The Szczuczyn exhibit, "Lives Remembered - A Shtetl Through a Photographer's Eye" opened March 9, 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Newcomb Art Gallery on the campus of Tulane University. It will run until June 5, 2005. Next stop on the tour will be the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas, in the Fall of 2005.

Tulane University (founded in 1834) is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of its Jewish Studies Program, and many lectures and programs have been planned in conjunction with the exhibit. One of the speakers will be Jan Gross, author of "Neighbors," the best selling book about the Jedwabne and Radzilow killings in 1941. In addition, many classes and groups from schools and organizations in the New Orleans area  will tour the exhibit. There are almost 200 pictures in the exhibit and many family stories are featured in the captions. The Polish Ambassador in Washington sent the Polish Consul General for the middle USA from Chicago to attend the opening.

Over 85% of today's Jews are descended from families in small towns like Szczuczyn. This exhibit will show a new generation of people in Poland a realistic look at Jewish life in these towns prior to the Holocaust. And, I hope, it will help teach them about tolerance and put names and faces on the victim of the Holocaust. For all of us, it is a memorial to our ancestors who were part of life in Szczuczyn for over 300 years. The pictures cover the years 1895 to 1939.

Mike Marvins
(Zalman Kaplan's grandson)