POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here". It relates to a legend about the arrival of the first Jews to Poland.

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich
The museum building
Established	2005 (opened April 2013)
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Type	Historical, cultural
Collection size	History and culture of Polish Jews
Visitor figures	expected 450,000
Director	Zygmunt Stępiński
Curator	Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Website	Museum's official website

Overview

Construction of the museum in Muranów, Warsaw's prewar Jewish quarter, began in 2009, following an international architectural competition won by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma. Completed at a cost of 320 million zł, the museum opened on April 19, 2013 with the core exhibition, showing the thousand-year history of Polish Jews, opening on October 28, 2014.

The museum features a minimalist exterior with glass fins and copper mesh, and an interior designed by Event Communications. The organizational structure of POLIN includes an academic team led by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and chief historian Antony Polonsky.

Core Exhibition

Main exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Reconstruction of the synagogue in Gwoździec, Ukraine

The museum's Core Exhibition, taking up over 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft), presenting an overview of Jewish history in Poland across eight galleries. These galleries cover periods from the early Jewish settlers in Poland to the Holocaust and the post-war years. The Core Exhibition won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2016.

Entrance hall

Main hall

Traditional Mezuzah at the entrance

The building's central feature is its cavernous entrance hall. The main hall forms a high and wave-like wall. The empty space is a symbol of cracks in the Polish Jewish history. Similar in shape to gorge, as a reference to the crossing of the Red Sea known from the Exodus. The museum is nearly 13,000 square meters of usable space.

At the lowest level, in the basement of the building will be placed the main exhibition about the Jewish history from the Middle Ages to modern times. The museum building also has a multipurpose auditorium with 480 seats, temporary exhibition rooms, an education center, an information center, a playroom for children, café, shop, and a future kosher restaurant.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Memorial

70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Monument to the the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw

The museum faces the memorial for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The winner of the architectural competition was Rainer Mahlamäki, of the architectural studio 'Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Oy in Helsinki, whose design was chosen from 100 submissions to the international architectural competition. The Polish firm Kuryłowicz & Associates was responsible for construction. The building's minimalist exterior is clad with glass fins and copper mesh. Silk screened on the glass is the word Polin, in Latin and Hebrew letters.

Hebrew and Latin letters of the word Polin

Distinguished Benefactors

Distinguished Benefactors are a group of individuals and institutions who have supported the museum's programme activities after the Museum of the History of Polish Jews' founding campaign, conducted between 1993 and 2014 by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland. The first Distinguished Benefactor is businessman, art collector and patron Gregory Jankilevitsch. The current list of Distinguished Benefactors of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews includes:

• Carmit and Ygal Ozechov
• Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
• Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation
• Germany
• Gregory Jankilevitsch
• Helen Tramiel z d. Goldgrub i Jack Tramiel z d. Trzmiel
• Irene Kronhill Pletka and The Kronhill Pletka Foundation
• Jan Kulczyk on behalf Kulczyk Holding
• Janette and Aleksander Goldberg
• Klara and Larry A. Silverstein
• Koret Foundation
• Monika and Wiktor Markowicz
• Norway
• Odette and Nimrod S. Ariav Foundation
• Orange Polska
• Robert Wereda
• Rodziny Oliwenstein i Radzyminski
• Taube Family Foundation
• The David Berg Foundation
• The Hellman Family
• The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco
• The Neubauer Family Foundation on behalf of Miles Lerman
• The Nissenbaum Family Foundation
• The Parasol family oraz The Bonita Trust
• Tomek Ulatowski
• William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation
• Zygmunt Rolat

POLIN Museum Of The History Of Polish Jews Media

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  President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the POLIN Museum, 26 June 2007

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  Gwoździec synagogue roof reconstruction

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  "On the Jewish Street" gallery with entrances to exhibition halls

Related pages

• Yad Vashem
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum