Piotr Kowalik: ja wtedy zacząłem mówić o konwersji

Piotr Kowalik was born on January 30, 1967, in Wrocław, into a family of working-class and peasant descent, with Jewish and Catholic roots on both sides. As a child, he was raised Catholic, and Jewish topics remained taboo at home until the end of communism and the beginning of family conversations about the past. As a teenager, he began to intensively seek his spiritual path, studying various philosophies, reading the Bible, and joining a group of Judaizing Christians, which led him to reject Christianity and enter the Wrocław synagogue in the late 1900s. Over time, his brother followed a similar path, and his mother gradually revealed her Jewish family roots and later became involved with the Jewish community in Wrocław. After graduating from high school and studying history at the University of Wrocław, Piotr Kowalik worked in the Wrocław Jewish community and co-founded the Lauder-Morasha School in Warsaw, where he taught Jewish culture and history for 14 years and built the curriculum from scratch. He then moved to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, where, as Chief Specialist for Jewish Studies and Methodology, he emphasizes the importance of relationships, the educational mission, and working within a great team, as well as the satisfaction of building an important institution. Despite feeling rooted in Poland and proud of his path, Piotr expresses concern about political anti-Semitism, the weaknesses of the Jewish community, and a lack of long-term thinking, but remains optimistic and considers himself a traditional Jew. INTERVIEWEE NAME: Piotr Kowalik INTERVIEW BY: Mikołaj Grynberg RECORDING: Hanna Linkowska RECORDING DATE: 2026 RECORDING COPYRIGHT: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Discover the POLIN Museum's oral history collection: https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/historia-mow... Subscribe to our channel:    / @historiamowionapolin   Watch POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews channels: POLIN (announcements and reports from events at the Museum):    / mhzp2013   Virtual Shtetl (history and culture of Polish Jews):    / wirtualnysztetl   Polish Righteous (stories of help provided to Jews during Holocaust):    / polscysprawiedliwi   Contact for interview sharing: [email protected] #PolinMuseum #Judaism #PolishJews