POLIN Museum: Opening the Bonds Gallery with Koret support

The Koret Foundation has been a staunch supporter of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews since its opening in 2014. Ten years in, the museum was ready to refresh its Core Exhibition, and embark on a multi-year process to upgrade technology and content and add accessible features. Koret awarded a new five year grant to the museum to support these upgrades and ensure POLIN maintains its position as one of the foremost museums of Jewish history in the world. 

The Core Exhibition galleries take visitors on a tour of 1000 years of Polish Jewish history, starting from the arrival of Jews in the area that would come to be known as Poland in the 10th century and continuing on until present day. The galleries are engaging and interactive, with features like an activity where visitors must decide where they want to live in a newly partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as detailed records from the Holocaust and an intricate replica of the ceiling of the historic wooden synagogue in Gwozdziec. 

The latest and final gallery that completes the Core Exhibition, also supported by Koret, is the Bonds gallery, which explores the legacies of Jews who have emigrated from Poland around the world. The name comes from the idea that no matter how far an individual or family might travel, they still feel a bond to Poland, and bring a little of the Polish Jewish experience with them to their adoptive homeland, creating a network of interconnectedness that spans that globe. A highlight of the space is a multimedia installation featuring eight short films that explore the deep connections to Polish Jewish culture felt by diasporic communities all over the world. One film features a family in Detroit whose Passover seder involves preparing 200 pieces of gefilte fish, while another highlights a cake recipe brought from Poland to Melbource.

The updates to the museum exhibits speak to POLIN’s larger commitment to remain relevant, accessible, and up to date in a constantly changing world. The Polish Jewish experience is a tale of resilience, survival, and retention of cultural heritage, and the museum reflects that reality, now more than ever with these timely updates. The Koret Foundation is proud to be a supporter of its work.