Volume 23, No. 2 Gazeta Spring 2016

A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial & Design: Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Dr. Antony Polonsky, Shana Penn, Vera Hannush, Alice Lawrence, Maayan Stanton, LaserCom Design. Front Cover: “Clover Leaf Map,” a stylized illustration with Jerusalem at the center, adopted by the Jewish Culture Festival to convey its 2016 theme of “diaspora.” Illustration: Heinrich Bünting, Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel through Holy Scripture), 1581. Back Cover: Ride For The Living, 2015, hosted by the JCC Kraków.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from Irene Pipes ...... 2

Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn ...... 3

FEATURE STORY The Great Yes and My Grandmother’s Legacy By Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz ...... 4

SCHOLARSHIP University of Wrocław’s Department of Jewish Studies Receives Capital Grant ...... 9

POLIN Museum and Jewish Historical Institute Announce Recipients of Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) Research Fellowships ...... 10

NEW PUBLICATIONS Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 29: “Writing East European Jewish History” By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 12

Poland and Polin: New Interpretations in Polish-Jewish Studies By Dr. Irena Grudzińska-Gross ...... 13

AWARDS POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Honored with Two European Prizes ...... 15

Taube Philanthropies Names Two Scholars as 2016 Irena Sendler Memorial Award Recipients ...... 17

MUSEUMS “Paint What You See: The Art of Helga Hošková-Weissová”: New Temporary Exhibition at Galicia Jewish Museum By Jakub Nowakowski ...... 19 Maria Pietchotka, one of two 2016 Irena Sendler Award recipients, in front of the replica of the Gwoździec Synagogue at the POLIN Museum

CULTURE Jewish Culture Festival Celebrating 26th Year: June 25-July 3, 2016 By Robert Gądek ...... 21

NEWS Hillel Opens in Warsaw By Vanessa Gera ...... 23

A New House of Prayer in Warsaw By Julian & Fay Bussgang ...... 24

Ulma Museum Opens By Julian & Fay Bussgang ...... 25

Menora Info Punkt Opening ...... 26

FILM The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies Film Showings By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 27

Two Polish Films at the National Center for Jewish Film By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 28

STUDY TOURS, EVENTS, CONFERENCES, AND FESTIVALS ...... 29

OBITUARY December 11, 1924 - April 26, 2016 Ryszard Fenigsen By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 32

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 1 President of the American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies

Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta

Dear Members and Friends,

I am sorry I have to start on a sad note. Rabbi Ben Zion Gold died a few weeks ago. He was a close personal friend, a wonderful human being who understood us all. We had a particular close bond having been both born and brought up in pre-war . But he was not as lucky as I and spent the war years in German death camps, surviving by a miracle. After liberation he had a short time when he was anti anything that had to do with observing Jewish laws. When he was brought and adopted by the Gold family in the United States he went to Rabbinical school. After graduation he came to Harvard to be director of its Hillel. A great crowd came to his funeral both in the Brookline funeral home and to the cemetery. Irene Pipes

We lost another member of our board, Ryszard Fenigsen, who was born in Radom, Poland in the same neighborhood as Ben. The two compared notes and discovered they lived almost next door. Rysiek, as we all knew him, was very helpful in editing our Gazeta. Antony has written an obituary that you can find in this issue.

On the cheerful side we were able to engage Dariusz Stola, director of the POLIN Museum in Warsaw, to come to Cambridge and address us on June 18 at 3 p.m. at the Harvard Hillel. We hope the meeting will be well attended for he can tell us in detail about the Museum and its tremendous success. I read in the last few days that it got two of the highest prizes given to a museum (also see article in this issue of Gazeta).

Additionally we sponsored two Polish films at the Jewish Film Festival organized by the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University.

Hope all of us will have a lovely summer,

Irene Pipes President

2 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 Message from Chairman and Executive Director Tad Taube and of the Taube Foundation for Shana Penn Jewish Life & Culture

he lead story in this issue of Gazeta describes a defining moment in the lives of two people caught up in the madness of the Holocaust. TA gentile Polish teenager agrees to hide and care for a little Jewish girl, with all the dangers such a decision might entail. She could have said no, but she said yes, a Great Yes, as the story’s author calls it. After the war, the two meet again, to their great joy, eager to keep in touch as they each try to recover a normal life.

Around them a similar story was playing out as Jews made their own defining choice: whether to leave Poland or stay and rebuild life in a Tad Taube ravaged land. For some of those who emigrated, Poland became a symbol of destruction. Others left with the hope of someday reestablishing Jewish life in Poland and honoring those lost – a vision shared with many Jews in the United States and elsewhere.

That hope is now becoming reality, as the stories in this issue document. The revival of Jewish life in Poland is the result of a Great Yes, a decades- long commitment made in Poland and around the world. We are now seeing something once only dreamed of Jewish life, culture, and memory are reemerging, not only at the POLIN Museum or the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival, but in places and events across Poland. We invite you to read on, and to join us in saying Yes in advancing this exciting and deeply Shana Penn gratifying revival.

Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 3 By Prof. dr hab. FEATURE STORY Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz Fulbright Visiting Professor, University of The Great Yes and My California, Berkeley School of Law Director, Department of European and Grandmother’s Legacy Comparative Law, University of Gdańsk

For some people the day comes History of the Great Yes when they have to declare the great Yes Rozalia Kateganer was born or the great No. It’s clear at once who has the Yes in Kańczuga, Poland, in ready within him; and saying it, 1935. Her parents escaped he goes from honor to honor, strong in his conviction. at the beginning of the War and arrived in Brzeżany, He who refuses does not repent. Asked again, in the Eastern Borderlands he’d still say no. Yet that no – the right no – (Kresy), but when persecution drags him down all his life. of the Jews began there in 1942, Rozalia’s mother was —Che Fece ... Il Gran Refiuto, C. Cavafis captured by the Germans and never seen again. Her father wanted to find someone to hide his little girl. He decided to ask Czesława Kisielewicz, a 19-year-old Polish girl who lived next door, if she would take it upon herself to protect his daughter. Czesława agreed. She had her priest baptize the child and issue a birth certificate under the name of a girl of the same Ina Lancman at the Warsaw Archives, March 2013, during the formal return by the Archives of her father Naftali Hertz Kon’s literary estate after the Regional Court age she knew who had been ruled in the family’s favor sent to Siberia by the Soviets. Rozalia Kateganer became his is the story of my calling. It is a story of one Yes, Maria Szkolnicka. Czesława grandmother, Czesława so simple in its expression and tried to move out of her TKisielewicz Strąg, and a yet so great in its symbolism parents’ house and find work little Jewish girl. It is a story and consequences. It has to support herself and the showing the importance and exerted a lasting influence child but was unable to do difficulty of choosing rightly on me and continues to pose so. She was desperate for a and wisely when time comes important questions.

