Halicz Karaites Group in Vilnius, c. 1933, photo archive of the Association of Polish Karaites
The Ethnographic Museum in Kraków presents old-fashioned photographs of Karaites - "The Roads Traveled by Karaites" from the past 100 years
More than three hundred photographs, dating from 1864 to 1960, show the fate of several generations of the smallest national minority living in Poland. The photographs were found in the archives of private albums and collections. They include family portraits taken in studios as well as amateur photos documenting the events and everyday affairs, social gatherings, family celebrations, vacations, playing tennis, courtyard games, performances in amateur theatres, kayaking, etc.
The photographs accompanied the Karaites on the roads traveled throughout the years: in business, markets in the Far East, on the fronts of World War I, in POW camps during the evacuation, in attempts to seek a better life and of great adventures in America. They helped ease the longing of those far from home or those who lost contact with their loved ones.
Today the damaged photographs show traces of the distances and journeys traveled. The Karaites culture has preserved many of its national features. Through the old photographs Polish Karaites tell their story, made up of many private stories, pieced together from snippets of memories of life in their communities in Halicz, Łuck, Trakai, Vilnius, and after the war in Lower Silesia, Warsaw and the Tricity.
Karaites (meaning in Hebrew "readers") is an ethnic and religious group, numbering several thousand people, most of whom live in Israel. Their religion - karaism - emerged in the late seventh and eighth centuries from Judaism. Currently living in Poland, according to various data, are several dozen to several hundred Karaites.
The authors of the exhibition are Anna Sulimowicz and Mariola Abkowicz - the Association of Polish Karaites.
The exhibition runs from the 18th of August to the 25th of September 2011 at the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków.
The Ethnographic Museum in Kraków was born of the passion and reverence for cultures, for peasant culture, for European cultures, for exotic cultures.
Ethnographic Museum in Kraków
pl. Wolnica 1
Kraków
Source: press release, http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaimi