The museum in Tykocin is finalising the modernisation of its exhibition. Its opening will coincide with the museum's 40th anniversary.

The museum is located in a 17th-century synagogue building and attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world every year. The synagogue was named one of the "New Wonders of Poland" in the 2013 National Geographic Traveler ranking.

Works aimed to restore the synagogue's interwar interior fittings have been carried out for two years. Szymon Zarajczyk's pictures from the collection of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences and photographs from the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, as well as a number of other resources, were used as reference materials for the restoration. They were used as a basis for the reconstruction of the wooden Aron ha-Kodesh and for making new furniture elements. The bimah has undergone conservation. The project is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The permanent exhibition, the Great Hall of the Tykocin Synagogue, will be officially opened to visitors at 2 PM on Saturday, 17 December 2016. The opening will feature a theatrical show Waiting for the Messiah, performed by actors from the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, and a lecture titled "On the 40th anniversary of the Tykocin Museum." Additionally, an exhibition titled "We, Jews, came to Tykocin centuries ago" will be opened in the square in front of the synagogue.

Source: Wystawy w synagodze [online] http://www.muzeum.bialystok.pl/s,wystawy-stale,55.html [accessed on December 6, 2016].