There are numerous museums and cultural and educational institutions that deal with Jewish history and heritage in Poland. We have arranged them here by location, and concentrate of institutions that have something to do with Jewish built heritage, museums, heritage sites, or related matters.
The list is still growing, but we try to keep up….let us know what we may have left out — and search our news items for Poland to find updated information.
INTERNATIONAL & GENERAL; WEB SITES
American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
34, Kirkland St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
The web site includes back issues of some volumes of the Association’s newsletter, Gazeta.
Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies
Africa House
70 Kingsway
London WC2B 6AH
Conferences, research; publisher of POLIN annual volumes of scholarly articles.
Sites of Holocaust Remembrance in Poland
Interactive map to memorials and museums, on the web site of the Foundation of the Memorial to Murdered European Jews in Berlin
A project of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, this is the most complete compendium of information about Jewish heritage sites and institutions in Poland, including museums that have Judaica collections. It covers more tha 2,000 locations.
Article on Jewish Museums
Migalska, Kinga. “The Question of Appropriateness. Museums Established in Synagogues in Communist Poland: The Cases of Łańcut and Włodawa” in Arts 2019, 8(4), 167. (viewable online)
WARSAW
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
6 Mordechaja Anielewicza St.
00-157 Warsaw
Tel: +48 22 47 10 301 +48 22 47 10 300
Email: polin@polin.pl [email protected]
Major institution located on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto, with expanding web site, projects, and resources.
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
ul. Tlomackie 3/5
00-090 Warsaw
Tel: +48 (0) 22 827 92 21 ext. 113
Fax: +48 (0) 22 827 83 72
Email: [email protected]
Research institute and exhibition located in a surviving pre-World War II building that originally was Warsaw’s main Judaic library. Its permanent exhibit, opened in 2017, is on the Ringelblum Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto.
A history museum established by the state in 2018 and under development to open in 2023, on the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It will be housed in the pre-war Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital, located at ul. Zielna 39. Its mission is to “disseminate knowledge about the life, struggle and extermination of the Polish Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and other ghettos of the German-occupied Poland.”
Bródno Jewish Cemetery — Permanent Exhibition Beit Almin Eternal Home
15 św. Wincentego Street, 03-505 Warsaw
Tel: (+48) 22 678 74 53, (+48) 504 906 258
Email: [email protected]
The exhibition focuses on both the history of the cemetery (in the Praga neighborhood) and on Jewish death and mourning customs. It uses text, photos, maps, and other images to present the concepts of death and burial in Jewish tradition, religion and culture. It also tells the history of the cemetery itself: founded in 1780, Bródno is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Warsaw and the largest in terms of the number of burials — more than 250,000 are believed to be interred there. It occupies more than 12 hectares. Most of the headstones were uprooted for use as construction material and thousands remain piled up on the site. Click to see our article and photos.
ul. Grójecka 22/24 lok.32
02-301 Warszawa
Aimed at documentation and spreading knowledge concerning the common history of Poles and Jews, and the Holocaust; also preserving monuments of Jewish culture, mainly Jewish cemeteries.
ul. Senatorska 35
00-099 Warszawa
tel. +48 22 620 30 36, +48 22 620 30 37, +48 22 620 30 38
fax: +48 22 620 05 59
Email: [email protected]
Cultural and educational foundation established in 1988 at the initiative of Golda Tencer, an actress and director of the E.R. Kaminska State Yiddish Theatre in Warsaw. It promotes many projects and events, including the annual Singer’s Warsaw Jewish Culture Festival, a Yiddish Culture Center, and Zydzi Polscy, a website featuring the thousands of photographs gathered for the Foundation’s exhibition and book “And I Still See Their Faces.” (See web site for contact details on projects.)
Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation
ul. Tlomackie 3/5
00-090 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 22 208 58 78
Email: [email protected]
Polish office of U.S. Foundation devoted to promoting Jewish culture and heritage activities in Poland
Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warszawa
Tel: +48 22 55 20 415
Fax: +48 22 826 19 88
Email: [email protected]
The Center operates within the organizational framework of the Institute of History, University of Warsaw
Warsaw Jewish Community Center
ul. Chmielna 9A
00-021 Warsaw
Tel: +48 533 072 790
Email: [email protected]
KRAKOW
Jewish Community Centre Krakow
ul. Miodowa 24
31-055 Kraków
Tel: +48 (0) 12 3705770
Fax: +48 (0) 12 3705771
Email: [email protected]
ul. Dajwór 18, 31-052 Krakow
Tel/Fax: +48 (0) 12 421 6842
Email: [email protected]
Established in 2004 by the late British photographer Chris Schwarz. The permanents exhibit features Schwarz’s photographs of Jewish heritage in Poland. There are temporary exhibitions and educational programs, as well as a bookshop and eduational programs.
Jewish History Museum, Old Synagogue
24 ul. Szeroka, 31-053 Kraków
Tel: +48 (0) 12 422 09 62, +48 (0) 12 431 05 45
Fax: +48 (0) 12 431 05 45
Email: [email protected]
Located in the gothic Old Synagogue; a branch of the Krakow History Museum.
4 ul. Lipowa, 30-702 Kraków
Tel/Fax: +48 (0)12 257 1017, 12 257-00-95, 12 257 00 96
Email: [email protected]
Museum about Krakow under Nazi occupation; located in the former factory operated by Oskar Schindler; a branch of the Krakow History Museum.
18 Bohaterów Getta Square, 30-547 Kraków
Tel: (12) 656-56-25
Email: [email protected]
Museum about World War II Jewish ghetto; located in the Ghetto pharmacy; a branch of the Krakow History Museum.
Center for Jewish Culture – Fundacja Judaica
ul. Meiselsa 18, 31-058 Krakow
Tel: +48 12 430 64 49, 430 64 52
Fax:+48 12 430 64 97
Email: [email protected]
Located in a renovated prayer house; cultural and educational programs; exhibits.
Rynek Glowny 25
31-008 Krakow
Tel: +48 12 424 2811
Email: [email protected]
National institution focusing on a broad range of issues regarding heritage and culture in Poland and east-central Europe.
ul. Szeroka 6
Krakow
Tel: +48 (0) 12 411 12 45
Email: [email protected]
Local publisher of Jewish-themed books; it also maintains a Jewish bookstore, at Jozefa 38.
Jozefa 36
Krakow
Tel: + 48 12 431 15 17
Email: [email protected]
Annual 10-day event features concerts, performances, heritage tours, workshops, etc. The Festival organization runs the Cheder Cafe (ul. Jozefa 36) as a year-round venue for lectures, workshops, meetings.
Jagilellonian University — Center for Holocaust Studies
ul. Jodłowa 13
30-252 Kraków
Tel: +48 (0) 12 664 7408
Email: [email protected]
Jagiellonian University — Jewish Studies Department
ul. Józefa 19, 31-056 Kraków
Tel: +48 (0) 12 427 59 18, +48 (0) 12 427 59 61
Email: [email protected]
ELSEWHERE
AUSCHWITZ/OSWIECIM
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Memorial Museum in Oswiecim
The memorial museum at the Nazi death camp has research facilities and archives. See list of contacts for staff and departments.
Online virtual tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Pl. Ks. Jana Skarbka 5
32-600 Oswiecim
Tel: +48 510 781 199
Email: [email protected]
Prayer, research and educational center, with the Oshpitzin museum on the pre-war Jewish history of Oswiecim. Opened in 2000, it is located in a complex including the town’s only surviving synagogue, which has been restored. The museum “Oshpitzin: The Story of Jewish Oświęcim” opened in May 2014. It tells the story of pre-war Jewish Oświęcim, the Holocaust, and Jewish life in Oświęcim today through unique objects, testimonies, documents, photographs, artifacts from the destroyed Great Synagogue, and immersive new technologies. Jews lived in Oświęcim in a diverse and vibrant community for 400 years before the Holocaust. In 1939, there were roughly 8,000 Jewish residents in a town of 14,000 people. Nearly the entire Jewish population of Oświęcim was murdered in the Holocaust, and all but one synagogue – of nearly thirty that existed – disappeared. The exhibition’s accompanying Smartphone app can be found at app.oshpitzin.pl. It is available for download for both Apple and Android products.
Oshpitzin interactive map, web site and guide
BĘDZIN
Al. Hugona Kołłątaja 24/28
42-500 Będzin
Tel: +48 511 016 322, +48 793 211 712
Email: [email protected]
Local NGO dedicated to promoting Jewish history and heritage in Będzin. A major project was the rehabilitation of a private prayer house found hidden in an upstairs apartment at Aleja Kollataja 24.
