News from Berlin - On the evening of October 29th, Mario Böhmer (the Minister of State of Germany) visited an opening ceremony for a permanent exhibition at the Museum in Warshaw. He represented the German Government at the official opening ceremony for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The exhibition was full of highly ranked guests, for instance the Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

The museum building opened last year but this new permanent exhibition opened yesterday, it represents Jewish culture in Poland over the last 1000 years. Furthermore the German Government provided five million Euros in funding for the permanent exhibition.

Ceremony was accompanied by the legendary pianist David Krakauer. Krakauer is a well known symbol for the rebirth of Jewish music and is the co-founder of the famous band “The Klezmetics”.

The second part of the ceremony consisted of a theatre spectacle directed by Andrzej Strzelecki, here one also witnessed a fantastic scene by Julian Tuwim entitled “My, Żydzi polscy” (“We, Polish Jewish”). Among other hosts was the famous jazz trumpeter Tomasz Stańko, who played a special song created as a tribute for the museum. Furthermore there was a an appearance by young street artists.

One of the most important goals of the museum is to offer grounds for everyone interested in the history of Polish Jews, their heritage as well as the evolution of the Polish-Jews relationship. One of the initiatives of the museum is to support the Jewish local community as well as the Jewish population in Poland and strengthen the possible Jewish dialogue in Poland. Thus this museum is a starting point for the discourse of the negative and positive aspects of the history of Polish Jews.

The full program of the event can be found here:

http://www.berlin.msz.gov.pl/pl/p/berlin_de_a_pl/aktualnosci/uroczyste_otwarcie_muzeum_historii_zydow_polskich_w_warszawie http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2014/141028_StMB_Warschau.html

News from Berlin - Berlin Global