4 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 By Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz Fulbright Visiting Professor, University of The Great Yes and My Grandmother’s Legacy, Continued California, Berkeley School of Law Director, Department of European and Comparative Law, University of Gdańsk

solution and sought the advice Throughout all these years of her family doctor, whom Maria and Czesława stayed she knew and trusted. He in touch. My grandmother advised her to send Maria to a visited Maria in the United Franciscan orphanage nearby States on numerous occasions, in Podhajce. Mother Superior and Maria visited us in Helena Chmielewska, another Poland. Maria corresponded remarkable woman with her with and supported Sister own Great Yes, was made Helena Chmielewska for the aware of the little girl’s real many years that she lived, and origins and did not hesitate to visited her as well. receive her. She cared for her The author’s grandmother (left) and Maria (photo taken after Maria’s with love and dedication. baptism in Brzeżany) My grandmother passed away in March 2010. In 2014 Maria’s father was kept the Nysa River. As it turned Yad Vashem recognized aware of her progress and out, Maria’s orphanage was my grandmother Czesława sent contact information for also evacuated to Nysa. As Kisielewicz Strąg, her mother relatives in the United States, unexpected as this meeting on Rozalia Kisielewicz, and in case he should not survive the bridge was, it showed that Sister Helena Chmielewska as the war. Indeed, in 1944 he the bond between Czesława Righteous Among The Nations. was captured by the Germans and Maria was real and the Maria lives with her husband and, like his wife, murdered. two were meant for each other. in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

After the war, serendipity Maria started medical studies Why does their history matter helped Czesława and Maria in Wrocław and became a now, and how does it resonate to reconnect. Amid the chaos pediatrician. My grandmother with me? and redrawing of the borders, and her family settled for my grandmother and her good in Wrocław, where my My Translation of the family were resettled to Nysa, mother and I were born. Maria Great Yes in southwest Poland. One eventually joined relatives in During my law studies in day, on her way to work, she the United States, where she Wrocław, I lived with my saw a group of children led married Marek Damaszek, grandmother. It turned out by a nun on a bridge over himself a Holocaust survivor. that she needed my presence

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 5 Maria Damaszek at work

such a perspective-changing Ina asked if I could help experience. Kon was among find a lawyer in Poland to the last generation of assist in searching for the poets born in prewar Eastern papers, I agreed to contact the Europe. He was often Regional Warsaw Court upon imprisoned for his writings, my return to Poland. first by the interwar Polish government and later by I had no idea that this little the Soviets for anti-Soviet Yes would put my convictions writings (including an article and ideals to the most severe about the Holocaust). In of tests and bring back the postwar communist Poland he lessons imparted from my Poet Naftali Hertz Kon, circa 1934 was persecuted, imprisoned grandmother. on the suspicion of spying, as much as I needed her and ultimately sentenced I was not even sure whether comforting voice, strength, for subversive writing. His the papers survived. Luckily warmth, and especially her literary estate was confiscated for us, after a five-month pierogi ruskie and kotlety and never returned. With his search we found them at the mielone, which she made family he emigrated to , Warsaw branch of the Polish while singing! I found her where he died in 1971. State Archives, which had stories captivating, yet I inherited the archives of the was so busy with my studies I met his daughters in 2010 Warsaw Regional Court that that I did not really reflect in New York. My mother’s sentenced the poet. Legally, the on the deeper meaning of school friend, whom I was return of Kon’s papers seemed our conversations. I needed visiting at that time, took to be a straightforward matter. more time to grow up and me to a send-off party for The court had never ordered understand what truly matters Vita. There I learned about the papers’ forfeiture. Kon had in life and a case to test my Ina’s heart-wrenching never lost the ownership of his understanding of her lessons. experience of reading her papers, and now they legally Meeting sisters Ina Lancman father’s security police file belonged to his heirs. and Vita Serf and taking on at the Institute of National their father, Naftali Hertz Remembrance and not finding The next six years proved Kon’s case was to become his confiscated papers. When how idealistic I was and

6 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 The author accepting Yad Vashem medal of the Righteous Among The Nations and diploma on behalf of his family how unprepared the courts settled for a comfortable the poet’s conviction in 1963 of new Poland were in Yes. Writing and poetry was a sham proceeding, that facing the difficult past and underscored his deep belief he was an innocent victim. In the wrongdoings of their in the poet’s role in a society: June 2015, the Supreme Court predecessors. The quest speak the truth against all acquitted Naftali Hertz Kon turned into an emotionally odds. Never back down in and quashed the judgment fraught legal quagmire. We your convictions and be ready that found him guilty 52 were held hostage to laws to defend them. Kon’s case years before. I felt a sense of not passed and issues not was also about an internal closure, and I thought about addressed by the young fight for my credibility. How my grandmother. Republic of Poland in dealing could I teach my students with the communist judicial about the inherent right to My 5 Nevers establishment and its crimes. dignity and the rule of law, Listening to her then had if I could not enforce these saved me now. She wanted As the restitution case values in a real case? me to grasp life as a process, dragged on and prospects and not just focus on the final of success grew smaller, my Finally, after six years destination. It matters how we persistence was fueled by and 2,000 pages of legal live our lives and treat others, the injustices that this man pleadings, we won custody what we believe, and what we had faced. I began to see of the papers. I will always do. Good life is not about grand Kon’s life as an inspiration. remember the touching gestures, but about little things, His poetry is a powerful moment, in March 2013, a kind smile, an honest word of testimony of a person who when the daughters cried encouragement, here and now, witnessed the destruction of upon the recovery of their every day, day by day. the Yiddish world and culture father’s literary estate at the in the Soviet Republic and in State Archives. The most My reflections on her wisdom its satellite states. He stayed moving moment, though, led me to create my “5 Nevers.” true to himself and refused came more than two years to succumb to the political later before the Polish First, never allow the pressures and expectations Supreme Court in Warsaw. limitations of others to become imposed forcefully on his To consider the mission your own limitations. The poetry. He kept saying his accomplished, I wanted to moment you allow this, you No, when everybody around hear the court declare that stop living your own life and

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 7 Daughters Ina Lancman (left) and Vita Serf (right) celebrate the return of the literary estate at the Archives with this article’s author (center) start living someone else’s. makes me feel uneasy and many years have passed but Second, never accept business uncomfortable. It looks like I still remember. You, young as usual. Sometimes you sometimes you can not have and beautiful, had courage to have to stand up and let your all the answers in advance. take care of me, a stranger, voice be heard, regardless of What I know is that life and its little, lost, and helpless, when what others say and think. immeasurable diversity will in everyone around looked the Business as usual robs us the end put you to the ultimate other way. Be strong and stay of the courage to say No to test. Then, you will “have it healthy for me.” comfortable routine. within you,” or you won’t. The story of my grandmother My grandmother’s Great Third, never accept the view, is about compassion, love Yes will forever live with “No, that can’t be done.” for family, affection for the my family and me. I can Indeed, Kon’s case is a other, and persistence. She only hope that when the day testament to this comfortable has left me this most beautiful comes, I will have what it narrative as people kept telling and demanding legacy to fall takes to make the right choice me all the time: “It can’t be back on in times of weakness, and live by it. As Cavafis puts done.” I reject this philosophy doubt, and discouragement, it, “It’s clear at once who has and see it as a convenient and gave me strength to the Yes ready within him.” n excuse for doing nothing. believe that these could be more than mere words. Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz is Fourth, never compromise currently a Fulbright Visiting when fundamentals come into In later years, she recorded Professor at the University of play. Sooner or later shortcuts a tape for the Sisters of the California, Berkeley School will catch up with you. Family of Mary who ran the of Law. He is Director of the orphanage in Podhajce. She Department of European Fifth, never look the other said, “The moment I looked and Comparative Law of the way when injustice happens. into those big eyes, I knew University of Gdańsk and Speak up. she was mine and what I an attorney specializing in should do.” That was her constitutional and human My 5 Nevers take me to a final Great Yes. In Maria’s last rights litigation before question: How would I have letter to my grandmother in European supranational courts behaved in those dark times? February 2010, she wrote, (www.tomasz-koncewicz.eu). I simply do not know and this “Dear Czesia, my heroine, so

