According to pictures on the Gazeta Wyborcza Lublin edition web site, progress has been made on a housing estate in Bilgoraj, in southeast Poland, that is being constructed as something of a living “shtetl skansen” — or open air shtetl museum. Bilgoraj is where Isaac Bashevis Singer lived as a boy.
We reported on this project back in January.
The project is financed by local entrepreneur Tadeusz Kuźmiński — who conceived of it — along with the Ambra alcohol producer and Black Red White furniture manufacturer, both of which companies operate in Biłgoraj. Application for EU funds were rejected.
The new “shtetl” — complete with a synagogue and marketplace with arcaded houses — will be an active housing estate, with real tenants, but will look like a pre-World War II Polish country town.
There is to be a Jewish museum in the reconstructed synagogue.
Read full article — and see the pictures!