Works by Jewish artists are an important part of Europe's cultural heritage. The Art Gallery at ZIH is just a small remnant of the vast amount of Jewish artwork that was destroyed.
Jewish artisans often remained anonymous, even though their works - ritual objects - were so important in Jewish religious life. Synagogue implements, exquisite textiles and an arrangement of a synagogue interior bring back some of the atmosphere of Jewish houses of prayer in Poland.
Jewish Art Gallery consists of a selection of finest paintings and sculptures in ZIH's holdings, such as "Old Man" by Maurycy Gottlieb, "Portrait of Dr. Kupczyk" by Leopold Gottlieb, Samuel Hirszenberg's "Artist with His Muse", Jan Gotard's "Cinderella", numerous works of Artur Markowicz and Maurycy Trebacz. The highlights of a synagogue interior area beautiful wooden aron-ha-kodesh from a townlet in the warsaw region, parokhets and Torah dresses being a tragic heritage of the Greek Jews murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
Warsaw Ghetto Exhibition shows the life of its inhabitants, starting with the early anti-Jewish regulations issued by the German administration, through terrible living conditions, to the mass murder and the ultimate armed struggle against the German Nazi oppressors. Central to this exhibition are the materials that we owe to the ghetto inmates themselves, gathered to be known as the Ringelblum Archive. The story of Warsaw Jews is also presented in the documentary film produced for ZIH (in any of four versions: Polish, English, German or Hebrew).
Special projects concern exhibits to present the Ringelblum Archives to the public in Germany, Spain and the United States.
The number of exhibitions on Jewish-related topics has been growing in recent years, indicating that not only city public but small urban centers are interested. To meet this demand we decided to make some of our temporary exhibits travelling and available for rent.
Many pieces from ZIH holdings have been also loaned to contribute to exhibitions prepared elsewhere. ZIH welcomes interesting exhibitions from other centers, as well.