8 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 SCHOLARSHIP University of Wrocl/aw’s Department of Jewish Studies Receives Capital Grant for Expansion

he Taube Foundation for “This is a great Jewish Life & Culture contribution towards Thas awarded the University of Wrocław’s Department of the development of Jewish Studies (DJS) a Jewish Studies in grant of $100,000, to be Wrocław... [and] distributed over two years. The grant will support important for the the renovation of the position of Jewish Dr. Agata Rybińska (left) receives her doctoral Department of Jewish diploma from Prof. dr hab. Marcin Wodziński Studies more (right) of the University of Wrocław’s Studies’ new location in Department of Jewish Studies Wrocław’s historical center, generally in Poland close to the University’s and in Eastern main campus. The space will provide an increased number Europe.” of classrooms, offices, and – Prof. Marcin Wodziński conference and seminar rooms for the Department of Europe, especially the Jewish Studies, as well as the history of Hasidism and DJS’s first designated space Haskalah. for its ever-growing library. The grant will also cover The Department of Jewish Prof. dr hab. Marcin Wodziński (pointing) teaching students how to read matzevot the cost for equipping and Studies at the University of (Jewish headstones) in Sieniawa, Poland furnishing the new space. Wrocław was established twenty years ago, just after space. In recent years it has The Department is led the fall of communism. grown into an institutionally by Prof. dr hab. Marcin Providing one of the most independent Department of Wodziński, a professor of rigorous Jewish Studies Jewish Studies, part of the n Jewish history and literature. university programs in Faculty of Letters. His fields of interest include Poland, the Department Jewish material culture and has rapidly expanded in www.judaistyka.uni.wroc.pl/ the social history of Jews in the past few years, quickly judaistyka/index.php nineteenth-century Eastern outgrowing its previous

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 9 SCHOLARSHIP POLIN Museum and Jewish Historical Institute Announce Recipients of Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) Research Fellowships

New scholarly program, GEOP, bolsters the fields of Polish-Jewish Studies and Jewish Museum Studies

he POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Tand the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute are proud to announce the seven recipients of the Photo: Alicja Szulc/POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews inaugural Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) Sofiya Grachova, Mandel Urszula Madej-Krupitski, Research Fellowships in Center for Advanced UC Berkeley, Mapping Polish-Jewish Studies. Holocaust Studies, United Jewish Poland: Material There were 30 candidates States Holocaust Memorial Culture, Everyday Life and from 26 universities from the Museum, Science and Ethnic Identity Negotiations in the US, Israel, and eight European Minorities in Eastern Poland/ Interwar Period countries. The seven recipients Western Ukraine, 1921-1947 and their respective research Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska, topics are: Mariusz Kałczewiak, Jagiellonian University, /Justus Kraków Progressive Katharina Friedla, Yad Liebig University Giessen, Synagogue in the 19th century Vashem, Topography, “Be Loyal to Poland!” Polish Experience and Memory of Jews in Argentina and Their Jolanta Mickute, Vytautas Life in Transit: Polish Jews in Ties to the Old Homeland, Magnus University, Modern, the Soviet Union (1939–1959) 1916-1939 Zionist, Feminist: The Politics of Culture, Ethnicity, and Gender in Interwar Poland, 1918-1939

10 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 POLIN Museum and Jewish Historical Institute Announce Recipients of Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) Research Fellowships, Continued

Natalia Romik, University Mirjam Rajner, Bar Ilan GEOP supports research College London, Post-Jewish University, Ramat Gan, Israel fellowships, scholars-in- Architecture of Memory residence, post-doctoral Moshe Rosman, Bar Ilan within Former Eastern seminars, distinguished University, Ramat Gan, Israel European Shtetles lectures, conferences, Marc Slobin, Wesleyan, publications, and the The members of the Selection Middletown, CT development of digital Committee for GEOP research Marcin Wodziński, University resources. Through GEOP, fellowships are: of Wrocław POLIN Museum partners Antony Polonsky, POLIN with the Emanuel Ringelblum Andrzej Żbikowski, Emanuel Museum of the History of Jewish Historical Institute Ringelblum Jewish Historical Polish Jews, Warsaw, Chair and numerous universities Institute and research institutions in Jan Doktór, Emanuel Genevieve Żubrzycki, Poland and worldwide. Ringelblum Jewish Historical University of Michigan Institute, Warsaw Jolanta Żyndul, POLIN GEOP is generously Marc Epstein, Vassar College, Museum of the History of supported by the William Poughkeepsie, NY Polish Jews K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, Michał Galas, Jagiellonian the Taube Foundation for University, Kraków GEOP applications are Jewish Life & Culture, reviewed on an annual basis. and the Association of the Monika Garbowska, Maria For more information, please Jewish Historical Institute Curie-Skłodowska Museum, n refer to: www.polin.pl/en/geop of Poland. Lublin

François Guesnet, University About GEOP: www.polin.pl/en/geop College, London GEOP aims to strengthen Samuel Kassow, Trinity POLIN Museum as an College, Hartford, CT international center for intellectual exchange and Erica Lehrer, Concordia collaborations in the fields University, Quebec, Canada of Polish-Jewish Studies and Jewish Museum Studies.

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 11 NEW PUBLICATIONS

POLIN: STUDIES IN POLISH JEWRY, VOLUME 29 By Dr. Antony Polonsky Editor-in-Chief, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry “Writing East European Chief Historian, POLIN Museum Jewish History” of the History of Polish Jews EDITORS: NATALIA ALEKSIUN, BRIAN HOROWITZ, ANTONY POLONSKY

his volume of Polin: of Eastern European Jewish We seek to explore the Studies in Polish Jewry history be written primarily tension between the practice Tconsists of scholarly articles in the regional context or of exploring the Jewish past devoted to the development alternatively as part of a in the communal setting and of Jewish historiography in broader Jewish narrative? the need to inscribe Jews three East European hubs: the What was the nature of into the social, political, Russian Empire, Congress Jewish-Gentile relations? economic, and cultural Poland, and Galicia in the Was the Jewish culture history of the region. The nineteenth and twentieth that emerged in Eastern volume also investigates centuries. Jewish history Europe sui generis or deeply the relationship between played an important role in influenced by the exchanges “history” – understood as the lives of both professional with non-Jewish neighbors? chronicling the past – and scholars and ordinary Jews “scholarly history” which living in the Russian Empire, We have attempted to sets out to analyze the the semi-autonomous past in accordance with Kingdom of Poland, and look beyond established academic methods that Austrian Galicia. Beyond paradigms..., adding claim objectivity. providing Jewish historians to a growing literature with a sense of mission Publication of the volume and Jewish readers with a that seeks to transcend has been possible thanks connection to the past and the trope of Jewish to grants from the Mirisch its meaning, the production and Lebenheim Charitable cultural insularity. and consumption of Jewish Foundation, the Salo W. history in Eastern Europe and Jeannette M. Baron evolved in a broader climate We have attempted to look Foundation, the Koret of material and political beyond established paradigms Foundation, the Lucius N. instability. Many of the by examining the relationship Littauer Foundation, and the historiographical questions between the writing of Jewish American Association for that Jewish writings sought and non-Jewish histories in Polish-Jewish Studies. n to answer remain at the heart Eastern Europe, adding to a of the scholarly discourse of growing literature that seeks www.polishjewishstudies.pl/ East European Jewish history to transcend the trope of polin.html as a field. Should the history Jewish cultural insularity.

