The Pulaski Parade gathers Polish-Americans proud to celebrate their Polish roots. Among groups marching in the parade are Polish diplomats, the Polish Scouts (ZHP), performing groups, and numerous Polish-American organizations.
As every year, Polish Student Society at Columbia University and Barnard College sent its representatives to march in the annual Pulaski Parade. The 76th Pulaski Parade marched down Fifth Avenue on Sunday, October 6th, 2013. The event was established in 1937 to honor Kazimierz Pułaski (Casimir Pulaski), one of only seven individuals in the history of the United States to have received an honorary citizenship. Casimir Pulaski was a Polish-American hero who saved the life of George Washington at the Battle of Brandywine. Known as the “father of the American cavalry,” Pulaski died at the Siege of Savannah.
The Pulaski Parade gathers Polish-Americans proud to celebrate their Polish roots. Among groups marching in the parade are Polish diplomats, the Polish Scouts (ZHP), performing groups, and numerous Polish-American organizations.
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Our beloved Polish professor at Columbia University, Anna Frajlich-Zając, whom so many students have met through her unforgettable courses on Polish literature, has been honored again. This time, a Polish literary monthly Nowe Książki [New Books] has dedicated an entire issue to Anna Frajlich (Nowe Książki Issue 9, 2013).
Some of our students may find it surprising that the articles do not talk about the accomplished scholar Frajlich-Zajac they know, but about a poet and prose writer. That is because our unassuming Columbia professor does not widely advertise the fact that she has also long been an award-winning poet and writer whose works have been published around the world and translated into several languages. Her pen-name, Anna Frajlich, is better known in Polish literary circles, since the majority of her works is written in her native tongue, which she uses with an incomparable level of exquisite mastery. For the edification of our students, we enclose a few articles about Professor Frajlich. We also attach a sample of her poems in English translation by Ross Ufberg, a Columbia doctoral student and a published writer himself. This selection appeared recently in Modern Poetry in Translation – The best of world literature (No. 2, 2013). For more information on the accomplishments and literary works of Anna Frajlich, please refer to www.annafrajlich.com. THE KATYŃ MASSACRE OF APRIL 1940
“THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POLISH ELITE. OPERATION AB – KATYŃ” AN EXHIBITION AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY International Affairs Building, ground floor From April 9 to April 18, 2013. Acting upon a proposal by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs submitted to the Politburo by Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria of March 5, 1940 and approved in an archived document by Joseph Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov, Vyatcheslav Molotov and Anastas Mikoyan, around 22,000 Polish prisoners of war, almost without exception officers, were executed at several locations in the Katyn Forest near villages in the proximity of Smolensk in April and May 1940 by the NKVD. The executions were largely carried out with German Walther PPK pistols, but also with Russian/Soviet-made Nagant M1895 models. 7,000 were personally executed by the NKVD’s chief executioner, Vassili Mikhailovich Blokhin. The Night of Chopin: A Piano Competition has become a long-standing tradition at Columbia University and Barnard College. Generations of student leaders gathered in the Polish Student Society strive every year to showcase Columbia and Barnard talent in a setting of classical music. Community support for the event has been demonstrated not only by reliable crowds of students attending the performances year after year, but also by warmly acknowledged financial and logistical contributions by the University and individual departments.
This year’s Wigilia, a traditional Christmas Eve dinner in the Polish tradition, was organized by the Polish Student Society at Columbia and Barnard on December 8, 2012 in the beautiful setting of Sulzberger Parlor. The event was attended by about 60 Columbia and Barnard students and a few young alumni returning to meet their friends at the alma mater over a meal of coming together, as symbolized by an extra plate traditionally set for the “unexpected guest.”
Select Polish students of Columbia University and members of the Polish Student Society were invited to meet with the incumbent President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, and First Lady Anna Dembowska on September 27, 2012 at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York.
On September 7 and 8, 2012, members of the Polish Student Society at Columbia University and Barnard College had the opportunity to participate in the 70th Annual Meeting of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA). The conference took place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts and gathered a representative cross-section of Polish-American academic elites. Three of our students participated in a panel discussing most recent developments in post-dependent Polish literature after 1989 and its reception among Poles and Polish Americans of the younger generation.
On April 16, 2012 the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York reached out to the young Polish-Americans of the East Coast by organizing a Young Polonia Networking Party. It was a relaxed and informal gathering. In between musical pieces performed by The California Honeydrops young Polonia leaders had ample opportunity to introduce themselves and their organizations, Hyde Park style. Establishing valuable personal contacts between participants was fun as much through conversations as it was through dancing and general merriment, both remarkably little inhibited by the presence of media and cameras. The Polish Student Society at Columbia University and Barnard College was represented by a group of students who appreciated especially the opportunity to take a closer look at other Polish youth organizations. We all deemed the event a great success, hopefully to be developed into a regular tradition. Special thanks goes to madam Consul General Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka for her very worthwhile initiative and a most welcoming attitude towards an interesting cross-section of local Polish-Americans! Monika Bujak, Consul General Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Bart Zelajtys, Joanna Caytas
The Fifth Annual Chopin Piano Competition organized by the Polish Student Society at Columbia University and Barnard College on February 25, 2012 has become the latest rendition of a hallmark event of our Polish Student Society. It also happened to be, almost to the day, 202 years from Chopin’s birth on March 1, 1810.
Wigilia, a solemn Christmas Eve dinner celebrated on the night before Midnight Mass of the Christmas Day, is perhaps the most important evening in the Polish Christmas tradition. A meal of coming together, peace and forgiveness reunites families and friends not unlike the American Thanksgiving holiday, and an extra plate is always set, waiting for the “uninvited guest,” friend or stranger, who might visit on that night and must not be turned away but will be welcomed like a dear family member.
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