Jun 3, 2024 | Culture, History Poland was once home to more than a thousand shtetls – the name given to small towns with a majority Jewish population But the folk paintings of Mayer Kirshenblatt – based on his childhood memories – give a unique insight into the life of Polish Jews before the Second World War When Mayer Kirshenblatt was a boy living in Opatów (known as Apt in Yiddish) in the 1920s there was always a pot of soup on the kitchen stove It would sit on one of the back rings and simmer on a low heat all day his mother would toss ingredients into the pot – a carrot to preserve the flavour that remained inside She was able to make a meal for the whole family from almost nothing,” Kirshenblatt recalled Kirshenblatt painted the family kitchen with the soup pot on the stove It was the first of around 300 paintings depicting Jewish life in Opatów and capturing in vivid detail the world of the shtetl lost to the Holocaust Portrait of klezmer musicians in photographic studio Seventy of these acrylic paintings are the subject of a new exhibition titled “(post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt” at Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Kirshenblatt painted from memory: the synagogue men washing in the mikvah ritual bathhouse school scenes including a pupil being flogged by a teacher One painting depicts a visibly pregnant bride at her wedding and another features the town’s two prostitutes Opatów is now located in southeastern Poland it was one of over a thousand shtetls – small towns in which the majority of residents were Jewish – in what are now Poland In Poland, shtetls emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, on the eastern fringes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Magnate families established private towns and invited Jews to boost trade and crafts as well as permission to build a synagogue and open a mikvah crucial for a functioning Jewish community there were no more than a thousand Jews living in Poland Jews in the shtetls made their living from trade and crafts: shoemaking carpentry and sometimes small-scale manufacturing The life of a shtetl’s Jewish community was run by the kahal which organised religious life and charity supplied kosher meat and distributed tax money the mikvahs and the schools for poor Jewish children Donations for the needy were collected from everyone to help the beggars and the sick weddings and funerals were experienced by the whole community Newcomers had to obtain permission from the kahal to settle Failure to follow the rules resulted in being banned from the synagogue flogging or even expulsion from the community its population of about 9,600 included more than 5,200 Jews A trove of valuables believed to have been buried during WWII, most likely by Jews, has been discovered during construction work in the city of Łódź https://t.co/n9eoAlcPgZ — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 6, 2023 a local historian and the author of a book about the history of Jews in Opatów The central market square was a melting pot where Jewish merchants Christian farmers and local Poles mingled.” He adds that the Jewish community was economically diverse Its small but influential class of wealthy residents included the Mandelbaum family whose soap factory and oil mill were cornerstones of the local economy “Most lived more modest lives,” continues Żychowski “Living conditions were undoubtedly cramped with as many as three or four people sharing a single room.” What sets Opatów apart today is its visual chronicler His father owned a leather business and was also a shoemaker the theft of a shipment of hides plunged the family into poverty leading to their emigration in 1934 to Canada Kirshenblatt attended the Jewish cheder and later a Polish school though he often skipped classes and had to repeat a year earning him the nickname Crazy Mayer from the townsfolk Yet Kirshenblatt ’s memories of Opatów might have remained locked in his mind if not for his daughter Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett folklorist and professor emeritus at New York University who is also the chief curator of the permanent exhibition at POLIN I recorded these conversations for almost 40 years,” she recounts The interviews continued almost until his death in 2009 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett with her father she convinced him to paint his recollections when he retired from running his own paint and wallpaper store One painting is a self-portrait showing him returning home holding a single herring his mother had sent him to buy for the family dinner The fishmonger wrapped it in a narrow strip of newspaper A male herring was preferred because his mother would remove the semen sac and mix it with chopped onions Kirshenblatt-Gimblett emphasises that her father’s paintings are unique for one fundamental reason meaning he was not directly affected by the trauma of the Holocaust,” she explains “His memories of Poland were not filtered through the experience of that trauma Ryszard Ores was the only one in his family to survive the Holocaust Yet despite his experiences in the ghettos and camps of German-occupied Poland A new exhibition tells his story: https://t.co/eWnCBLnm5S pic.twitter.com/CyFij8dkiB — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 13, 2021 Kirshenblatt