Upcoming Hanukkah events of note (in Poland)

Hanukkah events in Poland (in far-flung parts of Poland, to be sure) in the next few days bring to fruition several projects that we have reported on in the past, as they were developing.

They include:

— December 10: the final conference of the Shtetl Routes project, in Lublin, Poland

Shtetl Routes involved the development of an ambitious, international tourism itinerary through a score or more of towns in the Poland-Belarus-Ukraine border region, funded by a more than €400,000 grant from the European Union’s Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2007-2013.

The project has involved both on-site and archival research in all three countries; the development of three tourist trails; an internet portal that will describe towns and feature images, anecdotes and history; a guidebook to Jewish heritage in the region; guided tours and the training of tour guides; and the preparation of 3-d virtual models of 15 shtetls, five in each country. The goal  was “to develop a narrative and tools that will be successfully used in tourism and to support local development” involving Jewish heritage sites in eastern Poland, western Ukraine and Belarus.

— December 10: the opening of the newly restored Little Synagogue in Wroclaw, Poland

As we reported in September, during work on the synagogue, which is part of the Jewish community complex and is used by today’s Jewish community, the original ceiling paintings dating by the local Jewish architects, the Ehrlich brothers,were revealed and have been restored.

— December 12: the reopening and dedication of the new permanent exhibition at the Great Synagogue in Tykocin, Poland

We reported in February that the new exhibition was to entail replicas of benches and desks 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. Reports at the time stated that the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has donated 88,500 zlotys (approx $30,000) for the project.