A pioneer in the study of Jewish history and the relics of their material culture. After his death, he was described as "a righteous citizen of the country, a sincere protector of the poor, a lover of science and art, and a zealous worker in the social sphere."
Mathias Bersohn (1823-1908) – banker, philanthropist, historical researcher, collector, and above all, integrationist – is a figure who left an indelible mark on the history of Polish-Jewish Warsaw.[1] After studying in Berlin, he returned to Warsaw, where he soon became the owner of an industrial and commercial company and a bank. Among his diverse and wide-ranging activities, Bersohn also held numerous public offices, including chairman of the board of the Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital in Warsaw, a member of the board of the Warsaw Charitable Society, the Art History Commission of the Academy of Arts, the Society of Friends of Science in Poznań, and the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg, as well as a member of the board of the Warsaw Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. He also published numerous works on cultural history, including: On Wit Stwosz and his work "Angel's Greeting" (1870), The Prayer Book of Queen Mary Casimire Sobieska (1896), The Book Collection of the Płock Cathedral (1899), and On Illuminated Polish Manuscripts (1900). His study of wooden synagogues was the first Polish publication dedicated exclusively to the architecture and furnishings of synagogues.[2] However, he is remembered primarily as a collector – the creator of a collection of Judaica that formed the basis for the establishment of the Museum of Jewish Antiquities in Warsaw in 1910, donated by Mathias Bersohn.
In his civic stance, Mathias Bersohn was no different from his immediate circle. He came from one of the oldest and most distinguished families of the Warsaw bourgeoisie, which made great contributions to the local community – both Jewish and Polish. The Bersohns' extensive activities included financial and banking ventures, as well as initiatives in the areas of culture, social work, and charity. The progenitor of this distinguished family was Majer Bersohn (1787-1873) – a banker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose activities occurred primarily in the first half of the 19th century. Majer Bersohn was therefore a representative of the generation whose activities, conducted in the spirit of the Haskalah, marked the beginnings of Jewish presence in Polish public life. Through numerous financial ventures, Majer amassed a substantial capital, which he then invested in real estate in Warsaw and landed estates outside the city. The accumulated funds also enabled him to be active in the community, including through his work in the Haskalah movement. He supported the Warsaw Rabbinical School (a hotbed of integrationist Jewish intelligentsia) and the Jewish Hospital. Majer Bersohn actively participated in the life of the Jewish Community, not only by providing subsidies but also by contributing organizationally. From 1842, he was a member of the Warsaw Synagogue Supervision Board and the Jewish House of Refuge for the Poor and Orphans. In 1872, he made a will, leaving 50,000 rubles as an endowment for a charitable institution called the Hospital for Jewish Children, founded by Majer and Chaja Bersohn of Szymany . In his will, Majer Bersohn stipulated that 20,000 rubles be used to purchase real estate and establish a hospital there, capable of admitting 25 children at a time for free treatment. The remaining amount was to be secured by three real estate properties, with a 5% interest rate to cover the hospital's operating costs. The initiative gained the support of the city authorities, and among the executors of the will was the then-mayor of Warsaw, Sokrates Starynkiewicz.[3] Majer and Chaja Bersohn also left a significant sum to the Jewish Community, with the intention of providing scholarships for poor medical students and middle school students. Financial assistance from these funds was also to be provided to impoverished merchants and "marriageable maidens" (girls without dowries). Bersohn also stipulated that a quarter of the estate be donated to Christian charities. The testamentary regulations concerning the division and allocation of Majer and Chaja's remaining material assets were a model example of broadly understood Enlightenment activity (in the form of material assistance or a profession acquired through education) on behalf of both Jews and the community of their country of residence.[4]
Majer was married to Chaja née Szymann (1796–1855); the couple had six children: Zygmunt (1814–1864), Paulina (1816–1912), Rebecca (1820–1825), Mathias (1824–1908), Ludwika (1826–1849), and Jan (1829–1913).[5] All members of the Bersohn family, to a greater or lesser extent, left their mark on the history of Warsaw. Paulina Bersohn and her husband, Salomon Bauman (d. 1876), were philanthropic and, together with her parents and brothers, Jan and Mathias, financially supported the establishment and operation of the aforementioned Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital (built in 1876–1878). Jan, in addition to his industrial and political activities, was also active in the community. Ludwika Bersohn married Hipolit Wawelberg (1843-1901), whose charitable work and contribution to the development of Warsaw were immeasurable (co-founder, with Stanisław Rotwand, of the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw and the H. Wawelberg and S. Rotwand School of Mechanics and Technology, later transformed into the Warsaw University of Technology; Wawelberg also financed the construction of housing estates for workers, the so-called Wawelberg Colony in Warsaw's Wola district).
Due to his civic and social stance, Mathias Bersohn earned the respect and recognition of his contemporaries, both Jewish and Polish: "An upright citizen of the country, a sincere protector of the poor, a lover of science and art, a zealous worker in the social sphere – these are the many great merits of the deceased," wrote Bersohn in a posthumous memoir published in "Izraelita," a leading tool for promoting the idea of integration.[6] Bersohn's civic activities included numerous donations – he endowed many Polish cultural and scientific institutions. He posthumously donated part of his library and 235 drawings and watercolors to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (TZSP, founded in 1860), with the stipulation that they be placed in a separate room named after him. As reported by "Tygodnik Ilustrowany," the room housing Bersohn's gift was to be decorated with coffin portraits of Polish dignitaries and matrons in national costumes, as well as copies of portraits of Polish rulers commissioned by the collector himself.[7] It is important to remember the significance of Zachęta as an institution with a distinctly national character, established to provide patronage for Polish art by the townspeople and to support the development of a Polish school of national painting. The Zachęta Gallery was established at a time of nationwide debate on the meaning and necessity of Polish visual arts, when the conviction was strengthened that visual arts should fulfill a national mission—the necessity of "art to uplift hearts" —as a continuation of a similar trend in Romantic literature.[8] The 1902 catalog, edited by Bersohn himself and listing works to be donated to the Zachęta Gallery, highlights an intriguing group of numerous paintings with religious (Christian) themes, including Aleksandra Kokular's " The Virgin Mary and Child Jesus," "St. Alexander the Pope," " The Apostles ," as well as landscapes and vedutas by Jan Piotr Norblin and Jan Bogumił Plersch, and even an interesting set of sketches by Princess Izebela Czartoryska, née Fleming (an outstanding Polish collector and founder of the first Polish museum-gallery open to the public). Also worth noting are the watercolors by Aleksander Orłowski, Wojciech Gerson, Henryk Pilatti, Maksymilian Gierymski, and the mountain landscape by Alfred Schouppé (one of the founders of the Zachęta Society), listed in the catalog. The collection donated to the TZSP, as revealed in the aforementioned catalog, is a classic collection of 19th-century local painting by Warsaw artists associated with the Wojciech Gerson School of Drawing and the Zachęta National Gallery of Art.[9] Besides the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, other institutions receiving gifts included the National Museum in Kraków (93 objects – documents, embroidery, photographs), the Archaeological Cabinet of the Jagiellonian University, the Museum of the Society of Friends of Science in Poznań, and the Polish National Museum in Rapperswil. Mathias Beroshn's collecting, cultivated with the intention of making numerous donations to Polish institutions, should undoubtedly be understood as a patriotic gesture of support for local initiatives that were intended to foster the creative spirit of Polishness during the unfavorable times of partition.
However, the most important aspect of Bersohn's collecting remains his amassing of Judaica, a collection of 1221 items which he donated to the Warsaw Jewish Community in 1905, providing the impetus for the creation of the aforementioned Museum of Jewish Antiquities in Warsaw, a gift from Mathias Bersohn. This was not the entire collection – the remainder of Bersohn's collection, primarily Italian and European art and crafts, as well as a vast library, was auctioned in 1909.[10] In the case of the portion of the collection that became part of the museum, a catalogue published in 1939 allows us to reconstruct several sections of Mathias Bersohn's collection.[11] The first contained documents relating to the Jewish patriciate in Warsaw, led by those relating to the Bersohn family's activities, followed by the Glücksberg family (early 19th century), and religious manuscripts. Mathias's archive also included documents relating to the Warsaw Rabbinical School. The largest group consisted of seals, rings, coins, medals, amulets, and mezuzot. The museum also displayed photographs, drawings, and watercolors documenting synagogues (including their interiors), which is not surprising given Bersohn's research (and publication) on the architecture of wooden synagogues in Poland. Also noteworthy were the seventeenth-century kethubbas—lavishly illuminated marriage certificates.
Another part of the collection consisted of religious objects: shields-hangers for Torah scrolls (i.e., parchment scrolls with the text of the Pentateuch) and yads (handles used to guide the verses during the reading of the Torah), balsamic jars, etrog boxes (citron, a fruit used during the Feast of Tabernacles), Hanukkah lamps, candlesticks, candlesticks, Torah crowns, etc. A separate section of the collection consisted of parochets – hangings for altar cabinets. The oldest fabrics in the parochets dated from the 17th century, but the majority were eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pieces, mainly associated with French workshops. As Renata Piątkowska noted, Bersohn was not interested in "folk" objects, popular and everyday, which were sometimes quite primitive in style and form: "He valued objects with artistic value, such as seventeenth-century Italian megillahs, whose value was enhanced by inspiration from European art, or synagogue objects whose form and ornamentation, while maintaining traditional iconography, did not deviate from the then-fashionable style. These objects, although different in form and purpose from objects used in churches, proved that Jews, despite their different faiths, were nevertheless part of European history and culture"[12].
The collection also included paintings by both Polish painters depicting Jewish themes and Jewish painters. The former group included canvases by Szymon Czechowicz ( Moses ), Stanisław Czajkowski ( Judgment Day ), and Wacław Koniuszo ( Consecration of the Moon after Judgment Day in the Courtyard of the Synagogue in Kazimierz) . Painters of Jewish descent included Maurycy Gottlieb ( Albrecht of Brandenburg Receiving Investiture from Sigismund the Old ) and Alexander the Lesser ( King Casimir the Great and Esterka , and Casimir the Great Granting Privileges to Jews in Poland ). These conveyed a message of shared historical experiences. In the case of Gottlieb (a student of Jan Matejko, a master of Polish historical painting), whose paintings – as Agnieszka Yass-Alston noted when writing about Jewish collectors in Krakow – were considered an ideological bridge between Judaism and Christianity, they functioned symbolically as an expression of reconciliation between Poles and Jews.[13] Among the sculptural works, the majority were bas-reliefs and busts by Abraham Ostrzega, depicting Eliza Orzeszkowa, Ludwik Zamenhof, Samuel Goldflam, and Abraham Stern. Noteworthy were the numerous portraits, their arrangement creating a gallery of glory for Jews whose deeds or work influenced the fate of the world, Poland, or the Jewish diaspora. These included, among others: portraits of Abraham Stern, famous rabbis such as the Gaon of Vilna and Akiba Eiger, heroes of national martyrdom and the struggle for independence – Berek Joselewicz, Ber Meisels, Isaac Kramsztyk, and Markus Jastrow. The museum room displayed portraits of Moses Mendelssohn (the initiator of the Haskalah), Joseph Suess, Oppenheimer, Baruch Spinoza, and great religious "troublemakers" – Sabtai Zvi, Nathan of Gaza, Jacob Frank and his daughter Eva. They were accompanied by portraits of Poles who went down in history as not indifferent to the fate of Polish Jews: Tadeusz Czacki and Joachim Lelewel. Exhibiting portraits of Jewish eminent figures had a dual meaning: confirming the role of Jews in history and simultaneously legitimizing their position in a society hostile, and sometimes even hostile, towards Jews.[14]
The Museum of Jewish Antiquities, donated by Mathias Bersohn, opened in 1910, two years after the donor's death, in a building at 26/28 Grzybowska Street.[15] Professor Samuel Dickstein became the first curator, and Abram Feiber was appointed curator. Dickstein appealed to the Jewish community to donate valuable objects to the newly established institution, but the response was limited.[16] The museum's initial activities were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, and personnel changes in the Community Board deepened the institution's operational impasse, depriving it of funding. In 1917, work began on compiling an inventory of all objects, while the collections were systematically expanded, largely thanks to donations. Between 1910 and 1918, several hundred inventory items, primarily books, were added, but the museum's overall situation remained poor. In 1927, Professor Majer Bałaban, one of the most distinguished scholars of Jewish history, was appointed honorary curator. Unfortunately, despite his strenuous efforts, interest in traditional Jewish art among private collectors did not increase[17]. The disastrous situation of the Bersohn Museum at that time is evidenced by the titles of articles published in the 1930s, including Tadeusz Heller's " A Museum No One Looks Into" [18] and – in an interventionist and alarming tone – Hilel Seidman's " Let's not let the precious treasures of our past perish in neglect and oblivion" [19].
