Ten years have passed this year since the Jewish commune in Poznań came into existence. I set up the commune for ailing people, for those who had gone through the cruelties of the Holocaust. What I wanted to create was a second home for my Jewish friends… Summing up this decade, I thank Hashem for giving me strength and unusual determination to bring the Jewish commune into existence in Poznań and for the respect and credence it enjoys among the city’s population. I trust I was successful here.
Since five years now, the Jewish Commune has its place on Earth, its pre-war seat in the city’s most prestigious location, in the heart of Poznan, in the Old Town Market...
We collaborate with mayors of many Polish towns and cities, with schools of higher learning in Poznań – the Adam Mickiewicz University, the Medical University and the Fine Arts Academy. We pursue our mission in elementary, secondary and high schools, we also work together with the Foundation for the Protection of Jewish Heritage and the Israel-Poland Friendship Society. We host visitors from all over the world. Together with the Israel Embassy we organize ceremonies to honour “The Righteous among Nations”. My work entails negotiations on the return of Jewish property to their owners. These negotiations help regain property to which the Jewish community, and not only in Poland, is justifiably entitled. Our work consists of tending Jewish holy sites such as cemeteries. One recent development in this respect includes the renovation of the Jewish cemetery in Pobiedziska. This was done in cooperation with Pobiedziska Jewish compatriots and Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger, the president of the Organization for the Preservation of Cemeteries in Europe. Some time ago, we worked for several Sundays with skin divers from Gniezno to bring up macewas gravestones from a depth of seven metres in the “Dobre” Lake in the village Pobiedziska. May I note that these divers, who were all Roman Catholics, worked in return for just a small meal as that was all I could offer. They said that they wouldn’t like anybody to empty rubbish on the graves of their relatives, or drive over the graves or dance as on a playground. Schlesinger was very touched. A relative of his, a Rabbi who was a pupil of Rabbi Akiba Eter has its resting place in Pobiedziska.
My most important task at present is the reconstruction of the Poznań synagogue, which the Nazis turned into a swimming pool for German soldiers in 1942. I took this terribly mutilated temple away from the city and am going to change that swimming pool into a multipurpose “New Synagogue”. A spatial study under the new object is ready. I have also received a building permit from the Mayor. But funds are needed for designing the new temple and its extensions. The “New Synagogue “ premises will house a synagogue for 150 people, a congress and concert hall seating 600 and a Centre of Dialogue with the Jewish People – the hall of the Righteous among Nations. I have already received permission from Ms Irena Sendlerowa (risking her own life she saved the life of 2500 Jewish children during WW2) to name this place after her. I was very obliged.

Ewa Kobus (left) and Irena Sendlerowa honoured by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute with the Medal of the Righteous Among Nations in 1965.