The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is an internationally supported project to construct a modern educational centre in Warsaw, Poland where over nine centuries of Jewish presence on Polish and formerly Polish lands will be presented to visitors from Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. A venue will emerge where the history and culture of Polish Jews will be recorded, presented, and restored as part of the consciousness of today's and future generations of Jews and non-Jews in Eastern Europe as well as worldwide.

Mission

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw is dedicated to teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the history and rich culture that the Jewish nation produced on Polish soil for over 900 years.
The Museum, a center for education as well as remembrance, will strive to mend the empty spaces in the biographies of many young Poles and young Jews.
By documenting accurately the interrelations of their ancestors as they existed for centuries, the Museum will empower young people to engage in an informed encounter with the past, free of the burden of stereotypes, as they progress toward a dialogue for the future.

Vision

As shadows of world terrorism cloud the opening years of the twenty-first century, we must strengthen our determination to equip the younger generations with the ability to respect differences among people and to learn to work with others free from the fear of losing their own identity.
By encouraging us to draw conclusions from the co-existence of two nations within one country over 900 years, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, a vital and unique portrayal of centuries of Jewish life, will teach the universal themes of tolerance and respect for ethnic differences that are essential for building an open society.

The Patronage of Honor over the Project implementation has been assumed by the President of the Polish Republic, Mr. Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

The project is being implemented by the "Jewish Historical Institute" Association, based in Warsaw, Poland, in collaboration with several organisations and leading experts from a number of countries. It draws upon support of committees, organisations and foundations operating in individual countries.

The work on the Museum establishment is being performed by an international team of experts led by the Museum Project Director, acting as a plenipotentiary of the "ŻIH" Association's Board. Since 1998, the post has been held by Mr. Jerzy Halbersztadt.

Team members include: Prof. Israel Gutman (Jerusalem), Prof. Feliks Tych (Warsaw), Prof. Michael Berenbaum (Los Angeles), Mr. Yechiam Halevy and Mr. Jacek Nowakowski (Washington, D.C.)

Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Established with the task of co-ordinating works on the establishment of the Museum in their entirety.

Council Members: Mr. Marian Turski, historian (Council Chairman); Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, former Polish Foreign Affairs Minister; Mr. Andrzej Celiński, Minister of Culture of Poland, Deputy Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party of Poland; Mr. Michał Friedman, former "ŻIH" Association Chairman; Mr. Hanoch Gutfreund, former Rector of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Mr. Israel Gutman, Professor of History, Hebrew University, and former Director, of the Yad Vashem Research Center, Jerusalem; Mr. Ben Helfgott, President of Survivors 45-Aid Society, London; Mr. Jerzy Kichler, President of the Association of Jewish Religious Congregations in Poland; Mr. Naphtali Lavie, Vice-Chairman, World Jewish Restitution Organisation; Mr. Kalman Sultanik, Vice-Chairman, World Jewish Congress, and Chairman, Federation of Polish Jews of the United States; Ms. Golda Tencer, Chairman, Social-Cultural Jewish Society of Warsaw; Prof. Feliks Tych, Director, Jewish Historical Research Institute (ŻIH-INB).

The Museum will be Eastern Europe's first multi-media museum, reconstructing an image of the past through available visual and descriptive means. It will likewise be the world's only narrative museum on such a scale telling about the life of Jews on Polish soil and the culture they have been creating there for nearly 1,000 years, both separately and together with Poles.

Museum Floor Plan will include:

• Permanent exhibition space - 3,200 sq. metres
• Rotating, guest exhibition area - 1,000 sq. metres
• Computerised information center - 250 sq. metres
• Learning and research center - 360 sq. metres
• Cinema-lecture-concert hall with seating for 500 - 700 sq. metres
• Two lecture halls (for 100 and 60 people) - 250 sq. metres
• Restaurant - 300 sq. metres
• Book shop and museum shop - 150 sq. metres
• Entrance hall including museum information center - 1,000 sq. meters
• Museum employees' offices and auxiliary infrastructure - 1,500 sq.metres
• Other premises - 1,000 sq. metres
• Technical infrastructure area - 3,100 sq. metres
• Additionally: Underground car park - 3,000 sq. meters

TOTAL: 15,810 sq.meters

Cost Estimate

The analyses and calculations carried out to date indicate that the construction of a building with an area of 13,000 square meters including the creation of a permanent exhibition equipped with the state of the art technical amenities will amount to $63 million.

International Honorary Committee of the Museum:

ˇ Mr. Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister in Israel
ˇ Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Poland
ˇ Mr. Ronald Lauder
ˇ Mr. Zbigniew Brzeziński
ˇ Mr. Israel Finestein, former President of the Board of Deputies of British Jewry
ˇ Mr. Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of Anti-Defamation League
ˇ Mr. Michał Friedman , The Jewish Historic Institute Association;
ˇ Mr. Isi Leibler, Vice-Chairman of World Jewish Congress, and Executive President, Council of Australian Jewry
ˇ Mr. Miles Lerman, Chairman Emeritus of United States Holocaust Memorial Council; Mr. Benjamin Meed, President, American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors; Mr. Marek M. Siwiec, Secretary of State of the President's Office of the Republic of Poland; Sir Sigmund Sternberg, Chairman, Executive Committee, International Council of Christians and Jews
ˇ Mr. Marcin Święcicki, former Mayor of Warsaw

Committees for support of the Project with the goal of promoting the Project and collecting financial means for its construction operate in several countries.
Germany, a special Foerderverein under the patronage of former German President, Mr. Roman Herzog, and managed by Dr Franz Bertele, former German Ambassador to Poland and Israel.