In 1937, the community experienced a rebirth – the new authorities appointed a curator, Adam Czerniaków (later the community's wartime president and head of the Judenrat established by the Nazi authorities). During his term, the museum's situation improved significantly.[20] Plans were made to expand the museum, reorganize it, and systematize its collections. "Głos Gminy Żydowskiej," the official organ of the community authorities, announced efforts to establish a Central Museum of Jews in Poland, which would "save the precious treasures of our past, bring together the cultural achievements of past centuries, be a living illustration of our history in Polish lands, and testify to the vitality of the creative spirit of the nation."[21] New premises were acquired in the Jewish Community building, and there was also an intention to construct a building suitable for the museum in the future on land also provided by the Community. The outbreak of World War II thwarted all plans. At the last moment before the dramatic epilogue of the history of Warsaw Jews, Czerniakow managed to publish a collection catalog in 1939, containing the history of the Museum written by Rafał Gerber and a list of exhibits prepared by curator (and painter) Janusz Trefler.[22] Irena Rejduch-Samkowa described this catalog as follows: "It belongs, like the catalog of the Lesser Gieldziński collection in Gdańsk, to the bibliophile's rarities. Unfortunately, the catalog of the Mathias Bersohn Museum was not compiled by specialists (no techniques or descriptions are provided, and as a rule, the dimensions of the exhibits are missing; the dates, if any, are general). This publication is essentially a list of 319 exhibits [...]. Poorly printed, on almost newsprint paper, with poorly legible illustrations, it does not illustrate the Museum's holdings."[23] The Museum of Jewish Antiquities shared the wartime fate of many other private and institutional collections in Warsaw. Following the German invasion, the collection was looted by the occupying forces in 1940 and removed from Warsaw, likely to Lower Silesia, and possibly partly to Prague. As Urynowicz noted, after the war, many objects from Bersohn's collection were found in two locations: Trzebieszowice (over 20 items) and Bożków. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Bersohn's Judaica was dispersed and found in Jewish museums around the world (primarily in Israel and the United States), where they remain to this day.[24]
Mathias Bersohn, in his interest in collecting Judaica, was a pioneer in research on the history of Jews and monuments of their material culture.[25] Rejduch-Samkowa, citing the first Judaica collectors in Poland, including, alongside Bersohn, Maksymilian Goldstein (Lviv), Szymon Rappaport (Vilnius), and those more closely associated with Germanism, Lesser Gieldziński (Giełdziński – Gdańsk), Artur and Jan Krontal (Kronthalów, Poznań), emphasized that at that time, not the entire Jewish community was aware of the need to protect its own heritage.[26] The reasons for the initial lack of interest in its own heritage should be sought in the specific nature of acculturation processes. On the one hand, these were about accession to the culture of the country of residence, often considered superior by integrationists themselves, and on the other, also about increasing secularization.[27] For centuries, artistic artifacts—ritual objects associated with Judaism, synagogue polychromes, and illuminated manuscripts—existed exclusively in religious spaces and Jewish homes. As a result, art so strongly associated with Orthodox Judaism long remained underappreciated in secularized Jewish circles.
