Poland -- Museum of the History of Polish Jewry

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

During the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow last month, I spoke with Barbara Kirshenblatt Gimblett, who heads the team developing the core exhibit of the Museum of the History of Polish Jewry. The Q and A was published in The Forward.

The museum has gone through some rough patches in recent months, with the departure, under pressure, of its director, Jerzy Halbersztadt, and financial shortfalls. What can you say about the status of the institution?

First of all, one of the great strengths of the institution is that it does not depend on one person. And that is a tribute to the former director. This museum has the good fortune to have a very, very good team. And the team has rallied and is functioning in a very positive way. So I’m optimistic….

Financially, we struggle. But we have donors, led by Sigmund Rolat and Tad Taube, that have been with us and supported us for many years.

What have been the main challenges? Are you satisfied with the process and result so far?

Although I first started coming to Poland in 1981, it was not until I began working on this project that I began to realize what it means to tell the story of how Polish Jews lived — and not only how they died — here, in the very place where they created such a vibrant civilization. That story has been overshadowed, understandably, by the Holocaust.… What began as a challenge — there is no collection of objects that could support such a compelling story — turned out to be an extraordinary opportunity and lesson, so to speak, in how to bring history to life using every possible medium.

How close is the exhibition to being installed?

Our goal is to open April 2013. When he visited the museum in May, President Obama promised to bring his daughters to the opening — and we’ll hold him to it!

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/140845/#ixzz1U8jKIST1

Poland -- Sanok. Gwozdziec synagogue project

Laura Brown, co-director of Handshouse Studio, with replica of Gwozdziec synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Earlier this month I spent several days in Sanok, in the far southeastern corner of Poland, visiting the site of the Gwozdziec synagogue project -- the construction of a replica of the roof and decorated inner cupola of the destroyed wooden synagogue of Gwozdziec (now in Ukraine) -- one of about 200 wooden synagogues torched by the Nazis in World War II

The article I wrote about it for the International Herald Tribune/New York Time online  is now readable  -- click HERE to read the full story

In the far southeast corner of Poland, the warm summer air is resounding with the rasp of old-fashioned iron saws and the satisfying twack-twack-twack of ax blades on wood.

Here, in the foothills of the Carpathians, an international crew of master timber craftsmen and students has been working on an intensely hands-on project that combines history, art and education. They are building a replica of the tall peaked roof and inner cupola of an ornate wooden synagogue that stood for 300 years in the town of Gwozdziec, now in Ukraine.

The replica, which will be 85 percent of the original size of the building, will be installed as one of the key components of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, currently under construction in Warsaw and scheduled to open in 2013.

The article gives pretty much of an overview of the project, run by the Massachusetts-based Handshouse Studio -- and if you want detailed descriptions of the process, Edward Levin, of the Timber Framers Guild, has been keeping a wonderful blog about it all, with lots of pictures and theoretical musings. Click HERE to read it.

My discussions in Sanok opened a new world to me -- that of Timber Framing and master carpentry; people involved who find spirituality in working with wood. Fascinating discussions.

Here are some of my own pictures of the project, which is being carried out on the grounds of the Sanok open-air folk architecture museum.

Poland -- Politics and Shake-ups at the Jewish History Museum in Warsaw.....

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Forward runs a fascinating piece about the shake-up at the top of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw that saw the forced resignation of longtime director Jerzy Halbersztadt, one of the creators of the institution.

The museum -- nearly 20 years in development -- is now scheduled to open in 2013. Its building is largely complete, but work is still going on regarding the exhibits and installations. The Forward notes that Halberszadt's departure under pressure "is provoking concern about the future of the ambitious project, which aims to preserve a legacy of 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland."

Photo: Handhouse Studio

Jerzy Halbersztadt, the museum’s project director since its conception in 1996, announced his resignation at an April 22 press conference after months of indecision by Poland’s Ministry of Culture about renewing his five-year contract. Halbersztadt’s contract had lapsed five months earlier.

Since Halbersztadt’s announcement, the museum has been run by his former deputy, Agnieszka Rudzińska, while the institution’s trustees search for a successor.

