We are extremely proud to announce that Sigmund Rolat, Distinguished Benefactor of the Museum and Member of the Museum Council, was awarded the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Rebirth of Poland) for his outstanding contribution to Polish-Jewish dialogue, including his role in the creation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

Mr. Rolat, who is also Co-Chairman of the North American Council of the Museum, accepted the honor from the President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski during a ceremony held at the Polish Consulate in New York on September 24. The ceremony was attended by about 180 guests, including Poland’s First Lady, Anna Komorowska.

Sigmund Rolat was born on July 1st, 1930, in Częstochowa. On January 16, 1945, he was liberated from the HASAG Częstochowa forced labor camp, and left for the United States. A New York businessman, he is President of the Oxford International Corporation, a former Member of the Supervisory Board of the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva in Israel, a member of the Council of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, the Advisory Council of the Taube Foundation, the American Society for Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Presidential Council of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.He heads the World Society of Częstochowa Jews and their Descendants, is an honorary chairman of the Festival of Jewish Culture in Kraków and the chairman of American Friends of the Shalom Foundation. His native Częstochowa has bestowed on him the title of Art Patron. In 2008 he also received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland from the late President Lech Kaczyński.