Jelenia Góra, Poland

Population: 77,366
Language: Polish
Currency: Złoty
5,320 miles to Tyler

Gallery

‘Twinning’ ceremonies to formalize the sister city relationships were held in Jelenia Góra in May/June 1993 and Tyler in June 1994.

Tyler Sister Cities President Norman Shtofman signed the official document prior to a banquet held in an army arsenal that was a former headquarters for the KGB in the Polish community. The Jelenia Góra mayor remarked that he had never been in the building during the Russian era.

Starting in 1994, a group of 15 elected municipal administrators from Jelenia Góra spent time in Tyler to gain administrative experience in how a municipality is run in a Western liberal democracy. The University of Texas at Tyler created the Poland Municipal Education and Leadership Program as part of a larger United States Information Agency program to encourage the growth of democratic institutions in former Soviet nations. According to UT Tyler, “faculty and City of Tyler administrators acted as the mentors for the administrators from Jelenia Góra during their time in Tyler, and during the second phase of the program a delegation of UT Tyler and City of Tyler participants traveled to Jelenia Góra and served as consultants to their agency counterparts.”

A group of 20 Tylerites traveled to Poland in 1996 to learn about government, culture, education, and judicial operations as the country was emerging from decades of Communist control.

In 2006, a delegation of 8 from Tyler visited Jelenia Góra to take part in a symposium of university and polytechnic higher education facilities regarding student exchanges.

In 2008, then-mayor of Tyler Barbara Bass was named an honorary citizen of Jelenia Góra as the city celebrated its 900th anniversary.

Over the years, Karkonosze College and Tyler Junior College have also exchanged visiting professors and lecturers.

Ida Baj, from the language department at Karkonosze College in Jelenia Góra, invited a writer to visit in the summer of 2016. She envisioned a writer’s exchange with someone from Tyler. Brinda Carey was chosen as the writer from the East TX Writers Guild to travel to Jelenia Gora. Her project included exchanging stories with local seniors in a class there taught by Ida Baj about writing memoirs and retirement. The Tyler Sister Cities Board voted to give her a $1500 grant for the project.

We have kept up a tradition of a faculty exchange ever since then! Most recently, a professor of humanities from Karkonosze lectured at TJC in early September 2022.

Also in 2022, a small delegation from Tyler, led by Fire Chief David Coble, traveled to Jelenia Góra to participate in a celebration of its sister cities. The delegation also got a first-hand look at the efforts to support thousands of Ukrainian refugees who fled to Jelenia Góra after the start of Russia invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Tyler Sister Cities raised more than $30 thousand in private donations to support humanitarian efforts here.