Poland's New Museum of the History of Polish Jews Will Intensify Debate About Identity

THE ECONOMIST
There used to be thousands of these
POLAND---From the 1600s until 1939 Poland was the global centre of the Jewish people, home to the world’s largest Jewish population and its greatest nexus of religious, cultural and political activity. Yet for many more recent visitors, such as the thousands of Israeli schoolchildren who tour the sites of Nazi death camps each year, the telling of Polish Jews’ history has been overwhelmed by the story of their extermination. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, whose permanent exhibition opens this month, attempts to restore some balance. If it seems increasingly clear that an exhibition on Polish Jewry should not overemphasise its disappearance, that is partly, and unexpectedly, because it seems to be coming back. [link]