recalled that men used it on Fridays and women on Thursdays as only the ritual cleansing allowed them to resume sexual relations the building survived the war and now houses the Opatówek fudge factory To understand how the building had changed inside the exhibition curators scanned the interior with a laser we discovered where exactly the pool was located,” says Dr “It turned out that today this is where the ladies wrap fudge by hand.” A new album of Polish-Jewish 1930s tango celebrates the rich and diverse interwar music scene in Poland and can act "as a bridge for Israelis and Poles to share our common heritage and history" https://t.co/zeguaLx55c — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 10, 2020 The town was an important centre of Polish Hasidism – a prominent figure in the movement the German occupiers established a ghetto in Opatów and from 20-22 October 1942 approximately 6,500 Jews were deported from the town to Treblinka death camp Around 300 Jews from Opatów survived the Holocaust; however there are almost no remaining physical traces of the shtetl Only the buildings of the former cheder and mikvah have survived Photo credit: Iwo Ksiazek (collection of J The 17th-century synagogue is now a pile of rubble, though it survived the war. The Jewish cemetery was turned into a park after the war Recently, a small lapidarium with matzevot tombstones found nearby has been created in the park “On the building that once housed the Jewish school is a Jewish star etched into its façade It is a rare sight in Poland today,” notes Żychowski Another building has an indentation that once held a mezuzah parchment inscribed with Hebrew verses from the Torah In a blend of preservation and art installation the exhibition curators purchased timber beams from a half-destroyed former Polish-Jewish school in the town these beams were used to create the exhibition’s scenography A new collection of photographs captures the changing face of Kazimierz, Kraków's former Jewish quarter, over the decades, from its postwar decline to a recent revival https://t.co/jvvbHaWawp — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 15, 2022 The display cases made from this wood contain artifacts once owned by Opatów residents including unique wooden menorahs from the war (likely made after silverware was looted) and fragments of candelabras from the synagogue which feature in one of Kirshenblatt’s paintings The exhibition also includes pre-war photos of the Jewish Street (ulica Żydowska) and pictures of local people Kirshenblatt’s collection is now permanently held by POLIN which plans to display it in a mobile exhibition touring some of today’s former shtetls “(post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt” is open at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews until 16 December 2024 Main image credit: POLIN Museum Collection , , , , , Apr 30, 2025 | , , , That response will include “large Polish and NATO exercises in Poland” Apr 29, 2025 | , , , Those employed in Poland work on average the third-longest hours in the European Union Apr 28, 2025 | , , , , Westinghouse and Bechtel were first chosen in 2022 as partners on the 192 billion zloty ($51 billion) project please consider helping us to continue and expand it [email protected] Copyright © 2025 Notes From Poland | Design jurko studio | Code by 2sides.pl Senior Research Fellow at the Global Europe Centre ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Weronika Strzyżyńska is currently studying journalism at Goldsmiths as a Scott Trust Bursary recipient She  has written on issues immigration and Brexit for New Statesman and Prospect Agnieszka Wądołowska is managing editor of Notes from Poland She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and assistant professor of history at the Pedagogical University of Krakow He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications The Independent and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Stanley Bill is the founder and editor-at-large of Notes from Poland.He is also Senior Lecturer in Polish Studies and Director of the Polish Studies Programme at the University of Cambridge Stanley has spent more than ten years living in Poland He founded Notes from Poland in 2014 as a blog dedicated to personal impressions cultural analysis and political commentary He is committed to the promotion of deeper knowledge and understanding of Poland He is the Chair of the Board of the Notes from Poland Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor of European Studies at Oxford University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Professor at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Executive Director of Taube Family Foundation ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR the shovel was officially dug in for the construction of the Opatów bypass was awarded in 2021 to ACCIONA - in consortium with its Polish subsidiary Mostostal Warszawa - by Poland’s General Directorate for National Roads and Highways wich will run through the communes of Opatów improve the quality of life of the residents as well as the safety and comfort of travellers The bypass will be an important section of the planned S74 expressway Świętokrzyskie and Podkarpackie voivodships This is another task that Mostostal Warszawa is carrying out in this region The symbolic groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Rafał Weber - Secretary of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Krzysztof Strzelczyk - Director of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways in Kielce as well as parliamentarians from the region and representatives of the local government The Opatow ring road will include two sections The company will build two new interchanges as well as various engineering structures (overpasses The bypass is expected to be opened to traffic during 2026 I accept Information on data protection In compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on Data Protection and with other Data Protection regulations in force you are hereby informed that your personal data shall be processed by Acciona whose identification data are as follows: Tax ID No (NIF): A08001851; Address: Avenida de la Gran Vía de Hortaleza No.: +34 91 663 28 50; email: protecciondedatos@acciona.com Your data shall be processed in order to send you information through the subscription to our Newsletter through electronic means activities and news pertinent to our activity sectors The consent given by the data subject by indicating that they have read and accept this data protection information comprises the lawfulness of processing the subscription Request cannot be satisfied We may also process your satisfaction or preferences Data shall be stored until the elimination is requested we may give access to your data to service providers (such as technology service providers) who assist us in fulfilling this purpose may be located outside of the European Economic Area in territories that do not offer a level of data protection that is comparable to that of the European Union we transfer User data with appropriate safeguards and always ensuring the security of the same The data subject can exercise their rights of access to or rectification and/or the restriction of or objection to the processing of such data by writing the Department of Data Protection located at Avenida de la Gran Vía de Hortaleza 28033 (Madrid) or by sending the form available in the link: FORM If we consider it necessary in order to be able to identify you, we may ask you for a copy of an identity document. Furthermore, at any time the data subject may withdraw the granted consent by contacting the aforementioned address and file a claim to the Supervisory Authority (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos www.aepd.es) You can also unsubscribe from the Newsletter communication For any further information you can visit the Privacy Police on the website https://www.acciona.com/privacy-policy/ using his keen eye for detail and astonishing visual recollection artist Mayer Kirshenblatt succeeded in preserving visions of life in these villages in his work Stuart Dowell 6 min readWhen Mayer Kirshenblatt was a boy in Opatów in the 1920s his mother would send him to buy a single herring for the family dinner which the fishmonger would wrap in just a narrow strip of newspaper his mother would remove the bag of semen from the fish and scoop it out adding chopped onions and sugar to make a tangy dipping sauce for bread My mother was an excellent cook since she was able to make a meal for the whole family from one herring It had to feed four or five people,” he said Mayer would paint himself returning from the fishmonger just one of around 300 other paintings that poured from his brush of Jewish life in Opatów This body of work now forms a unique collection of work that recreates in astonishing detail that world of the shtetl that was lost for ever in the Holocaust Mayer painted what he remembered: the synagogue scenes from school including a pupil being flogged by a teacher he shows a wedding at which the bride is visibly pregnant In another we see the town’s two prostitutes Jaźdka and Świderka (post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt at Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Up until the Second World War it was just one of more than 1,000 shtetls in today’s Poland and Belarus where Jews made up the majority of the population shtetls began to emerge in the late 16th and early 17th centuries on the eastern fringes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Magnate families created private towns within their domains and invited Jews in the hope that they would boost trade and crafts The Jews were granted a site for a cemetery the right to build a synagogue and open a mikvah elements essential for a Jewish religious community to function A large map at the exhibition shows a huge cloud of black dots representing the location of each shtetl Opatów was just one of them and differed little to all the others Only around 300 Opatów Jews survived the Holocaust What made Opatów different was that it had its own visual chronicler in Mayer Kirshenblatt his father was the owner of a leather business as well as a shoemaker a shipment of hides for his workshop was stolen and ultimately to their departure in 1934 to Canada Mayer attended cheder and later a Polish school he would skip classes and even had to repeat a year His real passion was observing the life of the town His unusual inquisitiveness gained him the nickname Crazy Mayer among the townsfolk “I would spend hours observing the blacksmith and the tinsmith when all the peasants came to town,” he