[1] Construction of the museum in designated land in Muranów, Warsaw's prewar Jewish quarter, began in 2009, following an international architectural competition won by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.

The museum's architecture features a minimalist exterior with glass fins and copper mesh, and an interior designed by Event Communications.

The organizational structure of POLIN includes an academic team led by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and chief historian Antony Polonsky.

The museum's Core Exhibition, occupying over 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft), presents a comprehensive narrative of Jewish history in Poland across eight galleries.

These galleries cover periods from the early Jewish settlers in Poland to the Holocaust and the post-war years, using multimedia narratives, interactive installations, and reconstructions, such as the Gwoździec synagogue's roof and ceiling.

In 2005, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland established a private-public partnership with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw.

During the 18 months that followed, more than 180,000 visitors toured the building, visited the first temporary exhibitions, and took part in cultural and educational programs and events, including film screenings, debates, workshops, performances, concerts, and lectures.

At the lowest level, in the basement of the building will be placed the main exhibition about the history of Jews from the Middle Ages to modern times.

The portal now features more than 1,240 towns with maps, statistics, and image galleries based in large measure on material provided by local history enthusiasts and former residents of those places.

[20] The current list of Distinguished Benefactors of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews includes:[21] The Donors' Council is a support committee established in 2015.

The exhibition includes a multimedia narrative with interactive installations, paintings and oral histories, among other features created by more than 120 scholars and curators.

Visitors meet Ibrahim ibn Jakub, a Jewish diplomat from Cordoba, author of famous notes from a trip to Europe.

The title of the gallery has been subject to some criticism and debate among scholars due to the antisemitic roots of the proverb it is taken from, a 17th-century condemnation of the "rampant prevalence of the infidels".

The exhibition includes the role played by Jewish entrepreneurs, such as Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański, in the industrial revolution in Polish lands.

This gallery shows the tragedy of the Holocaust during the German occupation of Poland, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 90 percent of the 3.3 million Polish Jews.

The last gallery shows the period after 1945, when most of the survivors of the Holocaust emigrated for various reasons, including the post-war takeover of Poland by the Soviets, the hostility of some portion of the Polish populace, and the state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign conducted by the communist authorities in 1968.

An important date is the year 1989, marking the end of Soviet domination, followed by the revival of a small but dynamic Jewish community in Poland.