Poland Study Abroad

Information on this page reflects the May 2024 Poland program.  TIJS' next Poland program is tentatively scheduled for summer 2026.  This page will be updated once the application for the summer 2026 program launches.

TIJS is excited to partner with the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning Foundation to offer students the study abroad experience of a lifetime: an eleven-day, 1-credit, summer study abroad program in Poland, which will take place May 19 - May 30, 2024.  To that end, this experience will feature:

• Time split between Krakow and Warsaw, visiting general and Jewish sites
• Excursions to Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, Wieliczka Salt Mines, and a former "shtetl" (small-town Jewish community)
• Dialogue with contemporary Polish and Polish-Jewish activists, university students, cultural and community leaders
• Opportunities to experience cultural events
• Exploration of Eastern European Jewish life during many historical periods, from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, through the Nazi Holocaust and Soviet domination, and culminating in the current period of post-Soviet Jewish renewal
• Engagement in dialogue about Jewish and Polish memory, trauma, and memorialization
• Enjoyment of local cuisine and nightlife

The Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning Foundation, established in 2009, is dedicated to enriching Jewish life in Poland and to connecting people from around the globe with Eastern European history and heritage. The center’s programs engage visitors in the exploration of a nuanced history, conflicting narratives, the role and place of memory and memorialization, traumas, and legacies. Significant components of the heritage tour education programs include a focus on individual and communal responsibility, the challenge and morality of preservation and restoration, and encounters with contemporary Jewish Poland.

• This program is open to Emory University applicants and visiting students from other institutions. 
• Emory students must meet the regular Summer Study Abroad eligibility requirements and any program-specific eligibility requirements listed below. 
• Students need to take HIST 296/JS 271: Memories of Jewish Eastern Europe in Spring 2024 OR assigned advanced readings.

• Cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher 

For more information on the registration process and deadlines, check out the official Emory Education Abroad page.

The program fee includes:

• 3-star accommodation based on double occupancy
• Ground transportation for organized programming
• Private guiding services
• Private meetings with community leaders and organizational representatives 
• Entrance fees, passes, and tickets for all organized programming
• Most meals (a handful will be on your own)

The program fee does not include:

• Airfare
• Personal expenses
• Cancellation of flights, loss of baggage
• Pre-and post-program accommodation or other arrangements

• “The Poland program was an incredibly unique experience that allowed students to experience some of the history they had learned about during the course. Not only did this trip build community but every student concluded that they came away with knowledge about Eastern European Jewish history they could not have discovered in the United States.” -Clara 26C, Environmental Science
• “For the first time since learning about the Holocaust, I reckoned with HOW we gained the information we have today: the peril and bravery required to write down, save, and later disseminate individual stories. It's hard to conceptualize the magnitude of the Holocaust from a classroom in Kentucky, so I wish everyone could have this opportunity to observe, comprehend, and heal from history.” -Lex 20Ox 23C, Psychology and Linguistics
• “I think the trip allowed me to see the powerful presence of Jewish history in Poland that I was not aware of before. It gave me a new appreciation for Jewish culture and encouraged me to continue researching Polish Jewish history in the future.” -Nikolay 23C, English and History