Newsletter 2020 Volume LXIX ISN: 1081-2776 THE KOSCIUSZKO FOUNDATION THE AMERICAN CENTER OF POLISH CULTURE KOSCIUSZKO STANDS TALL TABLE OF CONTENTS BOARD OF NEW TRUSTEE: KF STAFF Message from the Chairman of the Board 2 TRUSTEES Marek Skulimowski President and Executive Director Message from the President 4 Alex Storozynski Chairman of the Board Ewa Zadworna Polish Studies Going South 6 Wanda M. Senko Director of Cultural Affairs Vice-Chair Addy Tymczyszyn KF Ball Higlights 8 Cynthia Rosicki, Esq. Program Officer, Vice-Chair ZBIGNIEW CHRZANOWSKI Scholarships DC Gala 2019 12 graduated from Warsaw & Grants for Americans Andrzej Rojek Polytechnic with an Frank Wilczek Award 17 Vice-Chairman Malgorzata Szymanska engineering degree. He is a Grants, Fellowships Joseph E. Gore, Esq. Teaching English in Poland 18 former member of the Sejm Program Officer Corporate Secretary III and IV term, during which Margaret Kozlowska Application Essay for Studies and Research 22 Peter S. Novak he served as the Vice- Rental Events Manager, Treasurer Chairman of the Committee Graphic Design Building Bridges in Conrad Studies 24 for European Integration. He Alicja Grygiel is also a former Secretary Membership Officer 10 Years in the US Capital 26 MEMBERS: of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Dominika Orwat Miroslaw Brys, M.D., Ph.D. Development Manager The Chicago Chapter Report 28 Development, and served as Piotr Chomczynski, Ph.D. a Government Plenipotentiary Izabella Laskowska The Philadelphia Chapter Report 30 Hanna Chroboczek Kelker, to prepare Polish agriculture Receptionist Ph.D. for transition into the EU. Leszek Tyburczy The Washington DC Chapter Report 32 Zbigniew Chrzanowski He was the President of the Building Superintendent The New England Chapter Report 33 Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, Polish Faction within the Mariola Sosnowska MD., Ph.D. EPP Group in the European Housekeeper Parliament. Currently, he is The Pittsburgh Chapter Report 34 Rachael Jarosh Barbara Bernhardt the CEO and Owner of Lhotse Krzysztof Kolasa, M.D. Washington DC Director The Western New York Chapter Report 35 Corp. dba Trident Contracting, Alexander Koproski specializing in external Grażyna Exchange Program to the US 38 Marian A. Kornilowicz, Esq. construction contracts in the Czetwertyńska, Ph.D President, KF Poland Stephen Kusmierczak NYC commercial market. Aleksandra Kujawska Exchange Program to Poland 46 Wlodek Mandecki, Ph.D. Mr. Chrzanowski has been Warsaw Office Michal H. Mrozek an active and generous 2020 – 2021 Tuition Scholarships 48 Zofia Jaworowska Marek M. Pienkowski, M.D., member of the Kosciuszko TEIP Coordinator in Past Cultural Events 54 Ph.D. Foundation and the Polish- Warsaw Prof. Waldemar Priebe American community. He has Upcoming Events 58 Ewa Radwanska, M.D., Ph.D. been especially involved in the KF Philadelphia Chapter THE KOSCIUSZKO DC Past Cultural Events 60 Sigmund Rolat activities, sponsoring and FOUNDATION Krzysztof Rostek hosting cultural events. He is HEADQUARTERS In Memoriam 68 Boleslaw Ryzinski also a member of the Polish 15 East 65th Street New York, NY 10065 Planned Giving 72 Henry Sikorski, Ph.D. American Business Club and the sponsor of the New Tel. 212-734-2130 Joseph Swiader York Polish Film Festival and SZKO FO Artur Szymanski WASHINGTON DC IU UN the Chopin Music Society of CENTER SC D Wojciech Uzdelewicz Montreal. 2025 O Street NW O A Henry C. Washington, DC 20036 K T Walentowicz, Esq. In his spare time, you can Tel. 202-785-2320 E IO find him biking and enjoying Adriana Wos- H N nature around his home in WARSAW OFFICE T Mysliwiec, Esq. Ul. Kopernika 11/8 Pennsylvania. • 00-359 Warsaw, Poland • Tel. +48 (22) 621-7067 T H N E O K I T www.thekf.org O A SC D IU N SZKO F O U MEMBERS APPRECIATION MONTH NOVEMBER Raffle Lottery Over 50 Wonderful Prizes To Win This year for Members Appreciation Month we would like to express our gratitude the best way we know! You deserve it! 1 4 THANK YOU for continuously supporting us through these difficult times! We would like to show our appreciation by offering amazing raffle prizes to our members. Become a new KF Member or renew your membership (Sustaining Membership and up) in November to participate in our November Raffle Lottery. Furthermore, through that month each purchased membership 5 (Sustaining Membership and up) will receive complimentary access to The New Kosciuszko Foundation American English<>Polish Dictionary. THE NOVEMBER RAFFLE LOTTERY PRIZES: 2 1. POLAND 100 YEARS, 600 pages,11’×14’ 2. RAFAL OLBINSKI ARTWORK 3. THE BEST OF RAFAL OLBINSKI – signed copy of the album 4. WALK AWAY: THE BEST OF WALK AWAY [CD], Jazz Sound 5. TWARZE MUZYKI - Andrzej Tyszko, Fotografie 1982-2015/ 3 The Faces of Music, Photographs 1982-2015 (English and Polish Edition) 6. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF POLISH DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE IN THE UNITED STATES: 1919–2019, 136 pages, 165 x 235 6 7. POLAND: ARCHITECTURE. PARKS, MUSEUMS, MAPS, 7 MANORS SANCTUARIES, Travel Guide, Limited Edition 8. THE CAPTIVE MIND: Czeslaw Milosz, Janusz Kapusta, New York, 1981. Hardcover. The limited signed edition by the author and illustrator (Janusz Kapusta), with signed lithograph laid-in. 8 9. KINDLE PAPERWHITE with Unlimited 12 Months Kindle Subscription Perhaps there is someone who you would like to say thank you too? Maybe you would also like to get ahead with Christmas gifts? 9 Surprise your dearest with the Gift of a Kosciuszko Foundation Membership. It is truly the best way to introduce your friends and family to your Polish culture and heritage. KF NEWSLETTER 2020 1 A WAY TO MOVE FORWARD Message from the Chairman by Alex Storozynski, KF Chairman of the Board 020 has challenged us all and members. We will soon debut a virtual tour of paintings in the gallery by we at the Kosciuszko Foundation Polish masters such as Matejko, Malczewski, Styka and others. understand the struggles 2 In May we launched a lecture and concert series on the Kosciuszko everyone faces. At the epicenter of Foundation YouTube Channel, with interviews of Polish Opera Singer the pandemic when the Coronavirus Tomasz Konieczny, renowned movie directors Agnieszka Holland took off in March, our headquarters and Lech Majewski, as well as the famed artist Rafal Olbinski. We is in the shadow of Central Park posted a webinar on chemistry and biology of vision by Professor where tents were used as make-shift Krzysztof Palczewski, a lecture on Tadeusz Kantor and Polish emergency rooms and morgues. avant-garde theater, the KF quarantine jazz series with artists like Our disappointment over canceling Adam Makowicz, Krzysztof Medyna, Bogna Kicinska, Kuba Cichocki the ball was quickly put into and other musicians. The KF held an inciteful webinar called The perspective by the pain of those Transatlantic World Through Polish and American Eyes with Warsaw suffering through Covid or grieving over lost loved ones. University’s Prof. Bohdan Szklarski and former US Ambassador to Forced to stay home, we found that necessity is the mother of Poland Daniel Fried. invention and under quarantine, some of us learned to bake bread, And with your help, there will be more to come. cut our own hair, or fix that leak under the sink by ourselves. As the Our namesake was thrust into the news when vandals protesting the saying goes, “Polak potrafi,” Poles can do it. We have to deal with police killing of Floyd George defaced the Kosciuszko Statute across the cards that were dealt us. the street from the White House. Saddened by this desecration, we The ban on events meant members could not visit our gallery, so the understand the pain of the African American community about police KF staff put together a plan to bring our gallery and Polish culture to our killing unarmed Black people. The graffiti was washed off the statue, The Kosciuszko Mierzwa becomes 1925 Foundation Inc. 1955 second president is incorporated in of the Kosciuszko New York. Foundation. The capital 1945 1969 fund of the The KF hosts a Kosciuszko 1928 dinner at New York’s Foundation 1967 reaches Commodore Hotel to Board of $1,029,248.00 honor Paderewski. Trustees aproves the The Van Alen notion of the Mansion becomes local KF chapter the Kosciuszko across the Foundation house. United States The KF Marcela Maria Sklodowska Chopin Piano First Kosciuszko Sembrich Curie allows Competition is Foundation’s English competition Mierzwa to set established. - Polish dictionar is established up a scholarship published. fund in her name. Albert Einstein takes part in a gala at Carnegi Hall 1927 commemorating 400th 1968 aniversary of Nicolas 2 KF NEWSLETTER 2020 1949 1943 Copernicus death 1959 but the loss Lloyd George and other unarmed Black people is eternal. our bodies alive. But Kosciuszko was the wrong target for this frustration because At the same time, the Kosciuszko Foundation staff has been working he dedicated his salary as a General from the American Revolution to keep our Polish souls alive. In my view, and I hope yours, that for the emancipation and education of enslaved Africans. He asked makes them essential. So please do what you can with membership, that his money be used to buy land, livestock and farming tools for donations and endowments to keep our mission going. liberated slaves so that they could make their own living as free Your generosity of spirit in giving to the Kosciuszko Foundation citizens of the United States. Kosciuszko knew that Black Lives Matter. without expecting anything in return moves us. But you do get The Kosciuszko Foundation put out a measured statement in something in return. The knowledge that your membership and defense of our hero, which was picked up by newspapers, TV donations help fund Polish culture, scientific studies of scholars stations and social media around the country.