Mi Polin Bronze Mezuzah - STRYJ UL. KRAVETSKA 22

During the World War II, Eliasz Rotner lived at 2, Piekarska St. in Kolomyia. In 1914 he ran away from home and moved to Vienna. He received a degree in philosophy in Austria and Germany. He also learned the basics of bookkeeping and worked as a bookkeeper from 1933. When Hitler rose to power, Eliasz came back from Germany to Poland. In 1935 he married a woman who converted to Judaism for him and gave birth to their daughter. In 1939 they moved to Kolomyia where Eliasz worked as a bookkeeper. As the situation under occupation grew more and more dangerous, Eliasz decided to leave his wife and have his daughter baptized in order to protect his child. After WW II, he worked in the communist Office of Public Security in Wrocław. At first as an ordinary bookkeeper, but after two years he was promoted to a warrant officer and the Deputy Head at the Office of Public Safety in Wrocław.

This mezuzah is a part of the Mi Polin "Mezuzah From This Home" project. This project commemorates the Jewish life of pre-war Poland by taking mezuzah casts from the door frames of once Jewish homes. They symbolize the emptiness of now vacant homes, the remembrance of those who lived there, and the reclaiming of the mezuzah, which for years remained empty but now can fulfill its role in Judaica at home.

Each mezuzah is cast in bronze with a Shin and the area which it was cast from engraved on the side. It also has an open space in the back for a scroll. The kosher scroll is not included.

The bronze cast commemorates the Steiner and Lednitzer Families and the trace of mezuzah on a doorfra­me in apartments 18 and 19. The building was built between 1868 and 1873 as a tenement house. Probably it was designed by Jacek Matusiński. The owner of the building at 8 Mo­stowa was Abraham Lednitzer. From 1926 to 1934 only 4 Jewish residents lived in this tenement: Uebersfeld Estera, Gross Hallassa, Bloch Ruchla, Zweig Salomea. According to a list of prayer houses in pre-war Kraków in the backyard of 8 Mostowa Street was a prayer house of Chana and Abra­ham Lednitzer. The praying house was built in 1907 by the Lednitzer Fa­mily. During World War II, Nazi Germans devastated the buil­ding and it was no longer a prayer house. Today there is a workshop in this place. No one is allowed to enter the building.

Mi Polin means “from Poland” in Hebrew. Mi Polin is the first brand that designs and produces Judaica in Poland since the end of World War II, the Holocaust, and 45 years of communism. Mi Polin is a contemporary design studio specializing in Jewish objects, branding for Jewish institutions, and graphic design. Their design refers to "hiddur micva", which demands that ritual artifacts be beautiful, but also emphasizes their multi-faceted nature. Mi Polin was founded by Aleksander Prugar and Helena Czernek.

6,69” long / 1,75” wide