Planet POLIN: Multicultural Stories of Polish Jews

"Planet POLIN: Multicultural Stories of Polish Jews" is a 6-episode series of documentaries. It presents how, over the centuries, Jews who lived in Poland (Polin) used to coexist with other nations, cultures and religions.

• You can watch the films on the POLIN Museum YouTube channel

The leading motif of the Planet POLIN series is the multiculturalism of Polish Jews. They lived for centuries in the land of Polin, a true Tower of Babel, one of the most ethnically, religiously and culturally mixed states in Europe. They retained their distinctiveness while interacting on a wide scale with other residents of the Babel and with the outside world.

Moreover, through their travels and migrations, Jews from Polin maintained intensive contacts with abroad. This meeting contributed to (often unprecedented) mutual intermingling of Polish-Jewish culture with that of other nations. As Wilhelm Berkelhammer (1889-1934), Jewish journalist and Zionist activist, rightly noted:

"[…] all nations have their peripheries, which are the meeting points with other nations, that is with other national cultures, strictly limited in geographical terms. We, Jews, scattered all over the globe, have so many peripheries that, really, that is all we have, just peripheries, I mean wherever we live, we live in the borderlands, […] we come into contact with a foreign culture everywhere."

Adam Balcer and Paweł Sulik, authors of the podcast titled "Babel. Rzeczpospolita multi-kulti" [Babel. Multicultural Commonwealth] on TOK FM radio station, are authors of the series, produced as part of POLIN Museum’s 10th birthday celebration.

Episode 1. Heaven’s gates. Wooden tent-like synagogues

In this episode, we show how Islamic art and the Great Steppe’s cultural heritage influenced the architecture of Polish Jews over the centuries. The episode’s "main protagonist" is the beautifully reconstructed wooden tent-like synagogue from Gwoździec in Ukraine, one of POLIN Museum’s greatest attractions. Synagogues built in this style originated in the 18th century in Ukraine, on the border of the then Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. This type of Jewish temples then spread throughout East-Central Europe, growing in popularity across the entire region.

Episode 2. The Books of Jacob. Frankists and Hasidim

In this episode, we discuss Frankism, a Messianic movement that developed in the 18th century among the Jews of Polin and attempted to unite the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Then, we take you on a journey into the fascinating world of the tzadikim and Hasidism, Jewish mysticism that arose in opposition to Frankism but also drew inspiration from it. Both movements originated in Podolia and Pokuttia, on the border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, where different religions and cultures had clashed and mixed for centuries. We will show you how the Kabbalah met with the shamanism of nomads from the Great Steppe, Orthodox holy fools, Baroque Catholicism, Janissaries and  Sufis, and the ‘pagan’ folk beliefs of the Hutsuls, Ukrainian highlanders.

Episode 3. Thirteen Virtues. Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment

In this episode, we discuss the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. We show its unique ‘Polin’ traits, highlighting the vital role of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s eastern territories in its development. You will see the connections between the Haskalah and the Enlightenment in Poland, Western Europe, and even America (Benjamin Franklin from Boston, Massachusetts, and Mendel Lefin from Satanow, Podolia, with "Thirteen Virtues" in Yiddish and Hebrew). We focus on the crucial role of printing and science as foundations of the Haskalah. That is why we visit early modern Amsterdam, a European intellectual and publishing centre, where many Jews from Poland settled. Despite their migration, they maintained intense contacts with their former homeland, thus creating opportunities to exchange of ideas and... books.

Episode 4. An Enchanted Tailor: On the Jewish Attire

We will show how the garments worn by Jews in Poland evolved over the centuries, influenced by the Jews' interactions with other inhabitants of the Polish Crown, the Union of Poland and Lithuania, , and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Some of these people arrived to the lands on the Vistula, Dniester, and Daugava Rivers from various corners of Europe. There will be no shortage of stories about how the " fashion styles" popular among the other communities living in Poland and Lithuania  affected local Jews. We will also point to how Jewish attire influenced non-Jewish fashion. In this episode, we will particularly focus on Jewish and non-Jewish garments which were strongly influenced by Arab, Ottoman, Tatar, and Persian fashion. As a result, a Sarmatian nobleman might just appear eerily similar to a Hasidic Tzadik...

Episode 5. By Shabbat Candles. A Culinary Journey to Polin

This episode is dedicated to the cuisine of Polish Jews. By presenting its most famous dishes, we highlight the uniqueness and local specificity of the cuisine, but also its centuries-old connections with the cuisines of other inhabitants of Poland, and various European as well as Asian and African culinary traditions. We will see how they all blended together, how the ingredients and dishes were combined. We will see the great—and often unexpected—influence of Sephardic culinary tradition on Ashkenazi cuisine, Sephardi cuisine itself being part of the Mediterranean and particularly influenced by the tastes of Muslim Spain and the Middle East. Don’t forget to eat something before or during the viewing... you may get hungry while we visit the TISH Jewish Culinary Festival or join a feast at the Fania’s Culinary Lab at POLIN Museum. The space is named in honor of the legendary restaurateur Fania Lewando, author of one of the first vegetarian cookbooks.

Episode 6. A Ball on Gnojna Street. A Tale of Varshe/Warsaw, the capital of Polin/Poland

In this episode, we will talk about Jewish residents of Warsaw—once the largest Jewish community in Europe and the second largest in the world. It’s no coincidence that Warsaw (Varshe), the capital of Poland/Polin, is the home of POLIN Museum. In this episode, we step out of the Museum building and show the multiculturalism of Warsaw Jews by visiting cemeteries, synagogues, and prayer houses. We will explore Praga, the right-bank district of Warsaw, and the legendary Różycki Bazaar. We will tell the story of Esperanto, a universal language created in Warsaw by Ludwik Zamenhof, as well as his daughter Lidia, who was the first adherent of Baháism in Poland—a monotheistic religion rooted in Shia Islam. Lidia, who was murdered by the Nazis in the Treblinka death camp, symbolizes the tragic fate of Warsaw Jews. Without them, Warsaw would not be the city it is today—both universal and deeply local.
 

www.eeagrants.org, www.norwaygrants.org, www.gov.pl

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