Warsaw Jewish museum named European Museum of the Year

Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has received the 2016 European Museum of the Year award.

Museum director Dariusz Stola collected the award at a ceremony in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastián on Saturday. In addition to the title, for one year the museum will take possession of The Egg by acclaimed sculptor Henry Moore as a trophy.

The POLIN Museum was selected as winner among a list of celebrated nominees for its imaginative interpretation and creative presentation of the history shared between Jews and Poles, in addition to its creativity with regard to education and civic responsibility.

“For very large and very diverse audiences the POLIN now serves as an absorbing place to confront and examine the perpetually relevant questions of how a co-existence [...] can suddenly transfigure [...] into the near eradication of a whole population and destruction of a culture,” the European Museum Forum said when conferring the award.

The European Museum of the Year Award is organized by the European Museum Forum. This year’s award featured a total of 49 nominees from 24 countries.

Source: Radio Poland and The Times of Israel