Jewish Connection MAY 2026
DEDICATED TO ENGAGING, INFORMING, & INSPIRING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
.NEWS
More than 120 senior law enforcement leaders gathered this week in Poland for the seminar. (Photos, Courtesy of the AJCF)
‘Never Again’ In Focus Global Law Enforcement Leaders Gather At Auschwitz For Intense Training Program In the shadow of one of history’s darkest sites, more than 120 senior law enforcement leaders gathered this week in Poland for a program with an urgent mandate to translate memory into action. The seminar, titled “Operationalizing Never Again Not On Our Watch 2026,” was hosted at the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation in Oswiecim, adjacent to the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz. Organized in partnership with the Rutgers University Miller Center on Policing
and Community Resilience and the University of Virginia, the program brought together police leaders, policymakers and security officials from across the United States, Europe and beyond for an intensive period of study and discussion. Among the highest-ranking participants were New Jersey State Police Acting Superintendent Jeanne Hengemuhle, New York Police Department Executive Director Amy E. Bishop, Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Tasha Bryant and
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Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Sanjaya Wijayakoon, alongside Senior European Leadership including German Police Union Federal Chairman Jochen Kopelke. Their presence underscored the program’s reach into the upper ranks of global policing at a moment of heightened concern over extremism, antisemitism and other forms of hate. For the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, the convening reflects a broader educational mission that has, over the past dec-
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ade, engaged tens of thousands of diplomats, military personnel, law enforcement officials and educators in Holocaust based training programs focused on tolerance, human rights and ethical leadership. Participants spent time in Oswiecim combining historical study with professional dialogue. They toured the remains of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp complex, engaged in seminars on Continued On Page 6
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