Blessings room

Blessings Room is a place of silence and prayer. It is intended to serve visitors of the permanent exhibition learning about the tragic events of July 1946, however, during the opening times of the Institute anyone can visit it for a moment of reflection. This place is a place in which we understand that the answer to the evil of the world lies in blessing and not cursing. The Room was opened on January 15, 2017 by the Bishop of Kielce, Jan Piotrowski, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, and Rabbi Abraham Skórka from Argentina, a friend of Pope Francis.

On the walls of the room there are boards with the blessings taken from the Sermon on the Mount, the Jewish morning prayers and the blessings of Pope Francis, Rabbis Michael Schudrich and Abraham Skórka and Bishop Jan Piotrowski. In the window of the Blessings Room there is stained glass depicting the "tree of life" and next to it a replica of the Wailing Wall, where anyone can place their notes with written prayers. From time to time, the notes are collected and taken to Jerusalem to be placed in the real Western Wall.

“To bless” means “to speak well” (Latin “bene – dicere”). The Greek word “makaroi” from the Sermon of the Mount, which originally meant “happy”, was also translated into Latin as “benedicti”. The opposite of blessing is cursing. We believe that the realization that blessing, not cursing, is the only response to all the evil of the world is the path leading to a happy life. Below are the photographs posted on the walls of the Blessings Room. Two of them come from the important texts of Judaism and Christianity, the other four were written by representatives of these two traditions: Pope Francis, his friend Rabbi Abraham Skórka, Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, and the Bishop of Kielce, Jan Piotrowski.