.
In 2006, Karol Głębocki initiated revitalisation of the Jewish cemetery; since then, he has regularly organized actions to tidy it up. He researches the history of his town and has published numerous articles on the subject. He is also the author of online encyclopaedic entries, educational materials, exhibitions and urban games.
Karol Głębocki is a Dialogue Leader and an active member of the Museum of the Jews of Białystok and the Region. He has co-authored the exhibition titled Shtetls in Podlasie which was organized within this year’s commemorative program "Absent Family—77th anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising in the Białystok ghetto".
Karol is a social activist engaged in Polish-Jewish dialogue. He helps the descendants of Jews stemming from the area of Wysokie Mazowieckie search for their family roots. In his free time, he works as a tour guide in the Podalsie Voivodship, sharing his vast knowledge on the Jewish history of this region.
Karol Głębocki was presented with a medal by the Embassy of the State of Israel and the Jewish Historical Institute for his activities aimed at the preservation of the Jewish heritage in Poland [“Rekindling Memory”]; he is also a recipient of David and Anna Dlugie Kliger scholarship granted by the Forum for Dialogue. Currently, he is working on a monograph presenting the history of Jews from Wysokie Mazowieckie. He is also supervising production of memorial plaques that will mark the site of the former synagogue and the location of the second Jewish cemetery in Wysokie Mazowieckie.