AUD$36 million Warsaw cemetery restoration
The Polish government will invest 100 million złoty (AUD$36 million) to restore the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Glinski personally informed World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Glinski (left) with World Jewish Congress CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer at the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery on 18 December 2017. Photo: World Jewish Congress
Glinski relayed the decision to Singer during a special meeting at the cemetery itself. Singer was in Warsaw on a short World Jewish Congress delegation visit, as part of WJC President Ronald S. Lauder’s ongoing efforts to ensure the sustained revival of Jewish life in Poland.
Lauder has been instrumental in numerous projects to this regard, including deep involvement with the Auschwitz Museum, and the establishment of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well Jewish schools and educational institutions across the country.
Singer welcomed the Polish government’s decision on behalf of President Lauder and the WJC, and said: “The World Jewish Congress urges all European governments, including in Poland, to make every effort to curb antisemitism and xenophobia once and for all. It is critical that all minorities, and all people, living on this continent enjoy the basic human right of living in peace and security. We call on European leaders to prioritize putting the necessary legislation in place to ensure that such manifestations of hatred are treated with utmost severity and penalty, and to unequivocally and loudly condemn every sign of antisemitism, neo-Nazism and neo-fascism.”
The WJC delegation was joined in its visit to the Jewish cemetery on Monday by Anna Chipczynska, the President of the Jewish Community of Warsaw.
The decision to restore the cemetery was adopted by the Polish parliament with a nearly unanimous vote of 416 in favor and four opposed. The government is expected to transfer the funds to Poland’s Cultural Heritage Foundation, which will implement the restoration in cooperation with the Warsaw Jewish Community.
The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery was established in 1806; with approximately 250,000 graves, it is considered the most recognizable of the 1,400 Jewish cemeteries in Poland, and one of the largest in Europe.
