An Institute of Research into the Cultural Heritage of Eastern European Jews has opened in Białystok, north-eastern Poland.

Its academic council is made up of about fifty historians and researchers from Poland, Israel, France, Denmark and the United States. The Polish-French Foundation for New Democratic Practices named after Michel de Montaigne is the Institute’s patron. The Institute’s honorary committee includes representatives of organizations of Polish Jews in Israel.

The Institute is to conduct studies of an interdisciplinary character.

During the inter-war period, the province of Białystok had the highest percentage of Jewish population. (12 percent). In some towns of the region, Jews accounted for more than a half of the population. Some 50, 000 Jews lived in Białystok itself and the city was an important centre of Jewish culture and religious life. The founder of the Esperanto language Ludwik Zamenhof, the soprano Rose Raisa, America’s first cubist painter Max Weber and the star of the silent cinema Nora Ney were born in Białystok. (mk)