The Wayne State University Wigilia has a very long and illustrious tradition going back at least to the 1980s. It brings together two communities: the WSU community, its students and faculty, and the Polish American community, many of its members identifying with Wayne State as their alma mater.
In a way this year’s Wigilia was no different. On Friday, December 12, over 60 people – the capacity of the Polish Village Café banquet room – attended the event which was again filled with holiday cheer and camaraderie. This Wigilia has its frequent non-university quests, who cherish it and make sure to attend it every year.
Among the honored guests were Karen Majewski, the former Mayor of Hamtramck, Irene Dziechciarz, representing the Polish American Congress- MI Division and retired Professor of German, Alfred Cobbs, who has been supporting WSU Polish Wigilia, and the Polish program at WSU, for a great many years. This year, like a year ago, Professor Cobbs delivered beautiful and uplifting holiday greetings and finished his address with a prayer. While focusing on the symbolism of light, he stressed the need for hope, and lifting up each other spiritually, which he encouraged everybody to do not only during this Christmas season, but all year long.
Kevin Jakubowicz of the Dearborn-based The Kiełbasa Kings Polka Band, which for almost three decades has been entertaining polka fans, masterfully played the accordion and led the kolędy singalong.
Created in 2015, the WSU Polish Culture Club, which has been organizing Wigilias ever since, once again did an amazing job. Elise Lubiarz and Ania Toboy, the Club’s co-presidents, oversaw the organizing and running of the event.
In addition to the sharing of opłatki, enjoying the abundance of traditional foods (among them, Polish-style vegetable salad and fish Greek style, staples of many Wigilias in Poland), and caroling, there was also a silent auction, a part of the proceedings of which this year will be donated to a Ukrainian relief fund as well as a white elephant gift exchange, with surprising and random gifts which added more joy and laughter to the evening.
It would have been just another successful and wonderful WSU Wigilia, if not for the fact, that earlier this fall, WSU cancelled Polish language instruction, and this semester, which is ending, Polish language for the first time in 77 years was not offered at Wayne. To make things worse, starting in the winter 2026, there won’t be Polish culture taught either, which means that Polish, which was introduced there in 1947, is effectively gone from the university curriculum.
This will make the WSU Polish Culture Club the only exponent of Polishness at the university.
The Club, however, is up for the challenge. Elise Lubiarz, now a graduate student at Wayne, and the Club’s president for the last few years, was very pleased to announce that the Club’s co-president Ania Toboy is ready to take over and helping her will be a full board of Club officers ready to continue the Club’s work. Among the activities planned, a Polish movie screening, Pisanki workshop, pączki sale, and more.
We will be watching, participating and cheering on the Club, which is also planning to get involved in lobbying to get the Polish program back to WSU university. This will not happen overnight. Such an undertaking will require strong, consistent and well-planned efforts on the part of the Polish American community, first to make WSU want to have such a program.
The breaking of the opłatki was led by Alex Clegg, a former WSU Polish Culture Club President and Aneta Luzinski, a part-time WSU instructor, who with love dedication and talent has been teaching Polish language and culture at WSU since the fall of 2023.
While watching what a wonderful job the students did putting this event together, one cannot but see how meaningful this work, and the agency it gives the students is.
The skills and abilities they learn, the experience they get – all of it is very important not only for their personal growth but also for the present and the future of our Polish American community.
The Polish Village Café yet again provided a most hospitable and beautiful venue. The owner, Carolyn Wietrzykowski, an enthusiastic and generous supporter of Polish at WSU, unexpectedly showed up at the event with her one-and-half-year-old son, Thaddeus, who – as we found out – is learning Polish quickly.
Although this was a Club affair, the Lubiarz and the Toboy families were there to support and help the students, and they did so with care and love.
Christmas spirit all around!
