Mi Polin Bronze Mezuzah - OŚWIĘCIM, UL. KS. JANA SKARBKA 5
This mezuzah is a part of the Mi Polin "Mezuzah From This Home" project. Artisans Aleksander Prugar and Helena Czernek travel across Poland to find traces of mezuzahs from the pre-war homes of the country's millions of vanished Jews. They then cast these traces in bronze. The casts symbolize the emptiness of now-vacant homes, the remembrance of those who lived there, and the reclaiming of the mezuzah. When you affix the mezuzah to your doorframe, you fill its emptiness and give it a second life. Touching the mezuzah activates a link between past and present.
Each mezuzah is cast in bronze, with a Shin and the place where it was cast engraved on the side. It has an open space in the back for a scroll. (Use the drop-down menu to purchase your mezuzah with or without a scroll.)
Learn more about the "Mezuzah from the Home" project in this Times of Israel article.
This bronze cast commemorates the inhabitants of 5 Ks. Jana Skarbka, Oświęcim (better known in English as "Auschwitz").
This house was constructed at the turn of the 20th century. It was owned by the Wulkan, Leser, and Teichner families. In 1928, it was sold to Bernard Teichman. In the 1930s, his daughter, Fryda, lived here with her husband, Symcha Kluger, and their nine children. The family store in the basement sold live chickens. Symcha Kluger was a religious teacher, who would lead discussions of religious commentary at the Great Synagogue on Saturday afternoons.
Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.25 inches
Material: Bronze
Made in Poland.
Mi Polin, meaning “from Poland” in Hebrew, is the first brand that designs and produces Judaica in Poland since the end of World War II, the Holocaust, and forty-five years of Communism. This contemporary design studio specializes in Jewish objects, branding for Jewish institutions, and graphic design. Their design refers to "hiddur micva" (a Slavic transliteration of “mitzvah”), which demands that ritual artifacts be beautiful, while also
emphasizing their multi-faceted nature. Mi Polin was founded by Aleksander Prugar and Helena Czernek.