ISRAELISM + meeting with Baha Hilo

EVENT PROGRAM:

19:00 - Welcome and introduction
19:15 - Screening of the film "Israelism"
20:45 - Discussion and Q&A session

FREE ADMISSION! (reservation required)

The screening will be followed by a meeting with sociologist Baha Hilo. Dr Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyżanowska will lead the conversation.

Movie in English with Polish subtitles.

Join us in a special evening as we gather for a screening of the Polish premiere of "Israelism", an award-winning documentary. The film recounts the journeys of young Jewish Americans who begin to question the dominant narratives about Israel that they learned during their upbringing. It is a story of internal conflict, political awakening and the search for justice. "Israelism" uniquely explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are dramatically changing, with huge implications for the region and Judaism itself.

The film was directed by two first-time Jewish filmmakers, Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen, whose personal experiences are similar to those of the characters in the story. "Israelism" won the Best Documentary Award at the Arizona International Film Festival, the Best Documentary Award at the Tallgrass Film Festival, the Spirit Award at the Brooklyn Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which is the oldest, largest and most prestigious Jewish film festival in the US. These awards underline the importance of the film, which shows the changing American Jewish perspective on Israel.

Baha Hilo was born and grew up in Bethlehem, and completed his sociology studies at Birzeit University k. Ramallah. He has worked with various humanitarian, human rights and advocacy organizations, including the UN, the Joint Advocacy Initiative of the YMCA & YWCA, and the Badil Center for Residency and Refugees Rights. He also has professional experience from working with the National Council of the YMCA in Sri Lanka and in Silver Bay, USA. Since 2013, his work has focused on education about Palestine through the "To Be There" initiative, in which he organizes various educational visits for non-Palestinians, such as the annual olive harvest, olive tree planting, Palestine Land Day, summer programs and Christmas in Palestine. As a supervisor and facilitator of the FFIPP Summer Program, she enables participants to learn about diverse local perspectives, including local Palestinian activists, NGO representatives and critical Israeli academics. As an educator, she strives to present in an accessible way the complex situation facing the Palestinian people due to the policies of the Israeli state. Baha Hilo is also the coordinator of activities at the Citadel, a café that is also an intellectual and cultural center in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. He has appeared in documentary films such as Walled Citizen and Israelism. He gives lectures worldwide, including in the United States, Brazil, Malaysia, and Europe.

Dorota Woroniecka-Krzyżanowska is a social anthropologist specializing in migration, urban transformations, and social change, with a regional focus on the Middle East. She holds a BA in Arabic Studies and an MA in Sociology from the University of Warsaw, as well as a PhD in Social Sciences from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Her doctoral research explored the interplay between identity and place in the context of protracted exile, based on an ethnographic study conducted in a Palestinian refugee camp. Her postdoctoral work investigated the role of sports and youth centers as spaces of self-governance and local participation in the West Bank. Later, she examined knowledge exchange in architecture and urban planning between the Polish People’s Republic and Iraq, focusing on the Department of Architecture at the University of Mosul. Currently, her research centers on the project “Made in Iraq: Urban Planning, Reconstruction, and Change During International Sanctions,” which explores Baghdad’s urban transformations in the 1990s.

Partners: The Rector of the University of Łódź, the Łódź Multicultural Center, the "Al-Andalus" Center for Oriental Languages, the Academic Design Center, and the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź.