The site of the Jewish cemetery in Głowno. Photograph from the project Currently Absent by Katarzyna Kopecka, Piotr Pawlak, and Jan Janiak. Used with permission.

Volume 25, No. 4 Gazeta Fall/Winter 2018

A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial & Design: Tressa Berman, Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Adam Schorin, Maayan Stanton, Agnieszka Ilwicka, William Zeisel, LaserCom Design.

CONTENTS Message from Irene Pipes ...... 2 Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn ...... 3

FEATURES The Minhag Project: A Digital Archive of Jewish Customs Nathaniel Deutsch ...... 4 Teaching Space and Place in Holocaust Courses with Digital Tools Rachel Deblinger ...... 7 Medicinal Plants of Płaszów Jason Francisco ...... 10

REPORTS Independence March Held in Warsaw Amid Controversy Adam Schorin ...... 14 Explaining Poland to the World: Notes from Poland Daniel Tilles ...... 17 A New Home for the Jewish Theater in Warsaw Fay and Julian Bussgang ...... 20

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS BOOKS New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands Edited by Antony Polonsky, Hanna Węgrzynek, and Andrzej Żbikowski. Antony Polonsky ...... 22 East Central European Migrations During the Cold War: A Handbook Edited by Anna Mazurkiewicz ...... 24

FESTIVALS AND PERFORMANCES Fifteen Years of the Singer Festival Fay and Julian Bussgang ...... 25 Don’t Cry When I’m Gone Wins Best Documentary at Toronto Polish Film Festival ...... 26 The Auschwitz Volunteer Performed in New York City Reported by Tressa Berman ...... 27 EXHIBITIONS Terribly Close Exhibition at Ethnographic Museum in Kraków ...... 28 The Sejm Hosts Exhibition of Former Jewish Cemeteries Fay and Julian Bussgang ...... 29

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS Urban Jewish Heritage Conference Held in Kraków ...... 30 Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Convened in Boston ...... 33 International Workshop at POLIN Museum Antony Polonsky ...... 34

AWARDS National WWII Museum Receives Grant Reported by Taube Philanthropies ...... 36 Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota Receives Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award ...... 39

OF NOTE Jewish Cemetery Memorial Inaugurates New Multicultural Heritage Trail in Gostynin Reported by Jewish Heritage Europe ...... 40 Ben Helfgott Knighted Fay and Julian Bussgang ...... 42 Leopold Kozłowski, the “Last Klezmer of Galicia,” Turns 100 ...... 44 The Sejm Adopts Resolution Honoring Isaac Bashevis Singer ...... 45 New Progressive Congregation in Kraków Adam Schorin ...... 46

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS POLIN Museum Events Reported by Karol Kwiatkowski ...... 49 GEOP Announcements ...... 53

OBITUARIES The Oldest Righteous Person, Mother Cecylia Roszak, Dies at 110 ...... 55 Jacob “Kobi” Weitzner Marek Tuszewicki ...... 56

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 1 President, American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies

Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta

Dear Members and Friends,

While visiting my granddaughter in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of visiting the Taube Foundation office and meeting Shana Penn and her staff. We also visited the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley, where Arthur Szyk’s art works are currently on display. I am glad to let you know that in October the inaugural Józef A. Gierowski and Chone Shmeruk Prize for the best scholarly publications on the history and culture of Polish Jews was awarded at Collegium Novum at Jagiellonian University. First prize was awarded to Dr. Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov for Irene Pipes her book Mówić we własnym imieniu. Prasa jidyszowa a tworzenie żydowskiej tożsamości narodowej (do 1918 roku) (Speak On Your Own Behalf: The Yiddish Press and the Creation of a Jewish National Identity Before 1918). Second prize went to Dr. Grzegorz Krzywiec for his book Polska bez Żydów. Studia z dziejów idei, wyobrażeń i praktyk antysemickich na ziemiach polskich początku XX wieku (1905–1914) (Poland without Jews: Studies on the History of Anti- Semitic Ideas, Concepts, and Practices in the Polish Territories in the Early 20th Century [1905– 1914]). Third prize was presented to Agnieszka Zolkiewska for Zerwana przeszłość. Powojenne środowisko żydowskiej inteligencji twórczej. Pomoc materialna i organizacja ze strony CKŻP (The Broken Past: The Post-War Circle of the Jewish Intelligentsia). The high quality of the entries is a testimony to the health and wealth of Jewish studies in Poland today. In the same month, our association organized two events in New York and Boston. Witek Dabrowski, actor from Lublin, and Leora Tec, board member of our association, presented the work of “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre (dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews of Lublin) and discussed how their different backgrounds led them to the same goal of Jewish remembrance. Interwoven in the presentation were stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer of his youth a hundred years ago. On September 21, a memorial service for my husband Richard was held at the Harvard Memorial Chapel. Rabbi Norman Janis, former students Marvin Kalb and Jonathan Daly, good friends Gerry Holton and Roman Szporluk, son Daniel, and granddaughters Sarah and Anna spoke.

Best wishes, Irene Pipes President

2 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Message from Chairman and Executive Director, Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life Shana Penn & Culture

In this issue of Gazeta many of our contributors raise issues or pose questions that suggest new ways of thinking about seemingly familiar and accepted ideas. Nathaniel Deutsch introduces us to minhag, “the most important Jewish concept that most people, including many Jews, have never heard of.” He is asking us: Do you know about this? Rachel Deblinger asks if digital tools have any special utility in helping students better understand accounts by Holocaust survivors. Her answers are intriguing and could be important for how we educate future generations. Jason Francisco asks, after contemplating the medicinal plants growing freely on the site of the former

Tad Taube Nazi concentration camp Płaszów, “What forces of healing is the genocidal earth of Płaszόw generating? And, “Is it possible to harness the power of that natural healing for social healing?” His answers are deeply moving. Even when we can’t definitively answer an important question, we have to ask it. Of course, we want to base our examination on sound information. Gazeta presents ideas and questions from a variety of viewpoints, along with reliable and engaging information about noteworthy people, events, and places. The immediate purpose is to provide a sound basis for our search into the richness and realities of Jewish life in the Polish lands during the eras of blossoming, the painful years of the Holocaust and its aftermath, and the amazing revitalization of recent decades. But the ultimate purpose is to examine how that heritage is perceived and lived today, both by those Shana Penn who reside in the original lands and those who have grown up in so many transplanted homelands. New insights into the topics at hand will, we hope, encourage further research and debate.

Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 3 FEATURES The Minhag Project: A Digital Archive Nathaniel Deutsch of Jewish Customs

Puk chazi mah ama davar: “Go and see what the people are doing.” —Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 45b

ith funding from the Taube Foundation and Wother sources, I have been collaborating with computing specialists to develop a website that will serve as an online, crowd-sourced archive of Jewish customs. At the core of this interactive website, called the Minhag Project: A Digital Photograph of Sh. An-sky, c. 1910. Archive of Jewish Customs, Wikimedia Commons. will be a searchable, bilingual Minhag is the most to Morocco, Hungary to Yiddish-English edition of Yemen. Over the centuries, The Jewish Ethnographic important Jewish every Jewish community Program, a massive life-cycle category that most people, developed its own distinctive questionnaire that Sh. An-sky minhagim (plural of minhag), created a century ago, before including many Jews, which helped to define and he passed away in Otwock. have never heard of. differentiate its members He was buried in the not only as Jews, but also as Mausoleum of the Three people, including many Jews, Sephardim or Ashkenazim, Writers (along with I. L. have never heard of. Typically Bialostokers or Baghdadis, and Peretz and Yakov Dinezon) translated into English as so on. By way of illustration, in the Okopowa Street Jewish “custom,” minhag describes Jews everywhere traditionally Cemetery in Warsaw. the myriad ways that Jews have waited between eating meat Minhag is the most important performed their Jewishness and dairy—based on the Jewish category that most on the ground—from Poland biblical prohibition against

4 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 cooking a kid in its mother’s In most cases, however, In most cases, however, Jews milk—but exactly how much Jews did not learn how did not learn how to perform time Jews in a particular minhagim—basically how to community waited depended to perform minhagim— “act Jewish”—from reading Shulhan on minhag. Similarly, it is an basically how to “act a book like the Ashkenazi minhag not to eat Arukh, but by listening and kitniyot (legumes) on Passover, Jewish”—from reading observing those around them. while the Sephardi minhag is a book like the Shulhan This led Mordechai Kaplan to allow these foods. (1881–1983), the founder of Arukh, but by listening Reconstructionist Judaism, to Yet, minhag also governed describe minhagim as the “folk many aspects of daily Jewish and observing those ways” of the Jewish people. life that were not directly around them. linked to the laws of the Torah, Given this significance, it including whether and how This included women, who is not surprising that when to celebrate the birth of a typically had their own the first ethnographers of the daughter, what dances to have distinctive minhagim. Jewish people started to study at a wedding, how to drink a Jewish folk practices at the toast, what to do if someone Local minhag was taken turn of the 20th century, they becomes ill, and even how so seriously that when devoted a great deal of effort to die. In short, for Jews the Sephardi Rabbi Yosef to documenting minhagim. everywhere, minhag has served Karo (1488–1575) created Foremost among these as a means for transforming the Shulhan Arukh (The ethnographers was Sh. An- practically every possible Set Table), which would sky (1863–1920), best known human activity into something eventually become the most today as the author of The distinctly “Jewish.” important legal code for Dybbuk, who led the Jewish Jewish communities around Ethnographic Expedition into Minhag was so important the world, many Jews in the Russian Pale of Settlement in Jewish life that some Central and Eastern Europe between 1912 and 1914, traditional sources actually initially rejected it until Rabbi and who also published Dos describe it as a form of Torah Moshe Isserles (1530–72), Yidishe Etnografishe Program in its own right, as in the a native of Kraków and (The Jewish Ethnographic saying, Minhag avotaynu one of the greatest sages in Program), a Yiddish-language torah hi, “The minhag of our early modern Poland, added survey consisting of over ancestors is Torah.” It was Ashkenazi customs to the 2,000 questions concerning the only form of Torah that text in a gloss that became Jewish life and death in the could be created by all Jews, known as the Mapah (The shtetl. The word minhag no matter how educated. Tablecloth).

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 5 appears more than any other Minhag was so important Nathaniel Deutsch, PhD, is Professor of History at term in this remarkable in Jewish life that some document. the University of California, traditional sources Santa Cruz, where he holds Today, there are still some the Baumgarten Endowed traditional Jewish communities actually describe it as a Chair in Jewish Studies. whose members continue form of Torah in its own to rely on minhag to guide aspects of their behavior. Yet, right, as in the saying, even the great majority of Minhag avotaynu torah Jews who no longer lead their day-to-day lives according to hi, “The minhag of our minhag continue to preserve ancestors is Torah.” and transmit certain minhagim, often without being aware or the Persian Jews of Los that they are doing so. Indeed, Angeles. Once they create an for many Jews, it is precisely account, users will be able minhagim—perhaps learned to answer the questions of years ago as children from a The Jewish Ethnographic parent or grandparent—rather Program, and their responses than normative religious will become part of the beliefs, that have survived world’s only online archive of the longest and will likely Jewish customary practices, be transmitted to the next a resource for scholars and generation. members of the general public alike. Account holders will Visitors to The Minhag also have the ability to explore Project website will be answers provided by other able to browse The Jewish users. We expect to launch the Ethnographic Program and website by the end of 2019. n create accounts of their own that will include information For updates on our progress, about where their ancestors please visit the Digital Jewish came from and whether Studies webpage of the Center they belong to a particular for Jewish Studies at the contemporary community University of California, such as the Satmar Hasidim Santa Cruz: https://digital in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, jewishstudies.sites.ucsc.edu.

6 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Teaching Space and Place in Rachel Deblinger Holocaust Courses with Digital Tools

eaching with technology Digital methods offer What does this look like in the is more than just classroom? I introduce spatial Tbrandishing a shiny new particular benefits for thinking through texts and examples of digital mapping tool. Using technology in Holocaust studies the classroom should further projects. Only after we have the teaching objectives and courses . . . to investigated the concepts of space and place do we turn to enable learning. We must ask building or representing, most ourselves, with each new idea explore Holocaust often using the My Maps tool and innovation: Does this representation—from in the Google Suite. tool serve an intellectual or pedagogical purpose? text analysis to mapping, The assignment asks students to map one testimony. It is not Digital methods offer to digital exhibit-building computationally intensive. Nor particular benefits for is it research-driven. Rather, Holocaust studies courses. In and meme creation. the assignment is meant to my classes at the University push students toward a critical of California, Santa Cruz jumping from one place to the engagement with using maps (UCSC), I use a range of next. In this sense, students’ as storytelling platforms. They digital assignments to explore mapping matches how they must ask themselves: How can Holocaust representation— are already thinking about I represent chronology when from text analysis to mapping, Holocaust history. there is no time component to digital exhibit-building and By contrast, assignments to the map? At what scale meme creation. that ask students to consider do I place a point? Do I Each assignment uses free testimony as a constructed need a street address or a online tools to consider how text based on the memories neighborhood? What if I we know what we know of survivors require a much only have a city name? What about the Holocaust. Spatial more difficult theoretical and if a survivor talks about a evidence is a meaningful conceptual leap. Additionally, village that can’t be found on starting point. Students often students use Google Maps Google Maps? think about the Holocaust almost every day. As a result, These questions drive the through the lens of individual thinking with a tool like learning. Students must survivors and conceptualize Google Maps has a low barrier confront the kinds of the experiences of the to entry and the potential for knowledge-making structures, Holocaust as a trajectory— great impact. like metadata and titles, that

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 7 This map was created by four students in Rachel Deblinger’s 2016 course Holocaust in the Digital Age. The project employed ESRI Storymaps to map the Holocaust experiences of six survivors from three different victim groups that the students considered to be peripheral to dominant narratives of the Holocaust: Jews from Greece, non-Jews, and twins. Image courtesy of Rachel Deblinger. are often obscured in historical I love when students going throughout the war texts. They consider how the years. Another student told viewer will understand the experiment with the story of a whole family narrative and what categories separated throughout the these creative ways of they want to highlight. war, using various colors and representing a Holocaust icons to show when family Most students choose to members were separated and depict places mentioned in a narrative and use the how they reunited. testimony in chronological order. They use layers to mapping exercise to I love when students experiment organize places in a testimony with these creative ways of from before the war, during conceptualize testimony representing a Holocaust the war, and after the war. narrative and use the mapping Sometimes, however, they find as more than just one exercise to conceptualize entirely different modes of testimony as more than just one storytelling. One student used survivor’s experience survivor’s experience of being layers to separate the places taken from place to place. of being taken from where a survivor had been Regardless of the result, the taken from the places where place to place. the survivor had imagined assignment asks students

8 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 to consider the problem of and to rethink their own place in general. How do understanding of the history they reconcile place names of the Holocaust. n as remembered by survivors with the names of cities or Rachel Deblinger, PhD, is countries today? How do Research Program Manager they represent the borders of at the Humanities Institute at places that no longer exist? the University of California, The inconsistencies serve Santa Cruz. as reminders that places are not constants, maps are constructions, and even the satellite images from Google are not realistic representations of our world. Most important, I have found that asking students to build maps—even using entry- level tools—invites them to think about the scale of the Holocaust in a new way. As they place points on a map that detail the distances travelled by one person, and imagine the lived experience of that displacement, they recognize the gap between history as experienced and how it is represented. Through this exercise, students develop a critical approach to online content that allows them to interrogate biases of data too often obscured by front- end platforms. Students are encouraged to critically engage with online content

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 9 Medicinal Plants of Pl/aszów Jason Francisco

ne of my preoccupations in recent years has been Othe area in Kraków known as Płaszów, which before World War II was the site of two Jewish cemeteries and, during the Holocaust, was a major forced labor, transit, and death camp. Estimates of the number of people who passed through the camp between November 1942 and January 1945 range from 30,000 to upwards of 50,000, most of them Jews. At its peak in 1944, the camp’s slave laborers numbered some 25,000, the size of a small Remains of two pre-war Jewish cemeteries in Płaszów. city. Approximately 5,000– Photograph by Jason Francisco. Used with permission. 8,000 prisoners perished in What forces of healing Płaszów’s everyday life is the camp—from disease, altogether different than starvation, exhaustion, is the genocidal earth of that of Auschwitz, Bełżec, beating, and firing squad—and Płaszów itself generating? Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek, the remains of 2,000 victims and Chełmno, not to mention from the Kraków Ghetto were University––it remains the dozens of smaller former also interred there. only major former Nazi camp locations in Poland. camp not incorporated In today’s Kraków, Płaszów The way that Płaszów is into a museum or cultural remains a deeply ambivalent simultaneously remembered institution. It functions space. Though publicly signed and forgotten, understood and primarily as a public park: as a site of genocide––most misunderstood, has been the a popular place to sunbathe, recently through a project subject of my photographic picnic, ride bicycles, play undertaken by graduate work and also socio-cultural games, and have barbeques. students of the Jagiellonian research over the past decade.

10 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Now it is also the subject of an experimental work of historical memory, created in response to the questions: “What forces of healing is the genocidal earth of Płaszów itself generating?” and “Is it possible to harness the power of that natural healing for social healing?”

These questions came to me two years ago, when I began to study and photograph the Sunbathers near the Cipowy Dołek execution site. Photograph by Jason Francisco. Used with permission. medicinal plants growing at Płaszów. Since then, a Two types of building in the former area of the Nazi ghetto in the Podgórze vision has taken shape of a awareness—the multidimensional encounter section of the city, across the with Płaszów: an exhibition medicinal and the street from the site where the bringing together the historical great Yiddish poet and singer genocidal—came consciousness of Płaszów, Mordechai Gebirtig was frank examination of the together in a single murdered on June 4, 1942. everyday life of Płaszów, the complicated encounter. Ms. Błaszak offered us earth of Płaszów itself, and the community center’s some kind of engagement with medicinal plants brought from courtyard––small, neglected, the healing plants growing on Płaszów, planted and tended humble, perfect in spirit––and the site of the former camp. to by neighbors. We imagined she convinced the board and FestivALT––the Kraków- a garden that would bring the families of the center to based experimental artist’s people together and strengthen invest their time and hearts in collective that I co-founded the community, as so many a community garden of healing in 2016 and co-direct with community gardens do, and at plants harvested from Płaszów. Magda Rubenfeld Koralewska the same time serve as a place During FestivALT, in and Michael Rubenfeld–– where a change in historical June 2018, we went to decided to take up the project awareness might develop. Płaszów with members of as part of this past summer’s We found a partner in Berenika the MOPS community and program. Błaszak, director of the Miejski Karol Szurdak, a Polish With FestivALT, the vision Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej ethnobotanist and expert in became more focused. We (Municipal Social Welfare plant-based medicine. Mr. conceived the idea of a Center). MOPS is a community Szurdak gave a remarkable community garden made of center located in an old tour of the dozens of

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 11 medicinal plants growing at Płaszów, from which medicinal tinctures, teas, and compounds can be made. He spoke of natural medicine and plant pharmacology, I spoke of Płaszów’s history, and the two types of awareness––the medicinal and the genocidal–– came together in a single complicated encounter.

That afternoon, Mr. Szurdak described some three dozen species of medicinal plants Berenika Błaszak (left), FestivALT’s technical director Miko Szatko, and community growing at Płaszów, and members help construct the garden. we collected eighteen of Photograph by Jason Francisco. Used with permission. them––the number that photographs made in 2010–18 corresponds to the Hebrew Following Poland’s 2018 showing the wide range of word for life. We brought law criminalizing speech things people actually do at them back to MOPS, where about Polish involvement Płaszów, and large-format other community members photographs made in January– were building planters and in the Holocaust, open May 2018 contemplating filling them with soil. We examination of Płaszów’s the earth of Płaszów. These transplanted the specimens, pictures constitute my project one per planter. everyday life has become The Camp in Its Afterlives. even more controversial, A few days later, we built Printed differently, the pictures the garden and within it though the law itself has could be used for a museum hung a small exhibition of since been rolled back. exhibition. As they are, they my pictures and texts, in are printed for outdoor use. The Polish and in English. We the MOPS community and a texts provide basic information placed signs in each planter few interested others arrived about the camp’s history with information about the for the dedication. As we and about the complications plant species, its chemical described the project and our of Płaszów as a site of both compounds, its medicinal hopes for its future, the skies memory and forgetting. uses, and, in one case, its opened and rain came to water The community garden plus appearance in a Płaszów our garden in what seemed an the pictures and texts are survivor’s testimony. impossibly poetic moment. Kraków’s first long-term I was still putting in the last The exhibition is a braid of exhibition about the realities screws when members of two image types: small-format of contemporary Płaszów,

12 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 to create a special garden of those plants, where the forces of pain and healing come together––that would be enough. And if that special garden were tended by the hands of the community in whose midst the former camp sits––that would be enough. And if that community were to make from this one garden other gardens of healing and remembrance––that would be enough. And if

The completed garden in the MOPS courtyard. from those other gardens Photograph by Jason Francisco. Used with permission. new seeds of consciousness an exhibition that none of On the day following our and understanding were to Kraków’s museums or cultural garden’s dedication, the be planted––that would be centers will accept––not the FestivALT group returned to enough. And if from those Galicia Jewish Museum, not Płaszów with Mr. Szurdak seeds other kinds of actions, the Museum of Contemporary for a second medicinal-plants thoughts and hopes were to Art in Kraków, not the and history tour. We collected grow––that would be enough. International Culture Centre, more specimens. The adults The garden of medicinal not the Historical Museum of seemed to find a measure of plants was built in the the city of Kraków, not the wonder in the combination courtyard of Dąbrówki 7, Kraków Fotomonth. of Płaszów’s melancholy and in Kraków, where it was the bounty of its flora. The For all of these institutions, on display for most of the children channeled the energy the complications of summer. Though the garden of what grows. Taken together, contemporary Płaszów remain was moved, in part, to the the event seemed both the too difficult, too tangled. nearby Park Stacja Wisła, culmination and the beginning Following Poland’s 2018 law work on it will continue of a remarkable process. criminalizing speech about during next year’s FestivALT, Polish involvement in the In the text for the exhibition, with the hope of securing it a n Holocaust, open examination I wrote: permanent home. of Płaszów’s everyday life If we were only to recognize Jason Francisco is a has become even more that the wounded earth grows photographer, writer, and controversial, though the plants from which we can book artist. He is also law itself has since been make medicine––that would co-founder and co-director rolled back. be enough. And if we were of FestivALT: http://www. festivalt.com.

