Jewish Museum Becomes Latest Flashpoint for Polish Government
Jewish Museum Becomes Latest Flashpoint for Polish Government
(Bloomberg) -- Warsaw’s award-winning Jewish museum has become the latest source of tension between Poland and the Jewish community after the government has repeatedly clashed with international allies over the telling of the country’s World War II history and the memory of the Holocaust.
The latest row is over the fate of the director of The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Dariusz Stola, who joined the international criticism of a law from 2018 that criminalizes any suggestion the nation was responsible for the mass murder of Jews. Culture Minister Piotr Glinski is ignoring the result of an open contest, which Stola won two months ago, and is refusing to reappoint him.
The so-called Holocaust Law has been one of the touchstone issues in a string of conflicts over the nationalist Polish government’s agenda. In a sign of escalating tensions, President Andrzej Duda in May accused Jews of fostering hatred against Poles after the country’s ambassador to Israel was accosted. The museum also became part of the discourse, some of its exhibits have angered the ruling party.
Glinski has accused Stola of refusing to host a conference on ex-President Lech Kaczynski, the late brother of the ruling party’s leader, a claim the museum rejects. While he’s studying the contest’s results, there’s no “specific time-frame” that such an appointment needs to be made, his spokeswoman Anna Bocian said by email.
Leadership Void
“The protracted leadership void for the museum is not good for it institutionally, and perhaps even more so, it is not good for Poland,” Shana Penn, Executive Director at Taube Philanthropies, said by email. “We are concerned it’s changing the perception of Poland, by the American government and citizens, from trustworthy to unreliable, and that decades of pro-Polish efforts in the U.S. could unravel.”
Located in the heart of what was once the Warsaw Ghetto, the museum is a poignant reminder of the consequences of hatred and prejudice. Poland’s Jewish community — Europe’s largest, numbering 3 million, or almost 10% of the country in 1933 — was decimated by the Nazis and dwindled to about 10,000 from the 250,000 who remained after World War II.
“We appeal to the culture minister to approve Professor Stola’s new contract so that we can overcome this burdensome stalemate and move forward together,” Penn said, adding that months of uncertainty pose a risk to the museum’s reputation, staff and future programs. The institution won the European Museum of the Year award in 2016.
Piotr Wislicki, the head of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute that initiated the idea to create the museum, said a donor already suspended a donation last month worth 1.5 million zloty ($394,000) because of these uncertainties.
“Others are sending signals that they’re waiting for clarity on leadership,” he said.
--With assistance from Wojciech Moskwa.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw at mstrzelecki1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey
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