MEZUZAH
ŻARKI
RYNEK
$258.00
| The idea: | Bronze Mezuzah from Żarki. This mezuzah is a bronze cast of imprint of the mezuzah trace found at the old tenement at Market Square in Żarki. We created a new mezuzah out of bronze to make the history tangible. Touching the mezuzah activates a link between past and present. MI POLIN – contemporary judaica brand from Poland. |
|---|---|
| Size | 5,7” long / 1,37” wide |
| Material | Bronze |
| SET & PRICE | The given price is the final product price for a set consisting: product and a dedicated to this product e-booklet. |
| TAX | According to the latest August 2025 US customs tariffs, our products are exempt from duties and taxes. In exceptional circumstances, a customs duty of $5 may apply (for large orders). |
| SHIPPING | Fare starts form 48$ to USA and to most countries outside EU. We ship by UPS. |
Description
The trace of mezuzah
new mezuzah - bronze cast of the trace
The story hidden behind
the home
A complete mezuzah from Żarki (scroll + tin container + cover plate + right door frame with grooves and nail marks) comes from house at 6 Rynek Stary Square. The Fromer Jewish family lived here since the 1930s. Full story below
Thanks to Wojciech Mszyca, we made a cast of the original mezuzah made of tin.
Wojciech Mszyca, journalist, historian, collector – discoverer of the Żarki mezuzah.
He donated another doorpost with traces of a mezuzah from Żarki to the MI POLIN MEZUZAH CENTER collection. Thank you for supporting our activities – Aleksander Prugar, Helena Czernek – founders of MI POLIN MEZUZAH CENTER.
Introduction – author Wojciech Mszyca.
Żarki is located in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. 150 million years ago, there was a tropical ocean here inhabited by ancient animals: ammonites, belemnites, and squids. Mr. Wojciech Mszyca, author of the following story, is a collector of these fossils. From Repertorium No. 793 of October 10, 1946, we know that just before the war, the property at 6 Stary Rynek “was registered in the joint name of Mordka and Udla Fromer, who died: Mordka Fromer in 1941 and Udla Fromer in 1942, leaving behind their successor, their daughter Szprince Fromer. Szprince Fromer also died in 1942, leaving behind her only successor, her cousin Cywia Landsztajn (…) née Fromer.
Cywia survived the war and her representative, Joachim Szlama Tenenbaum from Częstochowa, sold the Fromer family home to Poles, Józef and Janina Majchrzak from Żarki, in 1946. All that remained of the Jewish residents was a mezuzah on the front door facing the market square. It survived intact, hidden high up on a nearly 2.5-meter-high doorframe, behind thick sheet metal nailed down with sturdy nails, under layers of paint. It was not until the 1990s that the Majchrzaks installed a new door with a frame, and then used the old set in a storage room in the courtyard to separate the coal storage area. Unknowingly, they preserved the pre-war mezuzah.
After the death of their parents, the house was inherited by their three adult children – Marianna, Joanna, and January. The Majchrzak children did not live in Żarki, so the siblings decided to sell the property in 2003. January, doing the final tidying up before selling the house, recovered, among other things, all the firewood and also set about chopping up the “old doors” that separated the coal cellar. When he came across a large piece of cut rectangular sheet metal with his axe, he decided to dismantle it. Under the sheet metal, in a fairly deep groove, he saw an oblong tin container. When he opened it, he found a mezuzah scroll. He showed his find to his sister Joanna, who immediately associated it with the television film “I Was Born in Żarki,” broadcast in 1997. I also took part in this film as one of the characters. Joanna, a good friend of mine, remembering the film, told me about the mezuzah and gave me this historical treasure. We agreed that this treasure from Żarki belongs neither to them nor to me. It belongs to all of us from Żarki, and above all to our good neighbors from Żarki who are no longer with us – the Jews.
It is the only perfectly and completely preserved mezuzah known in Poland.
Wojciech Mszyca, Katowice, September 12, 2019