The Jewish Research Centre was founded on 1st July, 2005. The aim of the Centre is to do some research on the history of Jews in Poland, with the particular focus on the central Poland. The Centre is mainly concerned with the 19th and 20th century, which to a large extent is determined by the specific character of the Łódź region.

The Jewish Research Centre's achievements include the publication of the monograph by J. Walicki entitled Ruch syjonistyczny w Polsce w latach 1926-1930 (The Zionist Movement in Poland between 1926-1930). Another project is based on sorting out the archival materials from the beginning of the Jewish Community in Lodz, which at the moment is celebrating its 200th anniversary. The resource documents are successively being published on the Internet (tab: Research), to be finally published in a book version. The Jewish Research Centre materials have also been used by the authors of the website concerning the Lodz synagogues (www.synagogi.lodz.pl.), which you are welcome to view.
The materials collected and sorted out by the Centre, based mainly on the archival resources from Archiwum Panstwowe (The State Archive) in Lodz as well as on a wide search query of press and publications of the 19th and early 20th century, are also documents referring to Jewish societies, regulations Jews had to obey, issues for the research of the social - vocationa l structure, political and economic life.

At present most work done by the staff of the Jewish Research Centre is focused on the complete scientific edition of Kronika Getta Lodzkiego (Litzmannstadt-Getto) 1941-1944 (Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto (Litzmannstadt-Getto) 1941-1944), prepared in cooperation with Archiwum Panstwowe (The State Archive) in Łodz and Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen. The editorial work on volume 1 is being completed. The subsequent volumes of the period between 1942-1944 are to be published by the end of 2007.

Apart from their own research work, one of the main goals of the Centre is to give access to the information about the existing resources and their content through resource publications and information brochures. We hope it will influence the development of interest in and research on the history of Jews in Lodz and the Lodz region. With regard to the character of the Jewish Research Centre, working within the framework of the state university, we will not undertake a widely ranged genealogical research, especially on behalf of private recipients