Halbersztadt’s unexpected departure came about as a result of repeated clashes with the Ministry of Culture over what he regarded as inadequate funding for the museum’s day-to-day operations. But in a March statement to the press, Culture and National Heritage Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski said that Halbersztadt was unable to cooperate with others and that he believed it was time for the project to have a new director.

Halbersztadt told the Forward that after his most recent contract lapsed, “They reduced my authority as director. I was unable to make any strategic financial decisions and even a [lost my] right to contract staff.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/138075/#ixzz1NNOS0vpM

Poland -- project to build replica of wooden synagogue for Museum of Jewish History

Picture from www.handshouse.org

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

You can sign up to help build replicas of some of the components of the destroyed 17th century Gwozdziec wooden synagogue, which will then be placed as a key installation in the upcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews now under construction in Warsaw.

The work is coordinated by the Handshouse Studio, which has already carried out a big project and exhibition on wooden synagogues, including reconstruction of part of the Gwozdziec ceiling, in collaboration with Tom Hubka, the author of a book about the synagogue, Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an Eighteenth Century Polish Community.

Wooden Synagogues of Poland An Exhibition: "A Lost World Revisited"

"Wooden Synagogues: A Lost World Revisited" is an exhibition about the 17th and 18th century wooden synagogues from the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth with a particular focus on the Zabludow and Gwozdziec Synagogues.

These magnificent buildings were destroyed during the Nazi invasion of Poland in World War II. Fortunately, an extensive collection of architectural drawings and photographic documentation has survived in several Polish archives. The exhibition displays reproductions of this historic documentation as well as scale models of the buildings themselves. Through this exhibition, the public will gain an understanding and appreciation of the architectural significance of the wooden synagogues and the nearly lost cultural heritage of the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Handshouse Studio and Tom Hubka, professor of Architecture and author of Resplendent Synagogue: Architecture and Worship in an Eighteenth Century Polish Community.Exhibition Contents

The exhibit includes six large scale B&W prints of photographs of the interior of Gwozdziec Synagogue; a large 1/2 scale colored painted replica of a portion of the Gwozdziec Synagogue ceiling and wall painting; a large-scale wooden model of the Zabludow Synagogue; reproductions of drawings (mostly produced by faculty and students from the Institute of Polish Architecture of the Polytechnic of Warsaw in 1920s and 1930s); and photographs of 14 additional synagogues along with descriptions of their Polish Jewish communities. There is also a full scale replica of a hewn timber framed brace, the roof truss and log wall connection from the Zabludow Synagogue structure.

The project web site offers this history of wooden synagogues in Polish lands:

During the period between the two world wars, the approximately 3.5 million Jews living in the Polish Republic constituted the largest Jewish community in the world outside of the United States. The Jews of Poland had a tradition of many centuries of peaceful existence alongside the other inhabitants – Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Belarusians, Germans, Armenians, Gypsies – creating a culture of richness and diversity. During the Nazi invasion of Poland and the Holocaust, this part of Poland's cultural richness was lost. Over two hundred wooden synagogues were completely destroyed and only through photographs, drawings and documentation compiled before the war are we able to envision a handful of the hundreds of synagogues that once existed. Wooden architecture is a dominant element in the historic landscape of Poland. Before World War II synagogues were a significant visual component throughout the countryside in the villages and towns of Poland. Their exterior massing was reflective of Polish vernacular tradition while the interior designs, including elaborate wall paintings and a highly crafted bimah and ark signify a distinctly Jewish art form. The paintings, which often covered the entire wall surfaces, depict zodiac symbols, arabesques, animal images, floral designs and Hebrew text. Upon entering the main sanctuary, the space is organized and dominated by two significant objects, an ark, a highly decorated towering cabinet used to store the Torah scrolls, and the bimah, a raised platform with an ornamental roof held up by wooden posts covering a table where the torah scrolls were read. There has been an abundance of research and scholarly discourse concerning Jewish society and religious beliefs, but up until recently, little has been written about the subject of the Jewish art and architecture particularly of this period and region. Scholars have suggested this may be a reaction to the second commandment that prohibits the making of and worshipping of idols. A common misconception is that the Polish Jewish communities who built wooden synagogues were blighted by poverty. This image may be an appropriate 19th and 20th century description, but Zabludow and similar synagogues from the 17th and 18th centuries were built by cosmopolitan, relatively affluent communities who could afford the highest regional standards of construction and craftsmanship. These wooden synagogues are an extraordinary phenomenon, worthy of high artistic standing among the wooden architecture of Europe and the world. They represent a high point in Jewish architectural art and religious painting, a tradition that was later abandoned by Eastern European Jews. This gives greater importance to the study of the subject. Today, these historic wooden synagogues remain only in the memories of a handful of survivors and in the limited but significant documentation. Most fortunately, between the two World Wars, Professor Oskar Sosnowski of the Department of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Warsaw, and photographer and art historian Szymon Zajczyk directed architects and architect students to produce extensive documentation of these wooden structures through architectural drawings, replica paintings, and photographs. Recognizing the historical importance and artistic value of this architecture and fearing its impending destruction with the rise of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, this team compiled extensive data and produced architectural drawings, color and detail studies and photographs of many synagogues. Much of this project was destroyed during World War II but a substantial amount survived. Today the documentation is all that remain of the wooden synagogues of Poland. [...] The image of the impoverished shtetl is an appropriate 19th and 20th century description but these buildings are monuments of the 17th and 18th century, a time referred to by some scholars as "a golden age" of shtetl Jewish history. These wooden synagogues were built by cosmopolitan, relatively affluent communities who could afford the highest regional standards of construction and craftsmanship. Conforming to the style of that period, wooden synagogues were an extraordinary architectural phenomenon, worthy of high artistic standing among the wooden architecture of Europe and the world.

Poland -- Video on Construction of Museum of Polish Jewish History in Warsaw

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Polish television ran some very interesting video showing the status of building of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, now under construction in Warsaw. The peg to the story is that 200 students from Israel, Europe and North America are there to assist in the construction stage of the "synagogue ceiling" instalation that recreates the highly decorated interior vault of one of the elaborate wooden synagogues destroyed during World War II.

Poland -- paying tribute

 Belzec. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

In the aftermath of Saturday's plane disaster that claimed the life of Poland's President and dozens of other senior political, military and intellectual figures, most attention -- naturally -- has been paid to the death of President Lech Kaczynski.

As many of the tributes to him point out, Kaczynski devoted much time and pro-active interest in promoting Jewish causes. He was the honorary patron of the annual Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow and was a key figure in the decision to found the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, currently under construction in Warsaw: it was during Kaczynski's term as mayor of Warsaw that the city donated the land for the museum.

Others on the doomed plane, however, took an active role in fostering Jewish-Polish relations and, in particular, caring for Jewish heritage and Holocaust memorial sites. Many in the Jewish world lost close personal friends....

Tomasz Merta, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Culture and National Heirtage as well as the General Inspector of Monuments, is described by the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum and  "a man of exceptional insight, understanding and personal sacrifice for the cause of historical memory and the education of new generations."

In an article for JTA, David Harris of the American Jewish Committee pays tribute in particular to the diplomat Mariusz Handzlik and Andrzej Przewoźnik, the  secretary-general of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Mariusz and I shared a deep admiration for Jan Karski, the Polish wartime hero who later joined the faculty of Georgetown University. While serving in the United States, Mariusz befriended Karski, becoming his regular chess partner. They were playing chess when Karski suddenly felt ill and died shortly afterward. Together, Mariusz and I cried for this man who, at repeated risk to his own life, had tried to alert a largely deaf world to the Nazi’s Final Solution

And when Mariusz was assigned to the Polish Mission to the United Nations, he proudly told me that now he would be in a position, together with his colleagues, to help Israel in the world body. He wanted the Israelis to know they had friends at the United Nations, which largely was seen as hostile territory for Israel.

Andrzej Przewoźnik was secretary-general of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.
I first met him when the Polish government and the American Jewish Committee joined together to demarcate, protect, and memorialize the site of the Nazi death camp in Belzec, located in southeastern Poland. In less than a year, more than 500,000 Jews were killed in an area barely the size of a few football fields. Only two Jews survived.

In June 2004, after years of planning and construction, the site was inaugurated. As the late Miles Lerman said at that solemn ceremony, “No place of martyrdom anywhere is today as well protected and memorialized as Belzec.” That could not have occurred without Andrzej’s pivotal role. He helped make it happen, overcoming the multiple hurdles along the way. By doing so, he ensured that what took place at Belzec, long neglected by the Communists, would never be forgotten.

 Belzec, indeed, is one of the most powerful memorials to the Shoah: the entire area of the camp has been turned into a sculpture... and there is also an excellent museum.

Poland --the power of a Jewish graveyard

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've written for years about the power and emotions evoked by Jewish cemeteries, particularly those in Eastern Europe.... Now Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband has felt the pull -- as he recounts in an article in the Jewish Chronicle. Miliband visited the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews project. Had he headed south, he could have felt perhaps even more palpable evidence of the endurance of the Jewish spirit (if not a sizable Jewish population) at the Festival of Jewish Culture (which I still expect to comment on here).

Visiting Poland gave me a poignant link to my roots - and hope for the future [...]

This was my first visit to Poland. There must have been a deep ambivalence at the heart of this delay. Poland is my roots. But Poland is the scene of terrible tragedy — mass murder on an unimaginable scale. This counterpoint — normality and tragedy, centuries of construction and a decade of destruction, heroism alongside sadism — is at the heart of the new Museum of Polish Jews that begins construction on June 30, on a site in the heart of the former Warsaw Ghetto (www.shtetl.org.pl ).

The haunting void where once was the ghetto seems permanently wrestling with present and past —when I visited, dog walkers were to be found alongside an Israeli art group.

Poland -- Cornerstone of Museum Laid

Site of new Museum. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The cornerstone of the long-awaited Museum of the History of Polish Jews was laid in Warsaw at a high-profile ceremony Tuesday. The museum, years in the making, will be located in what was the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, across from the Ghetto Heroes monument erected there in 1948.

"Prior to the Holocaust, the Shoah, Warsaw was one of the world's main centres of Jewish life where politics, culture, publishing and Jewish theatre thrived -- in fact it was the leading centre, surpassing other cities in the US and Europe," project director Jerzy Halbersztadt told guests at the site.

During the Holocaust, the district was inside the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, where all told Nazi Germany imprisoned more than 400,000 Polish Jews, many of whom died of starvation or disease or were sent to death camps.

The bricks used as the cornerstones came from the World War II-era foundations of the last headquarters of the Council of Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, the scene of a famous wartime uprising, Halbersztadt said.

"So we have come full circle and beginning the construction of the museum is also an element of closing this circle," he added.

Read AFP story

Warsaw -- New museum construction to begin June 30

The new Museum of this History of Poland Jews has announced that construction of the building will begin June 30 at the museum site across from the 1948 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument.

Here's the press release:

After many years filled with devotion to the cause, after overcoming all obstacles and difficulties, construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews will finally begin on June 30th, 2009.

Today, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of Warsaw, Bogdan Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and their representative Paweł Barański, Director of the Capital City Development Authority, signed a contract with Polimex-Mostostal Construction Company, which won the bid to build the Museum. Also present at contract-signing was the Museum building designer Rainer Mahlamäki. “I believe that it is one of the most interesting museum buildings in the world,” said Mayor Gronkiewicz-Waltz and added that she was glad to see the start of construction after so many years. “Today we celebrate,” rejoiced Minister Zdrojewski and thanked the Museum team for having helped to create an exceptionally refined and successful project whose execution is awaited with impatience by multitudes of people in Poland and around the world.

