POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews GRAND OPENING OF THE CORE EXHIBITION Warsaw, October 28, 2014 A presentation by Peter Jassem, Chair of the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation in Toronto and of the newly established Canadian Association of the POLIN Museum, at Wolfond Centre, University of Toronto, on Dec. 8, 2014 Ladies and Gentlemen, we will discuss the opening and contents of the CORE EXHIBITION. The Museum s BUILDING opened a year and a half earlier. Since then, a wide range of cultural programs took place within the building, but the vast space of almost 50,000 square feet in the lower level of this grand structure, which now houses the Core Exhibition, the heart and soul of the museum, remained under construction until October 28 th of this year. So if you ve been to the building prior to this date, you really haven t seen the museum. The first several slides represent the Grand Opening events
The Core Exhibition is a journey through 1000 years of continuous history of Polish Jews from the Middle Ages until today. Visitors will find answers to questions such as: how did Jews come to Poland? How did Poland become the centre of the Jewish Diaspora and the home of the largest Jewish community in the world? How did it cease to be one, and how is Jewish life being revived in Poland? The exhibition is made up of eight galleries, spread over an area of 47,000 sq. ft. While seeking to confront thorny issues, it also brings attention to bright chapters in the common Polish-Jewish history. It shows coexistence, cooperation, rivalry, conflicts, autonomy, separation, integration, assimilation and so on. Creators of the exhibition strive to remain close to life by letting people speak quotes by Jewish merchants, scholars or artists from a given era, rabbis, housewives, politicians, chroniclers and revolutionaries mark the museum walls. What I like most about the exhibition is that the visitors are asked to forget what they already know about what happened later and are asked to enter into the very moment of the events as they are unfolding. Witnesses and participants of actual events, not representatives of generations that followed, tell the stories. Let me walk you through the galleries.
Legend of Polin (Arrival) The Polin legend describes the arrival of Jews in Poland, through dense forests, a thousand years ago. The legend, which is an inspiration for the whole museum and its permanent exhibition, refers to Jews who were escaping from persecution in the western part of medieval Europe and reached the territories of today's Poland, where they heard birds singing "Po-lin! Po-lin!" Hebrew for "you will rest here". As time passed, it also began to denote "Poland". According to the legend, Jews regarded this as a sign from God and decided to settle down in this new place. The museum has recently adopted the word POLIN as part of its name.
First Encounters (960 1500) Visitors will meet Ibrahim Ibn Yakub, a Jewish diplomat from Cordoba, who, in 960, reported in Arabic on the first Jewish settlements in Poland. Visitors will also be able to Study the Statute of Kalisz of 1264 that guaranteed Jews freedom of religion, protection against false charges and the right to trade. They will learn that acts of violence did occur but on a much lesser scale than in the rest of Europe and that Jews received a warm welcome from Polish rulers. They will see the first complete sentence written in Yiddish, preserved on the pages of a prayer book from 1272 and an original Jewish one-sided coin bearing the name of a Polish king in Hebrew letters, a centerpiece of the exhibit devoted to the role of Jews in the development of the Polish economy and currency. The gallery indicates that the centre of the Ashkenazi world had shifted east towards Poland.
Paradisus Iudaeorum (1569 1648) It displays huge maps of the newly established Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, making Poland the largest country in Europe, dotted by countless Jewish settlements. The gallery depicts the Golden Age of Jewish life and culture in Poland, with Jewish autonomy, their own self-government called the Council of Four Lands and, unlike in other countries, no mass persecution. The walls display quotes by Christians expressing envy of Jewish privileges, like one suggesting that Poland was a paradise for Jews, hell for peasants, and purgatory for burghers. The centerpiece is an interactive scale model of Krakow and nearby Kazimierz, the Jewish sister city of the Polish capital, with thriving culture and religious life, institutions of learning and development of printing.
The Corridor of Fire (1648) Migration of Jews to the noble estates in the east and their engagement in leasing inns, mills and breweries and in trading in grain and cattle, led to tensions between the peasantry and Jewish leaseholders as representatives of Polish nobility. This culminated in the bloody Khmelnycky uprising of Ukrainian Cossacks in 1648, depicted in the Corridor of Fire, which links us to the next gallery.
The Jewish Town (1648-1772) This gallery shows a period of renewal, when the areas depopulated by Khmelnycky Uprising and other wars that ravaged Poland in seventeenth century were once more filled with Baroque synagogues and cemeteries full of richly ornamented matzevot. It shows that Jewish life was centered around the Marketplace and Synagogue. The centerpiece of this gallery is a replica of the painted ceiling of the wooden synagogue from Gwoździec. The area designated as Home depicts relationships within the family and among neighbors, while the Tavern and Church rooms present Jewish-Christian relations. The visitors learn that by 1765 750,000 Jews lived in 1100 towns, compared to 30,000 Jews at the end of the medieval period. Time seems to have stopped in this gallery, which precedes the time of change of the postpartition era.
