Conference – Operation “BRIDGE”

🇵🇱 polski tekst 👉 https://hhcoalition.info/2015/06/18/konferencja-operacja-most/

🇷🇺 русский текст 👉 https://hhcoalition.info/2021/06/23/конференция-операция-мост/

OPERATION “BRIDGE”

Operation BRIDGE is the code name for the operation of transferring Jews from the USSR (and former USSR countries) to Israel in 1990–1994, transit through airports in Poland with the help of Polish and Israeli secret services. It was the largest and most difficult secret mission of Polish secret services in history, carried out with great risk. It was to remain a closely guarded secret forever. This operation marked the beginning of the largest Jewish exodus in Israeli history – culminating in the immigration of over 1.5 million Jews from the former USSR to Israel.

The cooperation of secret services was made between Israel, Poland, Israel, the USSR, USA, Austria, West Germany, and other countries. The main issue was to ensure the safe transit of Jews as part of a joint operation code-named BRIDGE.

On June 14, 1990, the first plane towards Tel Aviv takes off from the airport in Okęcie, Warsaw. In the history of the world there is no example of a second such legal and organized transfer of hundreds of thousands of people from a specific ethnic group to another country thousands of kilometers away …

“And it will happen on that day that the Lord will again stretch out His hand to redeem the rest of His people that will remain from those of Assyria (Iraq) and Egypt, and Patros, and Ethiopia, and Elam (Iran), and Shinar (Iraq), and from Hamat, and from the islands in the sea, And he will lift up a sign to the Gentiles, and gather together the exiles of Israel, and gather together the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the world. Isaiah 11: 11–12

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: OPERATION “BRIDGE”

HILTON WARSAW HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER • ul. Grzybowska 63, Warsaw, Poland • 18 June 2015 between 11:00 and 13:30 (Open Session) and 14:00 – 15:00 (Closed Session for guests invited by the organizers).

Organizers

  • Helping Hand Coalition – Global Forum for Israel
  • Association of Former Intelligence Officers Poland

Objectives

  • Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the exodus of 1.5 million Jews from the former USSR to Israel.
  • Meeting with representatives of the parties participating in Operation BRIDGE. 

Thematic areas

  • Alyiah (Exodus to Israel) – biblical context.
  • Geopolitical situation at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s – the importance of Poland.
  • The Polish government and the problem of Russian Jews – politics and diplomacy.
  • Opposing services – common cause. Preparations and the course of Operation “Most”.
  • The effects of the success of Operation “Bridge”: Poland, Israel, the world.

Participants

  • Former participants of Operation BRIDGE: representatives of Polish secret services, representatives of Israeli secret services, representatives of other institutions and companies participating in the operation;
  • Guests from Poland: Representatives of the Polish government, the ministry of special services, Christian religious communities, Jewish communities in Poland, commercial companies, academia, media, social and para-governmental organizations;
  • Visitors from Israel: Representatives of the Israeli government, ministry of secret services, para-governmental organizations;
  • International representatives: Representatives of the diplomatic corps, Christian religious communities, international media, social organizations.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION

🇮🇱 Organizing Committee: Israeli representation

  • Dr. Andrzej Gasiorowski – Chairman of the Organizing Committee, President of Network Intelligence Group, President of Helping Hand Coalition Global Forum
  • Roger West – Member of the Board of Helping Hand Coalition
  • Bożena Gąsiorowska – Member of the Board of Helping Hand Coalition
  • Luke Gasiorowski – COO Helping Hand Coalition
  • Ppłk Orit Lewinski – Associated Former Intelligence Officers (Israel)
  • Henryk Lewinski – President of the Polish-Israeli Chamber of Commerce

🇮🇱 The official representation of Israeli State

  • Dr. Andrzej Gasiorowski – Chairman of the Delegation
  • Gen. Amos Dahari – Director of the Ministry of National Security of Israel, former Chief of Israeli Secret Services (Nativ, Shabak, Interpol), former Chief of Police of the Southern Region, former Head of the Aliyah Operation Security Operation in the Vienna District
  • Lea Shemtow – former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, former Chairman of the Committee for Immigration and Absorption in the Knesset
  • Rita Tager – former assistant to Yuri Shtern – former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel

🇮🇱 Honorary Committee: Israel

  • Gen. Rafi Eitan – former head of the special services of Israel LAKAM (Bureau of Scientific Relations), former Mossad super agent, head of the Mossad action in the capture of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann, former terrorism advisor to Prime Minister M. Begin
  • Gen. Yaakov Kedmi – former chief of Israel’s secret services (NATIV)
  • Gen. Roman Jagiełło (Jagiel) – former chief of Israel’s secret services, former Israeli ambassador to Interpol
  • Avraham Greenzaid – Chairman of the Union of Veterans of World War II
  • Alex Berman – Chairman of the World Union of Russian-speaking Scientists of Jewish Origin
  • Gita Koifman – Chairwoman of Victims of Concentration Camps and Ghettos Association
  • Meir Kahlon – Chairman of the Union of Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran
  • Michael Raif – Chairman of the Coordination Committee of Immigrants from Russia in Israel
  • Yefim Kipnis – Chairman of the Association of Children of the Holocaust