Tel: +48 516 272 666
Email: [email protected]
Local NGO founded in 2016 to aid Jewish family history research and promote/preserve Jewish heritage.
BIAŁYSTOK
Icchoka Malmeda 6
15-440 Białystok, Poland
A Jewish museum about local and regional Jewish history and heritage. It also has an extensive online presence.
CZĘSTOCHOWA
Jews of Częstochowa Museum/Permanent Exhibition
Katedralna 8
Częstochowa, Poland
Tel: +48 (0) 34 360 56 31
Email: [email protected]
A permanent exhibition on local Jewish history opened in 2016 as part of the Częstochowa Museum.
GLIWICE
Upper Silesian Jews House of Remembrance
ul. Księcia Józefa Poniatowskiego 14
44-100 Gliwice
Tel: +48 (0) 32 441 96 39
Email: [email protected]
A museum of local Jewish history, opened in February 2016 in the redbrick neo-gothic ceremonial hall of the Gliwice Jewish cemetery, as a branch of the municipal Museum of Gliwice.
KAZIMIERZ DOLNY
ul. Lubelska 4
24-120 Kazimierz Dolny nad Wisłą
Tel: +48 (0) 81 881 08 94
Email: [email protected]
The former synagogue is run by the Jewish community in Warsaw as a culture center with an exhibition on local Jews, as well as a guest house and kosher cafe.
Museum of Decorative Arts: Gold and Silversmith branch
Rynek 19
Kazimierz Dolny 24-120
Tel : 81 881 02 88
Email: [email protected]
The collection includes Jewish ritual objects.
KIELCE
Planty 7
Kielce, 25-508 Poland
Tel: +48 (0) 577 809 333, 41 201 02 38
Email: [email protected]
An NGO aimed at promoting civil rights and dialogue and fighting racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia. It is located in the building where an infamous post-war pogrom against Jews took place in July 1946.
ŁĘCZNA
ul. Bożnicza 17, Łęczna
The Regional Museum was long housed in the town’s 17th century Great Synagogue, which was restored to preserve the interior decoration and fixtures, including the Ark and the four-pillar central bimah. A collection of mazevot from the destroyed Jewish cemetery is displayed outside. The town library is in a second, smaller synagogue nearby. NOTE: the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) acquired the building in 2013 and plans were announced to convert it into a Jewish museum.
LESZNO
31 ul Narutowicza
Tel. +48 (0) 65 529 61 43
The Art Gallery of the Museum is housed in a former synagogue. Also displayed is a permanent exhibition of Judaica. See: Leszno Judaica Collection (a pdf file on the collection). Until 2004, this collection was housed in the former Pre-Burial House on the site of the largely ruined Jewish Cemetery. This building now serves as a branch of the town library. (al. Jana Pawła II 14, 64-100 Leszno. Tel: +48 (0) 65 520 5355; Fax: +48 (0) 65 529 6665; Email: [email protected]) The cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis, but about 400 fragments of gravestones have been collected there, and some are displayed in the building.
ŁÓDŹ
The Foundation Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense – Łódź Jews Heritage Foundation
ul. Pomorska 18
91-416 Łódź
Tel/Fax: +48 (0) 42 639 72 33
Email: [email protected]
The aim of the Foundation, which was founded in 1995, is to rescue, save and strengthen the cultural heritage of Łódź Jews and to bring it back into memory. A main emphasis is the conservation of the Jewish cemetery in Łódź.
Marek Edelman Center for Dialogue
ul. Wojska Polskiego 83
91-755 Łódź
Tel: +48 (0) 42 636 38 21
Fax: +48 (0) 42 636 33 11
Email: [email protected]
A center for cultural and educational research established by the City Council in 2010 tto organized activities promoting the multicultural and multiethnic heritage of Lodz, with particular emphasis on the Jewish culture.
LUBLIN
ul. Grodzka 21, 20-112 Lublin
Tel. 81 532 58 67
Email: [email protected]
A local government cultural institution that carries out extensive research, presentation, documentation, and other activities relating to local and regional Jewish history, heritage, and culture. It also has a permanent exhibition.
Lublin Yeshiva Museum
Lubartowska 85
20-400 Lublin
Permanent exhibition on the life and achievements of Rabbi Meir Shapiro who founded the Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin. It opened in 2017 in the Yeshiva building (now used as a hotel and the headquarters of the Jewish community).
