As Professor Dariusz Stola’s term in office as POLIN Museum Director draws to an end, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, the prime mover behind the creation of POLIN Museum, has been trying to reach an agreement with POLIN Museum’s co-founders, the City of Warsaw and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, about guaranteeing the continuity of POLIN Museum’s mission and activities and about the appointment of the director.
POLIN Museum’s founding agreement and statute specify that the director is to be selected by a unanimous decision of all three co-founders. Therefore, on 23 January 2019, a trilateral meeting was held – Professor Piotr Gliński, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage; Dr Rafał Trzaskowski, the Mayor of the City of Warsaw; and Piotr Wiślicki, Chairman of the Board of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, attended. We strongly believe that the current director, Professor Dariusz Stola, is the best candidate for the coming term, based not only on his undisputed merits and proven track record of success, but also on his vast knowledge of the history and culture of Polish Jews – he is widely recognized as an authority in both Poland and abroad. Due to the lack of consensus among the co-founders with regard to Professor Stola’s candidacy, the co-founders agreed to select POLIN Museum’s director in an open competition. They agreed that each co-founder would contribute equally in appointing members to the selection committee. They also decided that the competition rules and regulations would be agreed upon through tripartite negotiations.
Given that the current director’s term expires shortly, Chairman Wiślicki and Mayor Trzaskowski recommended that Professor Stola remain as acting director until the new director is appointed. All the parties present at the meeting considered this solution as offering the best way to guarantee the institution’s stability and continued success and the uninterrupted progress of current projects and programs. Since Polish-Jewish history is an extremely delicate subject, we believe that such an important post must be held by a person with impeccable scholarly credentials and a distinguished international reputation in this field.
We trust that all the resolutions adopted during the meeting held on 23 January 2019 with regard to the selection of POLIN Museum’s director are in force and that all three co-founders shall continue to engage in a dialogue leading to a prompt selection of the best candidate for the post of POLIN Museum’s director.
Piotr Wiślicki
President of the Board
Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland