We are back. It has indeed been a long time. Many of you have probably wondered if no news is good news. Well not exactly - the good news really is that we are resuming - hopefully your favorite - news publication which until last year you used to now as The News from Poland. Only now it has a different name – but that is only a publicity stunt – so to say….

As the new Ambassador in Washington my sincere intention is to engage in a dialogue on as many platforms as possible. I do hope that the newsletter may become one of several vehicles enabling a direct dialogue with you – our readers, so that we can address the topics of mutual interest.

This is a new edition of our newsletter. We will publish it quarterly. Its contents will include the reports from the diplomatic front and bring you up to date on important documents and issues of bilateral relation with the United States as well as on what the Embassy has been up to. You will have noticed that this first issue is dedicated to one topic – the tragedy that happened sixty years ago in Jedwabne. This choice underscores both the unprecedented public and political debate that took place in Poland in recent months but it also shows how important this matter is for all of us – for bilateral relations, in our dialogue with the Jewish Diaspora, for the image of contemporary Polish democracy and last but not least – for each and every one of us individually. Depending on how we will resolve it – both internally in Poland as well as externally in our international relations will set a trademark of our image in the world today. For the last 10 years the image that we shared was that of a leader, a challenger and a winner in the post communist world. Let us hope that we are able to retain that standing and face the future also through the prism of the difficult past.

I am also pleased to inform you that we are back in the cyberspace too. Our web site is up and operational. You may chose to use it by typing www.polandembassy.org .In time we hope that it too will become a prime source of information on Poland, especially that the newsletter has its quantitative limits.

Last but not least – a word of gratitude to the Bank of America, who has become our partner in publishing a better quality product.

I do hope you will enjoy our new publications. For mistakes, omissions and unbalanced editorial content you can always blame Mr. Artur Michalski, our Press Secretary and the Editor of the newsletter, I would rather lend my ears to compliments…….