Interest in the material culture and artistic craftsmanship of religious objects emerged in the late 1870s. The impetus for a broader engagement with Jewish historical artifacts came from two European exhibitions: one in Paris (1878) and the following year in London (1879), which showcased two private collections by Filip Salopons and Isaac Sasson.[28] In her excellent essay on the history of Jewish museums in Poland, Piątkowska noted that many private collections presented at exhibitions in Europe and the United States were changing attitudes toward Jewish heritage, revealing previously underappreciated values of Jewish art: "They extracted from synagogue treasuries objects that had previously functioned exclusively in the religious sphere, inaccessible to outsiders, presenting them as museum objects, worthy of aesthetic contemplation."[29] In Poland, the general public had the opportunity to admire Jewish art – synagogue objects and fabrics – for the first time at the "Exhibition of Antiquities" presented as part of the "General National Exhibition in Lviv" in 1894. The exhibition at the Palace of Arts, prepared by Władysław Łoziński, was the first publicly accessible presentation of objects related to Judaism in Poland.[30]
In the 19th century, the Jewish community, especially in Western Europe, driven by the Haskalah movement, integration trends, urban migration, growing secularism, rising anti-Semitism, and the emergence of various Jewish and universal socio-political movements responding to the challenges of modernity, began to perceive itself not only as a religious community but increasingly as a national community. This required a rewriting of Jewish history and the creation of a new narrative, no longer religious, but historical, with research into the past. Private collecting, and later its continuum , museums—as Krzysztof Pomian noted—had a profound impact on the maturation of patriotism and national consciousness, especially in nations deprived of their own state, "because they exerted an influence, albeit invisible, yet real, on collective life."[31] The situation of Jews and Poles deprived of statehood was, in a sense, analogous. In both cases, private collecting played a similar and equally important role, protecting the material heritage, which, in conditions of oppression, became a testimony to the cultural continuity and vitality of the nation.
In 1895, the Jews of Vienna were the first in the world to establish a museum within their local community, with the goal of strengthening integration with Austrian society by creating a positive image of Jews and combating anti-Semitic prejudice.[32] Similar goals guided the founders of other museums established shortly thereafter in Prague, Frankfurt, London, and New York.[33] Richard Cohen, writing about the development of Jewish collecting and museums, wrote that it was not only a nostalgic look back at the past, but above all, through cultivating the memory of the national past, striving to authenticate Jews as equal participants in the collective life of the countries in which they lived.[34] Awareness and pride in a long history dating back to biblical times, and the preservation of religious distinctiveness (in the reformed version) were no longer an element separating them from the local community, but, on the contrary, legitimizing the right of Jews to full participation in the life of the states of modern Europe.
Julius Schoeps, in an excellent study devoted to Berlin collectors and patrons of art of Jewish origin (such as the Mendelssohns, Bernsteins, and Oppenheims, who, like their Polish counterparts, participated in numerous philanthropic initiatives, also engaging in patronage and donating their collections to public institutions), observed: "Social and cultural involvement is included in religious Judaism in tzedakah [Hebrew for charity – a religious duty, in contrast to Christian charity, obligatory in nature and also encompassing poor members of the community], and in this sense, bourgeois collecting as a social activity became part of the tradition. What initially functioned in the religious sphere as a cultural practice of supporting and promoting members of the religious community, over time overlapped with the acculturation and emancipation of Jews, which had been progressing since the 19th century. As a result, this cultural behavior also had many incarnations in the secularized bourgeoisie." society"[35]. Mathias Bersohn's collecting is an excellent example of this cultural and ideological transfer that took place due to progressive integration and modernization.
In summary, how should we understand the significance of Mathias Bersohn's collecting and patronage, culminating in his founding of the Museum of Jewish Antiquities? There is no doubt that Mathias's work is consistent with the charitable activity and civic stance of the entire Bersohn family, typical of an assimilated community. His collecting and donations were significant as an expression of support for Polish initiatives (the gifts to Polish institutions mentioned above), but also in the formation of a modern national consciousness among Warsaw/Polish Jews. Bersohn embodied the integrationist attitude in the classic post-Haskalah definition, in which a "Pole of the Mosaic faith" was to serve both Jews and Poles with his work and commitment: "He [Bersohn] embodied with his entire life the most significant type of a Polish Jew," we read in "Izraelit," "for he perfectly combined a heartfelt love for his native country, intelligent, tireless work for its good, with deep compassion for the suffering of his fellow believers, with true respect for the historical tradition of the race of which he was a representative and whose history sincerely moved and interested him."[36] Mathias Bersohn's pioneering idea was to provide the Warsaw Jewish community with a museum that would showcase the contribution of Jews to Polish history, while simultaneously strengthening the awareness of national distinctiveness. His life's work, focused on collecting and historical research, was carried out from the 1860s (from the period after the January 19th century). "Polish-Jewish fraternization") until the beginning of the 20th century. During Bersohn's lifetime, the idea of assimilation had fully resonated, from the euphoria of communal thinking to burnout and the sad realization of the "wasted toil" of several generations of assimilated Jewish intelligentsia. Mathias Bersohn's death in 1908 marked the end of an important chapter in Polish-Jewish relations, as evidenced by the telling words published in "Tygodnik Ilustrowany": "It is a pity for this worthy man, a pity, especially since with his death, almost the last type of Polish Jew from the times of the uprising disappears, that is, the ardent patriot and upright citizen of his native land"[37].