🇵🇱 Organizing Committee: Polish representation

  • Marek Zarządzki – Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Vice President of the Organization of Former Intelligence Officers
  • Jan Maria Oczkowski – Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Vice President of the Organization of Former Intelligence Officers
  • Daniel Inselmann – Vice-chairman of the Committee, President of the Foundation Michał Friedberg
  • Col. Andrzej Derlatka – Vice-chairman of the Committee – former Civic Platform of the head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency, former representative of the State Protection Office at NATO Headquarters, former Polish Ambassador to South Korea
  • Andrzej Denkiewicz – Vice-chairman of the Committee – former Consul of the Republic of Poland in Moscow, former Consul of the Republic of Poland in Shanghai
  • Ambasador Krzysztof Płomiński – Vice-chairman of the Committee – former Polish Ambassador to Iraq, former Polish Ambassador to Arabia
  • Col. Sławomir Majszak – Vice-chairman of the Committee, President of the Association of Veterans of World War II
  • Col. Ireneusz Kisiel – Członek Komitetu – Secretary of the Board of OBOW
  • Janusz Okoń – Committee Member – Member of the Management Board of OBOW

🇵🇱 Honorary Committee: Poland

  • Józef Pinior – Senator of the Republic of Poland, former Member of the European Parliament.
  • Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Stambler – Chairman of Chabad-Lubavitch in Warsaw.
  • Marcin Święcicki – Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland , former Minister of the Government of the Prime Minister of Mazowieckie, former President of the Capital City of Warsaw Warsaw,
  • Gen. Waldemar Skrzypczak – former Commander of the Polish Land Forces, former commander of the Multinational Division Center-South as part of the 4th rotation of the Polish Military Contingent Iraq, former commander of the 11th Lubuska Armored Cavalry Division
  • Krzysztof Płomiński – former Polish Ambassador to Iraq and Saudi Arabia, diplomat in Libya and Jordan.
  • Krzysztof Mroziewicz – former Polish Ambassador in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, PAP correspondent in India, war correspondent in Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Vice President of the South Asia Foreign Press Association.
  • Adam Szyc – Entrepreneur, Jewish Community in Warsaw.
  • Roman Józef Kuźniar – political scientist, professor of humanities, full professor at the University of Warsaw, former diplomat, in 2005–2007 director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, from 2010 advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland on international affairs
  • Grażyna Majer – Vice-President of the Jewish Community in Warsaw

Scientific Committee 

  • Prof. dr hab. Anna Gołębiowska – Chairman, Vice-Dean for Research at the Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences
  • Jerzy Rzymanek, PhD in international law – Vice-chairman, Expert Think Tank OBOW 
  • Dr. Ewa Pietrzyk Zienkiewicz – Assistant professor at the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Warsaw, WDINP. 
  • Dr Cezary Tomasz Szyjko – Assistant professor, PhD in law – Department of International Law National Defense Academy. 
  • Dr inż. Eugeniusz Piedzich – Rector of the University of Social and Economics, 
  • Col. Cezariusz Sońta, PhD in law – professor of law at the University of Warsaw – Military University of Technology of the Ministry of National Defense, Vice-chairman 
  • Prof. dr hab. Jan Kazimierz Przybyłowski – former vice-rector for financial and scientific affairs, head of the Department of UKSW 
  • Dr Milko Stokłosa – AFIO – Business Ethics – University of Chicago 
  • Sławomir Ptasiński, MA – diplomat – Consul of the Republic of Poland

Conference MC and moderator

  • Serafina Ogończyk-Mąkowska – Lawyer, judge at the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce, representative of the Management Board of the Business Center Club

Coordination of the conference project

  • Pawel Czajkowski – Secretary of the Conference
  • Anastazja Lenda – Press Officer, Deputy Secretary of the Conference
  • Artur Górski-Motyl – Marketing, Graphic Identity
  • Bogusław Bagsik – Coordinator of the security department
  • Norbert Palimąka – Coordinator of the registration and reception department
  • Krzysztof Rompa – President of TBN Polska

Support and partnership 

  • Fundacja ESPA
  • TBN Poland
  • Daily Israel
  • Global Relief Network
  • Media Network Intelligence

Conference sponsored by

  • 🇮🇱 Helping Hand Coalition Global Forum
  • 🇺🇸 God’s Grace International

FILM

Oscar-nominated Aneta Kopacz in the documentary series „ART-B. Made in Poland” produced by Canal+ Discovery Channel. Sensational documentary series about the life and career, ups and downs of Andre Gasiorowski and Boguslaw Bagsik – the owners of Art-B, one of the largest private company in Polish history.  Episode 4 – Operation BRIDGE (Aliyah): This episode will reveal the unknown role of Art-B in the secret operation of the transfer of the first wave of 150,000 of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel through Poland, which took place under the code name Operation Bridge (Aliyah).

PHOTO GALLERY