12 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 NEW PUBLICATIONS By Dr. Irena Grudzińska-Gross Department of Slavic Languages Poland and Polin and Literatures NEW INTERPRETATIONS IN Princeton University POLISH-JEWISH STUDIES

EDITORS: IRENA GRUDZIŃSKA-GROSS, IWA NAWROCKI

the Summer 2015 issue participants is intense. The of Gazeta, Dr. Jessie proof is in the collection of InLabov reported on a Polish/ papers delivered at the second Jewish Studies Initiative workshop, held at Princeton that aims to bridge the gap University on April 18-19, between the two traditionally 2015. Published by Peter Lang separate academic domains. and edited by me and Iwa The first meeting of the Nawrocki, a graduate student Initiative was held in March at Princeton, the volume 2014 at Ohio State University, appeared just in time for the and was described in that April 2016 Chicago meeting. Gazeta article. The second workshop took place in April The Princeton workshop was 2015 at Princeton University, organized around the analysis of the then most spectacular and the third, by this time and Yiddish cultures. Some event in Polish/Jewish matters: quite a large conference, American scholars were the opening of the POLIN was held in April 2016 at interested in complicating Museum of the History of the University of Illinois, and normalizing the history Polish Jews. Some conference Chicago. In April 2017 the of Jews of Eastern Europe: no participants were linked to the fourth meeting will take place more “persecution, passivity, creation of the Museum, some at the University of Michigan, piety, and poverty.” That were its critics. Other panels Ann Arbor. perspective was shared with had to do with the “Jewish the creators of the Museum, turn” in Polish culture, Polish/ We began these encounters, who were proud of the Jewish memory work, cultural meetings, and conferences Museum showing Jewish diplomacy, and the studies of with a somewhat modest pre-Holocaust life in all its Yiddish culture. There were vision of the interest the vibrancy. Other scholars several divisions among the topic would inspire. It underlined the difficulty the participants of the Princeton turns out, however, that the Museum faces in insisting on conference. The scholars of interest is huge on the part the wonders of life in a gallery Yiddish culture focused on of both scholars and donors, located deep inside the rubble the ways of teaching points and the intellectual and of the Warsaw Ghetto. These emotional involvement of the of contact between Polish

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 13 Poland and Polin, Continued

critics saw in this insistence Panels had to do with the www.peterlang.com/index. cfm?event=cmp.ccc. a way of putting aside the “Jewish turn” in Polish/ memory of anti-Semitism that seitenstruktur.detailseiten accompanied that life and of Jewish memory work... &seitentyp=produkt& the Holocaust that cut it short. pk=89031&concord- The discussions were eid=266666 The same objective would inspire the surrounding of the fierce, voices were raised. Museum by the monuments The “Jewish turn” is very to the Righteous: this was an effort to close the debate about much on. the Second World War in occupied Poland by creating during the conference, as well symmetry between Polish as the conference’s agenda, and Jewish suffering. The speakers’ bios, and a report of atmosphere of the conference the proceedings prepared by was very heated. Dr. Geneviève Zubrzycki. The report delineates the The collection of papers does contours of the controversy not represent faithfully the that erupted among the entirety of discussions. No participants and indicates the scholar who worked on or in the main ideas expressed in all the POLIN Museum contributed papers and exchanges that took to the volume. We do have, place at the conference. The however, a very deep and discussions were fierce, voices detailed critique of various were raised. The “Jewish turn” aspects of the Museum and of is very much on. n the ramifications of its narrative and visual choices. Out of the Irena Grudzińska-Gross/Iwa eighteen papers delivered at Nawrocki (eds.) the conference, eight are Poland and Polin. New presented in the collection. In Interpretations in Polish- addition, the volume contains Jewish Studies, Peter Lang, two papers that were not read Frankfurt, 2016

14 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 AWARDS POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Honored with Two European Prizes

his spring, the POLIN The Global Education Museum of the History Outreach Program, Tof Polish Jews received two promoting Polish-Jewish highly prestigious awards: the studies internationally by European Museum Academy supporting fellowships, Prize and the European seminars, lectures, research Museum of the Year Award. workshops, conferences, and publications; In 2010, the European The Resource Center, Museum Academy established providing free access to the European Museum The Egg, by Henry Moore, in front Polish and international Academy Prize with the aim of POLIN Museum. The sculpture is given for one year to the museum databases dedicated of recognizing organizations, honored with the European Museum to Jewish history and researchers, and cultural of the Year Award genealogy, including My institutions that create it a unique institution with Heritage, USC Shoah pioneering museums and a worldwide impact. The Foundation, the Central develop projects destined to institution meets the criteria Judaica Database, etc.; influence the development of for the European Museum museological discourse at the The Virtual Shtetl portal, Academy Prize perfectly.” international level. This May, containing information

the 2016 prize was given to about 2,000 towns inhabited the POLIN Museum. In doing “The European Museum by Jews in the territories of so, the jury wrote: of the Year Award is Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia with “POLIN Museum meets the oldest and most details on synagogues, the criteria for this prize at prestigious prize for a cemeteries, and so on. It its maximum. It is not just is a social network created an excellent museum but museum in Europe.” by thousands of users and a state-of-the-art cultural contributors worldwide; institution which reaches The jury additionally noted The Museum on Wheels, diverse publics all over the that apart from its impressive a traveling exhibition about world. That is why it deserves Core Exhibition – a journey the history and culture of the title of a ‘Total Museum.’ through the 1,000-year Polish Jews that visits 47 The diversity and variety of history of Jews in Poland, towns all over the country. its activities and the scope the institution also offers the Each town can adapt it to of its aims and goals makes following key elements: its own history.

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 15 POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Honored with Two European Prizes, Continued

The Prize ceremony will “This is the first time in europeanmuseumacademy.eu take place during the www.polin.pl/pl/ Annual General Meeting the 39 years of the award aktualnosci/2015/12/22/ of the Europeana Network that a museum in Poland polin-europejskim-muzeum- Association in Riga, on roku-2016 November 8, 2016. has received this award.”

On April 9, POLIN Museum The jury wrote of POLIN received the 39th Annual Museum: “The long-shared European Museum of the history between Jewish people Year Award, presented by and other people of this the European Museum Forum region of the world is one of a at its 2016 Award Ceremony continuously negotiated co- held in San Sebastian, Spain. existence through conflict as The POLIN Museum placed well as cooperation, integration, first from among 49 museums and assimilation. For very large representing 24 countries and and very diverse audiences a diverse range of themes, POLIN now serves as an including the arts, sciences, absorbing place to confront and history. and examine the perpetually relevant questions of how a The European Museum of co-existence, however fraught, the Year Award, the oldest can suddenly transfigure into and most prestigious prize an absolute rupture, into the for a museum in Europe, was near eradication of a whole established in 1977 under population and destruction the auspices of the European of a culture.” Commission. The jury looks for “enterprise and innovation This is the first time in the that enhances the public 39 years of the award that quality of the museum” and a museum in Poland has “new developments that are received this award. The likely to have a significant winner holds The Egg, by the influence in the national and celebrated English sculptor international museum field.” Henry Moore, for the year of the award. n

16 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 AWARDS Taube Philanthropies Names Two Scholars as 2016 Irena Sendler Memorial Award Recipients