said His gift for memory may have remained locked in his mind if it were not for his daughter and the chief curator of the permanent exhibition at POLIN I recorded these conversations for almost 40 years,” she recounted The recordings continued almost until his death in 2009 When he retired from running his own paint and wallpaper store she convinced him to paint what he remembered and he did not stop painting for the remaining 20 years of his life “There was always a pot of soup on the stove,” he recalled which would percolate on a slow flame all day to preserve the little bit of flavour that remained on the bottom and on the sides” Professor Kiershenblatt-Gimblett says that her father’s paintings are special for one basic reason: “He left in 1934 meaning he was not directly affected by the trauma of the Holocaust “He lived in a time before helicopter parents so he would wander and explore every nook and cranny One of his paintings features the ritual bathhouse Mayer recalled that men used it on Fridays because only the ritual cleansing allowed them to have sex again and it is used today as a factory for “Opatówek” fudge The curators of the exhibition wanted to know how the building had changed inside we discovered where exactly the pool was located It turned out that today this is where the ladies wrap fudge by hand,” said Dr Jews made up about 60 per cent of the population and the town was an important centre of Polish Hasidism approximately 6,500 Jews were sent to Treblinka and murdered there is no shtetl anymore and almost no material remains of it The 17th-century synagogue is now just a pile of rubble The Jewish cemetery was turned into a park after the war a small lapidarium with matzevot found in the area has been created in the park Only the building of the cheder and the mikvah have survived In an act that combines salvage and art installation the exhibition curators purchased timber beams from a former Polish-Jewish school in the town that was already half destroyed Back in Warsaw it was used to create the exhibition’s scenography Its use is symbolic as the buildings of the old shtetls were made mainly from wood impermanent buildings of which fewer and fewer traces remain Housed in display cases made from the wood are thought-provoking artefacts borrowed from people from the town including unique wooden menorahs from the war which actually feature in one of Mayer’s paintings The exhibition includes photos of pre-war Zydowska Street Mayer’s collection is now held permanently by the POLIN museum and it plans to display them in a mobile exhibition that will tour some of today’s former shtetls (post)JEWISH… Shtetl Opatów Through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt is open at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews until December 16 Jewish artists Courtesy of Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Two photos of young performers of a Purim shpiel (Purim play) in the shtetl of Apt (Opatow) appeared on Facebook this week The actors look to be between 10 and 15 years old The images were posted by Yiddish folklore scholar Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett She found them in her private collection but has no information about it The Purim shpiel is a skit or monologue about the Book of Esther that’s performed at the festive Purim family meal. As described in this entry  from YIVO’s website the custom began in the fifteenth century or earlier and was usually performed in Yiddish The skit was often based on the biblical Scroll (Megillah) of Esther prevented the massacre of the Jews ordered by Haman The fact that this custom has been around for at least 500 years is testimony to its central role in Jewish culture I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning nonprofit journalism during this critical time we have stood together in strength and sorrow Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S rising antisemitism and polarized discourse Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up Copyright © 2025 The Forward Association Having recently returned from a trip to the Polish town of my mother’s childhood I was eager to see Mayer Kirshenblatt’s paintings of Jewish life in prewar Poland on exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York I immediately recognized buildings and landscapes I had seen on the trip—the small multi-tiered synagogues—but the exhibition instantly filled me with joy because Mayer Kirshenblatt’s paintings put the people back in a panoramic view of life before the Holocaust Kirshenblatt’s art captures the energy and diversity of life as it was lived in prewar Apt (Opatów in Polish) the paintings are rich in ethnographic detail and show every area of activity some with the artist as a blue-clad schoolboy looking on is becoming internationally known; his work was recently exhibited at the Galician Jewish Museum in Kraków which includes 200 full color reproductions Mayer Kirshenblatt collaborated with his daughter a scholar of Eastern European Jewish culture and folklore on a captivating text recording his almost encyclopedic range of memories of the town up to 1934 who co-authored Image Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland with Lucjan Dobroszychi a book based on the photographic collection of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research