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 13 REPORTS Independence March Held in Adam Schorin Warsaw Amid Controversy

n Sunday, November In spite of the tensions banning this year’s march. 11, more than 200,000 brewing in the days “Warsaw has suffered Opeople marched in Warsaw enough from aggressive to celebrate the 100th before, there were nationalism,” she said in a anniversary of Poland’s significantly fewer televised statement. Since independence. It was the most overtly racist banners 2008, the annual march has highly attended Independence been organized by the far- March yet, but it nearly and chants than in last right National Radical Camp didn’t happen. year’s march. (ONR) and All-Polish Youth. The former organization Four days before Warsaw’s mayor, Hanna sees itself as an ideological Independence Day, on Gronkiewicz-Waltz, successor to a fascist Wednesday, November 7, announced that she was

A girl waves a Polish flag amid red flares at the 2018 Independence March. Photograph by Jacek Smoter. Used with permission.

14 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 movement of the same name “I also don’t understand On Sunday, when a record from 1930s Poland. All- number of participants showed how it happened that Polish Youth has been heavily up to march, President Duda criticized for its homophobia the nationalists, who are addressed them all. “Let this and anti-Semitism by Human be a joint march, let it be politically irrelevant, Rights Watch, Amnesty a march for everyone,” he International, and the have become an said. The march was “to give United Nations. honor to those who fought equal partner for the for Poland, and to be glad Last year’s Independence government.” that it is free, sovereign, and March, in which 60,000 —Andrzej Rychard, independent.” In the crowd, people participated, received Polish Academy of Sciences Polish soldiers stood in a great deal of international columns alongside members attention for the nationalist, of the ONR and the All-Polish xenophobic, and racist slogans On Thursday evening, Mayor Youth. Families who had come some marchers chanted. People Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s ban was for the state-sanctioned march carried signs with hateful overturned by the court. As were in the same audience as slogans, such as, “White a result, the government and representatives from Forza Power, Ku Klux Klan,” “Pure the nationalist organizations Nuova, an Italian neo-fascist Poland, White Poland,” and that had initially planned the movement, who had come “Refugees, get out!” march negotiated a last-minute to show support for Polish agreement: participants in Barely a few hours after nationalism. the state-sanctioned march Mayor Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s would march first, followed by In spite of the tensions brewing announcement, President participants in the nationalist in the days before, there were Andrzej Duda, who had march. The two groups would significantly fewer overtly previously said he would be separated by a squad of racist banners and chants than not partake in the march military police. in last year’s march. organized by the far right, declared the government Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist Much of the offensive chanting would organize a march along at the Polish Academy of came when the march met the same route. “Let’s show Sciences, told the New protestors along the way, that we are one community,” York Times that he did not who, organized by the said Błażej Spychalski, the “understand how it happened progressive groups Citizens of president’s spokesperson, that the nationalists, who are Poland, Women’s Strike, and at a press conference. “The politically irrelevant, have Committee for the Defense of march will be a national become an equal partner for Democracy, carried banners celebration.” the government.” with the slogan “Konstytucja”

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 15 (Constitution), in criticism 8,000 people along a different anniversary. To see all those of actions by the government route. Participants in this Polish flags, it’s a beautiful that have been perceived as march carried banners that view,” Piotr, attending the attacks on the rule of law. Video read, “For your freedom and march for the first time, obtained by OKO.press shows ours,” and chanted, “Warsaw told The Guardian. “The participants in the Independence free of fascism.” atmosphere is very good, March throwing flares and except for a couple of groups But the prevailing attitude firecrackers at the protestors, whose slogans are not okay.” of the day was not one of and calling them “prostitutes” confrontation. The majority “The joint march is a huge and “whores.” One group of of those marching did not success,” said Jarosław marchers is seen shouting, “The engage in racist or offensive Kaczyński, leader of the ruling constitution will be Polish, but rhetoric and many sought Law and Justice Party. “This for now is Jewish.” to distance themselves from is a great day.” n The anti-fascist coalition also any controversy. “I just Adam Schorin is Assistant organized a protest march of want to celebrate the 100th Editor of Gazeta.

Participants in the 2018 Independence March wave Polish flags, ONR flags, Forza Nuova flags, and Italian flags. Photograph by Jacek Smoter. Used with permission.

16 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Explaining Poland to the World: Daniel Tilles Notes from Poland

here has never been a Poland is at the forefront rather than supranational more important time to institutions and global trade. of a number of global Tunderstand Poland. Twenty- Poland, like many countries, six years of uninterrupted political, economic, and is at a crossroads, confronted economic growth (a unique by questions, doubts, and achievement in the European social trends: the rise disputes over its identity, Union) has made the country of the populist right; culture, and history—not the a regional powerhouse and least of which is how to deal increasingly significant at the challenge to liberal with its Jewish past. the European level. Next democracy and the rule year, Poland is set to pass Unfortunately, the growing Sweden as the EU’s sixth of law; the backlash importance and relevance largest economy and overtake against mass migration; of Poland has not been Portugal in terms of GDP per matched by a concomitant capita at purchasing power growing emphasis on improvement in reliable parity. It is an increasingly national sovereignty international media coverage assertive (albeit not always of the country. A number cooperative) player in and a more insulated of English-language news Brussels, and will play websites covering Polish domestic economy. a central role as the EU affairs have emerged, but embarks on a crucial period Moreover, Poland is at the all are either run by the of discussion over its future forefront of a number of Polish state or by private direction. In particular, it is global political, economic, media firms with close ties at the heart of a struggle to and social trends: the to the ruling Law and Justice balance the interests of the rise of the populist right; Party (PiS). Consequently, “old” western member states the challenge to liberal their coverage is skewed in and the “new” eastern ones, democracy and the rule of favor of the government’s among which Poland is by far law; the backlash against party line. Reporting and the largest. Finally, it is a key mass migration; growing commentary on Poland in outpost on NATO’s eastern emphasis on national western media are sporadic front at a time of growing sovereignty and a more and limited, often written geo-political uncertainty. insulated domestic economy, by correspondents who lack

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 17 the background knowledge, language skills, and time to properly understand the issues at stake. In particular, criticism of Poland—over questions like the rule of law and the “Holocaust law”— while sometimes justified, is often undermined by a lack of familiarity with the background, context, and details necessary to fully understand the issues at stake.

It is these gaps that Notes from Poland has sought to fill by providing regular, independent reporting and The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. analysis of current affairs in Wikimedia Commons. Poland, as well as broader insights into the country’s Our goal is to create of news stories about Poland. culture, politics, history, and a professional online These posts are widely read society. Initially founded four and shared, and regularly years ago as a blog by my publication that hosts re-reported in both the Polish colleague Stanley Bill, Senior regular analyses and and international media. There Lecturer (Associate Professor) is also the blog itself (at www. in Polish Studies and opinion pieces on Poland notesfrompoland.com), on Director of the Polish Studies by experts from a range which we post less frequent Programme at the University but longer articles, written of Cambridge, its primary of fields and from across by us, offering in-depth focus is now on social media, the political spectrum. analyses of Polish affairs. where it has become the Recent subjects we have most followed and influential Currently, our activity is covered include: immigration outlet reporting on Polish two-fold. Our social media to Poland (which, contrary affairs, with more than 25,000 feeds make multiple daily to PiS’s anti-immigration followers on Facebook and posts offering summaries, image, is currently at the almost 8,000 on Twitter. translations, and explanations highest level in history); new research on Poles’ treatment

18 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 of Jews during WWII and over the next 18 months, we the international controversy are now looking to expand our over this year’s “Holocaust work. Our goal is to create a law” (which introduced prison professional online publication sentences of up to three that hosts regular analyses and years for those, at home or opinion pieces on Poland by abroad, who falsely accuse experts from a range of fields the Polish state or nation of and from across the political responsibility for German spectrum. We also aim to crimes); and the government’s enhance our news reporting to judicial reforms (which become the primary forum for have provoked mass protests news, analysis, and discussion domestically and legal action on Poland. against Poland from the EU). These plans depend on raising We also post articles by guest sufficient funding, a challenge authors on subjects such as we are currently tackling. underground publishing in We hope that by building on communist Poland; the illegal, the work we have already government-approved logging done, we can continue to of UNESCO-protected be an informed voice about Białowieża, Europe’s last Poland for the rest of the medieval forest; and the world, especially at this time teaching of religion in when greater knowledge of Polish schools. the country and its region is The rapid growth of Notes needed. n from Poland has so far been Daniel Tilles, PhD, is entirely organic. We have Assistant Professor of History never received any funding at the Pedagogical University or raised any revenue from of Kraków and co-editor of our work, which is carried Notes from Poland. out around our full-time academic jobs. However, given the size of our audience, the growing attention being paid to Poland, the lack of other reliable sources, and the approach of pivotal elections

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 19 A New Home for the Fay and Julian Bussgang Jewish Theater in Warsaw

n August 30 of this year, The Jewish Telegraphic OAgency and The Jerusalem Post reported that the Warsaw City Council approved a proposal by Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz to turn a five-story apartment building into the new site of the Ester Rachel and Ida Kamińska Jewish Theater – Center for Yiddish Culture. The city has assigned $41 million for the project, which is expected to take five years. Małgorzata Zakrzewska, a Warsaw City Council member, called the Jewish Theater “one of the A recent production of Chumesz lider at the Ester Rachel and Ida Kamińska Jewish most important guardians of Theater in Warsaw. Photograph by Magda Hueckel. Courtesy of the Jewish Theater. Jewish culture in Warsaw and all over Poland.” At a news The original Jewish was a link to Poland’s pre- conference she said, “It is Theater, located on war Yiddish-speaking Jewish our commitment, but also our community, and people from responsibility to a culture that Grzybowski Square, all over the world came for was a permanent element of was named for the performances. It was the the Warsaw landscape before only permanent theater in the war.” legendary actors Poland with performances in Ester and Ida Kamińska. Yiddish, and one of only two The original Jewish Theater, in Europe. The theater was located on Grzybowski late 1960s with the financial demolished in 2017, after the Square, was named for the support of the American owner of the building, the legendary actors Ester and Ida Jewish Joint Distribution Jewish social organization Kamińska. It was built in the Committee. For fifty years, it TSKŻ, was forced to sell it

20 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 The old building of the Ester Rachel and Ida Kamińska Jewish Theater – Center for Yiddish Culture on Plac Grzybowski in Warsaw. It has since been demolished. Photograph by Adrian Grycuk. Wikimedia Commons. due to financial difficulties. It was the only perform in various venues. The new owners plan to build permanent theater Its temporary home is at a skyscraper office building on 35 Senatorska Street, with the property. in Poland with most performances being performances in held at the Warsaw Garrison The building chosen to house Command Club and guest the new theater is on Próżna Yiddish, and one of appearances in other theaters Street near Grzybowski only two in Europe. such as Nowy Teatr, Polish Square, close to where the Theater, and TR Warszawa. original theater building stood For current information before its demolition. This late the activities and promotion about performances, visit the 19th-century building is one of Yiddish culture. The city theater’s website at http:// of the few remnants of former is waiting for conservation www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl. n Jewish Warsaw. recommendations from the Provincial Conservator of Fay and Julian Bussgang The $41 million donation by Monuments, which will the city will be used to hold edited Gazeta for more than provide the basis for the twenty years. Today, they an architectural competition competition by the architects. and for design documentation. serve as senior contributing According to preliminary Meanwhile, the theater troupe, editors. plans, it will contain two under the direction of Gołda stages as well as facilities for Tencer, has continued to

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 21 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Books

New Directions in the History of the Antony Polonsky Jews in the Polish Lands Edited by Antony Polonsky, Hanna Węgrzynek, and Andrzej Żbikowski. Academic Studies Press, 2018.

n the last forty-five years, exhibition provides a tremendous progress has comprehensive account of Ibeen made in the study of the history of Polish Jews the Polish-Jewish past. The from the 10th century to the enormously disruptive impact present day. Making use of of the Holocaust, Stalinism, innovative techniques and and the imposition of Marxist- based on current research, Leninist norms of historical it offers a vivid picture of writing in the Polish People’s the complex past of what Republic meant that a new was once the largest Jewish cadre of scholars had to community in the world. As be created from the 1980s, such, the POLIN Museum has and that many topics had already begun to transform the to be investigated anew. In way in which the history of addition, after 1945, Poles Polish Jews is understood and and Jews (insofar as these are New Directions in the History of the appreciated in Poland and the Jews in the Polish Lands. Edited by mutually exclusive categories, Antony Polonsky, Hanna Węgrzynek, world, for Poles, Jews, and for which is not always the and Andrzej Żbikowski. international audiences. case) were divided, above museum’s impressive building The volume New Directions all, by their diametrically is located in the heart of the in the History of the Jews in opposed and incompatible former Jewish district in the Polish Lands is made up views of a shared, yet Warsaw on the site of the of selected essays derived divisive past, which made its imposing monument of Natan from papers delivered at a investigation both difficult and Rappoport’s Jewish People, May 2015 conference that controversial. Its Martyrs and Fighters introduced the scholarly One clear indication of and nearby 18 Miła Street, community to the permanent how far understanding of the site of the bunker where exhibition at the POLIN the Polish-Jewish past has Mordekhai Anieliewicz, the Museum. Its publication evolved since then was leader of the Warsaw ghetto was made possible through evident in the 2014 opening uprising, committed suicide the support of the Taube of the permanent exhibition rather than be captured by Foundation for Jewish Life of the POLIN Museum. The the Germans. The permanent & Culture, the William K.

