In Memoriam Maja Brand

On Monday March 5 we were shocked to hear the news that Maja Brand, our 2011 Cracow conference coordinator, is one of the victims of the terrible train crash that happened near Cracow, Poland, last Sunday. With her parents, her family and all her friends and teachers at the Cracovian Jagiellonian University we deeply mourn the dead of a young, talented woman, fully dedicated to her social activities in Georgia and to Jewish-Christian dialogue in Poland.

Maja was a PhD student at the Center for Holocaust Studies of the Jagiellonian University. ICCJ owes Maja Brand a lot of gratitude for helping us in making the 2011 ICCJ Cracow conference a success.

Wherever Maja went, she kept all her friends informed on Facebook. I enjoyed the funny YouTube videos she uploaded, showing the artist she was when on stage with the youngsters she worked with. When I congratulated her when she turned 30 last February, I was one of many. A long list still is there and a memorial page for Maja already has been created. But not only her many, many friends will miss her. Maja was the only child of her parents. Most of us just can not image how deep their grieve must be. 

When hearing the news of Maja’s passing away, words from the Sermon on the Mount crossed my mind. Because Maja was like salt. She made the lives of those working with her full of flavor. She was as a light on a lampstand giving light to so many people.  As it is said: Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven.
 

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