CCPS Exhibition. Survivors Saving Survivors: Photographing the Ukrainian Refugee Experience in Poland

In April and June 2022, at the invitation of JCC Krakow, Chuck Fishman traveled to Poland to document the JCC and the Jewish community’s commitment to helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing their war-torn country. What he witnessed and captured in a series of gripping photographs is tikkun olam, a central concept in Judaism that denotes activities that repair and improve the world we live in. The exhibit shifts the lens away from the horror the refugees have endured to focus instead on human goodness and how it can overcome lingering evil.

In his 45-year career, freelance photographer Chuck Fishman has focused on social and political issues with a strong humanistic concern. His work on Jewish life in Poland, begun in 1975, continues to the present day. Fishman’s work has been extensively published, exhibited, and collected worldwide, and has earned him prestigious World Press Photo Foundation medals four times. His photographs have appeared on the covers of Time, Life, Fortune, Newsweek, The London Sunday Times, The Economist, and numerous others. Fishman’s work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the United Nations POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the Stanford University and New York Public Libraries, to name a few, as well as private and corporate collections.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at weisercenter@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.