“I’m glad that as of today, instead of describing the exceptional museum that we will create some day, we will be able to actually show the process of its creation. I would like to thank the Mayor and the Minister for having brought us to the point where we are today. It is said that putting the investment package together, preparing and overseeing the tendering procedure, and meeting the requirements of the Public Finances Act for the purpose of funding the Museum project was more difficult than actually building the Museum. I am certain that from now on everything will go smoothly, especially since the construction will be in the hands of professionals from Polimex-Mostostal”, said Museum Director Jerzy Halbersztadt. Polimex-Mostostal Chairman Konrad Jaskóła assured that the building would be erected in 33 months as stated in the contract and asked for support all institutions engaged in building the Museum.

Last April, Polimex-Mostostal together with Interbud-West won the Museum construction tender with their bid of PLN 152 million. A competing bidder – Warbud – filed a protest on May 8th but ultimately decided not to appeal the decision. Appeal proceedings would greatly lengthen the entire process. It was also reported that the renowned multinational engineering company Ove Arup will participate in supervising construction of the Museum.

The ceremony marking the start of construction will take place on June 30th at the square in front of the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes’ Memorial. In addition to Warsaw City Hall and Culture Ministry officials and representatives of the Jewish Historical Institute Association, which initiated the Museum project and is responsible for the core exhibition, it will be attended by business partners, sponsors and numerous guests from many countries. Splendour will be added to the ceremony by the Musical Tribute to the Memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which will feature 100 cantors from the Cantors Assembly (USA), who that day will began their tour of Poland.

Polimex–Mostostal is the largest Polish construction engineering company. It specializes in erecting steel structures, which will come handy in construction of the unique curved wall of the Museum. In 2008, the company had a turnover of PLN 4.3 billion (15% higher than the year earlier). It is among 20 largest enterprises listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange. The company takes up grand investment projects (highways, railroads and power plants, Legia Stadium in Warsaw and Wisła Stadium in Krakow) and special cultural projects such as the Chopin Centre and Medical Academy library in Warsaw or the Art Education Centre in Gorzów Wielkopolski.

Poland -- New Virtual Shtetl Resource

The Museum of the History of Polish Jewry has just launched the beta version of its "Virtual Shtetl" project, which aims to be an ever-growing online archive and database of photographs, video, texts, old postcards, maps and other reference material on Jewish history and heritage in towns, cities and villages in Poland. Users will have the possibility of adding their own material.

Check out the site by clicking HERE.

The web site states:

The Virtual Shtetl Portal is devoted to the local history of Jews. Although at the moment of the Portal launching it contains a lot of information, its future is based on the cooperation of Internauts using Web 2.0 solutions. Thus a medium is created which constitutes a sort of bridge between the history of Polish Jewish towns and the contemporary, multicultural world.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been creating this modern tool at the time when the construction project of the museum building is just beginning. The Virtual Shtetl is a museum without walls, a logical consequence of the initiative to build the Museum , it also provides the answer to social expectations.

The Virtual Shtetl depicts the history of Polish Jews, which in great part was created in towns (Yiddish: shetl). On the Portal one can find the information pertaining to the past but also to the present, to little towns, but also to large cities. The Portal presents both contemporary and also pre-war Poland. The English version will enable the Polish Jews and their descendants scattered all over the world to use the Virtual Shtetl Portal.

A full picture of Polish-Jewish history and relations has been and will be presented thanks to the effort of many institutions, organizations and private persons. Due to the richness of the subject the list of initiatives to be taken up is unlimited. A source of precious information has been provided by the Polin Portal as well the local community portal Jewish.org.pl. In the execution of the Virtual Shtetl Project the experience of the following Internet projects has been used: izrael.badacz.org and Diapozytyw (Adam Mickiewicz Institute) as well as many years’ cooperation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the Jewish Historical Institute.

The Virtual Shtetl is not a place, but the community by which it is created. Let us take pictures and look for the relics of the past, let us listen to accounts. Let us exchange information and encourage one another to take up initiatives. Let us get to know one another and act.

In some ways, the site is similar to the Polin portal of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Fodz). (And in fact, some of the material appears to be the same -- looks like there is the same little video of the Jewish cemetery in Bielsko Biala.)