The year 2024 marks POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ 10th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, we want to make the voices of Jewish artists heard by creating a rotating, lively, polyphonic space in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition—a space for Jewish artists to express themselves.
Gabi von Seltmann on her work:
“Since we don’t exist in a vacuum, my art encompasses Jewish past and Jewish present. A symbolic reconstruction of the Great Synagogue in Warsaw works as a time machine of sorts—it helps me internalize the past while at the same time firmly grounding me as an artist in the present.
I began the presentation of ‘The Great Synagogue Restores Memory’ by showing the audience animated images of the Synagogue rising to the sound of an archival recording of a prayer sung in Hebrew by the Great Synagogue cantor, Gershon Sirota. Towards the end, we hear the voice of Jewish poet Irena Klepfisz—born in the Warsaw ghetto, currently residing in the United States—and the voice of Paula Sawicka, a resident of Warsaw. They both read excerpts from Irena Klepfisz’s poem titled ‘Bashert’ (Yiddish for ‘destiny’).
Putting together the voices of contemporary Jewish women (reading in Polish, Yiddish and English) allows me to address the entire Polish audience—both Jewish and non-Jewish—and proudly affirm: ‘Mir zenen do! We are here!’ There’s Jewish life in Poland today. At the film’s culminating moment, the Yiddish word ???? (‘love’) appears—love for our ancestors, love for our Jewish life in Poland, and hope for a Jewish future. Love that overcame hate, restoring the memory of the city’s Jewish community.”
More about project and contributors :
https://polin.pl/en/event/great-synagogue-restores-memory-and-dedications-bashert
FOT. M. JAŹWIECKI / MUZEUM HISTORII ŻYDÓW POLSKICH /on the on the photo: GABI VON SELTMANN, PAULA SAWICKA, DAMIAN WUTKE
FOT. M. JAŹWIECKI / MUZEUM HISTORII ŻYDÓW POLSKICH
