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The film The Great Inspiration from Tłomackie. Warsaw – Oni – Beersheva is the result of the project The Synagogue in Oni (Georgia). Traces of Polish and Georgian heritage in Israel carried out by the Jewish Historical Institute and its partners in 2019. We wanted to find out how much truth there was to the legend about a Georgian rabbi from the town of Oni who got inspired by the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie in Warsaw and decided to build a similar synagogue high up in the mountains of Georgia. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of Georgia’s Jews, including the Jews of Oni, emigrated to Israel, many to the city of Beersheva. During the project we followed in their footsteps, and in this film we share what we have learned and what still remains to be discovered.

Project organizer: Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

Partners: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Warsaw), University of Gerogia (Tbilisi), Ben Gurion University (Beersheva), Polish Institute Tbilisi, Polish Institute Tel Aviv, Polish Modern Art Foundation (Warsaw).

The project “Synagogue in Oni (Georgia) – Traces of Polish and Georgian heritage in Israel” was subsidized by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the program “Inspiring Culture.”

The film The Great Inspiration from Tłomackie. Warsaw – Oni – Beersheva

Filming – Jacek Papis

Photographs – Jan Klima

Music – Ola Bilińska

Editing – Jakub Przybylski

Translation – Dominika Gajewska

Film made with funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage within the framework of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Warsaw ghetto.