Mi Polin

MI POLIN is a first Polish Judaica company since World War II. MI POLIN was created by Helena Czernek and Aleksander Prugar in 2014 to design and produce contemporary Judaica from Poland. We make Judaism tangible.

WHY?

MI POLIN is a way of preserving and reinforcing our „Polish-Jewish” identity, which gives us strength and inspiration. We continue the more than 1000-year history of the Jewish community in Poland. To do so is a duty and responsibility, which we take upon ourselves.

HOW?

Interpretation is at the very essence of Judaism and we interpret Jewish tradition and symbolism by our contemporary objects. We observe hiddur micvah, the biblical commandment ordering that ritual objects be beautiful. This is why we only use precious materials. Our products conveys its own emotions, commentary, and history.

WHAT?

Before World War II in Warsaw alone there were over 30 companies producing Judaica. The art of Judaica production perished during World War II. Seven decades later it was we who resurrected this rich, centuries-old tradition by creating MI POLIN. We have revived and continued this tradition to design and produce contemporary Judaica form Poland in order to enrich Jewish life and strengthen Jewish identity. We make Judaism tangible.

Helena (b. 1985, Warsaw) studied Product Design at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and Hebrew Studies at Warsaw University. Combining her interests in design and Jewish heritage, her work is concerned with representing the relationship between the past and the present. Her project (a collaboration with Klara Jankiewicz ) a crosswalk in a shape of pianokey was awarded 1st place in a competition for designs promoting the 2010 “Year of Chopin” in Warsaw.

Aleksander (b. 1984, Gliwice) studied Journalism and Mass Comunication at Warsaw University, Social Sciences at Katowice School of Economics and film course in National Film School in Łódź. For 5 years he worked as a photojournalist with the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2009, critics, art historians and photo-editors associated with the Month of Photography in Krakow included him in the top hundred of the most significant Polish artists of the decade working in the field of photography.