“The Museum is a geographical place of memory. You cannot be on the site of the Ghetto Uprising and not feel something very deep.
There were 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland. 1,000 years of extraordinary endeavors, dreams and metamorphoses; 1,000 years, which must be studied, communicated and shared.”
—Dr. Elie Wiesel,
1986 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient;
Honorary Member, Taube Advisory Board
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is the seminal project of our Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland. The communal and cultural infrastructure that the JHIP supports has made the Museum possible; and the Museum, in turn, will become a portal to Poland and its Jewish community.
The Museum represents the largest “public-private partnership” in Poland, with a total cost of over $100 million. The City of Warsaw donated the land, and the Polish government contributed $70 million to finance the building’s initial capital costs. Private donors, foundations, corporations, and the German government contributed the necessary funds to complete the museum and finance its permanent collection and exhibits. The Core Exhibition and Education Center will be named in honor of the largest private donors to the Museum, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and the Koret Foundation, who together have committed and organized over $16 million in support of the Museum.
The Museum held its soft opening on the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 2013, and has since received more than 200,000 visitors. These visitors have enjoyed two temporary exhibitions, viewed the centerpiece of the Core Exhibition, which is a close-to-scale replica of a 17th-century wooden synagogue, and taken part in hundreds of educational and cultural events. The Museum is expected to draw as many as 1,000,000 visitors annually and millions more via the internet.
Since its soft opening, the Museum has received innumerable accolades. The New York Times named the Museum’s Core Exhibition the one to watch in its “GREAT EXPECTATIONS 2014” list. Its Core Exhibition will be the world’s first to showcase 1,000 years of Jewish history and culture. The Architectural Record featured the Museum building in its Design Vanguard 2013 issue. The Museum building, designed by winners of an international competition, Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma of Finland, awes with its undulating curved interior walls and largest glass window in Poland.
The Museum will have its Grand Opening on October 28, 2014. Headed by Tad Taube, who also serves as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and Koret Foundation are leading a 70-person VIP delegation that will travel to Warsaw for the Grand Opening events. Taube remarked, “Seeing the Museum become a reality is the fulfillment of a dream for me and an enduring testament to a millennium of Jewish life and culture in Poland. Its powerful message will inspire visitors from around the world to reclaim and cherish this precious heritage.”
