The Jews of Czestochowa: Coexistence — Holocaust — Memory

Czestochowa, Poland — a city of 260,000 today and the site of the Jasna Gora Monastery — was also a major center of Jewish life for centuries. Some 40,000 Jews, constituting one-third of the city’s population, lived in Czestochowa just prior to World War II. Fewer than 100 Jews live there today.

In 2004, an exhibition mounted in Czestochowa recounted the vitality and contributions of the once vibrant Jewish community with more than 300 items drawn from the city archives, the collection of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and private collections.

The exhibit opens with a vibrant portrait of the Jewish community from the 17th century through the early 1900s, followed by an account of its near extinction during the Holocaust and life after World War II.

The experiences of Czestochowa’s Jews and their Christian neighbors are poignantly illustrated through 348 photographs, maps, artifacts and biographical videos.

This exhibition is sponsored by Sigmund A. Rolat and Alan M. Silberstein, with special thanks to Continental Airlines, official airline of Holocaust Museum Houston.

The public is invited to a free preview reception at 6:30 p.m., Feb. 15, 2007.