COURTESY OF GRODZKA GATE THEATRE CENTRE, LUBLIN, POLAND/WHITE GOAT PRESS.
ARTS&LIFE BOOK REVIEW
A few photos from The Glass Plates of Lublin.
A Peek Back in Time The Glass Plates of Lublin: Found Photographs of a Lost Jewish World. LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
n 2010, Krysztof Janus, an architectural engineer working on renovating some buildings in Lublin, Poland, found an unexpected treasure in the abandoned attic at 4 Rynek. There he discovered, buried under trash and dirt — actual soil — glass plates, photographic negatives on thin glass sheets, each a bit smaller than four by six inches. Digging further, the engineer found about 2,700 of these glass plates, a package weighing some 440 pounds. The local cultural center, Grodzka Gate — NN Theatre, arranged to have the mysterious glass plates cleaned and restored. Some of the plates went on display at Grodzka Gate, located in the 14th-century building that marked the border between
the Jewish and non-Jewish areas of Lublin. On a trip in 2018 exploring other aspects of Jewish history, Aaron Lansky and Lisa Kassow happened to see the glass plates on display there. Lansky, whose field is Yiddish literature, and Kassow, a former professional photographer, felt astonished by the treasure they had seen. When the cultural center first got the photographic negatives, Lansky observes, “No one had a clue where they came from, or who took them or how they got there.” In 2015, one of the Grodzka Gate associates, Jakub Chmielewski, discovered a German document from 1940 identifying a resident of 4 Rynek as “Abram Zylberberg, photographer.” Later research uncovered a few details about
Aaron Lans
ky
Zylberberg. He wore sidelocks, but not so long as those of the Hasidim. He went everywhere with his tripod and camera. He also worked as a carpenter. Lansky, director of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, assigned a staff member, Lisa Newman, to work with Piotr Nazaruk, the curator of Grodzka Gate, to research the photographs in the hopes of developing a documentary or a book.
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