| Yiddish | ייִדישער היסטאָרישער אינסטיטוט |
|---|---|
| Polish | Żydowski Instytut Historyczny |
 | |
 Main entrance to Jewish Historical Institute, inWarsaw | |
 | |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Location |
|
| Coordinates | 52°14′39″N21°00′10″E / 52.244167°N 21.002778°E /52.244167; 21.002778 |
Area served | Poland |
Director | Michał Trębacz |
| Website | http://www.jhi.pl/en |
TheJewish Historical Institute (Polish:Żydowski Instytut Historyczny orŻIH;Yiddish:ייִדישער היסטאָרישער אינסטיטוט), also known as theEmanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, is a public cultural and research institution inWarsaw, Poland, chiefly dealing with thehistory of Jews in Poland and Jewish culture.
The Jewish Historical Institute was created in 1947 as a continuation of theCentral Jewish Historical Commission [pl], founded in 1944. The Jewish Historical Institute Association is the corporate body responsible for the building and the institute's holdings. The Institute falls under the jurisdiction of theMinistry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2009 it was named afterEmanuel Ringelblum and became a public cultural institution. The institute is a repository of documentary materials relating to the Jewish historical presence in Poland. It is also a centre for academic research, study and the dissemination of knowledge about the history and culture ofPolish Jewry.[1]
The most valuable part of the collection is theWarsaw Ghetto Archive, known as theRingelblum Archive (collected by theOyneg Shabbos). It contains some 6,000 documents (some 30,000 pages).[1]
Other important collections concerning World War II include testimonies (mainly of Jewish survivors ofthe Holocaust), memoirs and diaries, documentation of theJoint and Jewish Self-Help (welfare organizations active in Poland under the occupation), and documents from the Jewish Councils (Judenräte). The section on the documentation of Jewish historical sites holds about 40 thousand photographs concerning Jewish life and culture in Poland.[1]
The institute has published a series of documents from the Ringelblum Archive, as well as numerous wartime memoirs and diaries.[2] Also, for over 60 years now, the institute has been publishing an academic journal renamed in 2001 as theJewish History Quarterly [pl] (Polish:Kwartalnik Historii Żydów), registered on the Master Journal List of outstanding academic journals in 2011.[3]
In 2021, Monika Krawczyk, a lawyer and the managing director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in the years 2004–2019, was appointed the Director of the Jewish Historical Institute by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.[4]
In 2024, a group of Institute employees sent a letter to the new Minister of Culture and National Heritage, calling the director "authoritarian and incompetent".[5]