Award Remembers “Righteous Gentile” Sendler and Honors Polish Citizens for who Preserve Jewish Heritage Prof. dr hab. Monika Adamczyk- Maria Piechotka Garbowska aube Philanthropies has The Irena Sendler Memorial world-renowned Israeli-based named two scholars Awards, named for the social ensemble, as part of the 26th Twhom it will honor with its worker who saved hundreds Jewish Culture Festival. The 2016 Irena Sendler Memorial of Jewish children from the second award ceremony, for Award: Monika Adamczyk- Warsaw Ghetto during the Maria Piechotka, will take Garbowska, professor of Nazi occupation, will be place in Warsaw at a future English and Comparative presented at two different date in 2016. Literature at the Maria Curie- ceremonies. During the Jewish Skłodowska University Culture Festival in Kraków, Honoree Prof. dr hab. Monika in Lublin, who has made on July 1st in the Tempel Adamczyk-Garbowska significant contributions, in Synagogue, the award will be (Professor of American and Poland and internationally, given to Prof. dr hab. Monika Comparative Literature, to both teaching and Adamczyk-Garbowska. The Maria Curie-Skłodowska publishing in Jewish and award precedes the First University, Lublin) has made Yiddish literature studies; and Annual Memorial Concert for invaluable contributions to Maria Piechotka, renowned Dr. Jan Kulczyk (1950-2015), teaching and publishing in architect and author of several one of the Distinguished Jewish and Yiddish literature groundbreaking publications Benefactors of POLIN studies. She is the author, that have preserved Museum of the History of editor, and translator of many architectural memory of Polish Jews, who was an Irena books, including key works buildings destroyed in the Sendler Memorial Awardee on the life and legacy of war, especially wooden in 2015. The concert will be Isaac Bashevis Singer. Her synagogues. performed by Diwan Saz, a books published in English

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 17 Taube Philanthropies Names Two Scholars as 2016 Irena Sendler Memorial Award Recipients, Continued

include: Jewish Presence on the subject, including the late Magda Grodzka- in Absence: The Aftermath Gates of Heaven: Wooden Gużkowska, who risked her of the Holocaust in Poland Synagogues on the Territory life to help Irena Sendler 1944-2010 (2014, co-editor) of the Former Republic, rescue Jewish children from and Contemporary Jewish published in 1957, which has the Warsaw Ghetto (2011); Writing in Poland: An become the seminal work in eminent scholars Prof. Anthology (2001, with Dr. the field. In 2000, she and her Dr. Maria Janion and Dr. Antony Polonsky). Professor husband were awarded the Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs Adamczyk-Garbowska Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska (2012); Bogdan Zdrojewski, has served on the editorial award from the YIVO Institute Minister of Culture and board of Polin: Studies in for Jewish Research. Many National Heritage; Hanna Polish Jewry, was the 2006- generations of scholars and Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Mayor of 2007 Ina Levine Scholar- architects who study wooden Warsaw (2013); Malgorzata in-Residence at the United synagogues look and will Niezabitowska, author States Holocaust Memorial look to their groundbreaking, and journalist; Tomasz Museum, and in 2004 was pioneering research. Pietrasiewicz, director of the awarded the Jan Karski and Grodzka Gate—NN Theatre Pola Nireńska Prize from the About the Irena Sendler Center (2014); Krzysztof YIVO Institute for Jewish Memorial Award: Czyżewski, director of the Research, in New York, for Nominations for the annual Borderland Foundation; and her research and teaching of award are reviewed by a the late Dr. Jan Kulczyk, Jewish culture and Yiddish panel of Taube Philanthropies Distinguished Benefactor literature and language. advisory board members and of POLIN Museum of the Jewish cultural leaders in History of Polish Jews Honoree Maria Piechotka was Poland. Previous awardees (2015). n active in the Warsaw Uprising include Janusz Makuch, and in 1944 began her efforts director of the Jewish Culture For more information to record the architectural Festival, Kraków (2008); about the award program, detail of destroyed buildings, Jan Jagielski, archivist, please email: with a special focus on wooden Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish [email protected] synagogues. Together with her Historical Institute (2009); husband Kazimierz Piechotka, former President Aleksander nagrodairenysendlerowej.pl/ she co-authored several books Kwaśniewski (2010);

18 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 MUSEUMS By Jakub Nowakowski Paint What You See: The Art Director, Galicia Jewish Museum of Helga Hošková-Weissová NEW TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

aint what you see,” is and Mauthausen, from which desire in Helga to capture the what 12-year-old Helga she was finally liberated. everyday life in the Ghetto. She “PHošková heard from her father brought with her a sketchpad when, in December 1941, she Many years later she would and a box of watercolors, and her family were deported became a famous painter, but pastels, and pencils. to the Terezin Ghetto and it was in the Terezin Ghetto Remarkably, these supplies concentration camp. She spent where her passion for painting would last her for almost the the next three years of her life was born. “Paint what you entirety of her three years in there, before being deported see,” the directive spoken by Terezin. The first illustrations further to Auschwitz, Freiberg, her father, sparked the burning were created on good-quality

Helga Hošková-Weissová GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 19 The Art of Helga Hošková-Weissová, Continued

paper. When this paper ran out, Helga drew on everything and anything she could find. She made about 100 drawings. Hidden by her uncle in a locker in one of the barracks, Helga’s diary and illustrations survived the war. Today they are on display at the Galicia Jewish Museum, in Kraków, until June 12, 2016. n www.en.galiciajewish museum.org Helga Hošková-Weissová

Helga Hošková-Weissová

20 n GAZETA VOLUME 23,22, NO. 2 CULTURE By Robert Gądek Jewish Culture Festival Deputy Director, Jewish Culture Celebrating 26th Year Festival, Kraków JUNE 25-JULY 3, 2016

a recently published report commissioned Inby the Kraków Municipality, “Culture in Kraków – the Current Situation and Perspectives for Development,” the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków was named the most recognizable cultural event of the city. This is a great honor for the Festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary David Krakauer. Photo: Jewish Culture Festival, Kraków last summer. Now we are The main themes of the sounds played by Tel-Aviv hard at work on the details of Festival are the Diaspora DJs from the Teder pop-up the 26th edition, to be held bar and radio; prewar Yiddish between June 25th and July and Shabbat. love songs by Ola Bilińska; 3rd, 2016. The main themes and the Israeli Diwan Saz called Israeli culture. Musical are Diaspora and Shabbat. ensemble, to name only a few. performances will illustrate The seven-hour-long open Jewish geographical and The Festival will place the air Shalom on Szeroka Street cultural diversity and show common perception of Jews concert, which has become the influence of other cultures: as “eternal wanderers” in the a Festival trademark, will Frank London’s Glass House context of the contemporary reunite these Diasporas into Orchestra with a complex situation in Europe, including one. Lectures, workshops, and legacy of Jewish Hungarian the refugee crisis on one debates will address historical, culture; the recent project hand and the emigration social, and cultural aspects. by Israeli Boom Pam with of Jews from Europe to Invited speakers include Diana Turkish female rock star Selda; Israel on the other. It will Pinto, Konstanty Gebert, contemporary music by Jewish explore how Jewish political Stanisław Krajewski, Krzysztof composers Steve Reich and and social experiences Czyżewski, as well as Edwin Osvaldo Golijov presented by have created the unique, Seroussi and Noa Argov. diversified phenomenon the Kronos Quartet; vintage

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 21 Jewish Culture Festival Celebrating 26th Year, Continued

Czyżewski’s Borderland Foundation will unveil their “Invisible Bridges,” and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company will perform at the Festival for the first time.

