Sunday 11 May 2014

Two Jewish Sundays


On Sunday, the Barford family and assorted hangers-on continued our support of the new Warsaw Jewish History Museum by visiting the new temporary exhibition "Warsze". The title is the Yiddish name of my city, and the exhibition presented the lost world of Jewish Warsaw through a series of exhibits which had survived the terrible fate of that entire population. There was much to learn about the contribution of the Jews of Warsaw, both Assimilated and Orthodox to Polish and regional culture. The Museum is very popular and is well supported including by several US foundations of Jews keen that the rich heritage and place in history of their forefathers living in Poland should be appreciated and not be forgotten.

The past cannot be lived again, nor undone, but that is no excuse not to continually revisit it and commemorate it, preserve traces and memories in multiple forms, and try to reach an understanding of what happened and what it all means.

On the same day, over in Washington a lawyer was getting excited that other Jews are ganging together to try to use the law (which one is not stated) to get their hands on a random group of precisely similar exhibits to prevent any such exhibit taking shape now or in the future in the land from which they came. I shudder to think what such behaviour would have led to in the case of our museum, but the American friends of our museum are of a different stature from Mr Tompa's friends.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

Mr Barford,
I do not know you nor had I heard of you before being directed to your blog on report of my image appearing under the title 'Archaeology Day' (2014). I would object to you using my image in pursuing your agenda. In assuming you have followed NSPCC guidelines in obtaining parental permission and permission from the child herself in portraying her in the foreground of the same photograph I would have expected the courtesy of seeking my own approval, after all it would have been relatively simple to identify me in your interest in SAS. I have had a cursory look through your blog and whilst I see various points in some articles with which I would agree it is obvious how inflexible you are in your views and how you attempt to belittle those who hold opposing views. I do not consider this to be an attribute and for this reason will not be revisiting your blog. No doubt I too will be the subject of childish ridicule.
Robin Hodgkinson

Paul Barford said...

Absolutely, because you cannot even work out under which post to post your comment!! This has nothing to do with Warsaw's Jewish museum.

The photo I reproduce IN ANOTHER POST on this blog, of unidentified folk including one genderless and faceless individual of uncertain age (as it says quite clearly under it) is in the public domain as it comes straight off the Sussex Archaeological Society's webpage.http://sussexpast.co.uk/event/archaeology-day I suggest you take it up with them.

If that is your child, then I'd certainly object to somebody putting their photo in the public domain holding - of all things - a metal detector. If you get the SAS to take it down and print in its place an apology I'll take mine down OK?

By the way, seeing how they "promote archaeology" I have lost any interest I may ever have had in SAS.

I suspect you overestimate your own fame, searching for your name on the SAS website gives no results, http://sussexpast.co.uk/?s=Robin+hodgkinson&submit=Search
I do not see how you imagine that a writer in Warsaw Poland can identify any of the individuals shown in any of the photos on their website where they are not named in the caption. Can you?

Anyway, if you are connected in any way with this travesty of an "archaeology Day", then please think again and go away and read what archaeology is. The PAS is there to educate people like you, make use of it.

 
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