*This article is based on the essay: M. Woźniak-Koch, "The Collection and the "Museum of Jewish Antiquities from the Gift of Mathias Bersohn" in Warsaw. A Contribution to Judaica Collecting at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries," in: Studies on Museum Memory in the Lands of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1918, ed. TF de Rosset, A. Tołysz, M. Wawrzak, pp. 435-456.
[1] Z. Rabska, [entry] Mathias Bersohn, Polish Biographical Dictionary, vol. 1, Cracow 1935, pp. 469–470; R. Żebrowski, Mathias Bersohn, Polish Judaic Dictionary, 2003, vol. 1, p. 183. See also: Mathias Bersohn (1823-1908), in: Museum in the Polish culture of memory, http://muzeumpamieci.umk.pl/?p=1571 (accessed 16/10/2023).
[2] M. Bersohn, A Few Words on Older Wooden Synagogues in Poland, no. 1, Cracow 1895; no. 2, Cracow 1900; issue 3, Warsaw 1903. Quoted from: R. Piątkowska, "Treasures of Our Past". Jewish Museums in Poland, "Studia Judaica", 2013, no. 2 (32), p. 15.
[3] H. Węgrzynek, The Bersohn and Bauman Foundation and the establishment of the first Jewish hospital for children in Warsaw, in: H. Węgrzynek, K. Zieliński, The Bersohn and Bauman Hospital in Warsaw, Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Warsaw 2020, p. 8.
[4] M. Wodziński, Jewish Enlightenment in the Kingdom of Poland and Hasidism, Warsaw 2003, p. 49. See also Jews in Poland. History and Culture. Lexicon, eds. J. Tomaszewski, A. Żbikowski, Warsaw 2001.
[5] K. Reychman, Genealogical Sketches, Series I. Warsaw 1936, pp. 21–24.
[6] RC, Blessed P. Matyas Bersohn (1824–1908), "Izraelita" 1908, no. 47 (27 November), p. 45.
[7] From the monuments of the past, "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" 1909, no. 16, p. 316.
[8] J. Wiercińska, Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Outline of its activities, Wrocław–Warsaw–Kraków 1968, p. 57. See also: A. Morawińska, Collection of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, in: Zachęta 1860–2000, ed. G. Świtek, Warsaw 2004, pp. 62-93; R. Olkowski, Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1860-1940, 1948). Historical outline and catalogue of collections, Warsaw 2020, pp. 22-39.
[9] See M. Beroshn, Catalogue of the collection of drawings, sketches and watercolours by deceased Polish and foreign painters: gift of Mathias Bersohn, Warsaw 1902, passim.
[10] Mathias Bersohn's Artistic Collection. Paintings, Ceramics, Marbles, Alabasters, Plasters, Gold and Silver…, Catalogue No. 7, Auction No. 1, Polish Antiquarian Bookshop H. Wilder i S-ka, Warsaw 1909. About the auction of the collection, see S. Bołdok, Antiquarian Bookshops, Art Salons and Auction Houses. The History of the Warsaw Art Market in the Years 1800–1950, Warsaw 2004, pp. 159, 385-387.
[11] See: I. Rejduch Samkowa, Lesser Gieldziński, Mathias Berson and Maksymilian Goldstein – the first collectors and researchers of Judaic art in Poland, in: Patron, collector, recipient. Materials of the Session of the Association of Art Historians, Katowice, November 1981, eds. E. Karwowska, A. Marczuk-Krupa, Warsaw 1984, pp. 165-178; See also: C., Berson Museum, “Izraelita” 1910, no. 12 (8 VII), p. 8; “Ziemia” 1910, no. 38, pp. 607–608; E. Chwalewik, Polish collections: archives, libraries, offices, galleries, museums and other collections of memorabilia of the past in the homeland and abroad, arranged alphabetically by locality, Warsaw 1916, p. 73, p. 199; M. Kuhnke, The Mathias Bersohn Museum in Warsaw, "Precious, priceless, lost" 1999, no. 2 (14), pp. 14-15.
[12] R. Piątkowska, "Treasures of our past"…, p. 20.
[13] A. Yass-Alston, Jewish art collectors in interwar Krakow. Adolf Schwarz, Rudolf Beres, Seweryn Gottlieb – figures who have passed into history's oblivion, "Krzysztofory. Scientific Papers of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow" 2017, no. 35, pp. 271-284
[14] R. Piątkowska, "Treasures of our past"…, p. 19.
[15] The delayed inauguration of the Museum was caused by the long period of approval of Bersohn's bequest to the Community by the Russian authorities. See R. Gerber, The Mathias Bersohn Museum. History, in: Catalog of the Mathias Bersohn Museum at the Dedicated Jewish Community of Warsaw, Warsaw 1939, p. 16.
[16] R. Gerber, Muzeum…, p. 16.
[17] M. Bałaban, The Mathias Bersohn Museum in Warsaw, "Nasz Kurier" 1922, no. 151 (9 VII), p. 3.
[18] T. Heller, Commune and Art. The Museum Which Nobody Looks Into, "Lektura" 1934, no. 8 (March 4), p. 8.
[19] H. Seidman, The Bersohn Museum at the Jewish Community in Warsaw, "Głos Gminy Żydowskiej" 1937, no. 3, p. 59.
[20] M. Urynowicz, Adam Czerniakow and the Mathias Bersohn Museum of the Jewish Community in Warsaw, "Kwartalnik Historii Żydów" 2008, no. 4, pp. 477–489. See also: Idem, The Stolen Warsaw Jewish Museum, IPN Bulletin, no. 3/2007, pp. 54-57.
[21] H. Seidman, Muzeum im. Bersohn..., p. 59.
[22] Catalog of the Museum of Mathias Bersohn…, passim.
[23] I. Rejduch-Samkowa, Lesser Gieldziński…, pp. 174-176.
[24] See M. Urynowicz, Adam Czerniakow…, pp. 477-489.
[25] I. Rejduch-Samkowa, Lesser Gieldziński…, pp. 165-178.
[26] I. Rejduch-Samkowa, Lesser Gieldziński…, pp. 167-168.
[27] A. Jagodzińska, In Between. Acculturation of Warsaw Jews in the Second Half of the 19th Century, Wrocław 2008, pp. 77-78.
[28] I. Rejduch-Samkowa, Lesser Gieldziński…, pp. 165-166.
[29] R. Piątkowska, "Treasures of our past"…, p. 6.
[30] Catalogue of the Exhibition of Antiquities in Lviv in 1894, edited by W. Łoziński, Lviv 1894.
[31] K. Pomian, Collectors and Curiosities. Paris Venice 16th–18th Centuries, translated by A. Pieńkos, Warsaw 1987, p. 9.
[32] K. Hödl, The Viennese Jews' Search for Integration through the Jewish Museum in the late 19th Century, "Jewish Studies at the Central European University 2001–2003", vol. 3, ed. A. Kovács, Budapest 2004, pp. 53–65. Quoted by R. Piątkowska, op. cit., p. 8.
[33] RI Cohen, Self-Image Trough Objects: Towards a Social History of Jewish Art Collecting and Jewish Museums, in: The Uses of Tradition. Jewish continuity in the Modern Era, ed. J. Wertheimer, New York – Jerusalem 1998, pp. 203–242.
[34] RI Cohen, Self-Image…, p. 212.
[35] Aufbruch in die Moderne. Sammler, Mäzene und Kunsthändler in Berlin 1880-1933, ed. J. Schoeps, A.-D. Ludewig, Köln 2012, p. 9.
[36] RC, Blessed P. Matyas Bersohn (1824–1908), "Izraelita" 1908, no. 47 (27 November), p. 45.
[37] Mathias Bersohn, "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" 1908, no. 48 (28 November), p. 973.