The Jews have remained true to their ancient traditions in part because of their most important holiday, Shabbat. Observed in many ways by Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrachi, Orthodox, liberal, and secular Jews, Shabbat retains its essence: keeping the tradition. The audience will Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (KCDC), Israel. Photo: Uri Nevo have a chance to explore and experience Shabbat throughout Cheder Café, which has For those who think there the Festival week. They will undergone a major renovation is no Jewish life in Kraków, learn about preparing for to better reflect the Festival come and be surprised. Don’t and celebrating the holiday themes of connecting worry if you can’t make the from lecturers and instructors generations and connecting Festival this year. Thanks to including Benzion Miller, tradition with modernity in a our Cheder Café, the Festival Michael Wex, Lea Koenig, and Jewish context. The Cheder lasts all year round. Jeff Warschauer. Together they Café brings to Kazimierz will prepare a pop-up Shabbat the flavors and ambience See you in Kazimierz – the in a former Batei Midrash of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Jewish heart of Poland! n (houses of prayer and learning) Cheder gives an opportunity in Kazimierz. to not only taste the flavors www.jewishfestival.pl of Israel but to encounter Shabbat has also become a Judaism on a very basic — key element for the Festival’s cheder-like — level.”

22 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 NEWS By Vanessa Gera Reprinted with permission of Hillel Opens in Warsaw Associated Press

major Jewish organization said Rabbi Yossie opened its first chapter in Goldman, Hillel’s APoland on April 18, the most director of global recent sign of a Jewish revival expansion. in the Central European nation that comes even as Jews have Though still very been recently fleeing Western small, Poland’s European nations hit by Jewish community Islamic violence. has been growing since the Hillel International, the country threw Magda Dorosz, Hillel Warsaw Director, second from left world’s largest Jewish student off communism in organization, celebrated the 1989, with families its nationalistic ideology and opening of a branch at a increasingly revealing the backsliding on the rule of law ceremony in Warsaw. Hillel secret of hidden Jewish roots leave them more vulnerable. now has a presence in 18 to children and grandchildren, Official speeches didn’t countries. prompting some to return to touch on that matter. But the faith of their ancestors. after the ceremony, Hillel Leaders of Hillel and International’s director and members of Poland’s Jewish Hillel Warsaw’s founding CEO, Eric Fingerhut, told the community hailed the group’s director is Magda Dorosz, Associated Press that “the expansion, saying support a 31-year-old who only best antidote to any concerns for young college-age adults discovered her Jewish roots is a stronger and more vibrant would help further the growth when she was 16. Jewish life.” n of Jewish life in Poland, connect them to other Jews Despite years of progress, bigstory.ap.org/article/ worldwide, and nurture a some Polish Jews now feel organization-opens-center- connection to Israel. unsettled by the rise to power poland-amid-jewish-revival last year of a conservative “We are celebrating today and nationalistic party, www.facebook.com/ the renaissance of Jewish life Law and Justice. While the hillelwarszawa in Poland, for Hillel is the party doesn’t promote anti- future of the Jewish people,” Semitism, some Jews fear

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 23 NEWS A New House of By Julian & Fay Bussgang Prayer in Warsaw

Photo: Beit Centrum Ki Tov Photo: Beit Centrum Ki Tov

he Friends of Jewish The new congregation was polishjewsreviving.org/new- Renewal in Poland honored by a very special gift prayer-group-open-in-the- T(FJRP) have announced that of a torah from Temple Hadar center-of-warsaw-called-beit- a new prayer group has been Israel in New Castle, Western centrum-ki-tov organized in Warsaw, named Pennsylvania, returning the Beit Centrum Ki Tov, under torah to its country of origin. www.beitkitov.org the umbrella of Beit Polska, Poland’s affiliate of the World Taking part in the opening of Union for Progressive Judaism. the prayer group on April 8, The new synagogue, located 2016 were both the former on Nowogrodzka Street, will rabbi of Beit Warszawa, be a sister community to Rabbi Gil Nativ, and the Beit Warszawa, the Reform current Rabbi, Boris Dolin. n congregation located in the suburbs of Warsaw. Beit Centrum Ki Tov is designed to meet the needs of Reform Jews wishing to have a place of worship in the city center.

24 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 NEWS Ulma Museum Opens By Julian & Fay Bussgang

n the Fall 2015 issue of some members of “the blue The Polish daily Republika Gazeta we reported that police” denounced Józef announced that the formal Ia new museum to honor and Wiktoria Ulma (who opening of the Ulma Family Poles who saved Jews was seven months pregnant Museum took place on was being created in the at the time), and in March March 17, 2016. The village of Markowa, five 1944, both the eight hidden President of the Republic miles southeast of the town Jews and eight Ulma family of Poland, Andrzej Duda, of Łańcut. The Museum members were murdered and the Israeli Ambassador is named after the Ulma by the Germans. The to Poland, Anna Azari, family, who lost their lives Ulmas were posthumously participated in the event. n because they had hidden recognized as Righteous a Jewish family in their Among The Nations by Yad muzeumulmow.pl home. It is thought that Vashem in September 1995.

The Ulma Family Museum. Photo: Marshal’s Office of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 25 NEWS Menora Info Punkt Opening

he POLIN Museum of to survive World War II – the History of Polish the Jewish Theater, and a TJews, in partnership with the renovated pre-war Jewish Taube Center for the Renewal Warsaw street. of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation, has opened up In a celebration of this a new space in the center of visibility and openness of Warsaw. Located within the Jewish culture, the French popular local café-bakery cafe’s sign above the entrance Charlotte, Menora Info Punkt advertises bread and wine in / Menora Info Point (MIP) Polish, French, and Hebrew; is a portal for visitors and the office’s entrance from locals alike who would like the café is adorned with a to learn more about Jewish mezuzah; and the door is left Warsaw, past and present, and open during café hours so that to engage in its contemporary anyone interested in or curious Jewish life. MIP consists of an about Jewish life can enter office space where café-goers and learn. The kitchen, though are invited to drop in and ask not yet kosher, is specifically questions, a meeting room for workshops and tastings of for Jewish organizations and Jewish cuisine – the first such NGOs of all kinds to culinary initiative in Warsaw’s use for their own activities, burgeoning foodie scene. and a kitchen designed for Charlotte serves blintzes, cooking workshops. kreplach, challah, and other Jewish baked goods at this MIP is located on Plac location. n Grzybowski (2 Grzybowski Square), the same square that hosts the Chief Rabbi of www.polin.pl/pl/menora Poland’s office, the orthodox Nożyk Synagogue – the only synagogue in Warsaw

26 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 FILM By Dr. Antony Polonsky The Institute for Editor-in-Chief, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Polish-Jewish Chief Historian, POLIN Museum of