comments on her father’s art: “Until Mayer’s paintings all my images of Jewish life in Poland were black and white because all of them were from photographs,” she writes was now emerging in vibrant color.” Kirshenblatt’s extraordinary visual memory and love can revivify this world for us all Fetterman is the literary editor of Reform Judaism magazine Fetterman was the literary editor of Reform Judaism magazine This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Krakow Wedding (1994) Image by Mayer Kirshenblatt Sometimes the story of a single work of art — in this case a painting by the extraordinary self-taught Jewish artist Mayer Kirshenblatt (1916-2009) — is much more than the sum of its parts The painting, The Wedding (1992), reflects a long and meaningful friendship between the klezmer music performer and scholar Henry Sapoznik and the folklorist and museums expert (and Mayer Kirshenblatt’s daughter), Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett — both important figures in the world of Yiddish culture complete with joyful guests and a klezmer band in the Polish shtetl where Kirshenblatt was born and raised before World War II — Apt (known in Polish as Opatów) By the time Kirshenblatt depicted this scene which he recorded in over 300 paintings and drawings The Wedding embodies key aspects of Kirshenblatt’s life and art including the importance of memory and the possibility of self-renewal regardless of age The latest chapter in the painting’s history also demonstrates the power of friendship and projects a hopeful future for appreciation of Jewish culture in Poland Mayer Kirshenblatt was born in Apt at the height of World War I He attended both cheder and Polish public school “his real school was the town.” He was an observant child with an exceptional visual memory fascinated by every aspect of Apt’s bustling Jewish and non-Jewish life: the home It wasn’t until much later that he started creating his art but his child’s mind stored up a treasure trove of visual materials Young Mayer was an outsized personality in his own right His fellow Apters gave him the nickname “Tamez,” meaning “July.” In his own words: “July was the hottest month of the year and I was an excitable kid.” He was attuned to human dramas big and small and could later recall people and incidents in astonishing detail Not only did he become a painter; he turned into a wonderful raconteur telling his daughter Barbara stories about life in his hometown that ranged from the comic to the dramatic to the downright odd Apt was a colorful place, both literally and figuratively, and the impressions it made on an unusual boy resulted in a unique book combining paintings with stories. The book, They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust, was co-authored by father and daughter No similar record exists for any other pre-Holocaust Jewish community in Europe But becoming an artist was not natural or easy for Mayer He was 17 when he left Poland for Toronto in 1934 (His father had already gone to Canada six years earlier) After stints sewing in a sweatshop and painting houses as Barbara Kirshenblatt’s professional interest in Jewish folklore developed she began to sense that her own father was a rich repository of knowledge about Jewish life in Europe and recorded a series of interviews with him his family realized that he had a remarkable capacity to recall visual details from his childhood urged him over many years to draw and paint what he remembered in 1989 — at age 73 — he created his first drawing his style seems naive but it’s actually very sophisticated with a strong sense of narrative and careful use of vibrant colors to structure each scene The life these paintings (re)create is both deeply subjective and entirely believable: They are valuable not just as a record of a lost world but also as one man’s experience of that world — lived as a child and recalled through an adult lens It’s no wonder that Mayer’s paintings were featured in solo exhibitions at prestigious museums including the Jewish Museum in New York, the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam and the Judah L. Magnes Museum — today the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life — at the University of California When Mayer returned to Apt in 2007, he was treated as a celebrity: The town put up posters announcing his lecture at the local museum and even gave him a standing ovation. In 2008, Apt hosted an exhibition of his paintings complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by county officials. And in 2024, his artwork will be on display in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw were enthusiastic KlezKamp participants from its earliest days The Wedding prominently features klezmer musicians and was the perfect item to sell for KlezKamp’s benefit To his astonishment, Sapoznik won the raffle. His connection to all the Kirshenblatts was deep and warm, but his friendship with Barbara was particularly key: She had been one of the first and strongest supporters for ventures such as his groundbreaking Smithsonian Folkways recording of historic klezmer performances in New York City Both became major scholars in their fields who recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) has two forthcoming books: A Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York