Thursday, March 07, 2019
ASEEES endorses a letter of concern regarding POLIN
Published on March 7, 2019
The Executive Committee and the Committee for Academic Freedom and Advocacy of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies endorse the following letter regarding the directorship change at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
To: Piotr Gliński, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Republic of Poland
Rafał Trzaskowski, President of the City of Warsaw
Piotr Wiślicki, Chair of the Board of Directors, Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland
We, the undersigned, are individuals for whom Polish history is an area of shared interest. The recent decision not to renew the contract of the current director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and to initiate a search to fill that position has raised questions in the public sphere about the future autonomy of this cultural institution. We have no cause or candidate to advance during the interim period of the search. However, we would encourage all parties and stakeholders involved in the process to keep in mind the purpose, mission, and integrity of the Museum. Over the course of the current decade POLIN has become a jewel in Poland’s crown, a major European educational and cultural center which has attracted visitors from around the world, enhanced Poland’s international image, and served as a receptive host to scholars of Poland’s Jewish past. The independence of POLIN should be cherished and preserved if it is to continue to enjoy the reputation of one of Europe’s great museums, a proposition to which we hope all parties interested in POLIN’s future are agreed.
Robert Blobaum, Morgantown WV, USA Janine Holc, Baltimore MD, USA Theodore R. Weeks, Carbondale, IL USA Brian Porter-Szucs, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Anna Muller, Dearborn, Michigan, USA Martin J. Hershock, Dearborn, Michigan, USA Paul W. Knoll, Portland, Oregon, USA Eugene Finkel, Silver Spring, MD, USA Donata Blobaum, Morgantown, WV, USA Michael C. Blumenthal, Morgantown, WV USA James S. Pula, Chesterton, IN Jan Kubik, Lambertville, NJ, USA Nathaniel D. Wood, Lawrence, KS, USA James S. Pula, Chesterton, IN Bozena Leven, Bridgewater NJ Andrew Leven, Bridgewater, NJ Winson Chu, Milwaukee, WI, USA Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Lexington, VA, USA Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford, CA Michael Bernhard, Gainesville, FL USA Lynn Lubamersky, Boise, Idaho USA Neal Pease, Shorewood WI USA Rachel F. Brenner, Madison, WI USA Piotr J. Wróbel, Toronto Piotr H. Kosicki, College Park, MD USA Lenka Bustikova, Phoenix, AZ USA Michael Meng, Clemson, SC, USA Jeffrey Kopstein, Irvine, CA, USA
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John J. Bukowczyk, Detroit, Michigan, USA Padraic Kenney, Bloomington, Indiana, USA Jason Wittenberg, Berkeley, CA, USA David A. Goldfarb, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA Justyna Beinek, Lawrence, Kansas, USA Hugh L. Agnew, Washington, DC Jane Leftwich Curry, San Jose, CA Kathleen Wroblewski, Springfield, Missouri, USA Andriy Zayarnyuk, Winnipeg, MB, Canada Klaus Bachmann, Warsaw, Poland Jan Claas Behrends, Berlin. Germany Muriel Blaive, Prague, Czech Republic Pavol Jakubec, Gothenburg, Sweden Tom Junes, Sofia, Bulgaria Magdalena Bernaciak, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria Erica Lehrer, Montreal, QC, Canada Michael D. Kennedy, Providence, RI, USA Ben Stanley, Warsaw, Poland Jessie Labov, Budapest, Hungary Patrice M. Dabrowski, Natick, MA, USA Monika Nalepa, Chicago, IL Agnieszka Pasieka, Vienna, Austria Geneviève Zubrzycki, Ann Arbor, Michigan,, USA Małgorzata Mazurek, New York, USA Christopher Caes, New York, USA Roger Schoenman, Santa Cruz, CA Michael Stanislawski, New York, NY
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