There were more than a thousand shtetls in today’s territories of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus. The Second World War and the Holocaust obliterated the world of shtetls completely. Today, in Opatów—as well as in tens of other Polish towns—there are no more Jews left.
The OPOLIN Museum’s new temporary exhibition titled (post) JEWISH… demonstrates that Polish towns hide two parallel histories. The history of their Polish inhabitants is well known and remembered. The one of their Jewish neighbours who are no more is forgotten or left unsaid.
Guide in the exhibition will be the late Mayer Kirshenblatt, a painter who emigrated to Canada with his mother and brothers as a teenager, in 1934. Mayer recalls the shtetl of his youth, restoring vivid memories of the people, events, daily life and customs. His paintings—full of color, imagination and humor—show us a world that is no more. Looking at them, we learn about our shared Polish-Jewish history.
The exhibition also features a documentation of artistic interventions carried out in today’s Opatów, aimed at discovering and restoring the vestiges of the pre-war Jewish life.
Special guided tour of the temporary exhibition “(post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt” by curators Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Natalia Romik.
- 18 May (Saturday), 12 noon, BUY TICKET →
- Temporary exhibition “(post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Throught the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt”
- Tickets: regular 30PLN, reduced 25PLN
- Guided tour in English
As Mayer Kirshenblatt’s daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett will talk about the history of pre-war Jewish towns, about their typical features and the role they played in the Jewish community. While analysing Mayer’s paintings, we will learn about the functions of the selected buildings, about old rituals and Polish-Jewish cohabitation. Natalia Romik, on the other hand, will talk about these towns’ postwar fate. While drawing our attention to the exhibition design and the selected artefacts, she will raise the issue of Jewish property and tell us what happened to it after the Holocaust.
The Together Plan is running a 36-hour crowd-funding campaign May 19-20 to finance the co structure of a Holocaust memorial at the Jewish cemetery in Brest, Belarus.
Click on the link to sign up : https://www.charityextra.com/thetogetherplan/signup
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