The Jewish Museum in the 17th century synagogue in Tykocin, Poland will mark its 40th anniversary on Dec. 17 — with a day of events that include the inauguration of a revamped permanent exhibition and other renovations of the building’s interior that have been in the works for the past two years.
A massive masonry building with a high mansard roof, the synagogue, desecrated during World War II, was rebuilt and restored in the 1970s and opened on Nov. 1, 1976 as a branch of the Podlaskie District Museum in Bialystok. It was one of the few Jewish museums to open or operate in Communist-ruled east-central Europe.
In the sanctuary, brilliantly colored paintings, including the texts of prayers, were conserved on the soaring walls and central four-pillar bimah, and ritual objects were displayed in a few scattered glass cases, with little contextual explanation. In the building’s low side tower, one circular room was arrayed like the study of a rabbi, and in another a table was laid, as if for a Passover seder.
It is a major attraction in the little town, visited by at least 60,000 people a year. three years ago, the Tykocin synagogue was voted one of the “new seven wonders” of Poland, in the third edition of a readers’ contest sponsored by the Polish edition of National Geographic Traveller magazine.
Financed by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the new exhibit features replicas of the original furnishings in the sanctuary, including the wooden cabinet of the Ark. The massive four-pillar Bimah has also undergone conservation. The reconstructions were based on photos taken between the two world wars by Szymon Zajczyk, the researcher whose photos are the only documentation of many masonry and wooden synagogues that were destroyed in World War II. Zajczyk’s photos are conserved at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences . Other sources also were used, including archival photographs at Beit Hatfutsot.
The opening day events include a lecture on the 40th anniversary of the Tykocin Museum by the director of the District Museum of Podlasie; a theatrical performance by actors from the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, and the inaguration of an outdoor exhibition titled “We, Jews, came to Tykocin centuries ago” in the square in front of the synagogue.
Read about the revamped exhibit and event in English on Virtual Shtetl
Read about it in Polish on the Museum web site
1 comment on “Poland: Jewish Museum in Tykocin Synagogue marks 40th anniversary with revamped exhibition”
I am researching my paternal grandparents, Moshe and Rochel Leah (Gooperstein) Tikotsky–whose surname (I think) came from Tykocin. Are there any records available online to research their name? Thank you.