Polish Jewry museum over budget, delays official core exhibit opening

(JTA) – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has gone over budget and the official opening of its permanent core exhibition has been pushed back.

The official opening has been delayed until Fall 2014, the museum’s Virtual Shtetl web portal reported Tuesday.

The museum is seeking an extra $2.5 million  – half from the state and half from the city of Warsaw, according to Virtual Shtetl.

Museum Acting Director Andrej Cudak spelled out the financial shortfall Sept. 25 at a meeting of the Culture and Media Commission of the Sejm, or Polish Parliament.

The museum is a public-private institution whose construction was largely financed by the state and the city. It opened its building in April, but without the core exhibition.

It currently hosts cultural and educational programs as well as temporary exhibits.

Cudak said in a statement posted on the Sejm web site that the museum’s core exhibit will be ready by June 2014 but its opening would still require “considerable mobilization of forces and resources.”