Studies Film Showings the History of Polish Jews

he Institute for Polish- introduced by Dr. Joanna Jewish Studies, sister Michlic of Bristol University, Torganization of the American the author of Poland’s Association for Polish-Jewish Threatening Other: The Studies, has recently been Image of the Jew from 1880 very active. On March 16, to the Present (2010), recently 2016, in cooperation with the translated into Polish, and University College London numerous other contributions A Town Called Brzostek (2014) Department of Hebrew and about Polish-Jewish relations, Jewish Studies, it organized a both during the Holocaust and Jews are thrown back into showing of the award-winning in the postwar period. their own past, coming documentary filmNo. 4 Street together to witness of Our Lady (2009), which On June 14, 2016, the a once-in-a-lifetime event recounts the incredible story Institute will host the UK that firmly cements Brzostek of Franciszka Hallamajowa, a Premiere of A Town Called in history. It is a touching Polish-Catholic woman who, Brzostek (2014) directed by and occasionally funny during the Second World War, the award-winning Australian story of common human risked her life, and that of her director Simon Target, which decency overcoming deep daughter, to save sixteen of won the Ewa Pięta award for religious division. Among her Jewish neighbors. Before the best film at the Ann Arbor those who appear in it are the war, Sokal, a small town in Film Festival in November the historian Norman Davies; eastern Poland – and now part 2015; the Humanitarian Tad Taube, Chairman of of Ukraine – had around 6,000 Award at the Polish Film Taube Philanthropies; Jews amongst its population. Festival, Chicago, November Michael Schudrich, Chief Only about thirty of them 2015; and first prize at the Rabbi of Poland, and the survived the Holocaust, half Jewish Film journalist Anne Applebaum. of this number thanks to Festival. The film follows Simon Target and Jonathan Franciszka’s courage and the story of the British Webber will participate in a audacity. She passed herself professor Jonathan Webber question-and-answer session off as a Nazi sympathizer, as he journeys to restore an after the screening. n entertaining the enemy in her abandoned Jewish cemetery www.polishjewishstudies.pl home while hiding, feeding, in a sleepy part of southern and caring for her endangered Poland. Both the unsuspecting phoenixcinema.co.uk/ Jewish neighbors whom she inhabitants of Brzostek and PhoenixCinema.dll/ had hidden. The film was the descendants of Brzostek’s WhatsOn?Film=8629219

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 27 FILM By Dr. Antony Polonsky Two Polish Films at Editor-in-Chief, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry the National Center Chief Historian, POLIN Museum of for Jewish Film the History of Polish Jews

he American Association characterization and arresting failure to confront the legacy for Polish-Jewish Studies cinemagraphic visual style, of Polish anti-Semitism give Tsponsored two new Polish the film exposes the brutality rise to ghosts who haunt the films at the 19th annual film of war and the corrosive country’s present inhabitants. festival of the National power of anti-Semitism. It Antony Polonsky introduced Center for Jewish Film, won the award for the best both films and conducted a Brandeis University, which script at the Montreal World question-and-answer session took place in Boston between Film Festival and the award after each screening. n May 4 and 22. The first of for best cinematography and these was Summer Solstice best supporting actress at the (Letnie Przesilenie) (2015), Gdynia Film Festival. directed by Michał Rogalski, previously known for light The second film was Demon comedies. This searing (2015), directed by Maciej drama, set in the summer of Wrona, who, tragically, took 1943 in provincial Poland his own life shortly after the under German occupation, premiere of the film. In this Summer Solstice (Letnie follows two teenage boys. chilling, modern interpretation Przesilenie) (2015): Polish railway worker Romek of the Dybbuk legend, Piotr www.mfa.org/programs/film/ (played by Filip Piotrowicz) (played by the Israeli actor summer-solstice scavenges the train tracks for Itay Tiran) discovers human goods, immune to the fate bones buried in the backyard of the human cargo passing of the Polish country home by, while Guido, a German of his future in-laws on the military policeman (played by eve of his wedding. These the German actor Jonas Nay), are the remains of one of the who has been conscripted former Jewish inhabitants of because of his love of jazz, the house. As the wedding is regarded by the Nazis as celebration’s bacchanalia a degenerate. Guido, who spins out of control, this Demon (2015): is originally repelled by the brilliant story of possession www.mfa.org/programs/film/ tasks the police have to carry becomes an unflinching, demon out, is gradually corrupted by allegorical censure of the all-pervasive brutality of contemporary Poland, where the occupation. With its vivid the absence of Jews and the

28 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 STUDY TOURS, EVENTS, CONFERENCES, AND FESTIVALS

STUDY TOURS Exploring Poland/Polin Heritage Study Tour August 2 - August 11, 2016 Poland polandpolin.pl/educators- apply-now-august-tour

APPLICATION DEADLINE: JUNE 3, 2016 This summer, the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland is holding a 9-day professionals study tour and development program for American Kazimierz synagogues; Illustration: Galicia Jewish Museum , for 7@Nite (see p. 30) educators, curators, and activists or arts educators who Connecting both profes- EVENTS work in the fields of Polish or sionally and personally with Polish-Jewish culture. contemporary Poland, the Ride For The Living participants will develop their Ride: June 3, 2016 Participants will examine own educational scenarios and Accompanying events: Poland’s dynamic and com- projects for their students and June 2 - June 5, 2016 plex history, explore multiple peers, to be implemented after Auschwitz-Birkenau, narratives through different the summer program. n Oświęcim, and Kraków, perspectives, and challenge Poland stereotypes and myths. Led by www.friendsofjcckrakow.org/ an academic faculty advisor, ride-for-the-living the program includes sessions with academics and leaders Ride For The Living is of cultural, civic, educational, a unique event where and faith-based organizations. participants cycle 55-miles

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 29 Study Tour, Events, Conferences, and Festival, Continued

(90 km) from the iconic programs and support medical 7@Nite Auschwitz-Birkenau gate to and welfare services for the June 4 - June 5, 2016 the Jewish Community Center JCC’s Holocaust Survivor Kraków, Poland of Krakow (JCC Kraków) members. The 2016 Ride www.facebook.com/7atnite and participate in four days of For The Living will support educational and community ongoing programming for all An annual “Judaism-without- programs. Ride For The generations in the community, walls” event put on by the Living is an annual event including Holocaust survivors, JDC Poland, the​ seven under the patronage of Chief students, and children. n synagogues in Kraków’s Rabbi of Poland Michael Jewish district of Kazimierz Schudrich, who in 2016 will will be filled throughout lead the event himself, which Satellite Rides For the night with concerts, honors the Holocaust while The Living performances, exhibitions, and celebrating the renewal of June 2 - June 5, 2016 workshops. This year’s theme contemporary Jewish life in USA is “Jews Around the World” Poland today. JCC Kraków www.friendsofjcckrakow.org/ and is open to the public. n members, staff, volunteers, satellite-ride-for-the-living- and friends from around the program world will come together to For those who cannot travel CONFERENCES raise awareness and funds for to Poland, JCC Kraków Jewish Cultural Heritage: Kraków’s Jewish community. teamed up with the JCC Projects, Methods, Association of North America Inspirations Funds raised from the to offer a satellite Ride June 8 - June 10, 2016 inaugural 2014 Ride supported For The Living program POLIN Museum of the a JCC Kraków Holocaust to JCCs across the U.S. History of Polish Jews Survivors’ Mission to Israel. Participating JCCs will Warsaw, Poland For most of these child hold dedicated Ride For www.polin.pl/en/education/ survivors, it was their first The Living spin classes conference-jewish-cultural- time in Israel and their only where participants will heritage-projects-methods opportunity to travel as a symbolically cycle alongside community. In 2015, riders Riders in Poland while The three-day conference raised more than $150,000 learning about the renewal will explore issues related to launch new educational of Polish-Jewish life. n

30 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 Study Tour, Events, Conferences, and Festival, Continued

to Jewish cultural heritage of interwar Warsaw. The in contemporary Europe Festival was started by the – preservation, animation, Shalom Foundation, a Polish engagement, and impact. initiative to re-animate Yiddish The issues will be examined language and culture, on the through the prism of specific 100th anniversary of Isaac projects and initiatives – Bashevis Singer’s birthday in historic sites, heritage routes, 2004. Singer, the Festival’s museums, exhibitions, namesake, was a Nobel Prize- educational programs, artistic winning Yiddish language interventions, and new author who captured much of media. Participants will share the life and spirit of interwar innovative methods, ideas, Yiddish Poland. The Festival and good practices. Creative includes a recreated street of international networking will bookshops, newspaper stands, be the focus of the third day bakeries, and other small of the conference. n stores, providing a momentary experience of a culture that no longer exists today. n FESTIVALS Festiwal Singera / Singer Festival August 27 - September 4, 2016 Warsaw, Poland www.festiwalsingera.pl