and Hear O Israel: A Century of Yiddish-American Broadcasting Lauder chief curator of the Core Exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews She carefully kept her father’s collection of paintings intact over the years and convinced her family to give all of them to the POLIN Museum When she recently asked Sapoznik for a photograph of the painting in his possession in order to complete the list of Mayer’s works Henry offered to return the painting to her for the POLIN Museum POLIN Museum visitors have numbered in the multiple millions since the museum’s grand opening in 2014 Seeing Mayer’s paintings in the show planned for next year Post-JEWISH: Shtetl Opatów through the Eyes of Mayer Kirshenblatt will fulfill Mayer’s own stated goal: to help future visitors understand how Jews in Poland lived The Polish General Directorate for National Roads and Highways has awarded ACCIONA in a consortium with its Polish subsidiary Mostostal Warszawa the contract to design and construct the Opatow bypass Warsaw University has awarded Mostostal the contract to construct the new Psychology Faculty in Ochota has also been awarded the contract to construct a residential building in Łódź for more than €10 million; and the renovation of the Wigencja industrial complex in the same city for cultural and commercial purposes in a contract worth an additional €10 million further boost ACCIONA’s position in the Polish infrastructure market where it has operated for more than 20 years and has become one of the leading players in the sector The Opatow highway will include two sections The company will construct two new intersections and a series of engineering structures (overpasses environmental protection devices (including acoustic panelling) The Opatow bypass will pass through the town of Opatow and the villages of Lipnik and Sadowie while improving residents’ quality of life and the safety and convenience of road users Mostostal Warszawa is also working on construction of another bypass The Psychology Faculty will have a building with more than 26,000 m² spread over eight storeys (six above ground and two below ground) as well as more than 30 teaching classrooms and an auditorium with a capacity for around 400 people This new building will be notable for its sustainability as ACCIONA will implement energy recovery systems and energy-saving installations during its construction the new faculty building will meet the requirements to obtain the prestigious BREEAM certification ACCIONA expects to complete the works in early 2024 was awarded the contract to construct a 10.3 km section of the S19 expressway between the Rzeszów Południe junction and Babica The S19 will be one of the most technologically-advanced infrastructures in the country thanks to the use of a tunnel boring machine with a diameter of more than 15 metres that will construct a dual underground tunnel spanning more than 2 km at a maximum depth of 70 metres ACCIONA’s Polish subsidiary has signed a contract to design and construct the 12 km highway between Zaluski and Modlin airport (close to Warsaw) Other major works being carried out by ACCIONA in the country include construction of the 11.5 km section of highway between Nisko Południe and Podgórze worth €60 million; the Stalowa Wola bypass (finished in May) as part of a project worth €44 million; and the design and construction of the Zegrze Pomorskie-Klanino section of the S11 highway which will connect the central Baltic coastline with the Upper Silesia region in a project spanning 19.28 km and worth €105 million ACCIONA has been present in Poland since 1999 through its subsidiary Mostostal Warszawa one of the largest construction firms in the country in a consortium or through Mostostal– has helped to construct the most important bridges in the country such as the Siekierkowski Bridge and the Wroclaw Bridge as well as constructing sections of highway metro tunnels and residential and commercial buildings ACCIONA also has three wind farms in Poland with a combined capacity of 101 MW (Golice The company also has a significant presence in the real estate market and has delivered more than 1,750 homes in Warsaw The intense scrubbing and cleaning of homes to prepare for Passover was a little different in the shtetl Mayer Kirshenblatt (1916-2009), who was born and raised in Opatow (Apt), described in delightful detail what pre-Pesach cleaning was like in the town in the 1920s, through his illustrated memoir, “Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland before WWII.” As you’ll read in this excerpt below he not only writes what his family did to rid the house of khomets (chametz but also explains what he painted in the illustration to the memoir Just before Passover, we did our spring cleaning. All the furniture was taken out into the yard, and everything was torn apart. All the books were taken out and aired: we let the wind blow through them. The beds had to be cleaned scrupulously and the straw mattresses emptied. We poured boiling hot water into all the seams and joints in the bedsteads to kill the bedbugs and their eggs. After we got the FLIT my father would spray everything with FLIT That helped a lot to keep the bedbugs under control The mattresses were made by stuffing straw into a rectangular burlap bag that had a slit up the middle we emptied the mattresses of the