Much attention this year focused on the opening of the core exhibit of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. But four or five other new Jewish museums, or museums with Jewish themes,  are under development in Poland, though concrete plans are not drawn up for all of them.

In Biłgoraj, the town in southeast Poland that was home to the Nobel prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer, work is moving forward on a “living skansen” complex that will including a Singer Museum and also Museum of Biłgoraj Jews to be housed in a replica of the elaborate wooden synagogue, destroyed in World War II, that once stood in the town of Wolpe (now in Belarus).

Work on the synagogue replica seems nearing completion and workers were even seen on the job on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year’s.

The project as a whole, overseen by the Biłgoraj XXI Foundation, is to recreate a typical village of the region — a “City on the Trail of Borderland Cultures” — as a cultural and commercial venue that will include the museums and replicated synagogue as well as apartments, shops, restaurants,  hotel accommodation, and sports facilities. Nearly 2 million zloties in funding has been allocated by the Regional Operational Programme of the Lubelskie Province.

Virtual Shtetl writes (citing the Biłgoraj XXI web site):

The spatial plan of the City on the Trail of Borderland Cultures is based on authentic urban plans of pre-war borderland towns. The market square and a town hall will be the heart of the place, surrounded by stylish hotels, eateries and other tourist services. The architecture of the Jewish market, which will be located on the fringe of the city, will be typical of interwar years.

 

Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, took part in the ceremony laying the cornerstone of the synagogue replica. This video shows some of the works.

 

As we reported two years ago, the project has been financed by local entrepreneur Tadeusz Koźmiński — who conceived the project — along with the Ambra alcohol producer and Black Red White furniture manufacturer, both of which companies operate in Biłgoraj. Application for EU funds were rejected.

 

The complex is to include a cobbled “Jewish Market Square” — anchored by the synagogue and lined by small wooden houses.

There will also be a “Polish Market Square”  featuring masonry buildings.

 

Click here for the Bilgoraj XXI web site, where architectural plans, photographs of the work under construction and other material can be seen

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Meanwhile, the neo-Gothic red-brick Ceremonial Hall at the Jewish cemetery in Gliwice, designed by Max Fleischer and built in 1903,  is under development as a branch of the Municipal Museum that will house a permanent exhibition on Jewish history in Upper Silesia. It is due to open in 2015.

See our report from earlier this year.

See plans and mock up photos on Museum web site

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Meanwhile, plans for at least two other Jewish museums in Poland have been announced in recent weeks.

One is due to be sited in the 17th century synagogue in Łęczna. Devastated by the Nazis, the synagogue was rebuilt after World War II to house a Regional Museum, which opened there in 1966. The restoration retained the four-pillared bimah and decorated Aron ha Kodesh. A memorial plaque was affixed on an outer wall in 1961, and decades later gravestones rescued from the destroyed Jewish cemetery were grouped in an enclosed area outside the synagogue as a sort of memorial.

The synagogue was restituted to Jewish ownership in 2013 and placed under the administration of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ).  The Regional Museum moved out and has yet to find new premises for its exhibits, which include valuable Judaica.

FODZ says it hope that a new Jewish museum will open in the building some time in 2016 — but so far no details are known about the design, contents, timetable, etc. Nor is it know whether the Judaica items from the Regional Museum will be able to find a home in the new Jewish museum.

See JTA story about plans for new museum

See our September 2013 post about concerns over the fate of the building

 

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The other recently announced Jewish museum plans are for a Jewish museum to be built in an annex to be constructed at the Ceremonial Hall of the Jewish Cemetery in Łódż.

Quoting Gazeta Wyborcza, Virtual Shtetl reported in early December that

Anna Pałagan, a graduate of the Łódź University of Technology was awarded the first prize at the international contest for the best dissertation on the preservation of cultural heritage. A Museum of the Jews of Łódź is to be constructed at a Jewish cemetery according to her design.

The topic of the winning dissertation is “A Museum at the funeral home at the Jewish cemetery in Łódź”. A glass building is to be added to the existing pre-burial house on Bracka Street.

It is not clear, however, how far along this project is at this point.

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In addition, plans were announced early in 2014 to develop a Jewish museum in Białystok, in an old factory building that — in September — was reported to be under renovation.

In January 2014 Virtual Shtetl reported that:

According to the Gazeta.pl portal, the City Hall has allocated PLN 50 000 for the drafting of the project documentation in the 2014 budget.

The museum is to be built in the former factory by Berek and Chaja Liba Lesesz, at 1 Kijowska Street. The building is located in Chanajki, the 18th century Białystok district, inhabited mostly by Jews. The district was named after the name “Chana”. During WWII, this part of the city, which mostly consisted of wooden architecture, was largely destroyed. The number of original buildings, the only reminders of the Jewish past, is decreasing.