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Mi Polin (heb. from Poland; original spelling: MI POLIN) is the first Polish company producing and dealing in modern Judaica based in Warsaw. Started in 2014 by Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar, Mi Polin designs among other things mezuazahs, menorahs, and decorative elements pertaining to Jewish tradition through form or symbolism. Their entire production process is based in Poland. The formal and correct way of writing the studio's name is in all capital letters: MI POLIN.

Mi Polin is a Hebrew prepositional phrase meaning "from Poland", which serves to accentuate the Polish-Jewish identity of the studio. Mi Polin is the first Polish company committed entirely to Judaica. It operates as a testimony to the rich pre-war tradition of producing Jewish religious and ritual art. Before World War II, the majority of Judaica was produced in Poland.

Mi Polin adheres to a design principle derived from the traditional, biblical rule of hiddur micwa that states all religious and ritual object should possess the quality of being beautiful.

In 2019, MI POLIN proprietors created Mi Polin / Z Polski Foundation. The foundation was established to help organize and promote any initiative that aims to commemorate Jewish and Polish history, culture, and art at the same time facilitating social activity in this area. It is secondary goal is to nurture artistic and educational activity surrounding the issue of the Warsaw Uprising (in collaboration with the Museum of Polish History) and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

In December 2019, the founders of MI POLIN organized the first convention in Poland dedicated solely to the topic of mezuzahs: Edukacyjny Festiwal Mezuza (Educational Mezuzah festival). As part of the festival, a walk through the streets and houses of Warsaw allowed the participants to rediscover traces left behind by mezuzahs, and lectures by Jerzy Majewski and rabbi Stas Wojciechowicz were held. The main part of the event was the inauguration of the 100 traces of mezuzahs exhibition. The event was financed by the city of Warsaw and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Mezuzah's traces

One of the key goals of Mi Polin is to search for, catalogue, and artistically recreate traces left by mezuzahs. Before the war, almost 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland. Almost every Jewish home contained one, if not several mezuzahs. These objects of worship disappeared along with their owners. All that remains to this day are empty grooves and even those are dwindling in numbers. Telltale notches on a doorframe, an unmistakably different coat of paint or a nail that used to hold a mezuzah – these constitute the tangible heritage of times past and yet are in no way protected by law. With each building renovated or reconstructed, another trace is irretrievably lost. Thanks to groundbreaking research, the first classification of traces left behind by mezzuzahs was created. The list below enumerates the basic, most distinct types of mezuzahs' traces.

1. A mezuzah trace in the form of two nails protruding at an angle consistent with the angle necessary for mounting a mezuzah. Such nails pinned the receptacle or sometimes the scroll itself to the doorframe (a trace of this type was found in Suwałki).

2. A mezuzah trace apparent in a layer of paint. In some cases, the mezuzahs were covered with a coat of paint together with the doorframe. After the removal of the mezuzah, its silhouette remained visible (a trace of this type was found in Łowicz among other places).

3. A trace in the form of a metal receptacle still containing the scroll inside (a trace of this type was found in Cracow).

4. A pre-war receptacle, the mezuzah still present in its original place (a trace of this type was found in Brody, a Ukrainian city).

5. A groove in the doorframe. The grooves were cut to hide the scrolls inside. The most common type of print (among other places, a trace of this type was found in Działoszyce).

6. A groove filled with gypsum. One of two forms of prints that are created after an attempt to fill out the depression left by a mezuzah in a doorframe (among other places, a trace of this type was found in Częstochowa).

7. A groove filled with wood. As above – the depression was considered a defect, and an attempt to repair it was made (among other places, a trace of this type was found in Cracow).

8. A trace left behind by two mezuzahs on a single doorframe (a trace of this type was found in Białystok).

The search for mezuzahs' traces had begun before Mi Polin formally existed. The first traces were found in Warsaw and Cracow. Presently, the mezuzah archive consists of 130 entries – each including photographs, an address and the historical background of the site where the object was found. The background research is being conducted with the cooperation of the Jewish Historical Institute.

Mi Polin collects any prints and traces left behind by mezuzahs and casts them in bronze, creating new and fully functional objects. Each cast is engraved with an address of the building the mezuzah originated from. Additionally, the letter Shin is etched into every mezuzah, symbolizing one of God's names. All of the casts are created by utilizing the lost-wax method and then polished by hand.

The bronze mezuzahs were featured at a number of design exhibitions in Poland and abroad – among others at the Jewish Historical Institute, JCC Osher Marin, and JCC Foster City in California, at the National Museum in Cracow, and at the Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto.

One of the bronze castings ended up on display at The other side of things. Polish design after 1989 exhibition, which began in 2018 in Cracow's National Museum and featured the most important achievements in the field of modern Polish designThe particular mezuzah displayed there was collected from Brzeska 18 street in Warsaw.

The ongoing search for remnants of mezuzahs is conducted primarily in the region formerly under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. As of now, Mi Polin organized four international expeditions, pursuing mezuzahs' traces.