Read a JHE essay about the exhibition by the curator Grazyna Pawlak
Majdanek State Museum and Memorial
ul. Droga Męczenników Majdanka 67
20-325 Lublin
Founded in November 1944 on the grounds of the former German concentration camp located outside Lublin, It is an institution directly subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In addition to organizing exhibitions, the museum also runs educational and academic activities. Since 2004 there has also been a non-local branch of Majdanek – Museum – Memorial Site in Bełżec, and since 2012 – Museum of the Former Death Camp in Sobibór.
MARKOWA
Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II
37-120 Markowa 1487
Tel: +48 17 224 10 15; +48 17 225 47 75
Email: [email protected]
PŁOCK
7 Kwiatka St.
Plock, Poland
Tel: +48 (0) 24 364 86 96
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Located in the restored synagogue, the museum, which opened in March, 2013, was partially funded by the EU and features interactive exhibits.
PRZEMYŚL
National Museum of the Przemyśl Land
Pl. Płk. Berka Joselewicza 1
37-700 Przemyśl
Tel: +48 (0) 16 679 30 00;
fax: +48 (0) 679 16 30 10
Email: [email protected]
The museum, founded more than a century ago, has several branches and includes a major collection of Judaica. Material in the exhibit includes items collected since the establishment of the museum in 1909, as well as in post-war decades. They include a collection of 72 archival photographs, obtained by the museum in 1928, which document the gravestones of the old cemetery on ul. Rakoczy, which was completely destroyed during World War II.
RADOMSKO
An open-air museum of Jewish history opened in 2014. It is a sort of walking trail with some 50 plaques embedded into the sidewalks around the town that provide information about the Jewish history of Radomsko and the sites being marked — including former synagogues, schools and houses where Jewish families lived.
The museum is a project of the Yiddele Memory association, founded by Rachel Lili Kesselman, which worked closely with city officials, the Mayor.
A Hasidic Center catering to pilgrims opened in Radomsko in 2017.
SEJNY
Borderland Archipelago (Pogranicza Archipelag)
ul. Piłsudskiego 37
16-500 Sejny, Poland
Tel/Fax: +48 (0) 87 516 27 65
Email: [email protected]
Wide-ranging foundation, publishing house, research and cultural center, dealing with dialogue and minority issues; centered in former Jewish buildings in Sejny, including the White Synagogue. A list of activities and Email and other contacts relating to departments is online.
The Rundbogenstil red brick synagogue in this small town in northern Poland, built in 1868, has been used as a culture center (and had signage outside giving ites history). As of 2019 it has been undergoing restoration to become the site of a Regional Museum.
Museum Facebook page (chronicling renovation)
Article about Jewish heritage in Susz
TYKOCIN
Synagogue Museum (Jewish section of District Museum of Bialystok)
Oddział Muzeum Podlaskiego w Białymstoku
ul. Kozia 2, 16-080 Tykocin
Tel: +48 085 718 16 13
Fax: +48 085 718 16 26
Email: [email protected]
Housed since 1977 in the restored Great Synagogue (originally built in 1642); exhibition of Judaica with the main exhibit the restored synagogue itself.
Take a virtual tour of the synagogue museum
WROCLAW
Bente Kahan Foundation (Fundacja Bente Kahan)
ul. Pawła Włodkowica 5
50-072 Wrocław, Poland
Tel: +48 (0) 71 782 81 23
Tel/Fax +48 (0) 71 341 89 47
Email: [email protected]
www.facebook.com/fbkorgpl
Wide-ranging cultural and education foundation that also spearheaded the restoration of the city’s White Stork Synagogue.
White Stork Synagogue and compound
The restored synagogue is used for concerts and cultural events. The upper level of the women’s gallery houses a local Jewish history permanent exhibition. The Jewish compound also includes a historic Mikveh. Restoration of it began in 2017, to bring it back to its function as a ritual bath and also an exhibition space.
Taube Department of Jewish Studies, Wroclaw University
The Department offers a complete program of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees that emphasizes languages (modern Hebrew, Yiddish, biblical Hebrew, and Ladino), and a block of courses on history, literature, and culture studies that covers the period from biblical times to modern Israel. The bachelor’s degree has both an academic and an educational track.