Spotlight: POLIN Museum’s Online Objects Collection

POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland has a digital collection of thousands of physical artifacts that they have collected and catalogued of objects related to Jewish life in Poland. The objects may be stored in one of a dozen museums around Poland or on display at POLIN. The catalogue of this collection includes personal memorabilia, historical and archival materials including photographs, official documents, ritual objects and clothing which may be of interest to the Jewish genealogist. The colorful catalog is freely searchable at: https://kolekcje.polin.pl/en. 

A Diamond, A Fork and a Pair of Tongs…

One object in the POLIN Object Collection has a very close connection to JRI-Poland and our founding director, Stanley Diamond (z’’l). The object is a pair of blacksmith tongs which was originally owned by Stanley’s father’s first cousin, Moszek WIDELEC (and “widelec” means “fork” in Polish), who was a blacksmith in Ostrow Mazowiecka, Poland and was murdered during the war.

The story of Moszek Widelec and how Stanley found the tongs can be found here: https://kolekcje.polin.pl/en/blacksmith-tongs

Tongs hold a special honor in Jewish culture and are mentioned in Pirkei Avot (Sayings of our Ancestors/Fathers) as evidence of the Divine hand in Creation. Tongs present a paradox since “tongs are needed to make tongs” and in Jewish Tradition, tongs are considered created at the end of the sixth day, just before Shabbat.

May Stanley’s memory be for a blessing.