Showcasing Yiddish theater, films, music, and themed artistic exhibitions, the festival aims to “reconstruct” the arts and cultural scene

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 31 By Dr. Antony Polonsky OBITUARY Editor-in-Chief, Polin: Studies in December 11, 1924 - April 26, 2016 Polish Jewry Chief Historian, POLIN Museum of Ryszard Fenigsen the History of Polish Jews

yszard Fenigsen, a long- The Nazi invasion of Poland standing and active in September 1939 led to Rmember of the American a rapid flight to the East to Association for Polish-Jewish the areas which came under Studies, died on April 26, 2016 Soviet control as a result of at the age of ninety-one. He the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. came from an acculturated Many of the refugees were Jewish family, in Radom, a Jews, who were well aware town 60 miles south of Warsaw, of the threat they faced. They which, on the eve of the Second included the Fenigstein family World War, had a population of who fled to Lwów (Lviv). around 80,000, over 30 percent Educational institutions were of which were Jews. His father, re-opened and eventually Ludwik Fenigstein, a trial Sovietized. Ryszard attended lawyer with the largest practice the King Kazimierz Wielki in Radom, represented Jewish State Gymnasium and Lyceum. defendants accused of using violence to defend themselves From the spring of 1940, as The Nazi invasion of the in the notorious pogrom in part of the general hardening Soviet Union made Poland Przytyk in March 1936. of Soviet policy in the region, and the Soviet Union allies the Soviets decided to apply in the struggle against the Rysiek was a boy of fourteen to the refugees the policy of Axis Powers. After protracted when the war broke out. In his mass deportation. Among those negotiations, a Polish-Soviet autobiographical account of arrested and deported in this agreement was signed on his youth, A Long Journey to way in spring 1941 were the July 30, 1941, which made Russia (Waltham, 2013), he Fenigstein family. After a two- provision for an amnesty of gives a vivid picture of the last week train trip, they arrived Polish prisoners, the release years before the war, when in Tursha, a forest settlement of prisoners of war, and the he was preparing to take his twenty-five miles northwest of creation of a Polish army on exams to pass from the Tytus Yoshkar Ola, the capital of the Soviet territory. Among those Chałubiński Gymnasium to its Mari Republic on the Volga. released in this way was the Lyceum as a preparation for The Fenigsteins spent sixteen Fenigstein family who now entrance to medical school. months in Tursha, where both journeyed down the Volga He also notes the growing Ryszard and his father worked to Astrakhan in the hope of anti-Semitism in the country. as lumberjacks. making contact with other

32 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 Ryszard Fenigsen, December 11, 1924 - April 26, 2016, Continued

refugees from Poland. This in Polish-Soviet relations in He was subsequently trip exposed them for the first May 1943, Stalin sanctioned appointed, along with time to the vast scale of the the creation of a communist Edelman, as a cardiologist to Nazi invasion of the Soviet controlled military force. He the Department of Internal Union and greatly shocked ended his military career in a Medicine at the hospital of the them. In comparison, the Special Anti-Aircraft Artillery Łódź medical school under woods around Tursha seemed Battalion and participated in the direction of the renowned almost idyllic. Astrakhan the march on Berlin. physician, Professor Jerzy proved to be swamped by Jakubowski, with whom refugees of all sorts and the Ryszard’s father and he wrote several books, family moved to Kazan and mother were now able to among them Aktywna terapia then to Yoshkar Ola. Ryszard return from Yoshkar Ola nadciśnienia (The Active worked as a stoker in a boiler to Lublin in Poland where Treatment of Hypertension, room serving a large central a Provisional Government Warsaw, 1962). Rysiek was heating system and then in an had been established. They the youngest person in Poland automobile repair facility. He subsequently settled in Łódź, ever to be appointed to the spent his spare time reading the largest Jewish settlement position of medical docent. widely in Russian literature. in postwar Poland, which He subsequently worked unlike Warsaw had not been as an internist at the Łódź In fall 1942, Ryszard was destroyed in the war. city hospital and became permitted to enroll in the the secretary of the National Yoshkar Ola High School. In the fall of 1945 Rysiek Association of Cardiologists. Rysiek always viewed his entered the School of In the early sixties he received time at exile in Russia as the Medicine of the newly a half-year stipend to study happiest period of his life. founded Łódź University, in Great Britain and, on his He passed the very strict where he subsequently return to Poland, created exam at the end of high became friendly with Marek with his wife-to-be, Kira school in Yoshkar Ola with Edelman, one of the members Bałłandowicz, and Marek flying colors and was very of the command of the Jewish Edelman, the first Intensive proud of this. Throughout his Fighting Organization in Care unit ward in the Soviet life he retained his love for the Warsaw Ghetto. He bloc. When during the “anti- Russian literature. supported himself during his Zionist” campaign of 1968, student years by translating Edelman was dismissed from After the departure of the from Russian. his post in October, Rysiek, Polish Army and the breach who was still employed, was

GAZETA SPRING 2016 n 33 Ryszard Fenigsen, December 11, 1924 - April 26, 2016, Continued

able to find work for him was again pursued by fate, Journey to Russia, which in the Madurowicz hospital when Kira died tragically in he dedicated to his wife where their common friend a car crash in 1983 when she Rose. This provides an Stanisław Gadzicki was was driving with her mother important contribution to the director. As he wrote in his from the Netherlands to our understanding of the obituary of Edelman, “I ceded Poland. Second World War in Eastern to Marek twenty-two beds at Europe and is also very funny, my department.” Rysiek then moved to reflecting Rysiek’s sly sense Cambridge, Massachusetts, of humor. He wrote widely Shortly after this, Ryszard to be with his long-standing on medical topics and on himself decided to leave partner, Genia Shrut, herself questions of medical ethics, Poland, moving to Denmark a Holocaust survivor from on which he published a with his wife and his elder Kutno in central Poland. He number of books and articles. daughter Alicja, from his was devoted to her and tended He contributed twice to first marriage to Irena her lovingly in her final illness Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Henner, a sociologist until her death in October once in the debate on the and radio-journalist. His 2003. He subsequently met Przytyk Pogrom and again younger daughter, Janina, Rose Sklare, the widow of the when he wrote an obituary from his second marriage to sociologist Marshall Sklare. for his lifelong friend Krystyna-Helena Olszewska, Both in their eighties, they fell Marek Edelman. a hematologist, remained in madly in love, married in 2007 Poland and only later moved and led a very active social He is survived by his two to the United States. Rysiek and cultural life. Sadly, Rose’s daughters, Alicja, an author subsequently emigrated to gradual mental deterioration and painter, Janina, a social the Netherlands, where he led her family to take her away and linguistic anthropologist, practiced as a doctor until from Rysiek and put her in a and Janina’s husband his retirement in 1990. While sheltered facility, denying him Jerzy, twin grandsons, a in the Netherlands, he came access. This broke his heart granddaughter, and two great to see the institutionalized and undoubtedly precipitated granddaughters. He was a practice of terminating life his death. unique individual, a man of as a new incarnation of the great erudition and charm, and totalitarian contempt for Ryszard was a man of he will be sorely missed. n individual human life and great intellect and a fine became an active campaigner writer. His best work is his against euthanasia. Here he autobiographical A Long

34 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 2 Ride For The Living, 2015, hosted by the JCC Kraków

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