22 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Antony Polonsky Bowes, Jr., Foundation and North America, and Israel, on Polish-Jewish relations in the Association of the Jewish it provides a definitive the context of the challenges Historical Institute of Poland. overview of the history and of the new historiography culture of one of the most about the Holocaust in Poland. The book is divided into important communities The final section deals with sections that follow a general in the long history of the the postwar period, with overview by the three editors: Jewish people. An initial particular attention to its Antony Polonsky, Hanna part considers pre-modern representation in the POLIN Węgrzynek, and Andrzej Poland-Lithuania and contains Museum itself, as well as Żbikowski. The first section papers that range from studies the identities and images of deals with museological on the relationship between Poland among Polish Jews questions—the voices of the the szlachta (nobility), the in the post-war period. The curators, comments on the Church, and the Jews (Adam editors sought to give a clear museum and discussions of Kazmierczk) to the role picture of the present state museums, and education. What and significance of Jews in of the historiography of the emerges clearly from these the economy of the Polish- long history of the Jews in the collective observations is the Lithuanian Commonwealth Polish lands, and also to show crucial role of the Chief Curator (Jacek Wijaczka). how the permanent exhibition of the permanent exhibition, of the POLIN Museum has Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Ranging from the 19th attempted to portray this It was her vision that inspired century to the inter-war years, history. n the development of the topics include anti-Jewish individual galleries, each one violence in the former lands Antony Polonsky, PhD, is part of a series of galleries of the Polish-Lithuanian Chief Historian at POLIN organized like stage sets that Commonwealth and ideals of Museum of the History of take the visitor through eight unity and disunity in inter- Polish Jews. historic periods into which the war Polish Jewry. Of note, the permanent exhibition is divided. propagation of educational values and their impacts The second section of the on children (Ann Landau volume examines the current Czajka), and especially state of the historiography Orthodox girls (Naomi of the Jews in the Polish Seidman), shed light on lesser- lands from the first Jewish known subjects. settlement to the present day. Comprising research The penultimate section on of leading scholars from the Holocaust engages with Poland, Western Europe, the state of current research

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 23 East Central European Migrations During the Cold War: A Handbook Edited by Anna Mazurkiewicz. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. Forthcoming, 2019.

new reference book, East Central European AMigrations During the Cold War: A Handbook, edited by Anna Mazurkiewicz, catalogues migration patterns from sociological and historical perspectives from pre- to post-World War II. This important compilation is the result of contributors from eight countries, each one a specialist in their own region. As a landmark survey, East Central European Migrations this book will be of value to During the Cold War: A Handbook, anyone interested in migratory edited by Anna Mazurkiewicz. routes considering pre-1939 responses to the elections of movements and their marked 1947 and 1989 in Poland, and changes through post-World on the role of political exiles War II population transfers, from East Central Europe in up through Cold War shifts in American Cold War politics travel and migration laws. (1948–54). n Anna Mazurkiewicz, currently a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, is Associate Professor of History at the University of Gdańsk, and the president of the Polish American Historical Association. She has published books on the American

24 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Festivals and Performances Fay and Julian Bussgang Fifteen Years of the Singer Festival

his past August, a plaque commemorating the TYiddish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer was unveiled on Krochmalna Street in Warsaw, where Singer lived with his family 110 years ago. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the Festival of Jewish Culture in Warsaw, an annual celebration organized by the Shalom Foundation, whose purpose is the popularization A plaque commemorating Isaac Bashevis Singer was unveiled at 1 Krochmalna of Jewish culture in Poland and Street in Warsaw, where the author once lived with his family. Wikimedia Commons. the remembrance of its Jewish communities. The director of The Festival of Jewish Culture city, primarily in the area of the Shalom Foundation is in Warsaw, which began in the former Jewish quarter. Gołda Tencer. 2004 and is named in honor When the festival was started, of Singer, attempts to recreate it was only four days long. Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Jewish culture from the period This year’s festival, the fifteen- Poland in 1902, was known of inter-war Poland, complete year jubilee, took place, from for his stories in Yiddish about with historical buildings and August 25 through September life in pre-war Poland. In 1935, atmosphere. It is a week-long 2, and was celebrated with fearful of the Nazi threat in celebration of Jewish theater, performances by Jewish Germany, he emigrated to the music, films, lectures, and artists from all over the world United States. While continuing expositions. Regular features and attended by local and to write stories and novels, he include kosher food, dancing, international visitors. n became a journalist in New songs, crafts, ceramics, and York for the Yiddish language posters. Numerous workshops, newspaper The Jewish Daily discussion groups, and Forward. He received several seminars are also offered significant awards for his on topics related to Yiddish writing, including the 1978 culture. The events are held Nobel Prize in Literature. in various venues around the

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 25 Don’t Cry When I’m Gone Wins Best Documentary at Toronto Polish Film Festival

azeta extends a hearty Gmazal tov to director Sławomir Grünberg and producer Zygmunt Sieradzki, whose documentary film Don’t Cry When I’m Gone won the Best Documentary Award in September, at the 10th Annual Toronto Polish Film Festival. The film portrays the remarkable life of Wanda Sieradzka, Holocaust survivor and famous television actress, poet, and lyricist. The jury’s statement notes: “After she survived the Holocaust, Wanda did not dwell on the past, but instead built a rich and joyous creative life in Poland.” n

Poster for Don’t Cry When I’m Gone.

26 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 The Auschwitz Volunteer Reported by Tressa Berman Performed in New York City

n November 11, 2018, the escape in 1943. The long report United Solo Festival and that constitutes this book dates Othe Polish Cultural Institute of from 1945 and summarizes New York presented the sold- what he noted along the way: out New York premiere of The the brutality of Auschwitz as a Auschwitz Volunteer: Captain German concentration camp for Witold Pilecki, a monodrama Poles in 1940 and 1941, and its directed and performed by transformation into something Marek Probosz, at Theatre Row worse over the course of the in New York City. war.” Pilecki himself was also the subject and a survivor of the “It’s one of the most amazing inhumane abuses of the camp, stories to come out of World until he escaped. War II,” said Terry Tegnazian, a producer of the show and Marek Probosz as Witold Pilecki. In the book’s foreword, Image courtesy of Marek Probosz. the publisher of Pilecki’s Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael autobiography, The Auschwitz Schudrich writes that Pilecki’s smuggle out intelligence about Volunteer: Beyond Bravery early warnings, if heeded, the new German concentration (2012), translated by Jarek “might have changed the camp and to organize inmate Garlinski. “His experience that course of history.” resistance, with the goal of he’s written down gives the helping the Allies liberate the By bringing the page to the details and a view of what went camp from the inside. stage, the show offers a critical on in Auschwitz even in the reminder and an important years before it became a death Reviewing Pilecki’s astonishing message for our collective camp for the Jews. In 1940 and account, Timothy Snyder wrote humanity. Adapted for this 1941, it was primarily a camp that the report on Auschwitz, one-man performance, Pilecki’s for Polish political prisoners unpublishable for decades account attests to the horrific and anybody the Germans in Communist Poland, “is a potential of unchecked human thought capable of resisting historical document of the brutality, as well as the courage them.” greatest importance. Pilecki of witnesses, like Pilecki, to was able to smuggle out several In September 1940, Pilecki make themselves heard. n brief reports from Auschwitz in volunteered for a secret mission 1940, 1941 and 1942, and wrote Tressa Berman, PhD, is for the Polish Underground to two shorter reports after his Managing Editor of Gazeta.

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 27 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Exhibitions Terribly Close. New Temporary Exhibition at Ethnographic Museum in Kraków

urrently on display at the Ethnographic Museum Cin Kraków is the exhibition Terribly Close: Polish Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust. Included in the exhibition are sculptures and paintings by Władysław Chajec (Nazis, 1967), Jan Staszak (Gas, 1969), and Adam Czarnecki (Jews Get to Work, 1965–1967), among others. These works “tell about World War II as seen from up close, from a bystander’s perspective,” according to the museum’s website. While some depict the Holocaust, others “obscure the specifically Flyer for the exhibition Terribly Close: Polish Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust. Jewish character of the genocide, framing it the exhibition, the curators instead as Catholic Polish ask: “How did these works martyrology or a universal come about? Who made them, human tragedy.” and why? [and] For which audience?” The exhibition is completed by Wojciech Wilczyk’s series Curated by Erica Lehrer, Roma Blow-ups (2016–18), which Sendyka, Wojciech Wilczyk, includes photographs of and Magdalena Zych, the selected artworks and tries to exhibition will be on display n understand the perspectives until March 31, 2019. of their creators. In presenting

28 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 The Sejm Hosts Exhibition of Fay and Julian Bussgang Former Jewish Cemeteries

n exhibit displaying photographs of former AJewish cemeteries in Poland opened on October 2, 2018, in the main hall of the Polish Parliament (Sejm). Organized under the leadership of Katarzyna Kopecka from Łódź, the exhibit is called Obecnie nieobecni (Currently Absent). Through the prism of the cemeteries, the creators of the project aim to remind viewers of the centuries- The site of the Jewish cemetery in Tuszyn, currently a public recreation center. Photograph from the project Currently Absent by Katarzyna Kopecka, Piotr Pawlak, and old presence of the Jewish Jan Janiak. Used with permission. community in Poland. Marek Kuchciński, the Poland, the Foundation for The photographs are of sites Marshall of the Sejm, from the Preservation of Jewish that are no longer used or even the leading Law and Justice Heritage in Poland (FODŻ), identified as cemeteries. To Party. The exhibit ran through and the European Jewish illustrate that the sites had been November. Cemeteries Initiative. n Jewish cemeteries, the exhibit Of note, the exhibit opened For more information superimposes transparent, during a time of protests by about the exhibition, see ghost-like images of Jewish Jewish groups, such as the https://wprawo.pl/2018/10/03/ gravestones on current World Zionist Organization, w-sejmie-otwarto-wystawe- photographs of former cemetery on current cemetery fotografii-zniszczonych- sites—some of which are now desecration in Poland. cmentarzy-zydowskich/ shooting ranges, children’s Several groups are working and http://www. playgrounds, swimming pools, to preserve the Jewish obecnienieobecni.pl. or even factories. cemeteries that still exist, The exhibit’s opening including the Union of Jewish ceremony was hosted by Religious Communities in

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 29 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Conferences and Workshops Urban Jewish Heritage Conference Held in Kraków

s part of the 2018 issues and challenges in Conference highlights European Year of the field of Jewish heritage, included abstracts from the ACultural Heritage, the tourism, conservation, following participants: conference, Urban Jewish artistic practice, and Heritage: Presence and education. The conference Ghosts in the Gallery: Absence, was held at brought together 142 Historic Synagogues and Villa Decius in Kraków participants from thirty-three American Jewish Nostalgia September 3–7. Organized countries and a wide range Rachel B. Gross, San by the Foundation for Jewish of disciplines. Sociologists, Francisco State University Heritage and the Ironbridge anthropologists, historians, International Institute for artists, writers, community In 2004, tourists visiting the Cultural Heritage at the leaders, and museum Eldridge Street Synagogue University of Birmingham, educators all presented their on New York’s Lower the conference focused on work and research. East Side looked up to see

Participants at the Urban Jewish Heritage Conference in Kraków. Photograph by Paulina Fiejdasz Film Productions. Courtesy of the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage.

30 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 ghostly dresses hanging in American Jewish an emotion that shapes the the women’s balcony. Thin world of American Jews. nostalgia is not garments crafted from antique Evoking shared longing for laces, household linens, and simply an individual bygone pasts, staff members old clothes, dyed and printed at historic synagogues provide with gold text, the dresses disposition, but an narratives that help American comprised Carol Hamoy’s emotion that shapes Jews honor ancestors, create installation Welcome to communities in the present, America, representing the the world of and pass on particular stories of immigrant women American Jews sentiments and values to the from the synagogue’s original next generation. congregation. This evocative America’s immigrant era, Shtetl Routes: Jewish exhibit encouraged visitors to a sentimental longing for Heritage Tourism in the long for the history of urban irretrievable communal pasts Borderlands of Poland, American neighborhoods that cannot be fulfilled. once populated by Jewish Ukraine, and Belarus immigrants and their Through ethnographic Emil Majuk, “Grodzka Gate – communities of origin in research and interviews NN Theatre” Centre, Lublin Central and Eastern Europe. with staff members, visitors, philanthropists, and artists The shtetl—a unique kind Throughout the United States, at the Eldridge Street of town inhabited by Jews historic urban synagogue Synagogue, the Vilna Shul in and Christians of various buildings have acquired Boston, the Jewish Museum ethnicities, a cultural new public roles as heritage of Florida in Miami Beach, phenomenon particular to sites. Many were abandoned and the Touro Synagogue in Central and Eastern Europe— as Jews left ethnic urban Newport, Rhode Island, I find strongly influenced our local enclaves for the suburbs. that American Jews practice cultural landscape. Despite A handful, including the nostalgia as a mitzvah, the lasting traces of Jewish Eldridge Street Synagogue, something that is both presence over many centuries still house dwindling praiseworthy and required. in the areas where we live congregations. Symbols (the Polish, Ukrainian, and of communal pasts, they While cultural critics often Belarusian borderlands), local are popular settings for deride nostalgia as reductive, I memorial sites related to Jewish family outings and school argue that it is also productive, history and culture have not yet trips. While teaching a providing personal and been sufficiently appreciated or standardized narrative of communal meaning. American incorporated into European and Ashkenazi American history, Jewish nostalgia is not simply local heritage. they promote nostalgia for an individual disposition but

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 31 In 2013, the Shtetl Routes How should we, the In addition to organizing project was established current and mostly study tours, creating virtual with the goal of supporting models of historical shtetls tourism and local development non-Jewish residents, and wooden synagogues, initiatives based on Jewish talk about Jewish compiling oral testimony, and cultural heritage in the printing maps, we published borderlands. The idea for cultural heritage? in four languages a 540-page the project came out of How can we present guidebook titled Shtetl Routes: documentary, artistic, and Travels Through the Forgotten educational work completed this heritage as a part Continent. with regard to the Jewish of cultural tourism? For the 2018 European Year cultural heritage of Lublin of Cultural Heritage, we as part of the work of the cultural tourism without have produced a traveling “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” falling into commercialization, exhibition based on the work Centre, a Lublin-based simplification, or the of the Shtetl Routes project cultural institution that has repetition of stereotypes? In called There Was a Town... been active since 1992. In its sum, how can we show Jewish New workshops study tours projects, the Centre draws on heritage as common to both are currently being prepared. the symbolic and historical the descendants of Eastern significance of the building European Jews and the More information is available where it is located—Grodzka present-day inhabitants of the at www.shtetlroutes.eu. n Gate, which was once the borderlands? passageway between the city’s We chose sixty towns Jewish and Christian quarters. (twenty each from Poland, In organizing the Shtetl Belarus, and Ukraine) and Routes project we considered designed tourist development the following questions: supportive tools for them. We How should we talk about chose locations on the criteria multicultural heritage of of tangible heritage (still- towns in the borderlands? present sites of Jewish cultural What is the heritage of the heritage such as synagogues, the shtetl? How should we, cemeteries, mikvehs, schools); the current and mostly non- intangible heritage (stories Jewish residents, talk about presented in museums and and relate to Jewish cultural cultural centers); accessibility; heritage? How can we present local agents; and existing this heritage as a part of infrastructure for tourism.

32 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Convened in Boston

he Association for Slavic, In keeping with the narrative framing of events in n East European, and 2018 conference the media. TEurasian Studies (ASEEES) For conference information held its fiftieth annual theme, papers explored and the conference program, conference on December 6–9 the meanings of please visit https://www. at Boston’s Marriott Copley aseees.org/convention/ Place. This year marks the performance in and for program. seventieth anniversary of the the regions under study. Association—a nonprofit, non-political, scholarly and sexuality; diversity, society—which is the leading equity, and inclusion; international organization local vs. global stages; dedicated to the advancement political performativity; and of knowledge about Central performance technologies. Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, Beyond performance as and Eastern Europe in regional it relates to music and the and global contexts. performing arts, conference In keeping with the 2018 participants were asked conference theme, papers to consider how their explored the meanings research relates to broader, of performance in and yet more incisive, aspects for the regions under of “performance” in study. Presentations that sociocultural and political considered performance contexts, including underlying and performativity from questions related to bodily an interdisciplinary or practices of health, hygiene, transdisciplinary perspective gender, and sexuality, addressed topics such as: the performative utterances that formation, consolidation, change the social reality they and transformation of describe, and the rituals that identity for individuals, constitute and legitimate societies, and nations; gender political power, including the

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 33 International Workshop at Antony Polonsky POLIN Museum

n international More than 230,000 Polish of the Polish-Jewish survivors workshop, Deported, Jews survived the Holocaust were to be repatriated to AExiled, Saved. History in the unoccupied territories Poland. As a result, about and Memory of Polish of the Soviet Union. Some of 200,000 Jews returned to Jews in the Soviet Union them had fled the advancing Poland by the end of 1946. (1940–1959), was held at the German army in 1939 and A second repatriation wave POLIN Museum on October 1941, while others were followed in 1956–59, when 10–12. It was organized deported from Soviet- another 19,000 Polish Jews under the auspices of the occupied eastern Poland returned, though most soon Europa Universität Viadrina, between 1939 and 1941 as fled to the western zones Frankfurt (Oder), the Jewish “class enemies” or “politically of Germany. They were Historical Institute, Warsaw, unreliable elements.” Their unwilling to live in a country and the POLIN Museum. Its experiences were for the most where many of their relatives conveners were Dr. Katharina part painful and traumatizing. had perished, and which Friedla, Research Fellow at Most lost relatives and found was marked by anti-Jewish the International Institute themselves in exile, where violence in the immediate for Holocaust Research at many suffered poverty, post-war period. Their fate Yad Vashem, and Dr. Markus hunger, and disease—whether has only begun to arouse Nesselrodt of the Collegium in Soviet forced-labor camps, scholarly interest since Polonicum of the Europa prisons, penal camps, and the collapse of the Soviet Universität Viadrina. The other sites of banishment or Union and the opening of its event was one of a series of on collective farms and in archives, an action that has workshops organized within urban industrial centers such also spurred the production of the framework of the POLIN as Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, memoirs of life in the Soviet Museum’s Global Education or Omsk. However, in Union in 1939–46. Outreach Program (GEOP), retrospect, most of them The POLIN workshop sought with the support of the Taube considered deportation to to bring together leading Foundation for Jewish Life have been a blessing since it scholars to examine the issue & Culture, the William K. ensured their survival. from different perspectives. Bowes, Jr., Foundation, and At the end of World War It began with a tour of those the Association of the Jewish II, the Polish and Soviet galleries of the museum that Historical Institute of Poland. governments agreed that most address issues of flight and

34 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 deportation, and was followed They were unwilling to in light of new findings raised with formal opening addresses by the workshop itself. The live in a country where by Dariusz Stola, director papers will be compiled for of the POLIN Museum, many of their relatives future publication. n Andrzej Żbikowski of the Jewish Historical Institute, had perished, and and workshop organizers which was marked by Katharina Friedla and Markus Nesselrodt. anti-Jewish violence The first formal session in the immediate post- addressed the topic of Jews in Soviet-occupied Poland war period. (1940–41) with scholarly papers focused on early Jewish Survival in the Soviet flight from the Wehrmacht to Union” (Atina Grossmann of Soviet territory. The second Cooper Union in New York), day featured presentations provided a framework through by Renata Piątkowska and which to understand these Przemysław Kaniecki of complicated relationships. the POLIN Museum on the The final day of papers and museum’s archival resources, panels was devoted to the and specifically on the topic aftermath of the Holocaust, of Polish Jews in the Soviet 1944–59, closing with a Union during World War II. roundtable discussion chaired Other papers delved into such by Antony Polonsky of the topics as the experiences of POLIN Museum, with Eliyana Polish-Jewish children in Adler and Oleg Budnitskiy the USSR (Eliyana Adler of the National History of Pennsylvania State Institute of Russian History University) and Polish and the Russian Academy of deportees in the Soviet Sciences, Krzysztof Persak Union. With many stellar of the POLIN Museum, and presentations on the cultural Katharina Friedla. Speakers and religious conflicts and and participants engaged the tensions between Soviet and lively question of how research Polish Jews, the final keynote in the field should be pursued address, “Rethinking Polish-

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 35 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Awards Reported The National WWII Museum by Taube Establishes Taube Family Holocaust Philanthropies Education Program

an Francisco-based Taube and personal accounts of the museum, including free Philanthropies has pledged the Holocaust—leveraged public programming presented S$2 million to the National through local and national annually on International WWII Museum in New partnerships—to ensure public Holocaust Remembrance Orleans to develop the Taube remembrance of the atrocities Day (January 27), as well as Family Holocaust Education that led to the genocide of distance learning programs that Program. The program will more than six million Jews. will allow students nationwide present lectures, symposia, to explore individual and The foundation’s gift will film screenings, programs collective responsibility in support ongoing Holocaust highlighting recent research, the Holocaust. educational initiatives at

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Courtesy of The National WWII Museum.

