Image: The new museum complex in central Warsaw

The new Museum of the History of Polish Jews (MHPJ) - currently being built in the heart of Warsaw and due to open in the second half of 2013 - has secured two major donations.

A US$7m (EUR5.7m, £4.5m) grant has been received from the US-based Taube and Koret Foundations, which will go towards the creation of the museum's Core Exhibition.

Meanwhile, a further PLN20m (US$5.9m, EUR4.8m, £3.8m) from Dr Jan Kulczyk is to go towards the main exhibition and the operation of the attraction's auditorium.

The museum building, which offers 12,800sq m (137,778sq ft) of usable space, is designed by Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki and costs PLN200m (US$59m, EUR48m, £38m).

At a cost of more than PLN120m (US$35m, EUR29m, £23m), the 4,000sq m (43,056sq ft) Core Exhibition is the "soul" of MHPJ and explores 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland.

Event Communications has worked on the design of the exhibition, as well as Nizio Design International. The museum aims to become a "platform for lifelong education".

Visitors will be immersed into an journey beginning in a forest, before travelling through the history of Polish Jews - including a replica roof from the former Gwozdziec synagogue.

A MHPJ spokesperson said: "The museum will take its place alongside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as one of the most important institutions of its kind.

"The key difference is that the museum will extend the historical narrative beyond the Holocaust to encompass an epic Jewish heritage from which the majority of world Jewry descends and that, even today, shapes contemporary Jewish life all across the globe."

Details: www.jewishmuseum.org.pl