Polonia

The Polish Institute of Culture and Research at Orchard Lake is a not-for-profit organization that serves the Polish American community, regionally and nationally, as a center for Polish and Polish American culture and research. As part of the Orchard Lake Schools and rooted in the teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, the Institute is part of an ancient, living tradition of Polish and Polish American culture and serves as center for research and cultural activity for people from throughout its region, across North America, and around the world.

From the beginning of the partitions of Poland, the invaders tried to Germanize and Russify the Poles by all means. One of the basic methods was to fight the Polish language. In schools, students were subject to corporal punishment for using the Polish language during breaks between lessons, and their parents were fined.

I have been to Poland for the last week. I meet many Ukrainians in the streets. In restaurants and shops, I am served by excellent-Polish-speaking Ukrainians. It is important to talk about how Poles opened their hearts to their neighbors.

Before the countries of Central and Eastern Europe — and maybe even more broadly, including the Scandinavian countries, and some countries of southern Europe, all the way to Turkey — in connection with the ongoing war in Ukraine, there is a window of opportunity to create a geopolitical project, the idea of ​​which has been alive since the times of Marshal Piłsudski.

Polish Fest has been an annual event for the last 40 years. Its first edition took place in 1982 during the four days of the Labor Day weekend on the city’s Summerfest grounds. In a perfect world we would be celebrating the 41th anniversary this year, but in reality, this year’s Polish Fest is being organized for the 39th time.

PACIM (Polish American Cultural Institute of Minnesota) sent me an unsolicited e-mail announcing the showing of the Death of Captain Pilecki at a small neighborhood movie theater. It piqued my interest. Little did I know by attending that I would be drawn by its message to act. Prior to and after the showing, Marek Probosz spoke and took questions.

In 2022, the editor-in-chief of the Kuryer Polski internet portal (kuryerpolski.us), Mr. Waldemar Biniecki, became the winner in the category of journalist of the Polish media. The jury awarded him for a series of bilingual publications in Kuryer Polski , thanks to which the Polish point of view reaches audiences not only in the United States, but all over the world.

About 20 million people of Polish origin live outside Poland. These are people who left the country or were born outside of Poland, but show attachment to Polish origin and ties with the Polish culture.

"In the category of Journalist of the Polish Media, the winner is Waldemar Biniecki. The jury recognized him for a series of bilingual publications in «Kuryer Polski», thanks to which the Polish point of view reaches audiences not only in the United States, but all over the world."

On Tuesday, March 10, 1891, sixteen-year-old Michal Grochowski stepped aboard the steamship SS America at Bremerhaven (Bremen), Germany. Michal had never seen a ship in person, nor had he ever laid eyes on the ocean. He had spent his entire life in the farmsteads of rural Łobżenica, Poland, about 40 miles west of present-day Bydgoszcz.

The idea of ​​establishing the Center was born in 2011 by the Germans during the "round table" session on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the "Treaty between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany on good neighborhood and friendly cooperation" of June 17, 1991. It was described as "a form of compensation for the harm done to Poles living in Germany before the outbreak of World War II by the Nazis."