Taube Foundation For Jewish Life & Culture - Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland

Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland

In 2004, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture founded the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP). The Initiative aims to nurture the revival of Jewish life in Poland, further awareness of this resurgence among Jews and non-Jews and foster positive interest in Poland and Polish Jews among American Jews. This mission reinforces the Taube Philanthropies’ broader purpose of sustaining Jewish culture in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The JHIP is a partnership program, made up of founding sponsors and new partners from the United States and Europe.

Jewish life in Poland received an almost mortal blow during the Holocaust committed by Germans in occupied Poland. Decades of Communism followed World War II, see History of Poland (1945–1989). As a result, Jewish schools closed, public programs on Jewish culture were forbidden and only a handful of historians were permitted to study the archives of Polish Jewish history.

The fall of Communism in 1989 changed all of this dramatically. Many Poles have learned about their and Jewish culture has flourished. The JHIP is supporting institutions and individuals –– in Poland as well as in the United States –– who are helping preserve Jewish heritage or are enriching the cultural and intellectual landscape today. A list of grantees appears on the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture's website.

To further the goals of the JHIP, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture has established a base of operations in Warsaw at the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Culture at the. The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture is the only American Jewish foundation with an office and ongoing presence in Poland.

The JHIP Director is Shana Penn, author and visiting scholar at the ’s Center for Jewish Studies in Berkeley, California.