Support Committees are also active in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Israel.

Polish Committee for Support of the Historic Museum of Polish Jews

• Chair - Marcin Święcicki Former Mayor of the City of Warsaw
• Wladysław Bartoszewski - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland
• Barbara Labuda - Secretary of State at the Presidential Chancellery
• Lech Nikolski - Secretary of State at the Prime Minister Office
• Henryk Muszyński - Archbishop of the Gniezno Metropolitanate
• Stanisław Gądecki - Chairman of the Polish Episcopate's Committee for Inter-faith Dialog
• Andrzej Wajda - Polish film director, Oscar Academy Award laureate for lifetime achievement
• Bronisław Geremek - former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, - Delegate to the House of Representatives
• Krzysztof Piesiewicz - Polish Senator
• Marek Edelman, M.D. - Assistant Commander of the Jewish Combat Organization in the Warsaw ghetto uprising
• Cezary Stypułkowski - President of the Polish Trade Bank (Polski Bank Handlowy S.A.).
• Agata Tuszyńska - writer
• Others

Support and Funding

Major contributors of The Museum of the History of Polish Jews Project

• State Government of the Republic of Poland
• City of Warsaw, Poland
• The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, New York, USA
• Polish/German Co-operation Foundation, Warsaw
• German Association for the Museum Construction Support, Berlin
• The Polonia Aid Foundation Trust, Great Britain
• Ryszard Krauze Fundation
• Victor Markowicz
• And individual and corporate contributors

Museum of History of Polish Jews US Support Committee
Is in the process of being established to provide assistance in promoting and funding of the Museum in the United States under the leadership of Mr. Victor Markowicz.

Year 2002 marks the beginning of a major fundraising campaign within the United States to support the creation of the museum in Warsaw.

Tax-deductible donations can now be made through the Grant Assistance Program of FJC, A Foundation of Donor Advised Funds, with designation for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Make checks payable to "FJC/Museum of the History of Polish Jews."
Address: FJC
130 East 59th Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Tel. 212.832 2405
Contact information

Museum of the History of Polish Jews (office)
48 Jelinka Street, 01-646 Warsaw
Tel./Fax (+48 22) 833 00 21
Tel./Fax (+48 22) 832 20 43
Email: jewishmuseum@jewishmuseum.org.pl
Director: Jerzy Halbersztadt
Director for Development: Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka

US Committee for the Support of the Museum
Ewa Wierzynska or Ewa Zadrzynska
845 West End Ave. 1A
NY, NY 10025
Tel. 212. 961 0059
Email: eva@interaccessinc.com or ewa@interaccessinc.com

"Jewish Historical Institute" Association
3/5 Tłomackie Street
00-090 Warsaw, Poland
Tel./Fax (+48 22) 827 92 25
Chairman of the Board: Mr. Marian Turski

Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Milestones in the History of the Museum

1. 1996: Yeshayahu Weinberg, a founding director of Tel Aviv's Diaspora Museum and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, creates an international team to build the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

2. 1996 - to present: In Poland, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Israel people enthusiastic about the idea found 'Committees to Support the Museum'. In France, Belgium and the Netherlands work is in progress. On the photo: Shannie Ross and Jan Chodakowski of the British Committee.

3. 1997: Warsaw City Council donates 13,000 square meters of land within the former pre-war Jewish Quarter for the Museum to be built opposite the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Memorial.

4. 1998 - to present: 150 researchers work on documentation of visual images illustrating the history of Polish Jews. Organized in a database constituting a 'virtual museum', the collection consists of 50,000 items to date. Research continues in Ukraine and other countries.

5. 1999: an emotional message from the past, when archaeological excavations uncover documents from the Warsaw Ghetto buried at the site of the future museum.

6. 1999: Polish and foreign media representatives, public officials, diplomats, business club members, foreign visitors and students attend the first presentations of the proposal for the Museum and of the contribution made by Polish Jews to the development of Poland's culture, arts, science and economy, based on database resources.

7. 1999: The Jewish Historical Institute Association appoints the Museum's Council under the leadership of Marian Turski, President of the Board.

8. 2000: Frank O. Gehry, the designer of modern museums including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Spain) agrees to design the Museum.

9. 2000: Completion of the Museum's historical and architectural plans opens the way for detailed design work.

10. 2000: Event Communications, the London-based, award-winning designers of exhibitions including the Ypres Battle Museum in Belgium, start work on the museum's content and interior design.

11. 2001: A quarterly newsletter and a web site are produced as regular, widely accessible sources of information about the development of the project.

12. 2002: At an official meeting with members and representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Prime Minister of Poland Leszek Miller announces the construction of the Museum calling it "restitution of memory".

13. 2002: Władysław Bartoszewski, President of the Poland-Israel Association, former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs and an honorary citizen of Israel, meets with representatives of the American Jewish community in New York to garner support for the Museum project.

14. April 18 2002: Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres and many other leading members of the international community approve the concept of the Museum and the plans for the permanent exhibition at an international conference convened for this purpose by Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.