36 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 “Many initiatives of Taube “This new program allows to middle and high school Philanthropies focus on World the museum to explore students across the country, War II, the deep and powerful including through two effects of which continue to the connections between distance learning programs— The Holocaust: One Teen’s influence world events,” said the Holocaust and the Tad Taube, Founder-Chairman Story of Persecution and of Taube Philanthropies. “The American experience: the Survival and When They Came for Me: The Holocaust new Holocaust Education US soldiers who liberated . Program is critical as Taube Philanthropies’ gift Americans are remembering the death camps and will allow the museum to less and less about the war and encountered the survivors, expand its program content, the lessons of the Holocaust.” update technology for online US immigration policies education, and provide Advisory Committee and additional staffing. Education Center toward Jewish victims of The Taube Family Holocaust Nazism, US Jews whose “As the WWII generation Education Program will be passes away, the National overseen by an advisory relatives suffered in the WWII Museum has been committee of scholars, who Holocaust, and survivors entrusted to continue will provide guidance on telling their stories to future educational content that focuses who rebuilt their lives in generations—especially on the historical significance the US.” the important story of the of the Holocaust, its lasting Holocaust,” said Stephen —Shana Penn, impact on society, and the J. Watson, President and Taube Philanthropies lessons that remain pertinent to CEO at the National WWII our world today. Programming Museum. “The gift from will be streamed nationally and Charles H. Northam Professor Taube Philanthropies makes accessible online. of History, Trinity College; it possible for the Museum Robert Citino, Samuel to expand its teachings about The advisory committee Zemurray Stone Senior the atrocities of the Holocaust is comprised of renowned Historian, the National WWII and why we should all stand Holocaust experts, including Museum; and Shana Penn, together against genocide.” Daniel Greene, Adjunct Executive Director, Taube Professor, Northwestern Launch Event for the Philanthropies. University; Wendy Lower, New Program John K. Roth Professor of The museum’s WWII Media To kick off the expanded History, Claremont McKenna and Education Center Holocaust education initiative, College; Samuel Kassow, offers Holocaust education on Thursday, October 25, the

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 37 museum hosted a screening of (Tulane University), and and now designated by Who Will Write Our History, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett Congress as America’s a feature-length docudrama (New York University and National WWII Museum, it examining how Polish Jewish POLIN Museum). celebrates the American spirit, historian Emanuel Ringelblum the teamwork, optimism, Taube Philanthropies’ rallied a clandestine group courage, and sacrifices of the Executive Director Shana Penn within the Warsaw Ghetto men and women who fought welcomed the attendees to the to chronicle the lives of on the battlefront and served launch events, explaining the thousands of Polish Jews as on the home front. The 2018 foundation’s aim in partnering they starved, suffered, and TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice with the WWII Museum ultimately were deported to Awards ranks the museum to establish the Holocaust death camps. Ringelblum number three in the nation education program. “This new and his team buried their and number eight in the program allows the museum documents in milk canisters world. For more information, to explore the connections and metal containers with the call 877-813-3329 or 504- between the Holocaust and hope they would be found 528-1944 or visit www. the American experience: the after the war and ensure their nationalww2museum.org. n US soldiers who liberated the voices and culture would live death camps and encountered on. Nancy Spielberg is the the survivors, US immigration film’s executive producer. policies toward Jewish victims Producer and Director Roberta of Nazism, US Jews whose Grossman was featured at the relatives suffered in the film’s screening. Holocaust, and survivors who The documentary is based rebuilt their lives in the US.” on the book of the same title The National WWII by historian Samuel Kassow, Museum tells the story of who gave the keynote on the the American experience morning of the daylong public in the war that changed the symposium held on October world—why it was fought, 25. The symposium focused how it was won, and what it on the question: “What do means today—so that future we do when the witnesses generations will know the are gone?” At the afternoon price of freedom and be panel, speakers included inspired by what they learn. Holocaust and WWII scholars Dedicated in 2000 as the Daniel Greene (Northwestern National D-Day Museum University), Sarah Cramsey

38 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota Receives Jan Karski and Pola Niren´ska Award

ella Szwarcman-Czarnota has received the 2018 BJan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award. The award, established in 1992 by Jan Karski shortly after the death of Polish- Jewish dancer Pola Nireńska, recognizes authors of published works documenting Polish- Jewish relations and Jewish contributions to Polish culture. Along with the award, the author receives a $5,000 prize.

Ms. Szwarcman-Czarnota has long been prominent in Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota speaks at the ceremony for the Jan Karski and Pola the Polish literary world. Nireńska Award on Monday, November 26. Since 1997, she has been Photograph by Grzegorz Kwolek. Courtesy of the Jewish Historical Institute. a columnist and associate an anthology of translations of editor at Midrasz, a Jewish Yiddish women’s poetry, Moja monthly based in Warsaw. She dzika koza (My Wild Goat), has translated approximately which will be published later forty books (from Yiddish, this year. French, and Russian) and published five of her own, The award ceremony took primarily about Jewish place on November 26 at the women in relation to Jewish Jewish Historical Institute traditions. Her work has also in Warsaw. n helped introduce the Polish readership to Yiddish authors like I.L. Peretz, Menachem Kipnis, and Eliezer Steinbarg. Most recently, she co-edited

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 39 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REVIEWS Of Note Reported by Jewish Cemetery Memorial Inaugurates Jewish Heritage New Multicultural Heritage Trail Europe in Gostynin

ceremony on September 20 unveiled a memorial Aat the destroyed Jewish cemetery and officially inaugurated a new, multicultural heritage trail in the small town of Gostynin in central Poland. The new memorial includes a metal cage containing fragments of matzevot, situated behind a commemorative stone.

The trail, two years in development, includes information panels at ten Banner for Wielokulturowy Gostynin (Multicultural Gostynin), the organization behind locations around the town the town’s new multicultural heritage trail. that highlight the pre-war Image courtesy of Wielokulturowy Gostynin. communities of Poles, Multicultural Trail’s website Russians, Germans, and Jews The aim...is to educate states: who once lived in Gostynin. and provoke a deeper The Jewish cemetery in The aim, the project website interest in the past Gostynin was founded in the states, is to “educate and second half of the eighteenth provoke a deeper interest multi-faith and century in the south-western in the past multi-faith and multicultural Gostynin. part of the city… The multicultural Gostynin.” cemetery was completely the 18th century. On the eve Three panels—in Polish, with destroyed during World of World War II nearly 2,270 summaries in English and War II. Germans used the Jews lived in the town, making Hebrew—deal with Jewish gravestones to harden the up between one-quarter and history in the town. Jews roads and sidewalks. Part one-third of the population. settled in the second half of of the tombstones survived

40 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 the war, but “disappeared” when estate houses and apartment buildings were built on adjacent plots. No gravestone survived on 0.8830 ha area. Moreover, awareness of the inhabitants of Gostynin that this area is a Jewish cemetery is very faint.

Local activists, headed by Piotr Syska, and the city worked together with several Jewish institutions and organizations in the commemoration. The One of the ten information panels on the heritage trail. This one describes cemetery memorial was Gostynin’s pre-war Jewish history and shtetl. organized by the Foundation Image courtesy of Wielokulturowy Gostynin. for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute. n

This article originally appeared on September 21, 2018, in Jewish Heritage Europe: http://jewish-heritage- europe.eu/2018/09/21/poland- jewish-cemetery-memorial- inaugurates.

More information about Multicultural Gostynin can be found at: http:// wielokulturowygostynin. blogspot.com.

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 41 Ben Helfgott Knighted Fay and Julian Bussgang

n June of this year, Ben his family to the Piotrków Helfgott, chairman of the ghetto, the first ghetto IInstitute for Polish-Jewish established in Poland, and Studies in London, the was later assigned to forced sister organization of the labor in a glass factory. He American Association for was sent to Buchenwald in Polish-Jewish Studies, was December 1944 and later to the granted knighthood by Schlieben and Theresienstadt Queen Elizabeth. concentration camps. Liberated by the Russian Army in August Helfgott has been involved 1945 along with other child for many years in Holocaust survivors, he was brought to education and related the Lake District in England activities and was integral to where he returned to health and efforts to establish a national rebuilt his life. He attended the Holocaust Memorial Day Sir Ben Helfgott. University of Southampton and in the UK. He served as the Courtesy of Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. University College London. president of the Holocaust Helfgott has been Memorial Day Trust and involved for many years Helfgott took up weightlifting was a prime mover for the and participated in the development of a new national in Holocaust education World Maccabiah Games, Holocaust Memorial and and related activities and where he won a gold medal. Learning Centre in Victoria In 1956, as captain of the Tower Gardens. He was one of was integral to efforts British weightlifting team, he the founders and the chairman to establish a national participated in the Olympic of the Holocaust Survivors ’45 Games in Melbourne. In Aid Society and also served as Holocaust Memorial Day 1960, he again served as the chairman of the Institute for in the UK. captain of the British Olympic Polish-Jewish Studies in weightlifting team, this time Great Britain. Helfgott grew up in Piotrków in Rome. Trybunalski. When the war Born on November 22, broke out in September Over the years, Helfgott has 1929, in Pabianice, Poland, 1939, he was confined with received many honors. In

42 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 1944, the Polish government married in 1966. They awarded him the Polish have three sons and nine Knights Cross of the Order of grandchildren and live in Merit, and in 2005 he received Harrow, north of London. n the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In January 2015, as a tribute for his work with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, bringing awareness of Nazi atrocities to the general public, he was awarded “Freedom of the City,” the highest honor of the City of London.

Helfgott was active in the Yad Vashem project to recognize non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, serving on the committee to recognize the Righteous Among the Nations. He was a member of the Claims Conference Committee Board of Directors and one of the founders of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO).

Ben Helfgott and his wife Arza, who was born in what is now Zimbabwe, were

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 43 Leopold Kozłowski, the “Last Klezmer of Galicia,” Turns 100

eopold Kozłowski, the conductor, pianist, and Lcomposer affectionately known as the “Last Klezmer of Galicia,” celebrated his 100th birthday on Monday, November 26. In honor of the date, the Kraków Forum of Culture organized a celebratory concert in which musicians including Jacek Cygan, Katarzyna Jamróz, Halina Jarczyk, and several others performed klezmer classics and Mr. Kozłowski’s Leopold Kozłowski in 2007. own compositions. Wikimedia Commons.

