Virtual Shtetl

The Virtual Shtetl (Polish: Wirtualny Sztetl ) is an Internet project of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The project was launched in 2009 and has set itself to be one of the largest collections of knowledge to Polish-Jewish history to the goal. The project is based in the context of a Web 2.0 solution on the cooperation of users worldwide. At present the project in Polish, English, Hebrew, and since the autumn of 2010 in German is available.

Description

The " Virtual Shtetl " is a portal of Jewish local history. Although there are already at the moment of opening contained a lot of information is its future in the work of many users in the context of Web 2.0 solutions. The result is a medium that plays the role of a bridge building between the history of Polish-Jewish cities and the contemporary world.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews make this project at a time, on which construction of the building is still under way. The Virtual Shtetl is a museum without walls, and sees itself as a logical consequence of the initiative of the museum. There will be no place, but the community of which it is created.

The Virtual Shtetl traces the history of Polish Jews in eastern Poland, to a large extent in the small towns ( Yiddish: shtetl ) took place. On the portal information about the history, but also about the present, about small towns, but also about major cities are to be found. The portal includes the boundaries of present-day Poland, as well as those of pre-war Poland. The different language versions allow Polish Jews and their descendants, who are scattered around the world, access to information on the portal.

A complete picture of Polish-Jewish history and relations will be achieved by means of the use of many institutions, organizations and private individuals. The richness of the subject means that the list of topics discussed appear inexhaustible. A valuable source of information, according to self-reports, the portal Polin represents, as well as the portal of the local population jewish.org.pl. The Virtual Shtetl uses the experiences of the internet projects izrael.badacz.org and diapozytyw.pl ( " slide " side of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute ) and it draws from many years of cooperation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the Jewish Historical Institute.