Major international expeditions

Ukraine: Lwów, Kołomyja, Buczacz, Ivano-Frankivsk, Stryj; 2016.

Ukraine: Trachimbrod, Brody, Bełz; 2017.

Ukraine: Dawidgródek, Pińsk, Baranowicze, Brześć; 2018.

Ukraine, Hungary, Romania: 2019.

Educational activity

A lecture on Mi Polin in the Toronto Reference Library delivered by the Canadian author David Bezmozgis.

Mi Polin holds workshop lessons and lectures on Jewish culture and heritage both in Poland and abroad. Mi Polin also organizes thematical walks around Warsaw following the footsteps of former Jewish residents and traces of their past – the mezuzah grooves still visible on the doorframes of many Warsaw tenement houses.

Important lectures and workshop classes

• Edukacyjny Festiwal Mezuza, Warsaw, 2019 r.
• A series of workshop classes and presentations during the Holocaust Education Week in Toronto, 2019.
• A lecture on mezuzahs in the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, 2018.
• A lecture on mezuzahs in Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America in New City, 2018.
• Participation in the 38th conference of The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies in Warsaw, 2018.
• Purim workshop classes in the Museum of Masovian Jews in Płock, 2018.
• Workshop classes and lectured held during the Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow, 2014 - 2017.

Permanent exhibitions and collections featuring Mi Polin

In 2017 a panel of curators from the Jewish Museum in New York decided to include the Tangible mezuzah in their main collection. The touch of a mezuzah has profound meaning in Judaism: it reminds the faithful of the commandments, symbolizing direct contact between tradition and an individual. In this particular project, the Tangible mezuzah, it also serves another purpose as it is created for people with blindness or severely impaired sight. Therefore, the mezuzah not only reminds of tradition but also becomes a direct source of knowledge about it. The word Shaddai, one of God's names, is etched into the Mezuzah with Hebrew Braille alphabet. The Tangible mezuzah is the first post-war project accepted into the museum's collection and was also included in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw.

The largest bronze mezuzah collection belongs to the progressive Congregation Beit Symchat Torach synagogue. Many ceramic objects can be found in Vienna's Jewish Museum. Mi Polin's works found it's way onto the displays of many Polish and international galleries.

The New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio installing the Mi Polin mezuzah on the entrance door to the Congregation Beit Simhat Torah synagogue in New York, 2015.

Important exhibitions

„ON THE DOORPOSTS”. Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto, 2019 r.

Site specific „Okno”. Fenster Gallery in Toronto, 2019 r.

„Mezuzah – Memory – Identity”. Jewish Community Center in Warszawie, 2019 r.

The BWA Bielsko-Biała Gallery. Bielsko-Biała. Part of "Roots", an exhibition concerning problems of ethnicity, identity, and personal identification.

National Museum in Cracow. Part of a collective exposition "The other side of things. Polish design after 1989". A bronze mezuzah cast by Mi Polin was presented during the exhibition.

Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw. The first exhibition of the Mezuza z Tego Domu project, 2016.

Tree of Lights / Drzewo Świateł installation in Cracow, created in collaboration with the Jewish Culture Festival and the city of Cracow, 2016.

Polish Embassy in Istambul, exhibition featuring cast mezuzahs, 2015.

PJCC Foster City, 2014.

Osher Marin JCC in San Rafael, 2014.

Mi Polin is represented by the Jewish Museum in New York, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and others.

Mi Polin collection

The Mi Polin collection

Since its inception, Mi Polin continues to expand a collection of pre-war mezuzah scrolls and doorframes with preserved mezuzah grooves. Thus far it managed to acquire and conserve 7 mezuzah scrolls, 4 original mezuzahs, and 7 doorframes with mezuzah grooves still etched in them.

Publications

Ślady po mezuzach, Helena Czernek, Aleksander Prugar, Iwona Przybyła, Agnieszka Milewska, Warsaw 2019. ISBN 978-83-956374-0-7[9]

Media on Mi Polin

In 2019, an article in the American Foreign Policy titled Poland is Becoming a Global Capital of Chutzpah described Poland as the leading country in a global renaissance of Jewish art – in no small part due to the existence of Mi Polin.

In 2019, the Israelian Haaretz described Mi Polin's mezuzahs as a product that should be featured in the catalogue of every museum dealing with the topic of the Holocaust.

Polskie Radio Program IV: "Mi Polin's mezuzahs fill a void, a longing some Jews of Polish descent still feel towards their country of origin, the home of their parents or grandparents".

The Candian Jewish News: "When we, Jews of Polish origin, refer to Poland only as a cementary, a part of our identity is lost forever. MI POLIN helps us form a new, modern identity, one deeply rooted in Polish history".

Jewish Telegraphic Agency: „The connection my family now has with the past was so overwhelming that it made my wife cry. It will now be proudly displayed in our home and I will make sure every visitor knows the story. This bronze [mezuzah] will truly be eternal”.