A Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in Poland at the London Jewish Cultural Centre 20th July – 30th September 2009

The London Jewish Cultural Centre will host the first showing outside Poland of the Galicia Jewish Museum’s acclaimed photographic exhibition Traces of Memory.  It marks the start of the exhibition’s UK tour, which has been organised under the auspices of POLSKA! YEAR organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

 Traces of Memory is a modern look at the Jewish past in Poland, featuring contemporary photographs that piece together the relics of Jewish life and culture that can still be seen today. Traces of Memory interprets these relics in a way which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking. The exhibition features photographs by Chris Schwarz (the founder and original director of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland), with introductory texts and captions by Prof. Jonathan Webber (UNESCO Chair in Jewish and Interfaith Studies, University of Birmingham, UK). Schwarz and Webber worked together over a period of twelve years to gather the material, interpreting these traces of the past in a manner which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking.

Traces of Memory has been the permanent exhibition of the Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, Poland, since its establishment in 2004. In the last five years over 100,000 people have seen it and the Museum has become one of Poland’s most visited Jewish museums and cultural centres.

The exhibition is divided into five sections, corresponding to the different ways in which the subject can be approached: Jewish Life in Ruins / Jewish Culture as it Once Was / The Holocaust: Sites of Massacre and Destruction / How the Past is Being Remembered / People Making Memory Today. The sections work together to form a cohesive, visually engaging narrative of that which may still be seen of Jewish culture today within the Polish landscape.

The companion book to the exhibition, entitled Rediscovering Traces of Memory and published in the UK by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization includes all the photographs being shown at the London Jewish Culture Centre – and more.  It will be on sale at the LJCC, priced at £15.95.

A special study day organised around the exhibition will take place at the London Jewish Cultural Centre on Wednesday 16^th September 2009.  Professor Jonathan Webber, exhibition co-author, will talk about the creation of the exhibition and the experience of working to document the traces of the Jewish past in southern Poland during the 1990s, and the challenges and complexities of this process. He will be joined by Kate Craddy, Director of the Galicia Jewish Museum who will guide participants around the exhibition, and speak about the mission of the Museum to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to celebrate Polish-Jewish culture.