old straw Most of the time we threw the old straw into the cesspool in the back of our house it would have deteriorated and lost its spring so most people took their old straw to the bonfire where we burned khumets (chametz) or leaven We would refill the mattresses with fresh straw that we bought from the farmers who knew to bring straw to market just before Passover Spring cleaning included a search for any trace of leaven the holiday that commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt The Jews left in such haste that their bread did not have time to rise as a duster for sweeping the leaven into a cloth we used to go to an empty place on a back street A man tended a big fire for just this purpose You had to pay him a small fee for throwing your khumets (chametz while another guy threw the khumets into the fire when he wasn’t looking you can see a man bringing his old bed straw to be burnt and several people paying for their khumets to be burnt A boy is trying to sneak his khumets into the fire without paying You can also see the electricity plant for the town and the steam boiler inside it Samuel Willenberg was 19 years old and living in the town of Opatow when its Jewish inhabitants were sent to Treblinka.21/02/2016Share(AFP) The last survivor of a prisoners' revolt at the Treblinka Nazi death camp has died aged 93 the Yad Vashem Holocaust institute said on Sunday Samuel Willenberg was 19 years old and living in the town of Opatow when its Jewish inhabitants were sent to Treblinka Approximately 870,000 Jews were murdered during the 13 months that the camp was in operation The Jerusalem Post reported that he escaped death by telling his Nazi captors that he was a painter and builder and was assigned to camp maintenance work rather than going straight to the gas chambers like most new arrivals he joined another 200 inmates who broke into the armoury of the camp's SS detachment opened fire on their captors and set fire to camp buildings "Masses of prisoners now tried to storm the fence and escape from the camp; they were fired at from all the watchtowers and most of them were hit Those who succeeded in getting out of the camp were apprehended and shot," Yad Vashem's website says "Of the approximately 750 prisoners who had tried to make their escape Willenberg nevertheless escaped and joined the Polish underground he fought in the Warsaw Uprising by Polish partisans against the Nazis surviving yet again to serve in the post-war Polish army and immigrating to Israel in 1950 creating 15 scenes from Treblinka which have been exhibited in Israel "When you see my sculptures - you see Treblinka," he told researchers in a 2011 interview In his book "Revolt in Treblinka", he said of the uprising: "We harboured no thoughts of ourselves and our lives. Our only desire was to obliterate the death factory which had become our home." Willenberg, who died on Friday, is to be buried in central Israel on Monday. His fellow-survivor from the Treblinka revolt, Kalman Taigman, died in Israel in 2012. PoliticsLuxembourg lawmakers divided over Israel-EU relationsAttempt to find unified position on extension of EU-Israel trade agreement failed during divisive committee meeting World of workJob market last year grew at slowest pace since financial crisisLuxembourg created fewer new jobs in 2024 than any year since the 2008-9 banking crisis Public administrationGovernment to create administration overseeing housing aidNew office aims to improve access to housing support and reduce delays AustraliaAustralians mark election day with 'democracy sausages' and in 'budgy smugglers'Australians fired up barbecues and wore tight-fit swim trunks called "budgy smugglers" to voting centers as they welcomed election day on Saturday (3 May) with some unique and quirky traditions. GrantsEU to propose €500m package to attract researchersPlan to double grant amount by 2025 and continue support in 2026 and 2027 Costs of six million eurosPremiumBus drivers unable to drive cost Luxembourg firm €6m annually Some given odd jobs or are idle, but could soon be employed by municipal councils World of workSpain to move ahead with plan to cut work week to 37.5 hoursThe bill is set to face a lengthy approval process in Parliament, where it’s uncertain to have enough backing from lawmakers Innovation and educationLuxembourg opens drone school to boost safetyEducation ministry has launched a civilian drone school, where pilots can hone their skills and share ideas Advertiser contentTreat yourself to a stress-free holidayDreaming of a worry-free trip What if the secret to a smooth getaway was simply good preparation and the right protection Advertiser contentReal estate: Why should you take advantage of the start of 2025 to begin your real estate project?The main things we remember about the housing sector over the past 12 months are the rise in interest rates and the fall in property prices Advertiser contentProperty: I've decided to invest!The various forms of government support for investment Advertiser contentThe Luxembourg Times BusinessRun is happening again on 18th September!On Thursday 18th September with the starting gun of the 11th Luxembourg Times BusinessRun fired at the Coque at 7 pm Share this with instagramShare this with facebookShare this with linkedinSections Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.