Encounters with Modernity (1772 1914) The gallery depicts partitions of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria. It presents the century that followed, with Jews living under each of the three powers, who struggle to maintain the distinctness of Jewish tradition while integrating Jews into mainstream society. It shows both the state s and Jewish reformers efforts to modernize Jewish life. It presents new types of schools, new Jewish dress adapted to Western fashions, new cultural norms and trends. It also shows those who opposed change, like the Chasidim, and education in modern Yeshivas. The train station represents migration, the role of Jews in the construction of the railway, or the Chassidic train running between Warsaw and Góra Kalwaria. The gate of the Poznański enterprise in Łódź represents unprecedented economic development by Jewish entrepreneurs like Israel Poznański, the cotton king of Łódź, who contributed to industrialization of the Kingdom of Poland. New Hebrew and Yiddish culture, including the writing of Isaac Leybush Peretz, is shown and new, modern Jewish political movements like Bundism or Zionism are presented.
On the Jewish Street (1918 1939) The opening date of this gallery marks the end of the Great War, which lasted four years, brought the downfall of the three partitioning powers and the independence to Poland. This gallery s main feature is a Jewish street with entrances to spaces where visitors can discover the vibrant cultural and political life of this period sometimes referred to as the second Golden Age. Multimedia displays allow visitors to explore unprecedented opportunities for development, ambitious visions of Jewish leaders reflected in the programs of political parties, the activities of charitable and social organizations as well as the work of artists. Both development of Jewish nationalism as well as assimilation into the Polish society are presented. The gallery makes it clear that the Second Republic, however, was not heaven on earth for Jews. It also depicts pogroms of 1918, several yearlong economic crises and the rising anti-semitism of the thirties, which led to Jewish emigration to Palestine, Western Europe and the Americas.
Holocaust (1939 1945) The Holocaust gallery commemorates Jewish victims and heroes. Its focus is on the Warsaw Ghetto thanks to the availability of unique vast underground archives preserved by Emanuel Ringelblum and his dedicated associates who documented the wartime fate of the Warsaw Jews. It shows the daily life in the ghetto, the structures of the Judenrat, the fate of its chairman Adam Czerniakow, Jewish resistance and the ghetto uprising, as well as conditions on the so- called Arian side. The gallery shows humiliation and persecution of Polish Jews under German Nazi occupation, forced labour camps, hundreds of ghettoes in every town and city, and implementation of the final solution leading to the extermination of 3 million Polish Jews. The gallery also shows the bystanders and collaborators and does not shy away from such tragic events like the Jedwabne pogrom.
Postwar Years (1944 to the present) The gallery presents the uncertainty of postwar years, the question of whether to stay and rebuild life or to leave the country of ruins, ashes and hostility. It presents the immediate postwar years and efforts to preserve the memory of those who perished, including the making of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, unveiled in 1948. It shows illegal escapes to Palestine where Polish Jews played an important role in the creation of the State of Israel, as well as the engagement of those who remained in Poland and were active in its political and cultural life. The gallery shows the rebuilding of the Jewish community, the activities of the Socio-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland and the achievements of writers and artists who identified with Jewish as well as Polish culture. It presents the dramatic events of the government-sponsored anti-semitic campaign of March 1968 that forced many Jews to leave the country forever. The gallery concludes with the events following the fall of Communism in 1989 marked by resurgence of interests in Jewish heritage in Polish society and efforts to rebuild Jewish life in Poland.
The Inaugural Concert Museum of Life this title, referring to the POLIN Museum, was also the motto of the Opening Performance, featuring klezmer virtuoso David Krakauer and jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, who premiered his suite compositions dedicated to the POLIN Museum during the event. The poetry of Julian Tuwim as well as popular songs in Polish and Yiddish were also be performed. The Museum façade turned into a gigantic screen on which art by young Polish street artists was projected.
PANEL DISCUSSION Let me introduce my colleagues and friends, the four panelist who among others have joined me in the historic event in Warsaw, the Grand Opening of the CORE EXHIBITION of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews just over a month ago. Frank Bialystok, a son of Holocaust survivors, was born in Poland shortly after the war. Frank s fields of academic research are the Holocaust, the Canadian Jewish History, and Polish Jews in the Twentieth Century. His book Delayed Impact: The Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community won the Tannenbaum Prize in Canadian Jewish History. Frank is one of the founders of the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada and maintains interest in Poland and Polish-Jewish relations. Michael Marrus, is a Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. He is an expert on the history of French Jewry and anti-semitism and wrote extensively on unparalleled brutality of the Vichy regime towards the French Jews. He is an author of Holocaust in History, a well-regarded historiographical survey. Michael s scholarly interests include Poland. Last year our foundation co-sponsored his memorable lecture on Yitzhak Zuckerman and the Memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Professor Marrus is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Piotr Wróbel graduated from Warsaw University if Warsaw in 1977. For the last two decades he has held the Konstanty Reynert Chair of Polish Studies at the University of Toronto. He serves on the Advisory Board of POLIN: A Journal of Polish-Jewish Studies, on the Governing Council of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, on Boards of Directors of the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada and of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in New York. He published over a dozen books and many articles on Polish and Polish-Jewish history. Eli Rubenstein is a National Director of March of the Living Canada and Director of Education of March of the Living International, founder & Director of March of Remembrance and Hope Canada, a Member of Advisory Council of Canadians Remember and past member of Canadian Advisory Council for the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, as well as the Religious Leader of Congregation Habonim, who joined the Board of Canadian Association of the POLIN Museum.