Kalinowski said that the Center for Research on Poles Saving Jews and Jews Saving Poles would work with other organizations in Poland and abroad, translating its publications into English and Hebrew.
“We want the results of the center’s research work to reach young people as well, hence new communication technologies will be used, so that the way of conveying information is in line with contemporary trends,” said the university rector.
“One of the first projects will be a multimedia Encyclopedia of Poles Saving Jews and Jews Saving Poles, published in traditional and online versions.”
He noted that the initiative is backed by Bishop Rafał Markowski, chairman of the Polish bishops’ committee for dialogue with Judaism.
Members of the Jewish community will be invited to sit on the center’s scientific and program boards.
The Catholic University of Lublin was founded by the Polish bishops in 1918. It was shut down during the Nazi occupation and many of its professors and students were executed.
In 1954, Karol Wojtyła, the future John Paul II, began to lecture on ethics at the university. He was appointed to the Chair of Ethics in the university’s Department of Christian Philosophy, forming a link to the institution that lasted until he was elected pope in 1978.
He visited KUL in June 1987, giving a speech in which he said that academic institutions were called to “build up a community of people free in the truth.”
Months after the pope’s death in 2005, KUL adopted its present name: the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
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