Jakub Nowakowski was born and raised in Kazimierz, the former Jewish district of Kraków. Coming from a non-Jewish family that lived in Kazimierz for generations, from early age he was compelled to research the history of his neighbourhood.
In 2007 he graduated from the Department of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, where he wrote a thesis on Jewish resistance in Kraków during the Second World War.
His interest in Jewish history and Polish-Jewish relations led him to become a student volunteer and a member of Polish-American-Jewish Alliance for Youth Action (PAJA). The goal of the organization was to create opportunities for dialogue between young Poles, Jews and Americans.
In 2005 Nowakowski joined the staff of the newly open (2004) Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków. In 2006 he joined the Museum’s Education Department, and in 2008 he became its manager. In 2010, after an international competition, Nowakowski was appointed the Galicia Jewish Museum’s director.
Jakub Nowakowski is the co-author of Museum publications (among others):
Poland: A Jewish Matter. Proceedings of a symposium exploring contemporary Jewish life in Poland, marking the close of Jewish programming for Polska!
He is also a curator of the Museum exhibitions (among other): Fighting for Dignity. Jewish Resistance in Kraków,
A City Not Forgotten. Memories of Jewish Lwów and the Holocaust
The Girl in the Diary. Searching for Rywka from Łódź ghetto.
The exhibitions he has curated have been presented in Poland and internationally.
˝DialoguePerspectives enabled me to meet people with diverse backgrounds and different worldviews – many inspiring encounters and interesting discussions will stick with me forever. If you want to meet other young academics from all over Europe, reflect on your own identity and widen your horizon - apply!
Hicham, DialoguePerspectives participant