On the Doorposts

Combining contemporary photography and archival research, this original exhibition takes visitors on a journey across Poland with young Warsaw-based artists and Judaica designers, Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar. Visitors will receive a behind-the-scenes look at their remarkable project to locate and preserve traces of mezuzot still found on doorposts of homes, gateways and apartments across Poland.

They cast a bronze mezuzah from a mold made out of the space left behind by the mezuzah that once hung there. They create meaningful, beautiful Jewish ritual objects for today’s home while commemorating Jewish homes abandoned during the Holocaust. To date, Helena and Aleksander have visited over 70 cities and towns, extending their journeys into Ukraine, Belarus and Romania. The exhibition highlights a handful of the more than one hundred mezuzot they have created under the banner of their company, MI POLIN. Discover MI POLIN’s surprising and inspiring story of making Jewish art in Poland today.

This exhibition was created by FENTSTER, Toronto Holocaust Museum and Miles Nadal JCC as part of the 2019 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week