This volume is made up of essays in first presented as papers at the conference held in May 2015 at the POLIN museum of the history of Polish Jews in Warsaw is divided into two sections. The first deals with museological questions-the voices of the curators, comments on the museum and discussions of museums and education. The second examines the current state of the historiography of the Jews on the Polish lands from the first Jewish settlement to the present-day. Making use of the leading scholars in the field from Poland, Western Europe, North America and Israel, the volume provides a definitive overview of the history and culture of one of the most important communities in the long history of the Jewish people.

Author Biography

Antony Polonsky is Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw. Until 1991, he was Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is co-chair of the editorial board of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry. His most recent work is The Jews in Poland and Russia, Volume 1, 1350 to 1881; Volume 2, 1881 to 1914; Volume 3, 1914 to 2008 (Oxford, 2010, 2012), published in 2013 in an abridged version, The Jews in Poland and Russia: A Short History. Hanna Wegrzynek is a chief specialist for research and historical projects at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Among her books are "Czarna legenda" Zydow: procesy mordy rytualne w dawnej Polsce (The Jewish "Black Legend": Blood Libel Trials in Old Poland, Warsaw, 1995) and Historia i kultury Zydow polskich: slownik (History and Culture of Polish Jews: A Reference Book), in cooperation with Alina Cala and Gabriela Zalewska (Warsaw, 2000). Andrzej Zbikowski has worked at the Jewish Historical Institute since 1985. Among his books are an illustrated history entitled Zydzi (Jews) in the series A to Polska wlasnie and U genezy Jedwabnego: Zydzi na Kresach Polnocno-Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej : wrzesien 1939-lipiec 1941 (The Origins of Jedwabne. Jews in the North-eastern Borderlands of the Second Republic: September 1939-July 1941, Warsaw, 2006).