Recollecting Post-Jewish Objects

Do you have “post-Jewish” objects in your home? Everyday objects like dishes, linens, clothes, furniture, or trinkets that belonged to Jews before World War II? What do you know about them? What might be knowable about them? Do you want to understand their histories better?

As FestivALT, we seek to better understand such objects by recording the stories their owners tell about them. Our goal is to increase the public’s awareness of the widespread existence of formerly Jewish objects through artistic projects and online and in-person exhibitions that tell their stories, open a dialogue about their fates, and offer free-will opportunities to donate them to relevant museums.

To this end, we are working together with Dr. Erica Lehrer, a Canadian anthropologist and curator who for almost three decades has undertaken research in Poland and collaborated with Polish colleagues and institutions to explore and create dialogue around the memory of the Jewish past in Poland. Her projects include the exhibitions Pamiątka, Zabawka, Talizman, and Widok zza bliska.

Jewish bedspread

(from the film Return to Wielopole by Katka Reszke and Sławomir Grunberg, 2012)

“No one here in the village owned anything this beautiful, because it was from the Jews. And this is all the post-Jewish [pożydowskie] things we have. I have another piece somewhere,
but I won’t go looking for it. Such a thing. And this was given in exchange for food.”