Mr. Kozłowski was born in music for the Jewish Theater In 2014, Mr. Kozłowski 1918 in a town now called in Warsaw, collaborated received the title of Honorary Peremyshliany, near the city with Jacek Cygan and Sława Citizen of the Royal Capital of Lviv. He grew up in a Przybylska, and played with of Kraków. At the celebration, Jewish family. His father and the “Gypsy band” Roma. In he said, “My music is my grandfather were also well- 1991, he conducted a concert marriage to Kraków and I am known musicians. During the of Jewish music with the faithful to that love.” n Holocaust, Mr. Kozłowski Polish Radio and Television survived with his brother Orchestra in the Tempel Adolf, but both of his parents Synagogue in Kraków. In were killed. He moved to 1994, American director Yale Kraków after the war, where Strom made a film about he studied at the National him titled The Last Klezmer: Higher School of Music (now Leopold Kozłowski, His Life called the Academy of Music and Music. in Kraków). He has written

44 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 The Sejm Adopts Resolution Honoring Isaac Bashevis Singer

n Wednesday, November “Appreciating the great 21, the Polish Sejm contributions of Isaac Oadopted a resolution to Bashevis Singer to Polish and commemorate Yiddish writer world culture, his sensitivity Isaac Bashevis Singer. The and originality of thought,” decision came on the author’s the resolution reads, “the Sejm birthday, forty years after of the Republic of Poland he received the Nobel Prize today adopts a resolution in Literature. regarding the commemoration of an outstanding artist, Singer was born in 1902 in expressing the highest Leoncin, Poland, to a Hasidic recognition of his work and rabbi and his wife, and grew honoring his memory.” n up in Warsaw. He wrote many Isaac Bashevis Singer at the Miami short stories and nineteen Book Fair in 1988. novels, among them Shosha, Wikimedia Commons. The Magician of Lublin, Paweł Kukiz, a former punk and Enemies, A Love Story. rocker and 2015 Polish The resolution states, “Isaac presidential candidate, asking Bashevis Singer occupies a for his help in officially unique place in the history making November 21 Isaac of Poland as a writer who, Bashevis Singer Day in in his work, embedded and Poland, in honor of the author, memorialized [in the Polish “who, like me, used his artistic consciousness] images of platform to support animal a traditional Jewish rights.” McCartney wrote community that no longer the letter on behalf of People exists in our country.” for the Ethical Treatment of Just five days before the Animals (PETA), and the resolution was adopted, on resolution makes explicit November 16, Beatles legend reference to Singer’s defense Paul McCartney wrote to of animal rights.

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 45 New Progressive Congregation in Kraków Adam Schorin

n Sunday, November finances. Then someone in Din (a rabbinical court) 18, the coldest day so the audience asked what in Poland. Ofar of the season, thirteen the process of converting to This perhaps highlights why a people met at JCC Krakow Judaism looked like if you community like Or Hadasz is to discuss the future of Or were Jewish but weren’t sure needed. “The situation of the Hadasz, a new progressive if you’d been baptised or Jewish community in Poland congregation in Kraków. The not. Another congregant, a is specific in that there are agenda proceeded with the Holocaust survivor, chimed in large numbers of people who usual Jewish congregation that baptisms received under either are of Jewish origin and items: introducing the rabbi, the Nazi occupation did not are interested in recovering clarifying the membership count. The discussion then their Jewish identity, or are process, announcing services turned to issues of Jewish Jewish, know that they are and activities, reviewing law, and the lack of a Beit

Or Hadasz’s High Holiday services in 2017 at the High Synagogue in Kraków. Courtesy of Or Hadasz.

46 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 Adam Schorin Jewish, but can’t prove it,” “For us Poles, Polish said. While many congregants said Barry Smerin, a founding are Polish, a fair number Jews, we are still in the member of Or Hadasz. The are expats from the United majority of Jews in this process of becoming. States or the United Kingdom. position, according to Mr. Indeed, of the seven founding Smerin, are not inclined to It’s not like something is members of the community, join an Orthodox or Hasidic there already.” only two are native Poles. community. “From the point More have since joined the —Estera Stopińska, of view of helping these congregation. president of Or Hadasz returning Jews or non-Jews “For us Poles, Polish Jews,” who are interested in Jewish Ms. Stopińska said, “we community [or in converting had already been part of a are still in a kind of process to Judaism, a] progressive progressive Jewish community of becoming. It’s not like Jewish community is in Kraków, Beit Kraków, but something is there already. absolutely essential.” started a new community Many people from abroad who Estera Stopińska, president of when they disagreed with have been raised in Judaism the community, described Or the path it was taking. Ms. are helping us bring this life Hadasz as a “nonjudgmental Stopińska summarized the rift: on track.” environment” in which “Do you know the joke about One such Jew from abroad is members could figure out the guy on the desert island? Or Hadasz’s rabbi, Shmuel what Judaism might mean One Jew, three synagogues.” Rosenberg, who grew up in for them. Years ago, she Or Hadasz, which is on Tel Aviv. Rabbi Rosenberg had gone to to an Orthodox its way to being officially may seem an unusual choice community in Kraków, hoping recognized by the European for the spiritual leader of to meet other Jews and learn Union for Progressive a fledgling progressive more about Judaism. “I was Judaism, held its first services community. He was raised in looking for spirituality, and in April 2017 at the Galicia a Hasidic family, received an I found rituals,” she said. Jewish Museum. For the 2018 Orthodox smicha (rabbinical She envisioned instead a High Holidays, services took ordination), and has spent community for “people who place at the High Synagogue, much of the last decade want to find their way through a 16th-century synagogue in working with the Conservative Judaism, around Judaism . . . Kazimierz. Prayers and psalms movement in Israel. Or Hadasz is just one way of were read aloud in Hebrew, answering that question” of “I see myself as an English, and Polish. what it means to be Jewish. independent rabbi,” said “This is a complicated Rabbi Rosenberg. “I think Several of the founding linguistic situation that we those words like Reform, members of Or Hadasz have to deal with,” Mr. Smerin Orthodoxy—those are not

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 47 Jewish words. This is Latin, afternoon, the discussion or Greek; it’s not Jewish. quickly turned to the eight Judaism is Judaism, halacha is children who are part of the halacha, prayer is prayer.” community, and how they could be entertained during Ms. Stopińska first services. At the end of the noticed Rabbi Rosenberg meeting, attendees submitted when he performed Zofia applications for membership. Radzikowska’s bat mitzvah (Given the “complicated in November 2017. Ms. linguistic situation” of the Radzikowska, a Holocaust community, it is perhaps survivor better known to worth mentioning that this Kraków’s Jews as Pani Rabbi Shmuel Rosenberg. meeting was held almost Zosia, celebrated her bat Photograph by Adam Schorin. Used with permission. entirely in Polish.) mitzvah on her eighty- second birthday; she is also Rabbi Rosenberg will be “Since we have been getting a founding member of Or attached to the congregation going,” Mr. Smerin said, Hadasz. At the suggestion of for at least a year. The “our services have been Jonathan Ornstein, Executive community hopes to very well attended.” The Director of JCC Krakow eventually have a Polish rabbi weekly Kabbalat Shabbat and a founding member of who will lead services in services, held at the JCC, Or Hadasz, Ms. Stopińska Polish, said both Mr. Smerin typically host twenty to approached the rabbi with a and Ms. Stopińska. twenty-five people. About possible job opportunity. fifty people in total attended For Ms. Stopińska, the High Holiday services “The rabbi is wonderful,” primary goal is bringing in September. As service said Pani Zosia. “He leads families into the fold. “If you attendance goes in Kraków, services, workshops, and will ask anyone outside of that is a considerable figure. lectures.” Pani Zosia has been Poland how many members an active member of the JCC does your synagogue have, Said Mr. Smerin: “The proof since it opened in 2008, and they will say, ‘Oh, we have of the pudding is in the welcomes having another 200 families,’ and we would eating.” n Jewish community in which say, ‘twenty people,’ … I want she can participate. Judaism to bring people to this kind of family which they do “It’s a new community,” not have.” Rabbi Rosenberg said, “so it’s a big challenge first of all to So far, Or Hadasz seems establish the community and on the right track. At the to start something stable.” meeting on that cold Sunday

48 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS Reported by Events at The POLIN Museum Karol Kwiatkowski

TISH Jewish Food Festival Festival contributed to a return cuisine remains with us for the of Jewish food to Warsaw— entire year. Menora InfoPunkt The biggest cultural-culinary over the course of its duration, regularly organizes workshops event at POLIN Museum in ten restaurants introduced devoted to it, run by renowned 2018 was the inauguration of Ashkenazic dishes to their chefs such as Sabina Francuz, TISH Jewish Food Festival, menus. Festival participants Bartek Kieżun, or Maryla held September 26–28. It is were also offered an Musidłowska. This year, the first culinary festival in opportunity to prepare Jewish Alessia Di Donato joined the Poland devoted entirely to dishes themselves, for example team. As part of her project, Jewish cuisine and its place in during a culinary workshop she took our guests on a Jewish culture and history and held at Menora InfoPunkt. virtual journey across Italy, today’s Poland. Food serves searching for the traces of here as a point of departure to The festival was not limited Jewish-Italian cuisine. spin a tale of Jewish residents to cooking and eating: on of Poland—both in the past the first day, we organized a TISH Festival concluded and in the present. The first debate on kosher and vegan with a unique Shabbat dinner, edition of TISH Festival food, accompanied by a during which we tasted was devoted to vegan and snack-bar and the Comedy dishes inspired by the recipes vegetarian cuisine and to Club show. We also prepared found in the book Vegetarish- its pre-war pioneer, Fania a special culinary tour of Dyetisher Kokhbukh by Lewando. the core exhibition. On the Fania Lewando from 1938. last day, we planned a film The menu was developed The festival included screening of In Search of by five distinguished chefs: organizing a market which Israeli Cuisine combined with Aleksander Baron, Alessia Di offered challah, gefilte fish, a debate titled “Jewish—What Donato, Sabina Francuz, Malka kreplach, blintzes, and goose- Does That Mean?” Many more Kafka, and our special guest, meat products. During special accompanying events of TISH Laurel Kratochvila. The wine walks we wandered around the Festival were organized by was selected by sommelier city seeking traces of former the JCC Warsaw, the Jewish Katarzyna Federowicz. Each kosher stores, restaurants and Theater and the Center of serving of a new dish and wine vibrant marketplaces of pre- Yiddish Culture. was preceded by a short speech war Jewish Warsaw. We also introducing the Jewish context visited places that specialize The festival lasted for five behind them. in Jewish cuisine today. TISH exciting days, but Jewish

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 49 Children at the opening of the POLIN Museum’s exhibition In King Matt’s Poland.The 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence. Photograph by Maciek Jaźwiecki. Courtesy of the POLIN Museum.

“Tish” means “table” in toward the preservation of For details, visit: https://www. Yiddish. In the Hasidic Jewish heritage and oppose polin.pl/en/news/2018/09/05/ tradition, the term also refers racism and xenophobia. We program-of-tish-jewish-food- to a joyous time spent eating, organize culinary workshops festival drinking, singing, and talking there during which renowned while sitting at a family table. chefs reveal the secrets of Heaven’s Gates. That is exactly what it was Jewish cuisine. In 2018, over Masonry Synagogues like during TISH Festival— twenty NGOs and 3,500 in the Territories of the see for yourselves at: individuals took advantage of Former Polish-Lithuanian www.polin.pl/tiszfestiwal Menora InfoPunkt’s offerings. Commonwealth by Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka Menora InfoPunkt is an TISH Festival was co- The second volume of the information center on Jewish organized by the Association monumental work by Maria Warsaw run by POLIN of the Jewish Historical and Kazimierz Piechotka Museum on Grzybowski Institute of Poland, and was is devoted to masonry Square, next to the Charlotte supported by the Organ synagogues built in the lands Menora bistro. We rent the Family, Ken & Wendy of the former Commonwealth InfoPunkt’s conference room Ruby, and The Ruby of Poland and Lithuania— to institutions that work Family Foundation.

50 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 in other words, in most of with the remaining ones address fundamental ethical the territory of present-day devastated also after 1945, issues that touch upon student Poland and a large part of have to a greater extent identity and empathy. Ukraine, together with the survived. During the conference, whole of Lithuania and Thanks to conservation and attended by Georgette Belarus, and also a part of reconstruction efforts, they Mosbacher, United States Moldova (on the left bank now remain a vital element Ambassador to Poland, and of the River Dniester). The in the cultural heritage of Anna Azari, Ambassador greater part of the world’s Poland and of Central- of Israel to Poland, among Jewish population lived in Eastern Europe. others, the participants these territories in modern had the opportunity to take times and in the 19th century, Details on the publication: part in a series of lectures, comprising around ten percent https://www.polin.pl/en/ discussions, and workshops of the total population of research-collections-research/ led by leading academics these lands. publications and educators in the field. Nineteenth- and early 20th- They could also learn about International Conference: century emigration, and new technologies used in How to Talk About above all the Holocaust, Dimensions in Testimony—a the Righteous: resulted in the almost new program of the USC Representations in complete disappearance of Shoah Foundation—and Culture, Meaning in the Jewish population from attend a theater play, Education these territories. Memorials produced by the Jacek Kuron of the past remain in the form In October 2018, the POLIN Educational Foundation, of synagogue architecture Museum of the History involving student actors, represented in drawings, of Polish Jews hosted an dedicated to the memory of photographs, and other international conference for the Jewish community of materials, as well as in the teachers and educators, How Białowieża. surviving urban framework to Talk About the Righteous: The recordings from the of towns in which Jews Representations in Culture, conference will be available once lived. Meaning in Education. The conference was devoted to at www.polin.pl. More In contrast with wooden teaching about the ways in information about the Polish synagogues, which were which Jews were helped by Righteous Among the Nations almost completely obliterated non-Jews during World War can be found at: https:// by Nazi Germans during the II, and how, by using these sprawiedliwi.org.pl/en war, masonry synagogues, examples, it is possible to although mostly destroyed,

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 51 POLIN Music Festival The festival began with a Karol Kwiatkowski is concert by Sinfonia Varsovia Head of Promotion Unit, What is Jewish music? What under the baton of Israeli Communication Department, stories does it tell? How can conductor Bar Avni, featuring POLIN Museum. it inspire artists and audiences solo performances by Jing today? The POLIN Museum Zhao, Michael Guttman, seeks answers to these and David Krakauer. The questions through a unique audience listened to renowned series of concerts inspired pianist Martha Argerich, who by its core and temporary performed pieces by Bloch, exhibitions and related to Chopin, Laks, Lutosławski, important dates in Polish- and Shostakovich. David Jewish history. Capping Krakauer, together with this remarkable musical pianist Kathleen Tagg from scene is the museum’s new the Republic of South Africa, annual festival of Polish presented a multimedia project and Israeli music, POLIN titled “Breath and Hammer.” Music Festival. Warsaw-based Hashtag The museum cooperates Ensemble performed world with cultural institutions premieres of pieces by Israeli all around the world in its composers. For the festival’s musical program, including finale, the audience enjoyed the festival, which has quickly the pulse of an Argentinian proved to be the museum’s tango joined with a Jewish top music event of the year. fiddle in the setting of a In this first year of the Parisian café. festival, held February 16- In February 2019, the museum 18, the museum’s auditorium will host the second edition resounded with classical, of the POLIN Music Festival, contemporary, symphony, with the theme of Home. The chamber, and avant-garde museum will also inaugurate experimental music. The The Weinberg@100 series opening concert was of concerts to celebrate the dedicated to Zygmunt Rolat, 100th anniversary of the birth a distinguished benefactor of composer Mieczysław of the POLIN Museum and a Weinberg. n great music lover.

52 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 GEOP Conferences and Opportunities POLIN Museum’s Global Education Outreach Program

GEOP Distinguished on varied attitudes among the Jewish Historical Institute. Jan Lecture Series—new Jewish community in Poland Rybak, a PhD candidate in the lectures online! toward both the process of Department of History and regaining independence itself Civilization of the European New lectures within the and the shape of the reborn state. University Institute in GEOP Distinguished Lecture Florence, Italy, is researching Series are now online! The conference was made the Zionist movement in East Watch the lectures “How possible thanks to the support Central Europe during World Jewish Jokes Migrated” by of the European Association War I and its immediate Professor Gabriella Safran for Jewish Studies, Taube aftermath. The project and “Shelter from the Philanthropies, the William K. examines local practices of Holocaust: Rethinking Polish- Bowes, Jr., Foundation, and Zionist activists within the Jewish Survival in the Soviet the Association of the Jewish Jewish communities. Union” by Professor Atina Historical Institute of Poland. Grossmann, and listen to the The Institute of History at the Details on the GEOP Research lecture “Icchak Rabin. The University of Warsaw was the Fellowships for Doctoral Ultimate Native Born Israeli organizing partner. and Postdoctoral Candidates: Leader,” by Professor Itamar https://www.polin.pl/en/ Further details about the Rabinovich. news/2017/11/02/call-for- conference can be found applications-geop-research- The lectures are online at: at https://www.polin.pl/en/ fellowships-for-doctoral-and. https://www.polin.pl/en/geop- event/international-academic- distinguished-lecture-series. conference-november-hopes- Details on the GEOP Fellows: jews-and. https://www.polin.pl/en/ International conference, research-collections-research- November Hopes: Jews GEOP Research global-education-outreach- and the Independence of Fellowships for Doctoral program/current-fellows. Poland in 1918 and Postdoctoral On November 29–30, 2018, the Candidates—first Fellow Launch of the 2018–19 conference November Hopes: for 2018–19 has arrived! GEOP Doctoral Seminar Jews and the Independence In October the first of the four On Wednesday, October of Poland in 1918 was held GEOP Fellows for 2018–19 17, the fourth edition of the at the POLIN Museum. The began his fellowship at the GEOP Doctoral Seminar was papers and discussions focused POLIN Museum and the launched. During the 2018–

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 53 19, academic year fourteen The publication is PhD candidates from Polish available at: https://www. universities and research academicstudiespress. institutions will present and com/browse-catalog/new- discuss their research in the directions-in-the-history-of- presence of their colleagues the-jews-in-the-polish-lands. and members of the Academic Board, invited distinguished guests, and GEOP Fellows.

Details on the program: https://www.polin.pl/en/ nauka-i-zbiory-dzialalnosc- naukowa-pobyty-badawcze- i-warsztaty/geop-doctoral- seminars.

GEOP-supported book, New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands, is published This landmark publication, edited by Antony Polonsky, Hanna Węgrzynek, and Andrzej Żbikowski, contains the essays delivered as papers at a GEOP conference held in May 2015 at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

In this publication, leading academics Moshe Rosman, Marci Shore, David Assaf, and Gershon Bacon, among others, offer a coherent overview of the history and culture of Polish Jews.

54 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 OBITUARIES The Oldest Righteous Person, Mother Cecylia Roszak, Dies at Age 110 March 25, 1908–November 16, 2018

other Cecylia Maria years. In that time, she was a Roszak, of the porter, organist, and cantor; Mconvent of Dominican sisters for several years she was commonly known as “On also prioress of the convent. Gródek,” died on November Even after undergoing hip 16 at the age of 110. She was surgery at the age of 101, the oldest Dominican nun Mother Cecylia continued to in the world. In 2009, Yad be an active member of the Vashem award Mother Cecylia community, using her walker the title of Righteous Among to attend prayers and visit the Nations for her role in infirmed sisters. rescuing and hiding Jews When asked about the secret during World War II. to her long life, according to Cecylia Maria Roszak was Sister Cecylia Maria Roszak. Gazeta Krakowska, she said, Image courtesy of Dominikanie.pl. born on March 25, 1908 “One must pray and study in the town of Kiełczewo, During the war, the languages.” near Poznań. She graduated Dominican sisters hid At her funeral, on November from the State Commercial 22, Father Tomasz Nowak and Industrial College for Jews, at the risk of said in his homily, “It is an Women in Pozńan, and at the honor to attend a ceremony age of twenty-one she joined their own lives. about life, rather than death.” the Dominican cloister “On Vilnius; when the Nazis took Mother Cecylia was buried Gródek,” located in Kraków’s control of the city, they hid in Rakowicki Cemetery in Old Town. Five years later, Jews at the risk of their own Kraków. she took her vows. lives. One of the people they More information about In 1938, Sister Cecylia hid was a scoutmaster named Mother Cecylia Maria Roszak traveled with a group of nuns Adam Kowner who, after the can be found at https://www. to Vilnius to establish a new war, sought out Sister Cecylia dominikanie.pl/2018/11/ convent. Though the start of to thank her for saving his life. zmarla-matka-cecylia- World War II thwarted their Mother Cecylia served in najstarsza-dominikanka. plans, the nuns stayed in the order for nearly ninety

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 55 Jacob “Kobi” Weitzner Marek Tuszewicki March 24, 1951–September 20, 2018

r. Jacob “Kobi” Poland and regained the Polish Weitzner passed away citizenship his parents never Don September 20, 2018, in renounced. It was here, in the Warsaw. His family lost a land of his forefathers, where husband and a father, and he married, established a the world lost one of its most family, and raised children. unconventional and brilliant I met Dr. Weitzner for the Yiddishists, theatrologists, first time when he was the and teachers. Yiddish-language editor Born March 24, 1951, in Tel of the magazine Słowo Aviv, Dr. Weitzner was raised Żydowskie—Dos Yidishe by parents who emigrated Vort. Our correspondence, to Israel from towns of the though irregular, lasted a long Dr. Jacob Weitzner. Polish-Ukrainian borderland. Image courtesy of Virtual Shtetl. time. After his review, I was He lived in Israel until the privileged to print my first early 1980s and served in articles written in Yiddish, His unusual talent the army during the first which had a pivotal impact on Lebanon war. As a young allowed him to act on my career. While not sparing man, however, he became either praise or criticism, he the border between interested in Yiddish culture. helped a young writer find In 1984 he received his PhD university, theater, a path to Jewish journalism, in theater and Yiddish studies writing, and scholarship. and film. at the Hebrew University In recent years, Dr. Weitzner in Jerusalem, where he was and the Hebrew University worked as a literary director supervised by renowned in Jerusalem and worked as at the Ester Rachel and Ida Polish-Jewish scholar a visiting professor in the Kamińska Jewish Theater— Chone Shmeruk United States at Columbia Center for Yiddish Culture in Dr. Weitzner held academic University and at the Hebrew Warsaw, where he witnessed positions on three continents. Division of Hunter College in and promoted artistic changes He was an accomplished New York. In the first decade that brought this stage again lecturer at Tel Aviv University of this century, he moved to to its highest potential. His

56 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 4 unusual talent allowed him the Okopowa Street Jewish to act on the border between Cemetery in Warsaw gathered university, theater, and film. his heartbroken family and Engaged in an endless number friends. n of projects as playwright, screenwriter, and director, he Marek Tuszewicki, PhD, is was also an actor. People of a historian and Yiddishist at all ages gathered around him, the Institute of Jewish Studies, attracted by his sincerity and Jagiellonian University in kindness mixed with a heymish Kraków. Yiddish wit.

To me personally, he was most of all a teacher. During the past few decades, we collaborated on several occasions, particularly during Yiddish summer seminars in Warsaw (previously in Śródborów near Otwock) organized by the Center for Yiddish Culture and the State Jewish Theater. We both taught the same groups of young Yiddish enthusiasts, but I always considered myself to be merely one of Kobi’s students.

Dr. Weitzner’s sudden departure was unexpected and shocking. His beautiful life will always be cherished by those who had the privilege of knowing him and experiencing his passion for Yiddish, people, and folks who love Yiddish. Funeral services at

GAZETA FALL/WINTER 2018 n 57 The site of the Jewish cemetery in Osjasków. Photograph from the project Currently Absent by Katarzyna Kopecka, Piotr Pawlak, and Jan Janiak. Used with permission.

If you would like to suggest an article and/or author for the next issue of Gazeta, or submit one yourself, please email: [email protected]. The submission deadline for the next issue is February 15, 2019.

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