Forest This gallery tells the tale of how, fleeing from persecution in Western Europe, the Jews came to Poland. Over the next thousand years, the country would become the largest European home for the Jewish community.
First Encounters (10th century–1507) This gallery is devoted to the first Jewish settlers in Poland. Visitors meet
Ibrahim ibn Jakub, a Jewish diplomat from Cordoba, author of famous notes from a trip to Europe. One of the most interesting objects presented in the gallery is the first sentence written in Yiddish in the prayer book of 1272.
Paradisus Iudaeorum (1569–1648) This gallery presents how the Jewish community was organized and what role Jews played in the country's economy. One of the most important elements in this gallery is an interactive model of
Kraków and Jewish
Kazimierz, showing the rich culture of the local Jewish community. Visitors learn that religious tolerance in Poland made it a "
Paradisus Judaeorum" (Jewish paradise). This golden age of the Jewish community in Poland ended with pogroms during the
Khmelnitsky Uprising. This event is commemorated by a symbolic fire gall leading to the next gallery. The title of the gallery has been subject to some criticism and debate among scholars due to the antisemitic roots of the proverb it is taken from, a 17th-century condemnation of the "rampant prevalence of the infidels".
The Jewish Town (1648–1772) roof reconstruction This gallery presents the history of Polish Jews until the period of the
partitions. It is shown by an example of a typical borderland town where Jews constituted a significant part of the population. The most important part of this gallery is a unique reconstruction of the roof and ceiling of Gwoździec, a
wooden synagogue that was located in pre-war
Poland.
Encounters with Modernity (1772–1914) This gallery presents the time of the partitions when Jews shared the fate of Polish society divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia. The exhibition includes the role played by Jewish entrepreneurs, such as
Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański, in the industrial revolution in Polish lands. Visitors also learn about changes in traditional Jewish rituals and other areas of life, and the emergence of new social movements, religious and political.
On the Jewish Street (1914–1939) This gallery is devoted to the period of the
Second Polish Republic, which is seen – despite the challenges that the young country had to face – as a second golden age in the history of Polish Jews. A graphic timeline is presented, indicating many of the most important political events of the interwar period. The exhibition also highlights Jewish film, theater, and literature.
Holocaust (1939–1944) This gallery shows the tragedy of the Holocaust during the German occupation of Poland, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 90 percent of the 3.3 million Polish Jews. Visitors are shown the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and introduced to
Emanuel Ringelblum and the clandestine group of volunteers that went by the code name
Oyneg Shabbos, who collected documents and solicited testimonies and reports chronicling life in the Ghetto during the Nazi occupation. The gallery also portrays the horrors experienced by the
Poles during
World War II as well as their reactions and responses to the extermination of Jews.
Postwar Years (1944–present) The last gallery shows the period after 1945, when most of the survivors of the Holocaust emigrated for various reasons, including the post-war takeover of Poland by the Soviets, the hostility of some portion of the Polish populace, and the state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign conducted by the communist authorities in 1968. An important date is the year 1989, marking
the end of Soviet domination, followed by the revival of a small but dynamic Jewish community in Poland. The exhibition was developed by an international team of scholars and museum professionals from Poland, the United States and Israel, in conjunction with the museum's curatorial team under the direction of
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. ==Reception==