July th, 2012: Conference at the Museum construction site to mark donations

An exceptional donation was announced during a conference held at the construction site of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews: the Museum’s Main Exhibition has received support amounting to 7 million dollars.

The gift, bestowed by American charity organizations – the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture and the Koret Foundation, coupled with Dr Jan Kulczyk’s recent donation, marks the closure of the Main Exhibition’s budget and opens up a new stage of its production. The conference on July 4th, 2012, devoted to the support received from American charities, was attended by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy President of Warsaw, the ambassadors of Australia, France, Israel and the USA, the Chief Rabbi of Poland as well as numerous friends and donors who have supported the Museum from the very beginning.

The event took place within the space which is to house the main exhibition. The bare concrete walls, protective tape and hard hats made up a scenery that reminded the assembled of how much work was still ahead of us and of the long way we have come.

Speaking at the conference were representatives of institutions responsible for the creation of the Museum: Bogdan Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, underlined that the Museum will be one of the most important cultural institutions due to open to the public in the coming years. Jacek Wojciechowicz, Deputy President of Warsaw, brought attention to the exceptional character of the building, while Piotr Wiślicki, President of the Jewish Historical Institute Association stated that the Museum, also thanks to donors from around the world, will be a place that unites, rather than divides. Marian Turski, President of the Museum Council and Deputy President of the Jewish Historical Institute Association reminded the assembled of the initial stages of work on the Museum, while Waldemar Dąbrowski, the Ministerial Plenipotentiary for affairs related to the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews noted that the visit to Warsaw of several heads of state on the 70th anniversary of the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto will also mark an important moment for the exhibition underway.

The special guest, Tad Taube, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in California, President of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture and the Koret Foundation, talked about his first meetings with the authors of the idea to create the Museum as well as his cooperation with them over the years. He spoke of the pride he felt at being able to support the Museum and seeing the idea materialize.

The assembled then turned their interest to the second part of the conference devoted to the Main Exhibition. The assumptions, idea and history of creating the Exhibition was presented by Alicja Knast, the Main Exhibition Director General, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the Main Exhibition Program Director, while Mirosław Nizio, the head of Nizio Design International presented an outline of the exhibition. The meeting concluded in the first multimedia presentation of the exhibition – a virtual trip which gave the guests an opportunity to visit individual galleries and to see what this large-scale exhibition bringing together historical objects, scenery and the newest technologies will be like.

Visualizations can be viewed at gazeta.pl