Chess players at the Jewish Club in Łódź. The mural, completed in 1960 by Adam (Aron) Muszka and no longer extant, depicts the Holocaust. Łódź, 1975. Photograph by Chuck Fishman. Used with permission.

Volume 25, No. 1 Gazeta Fall 2017/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, Antony Polonsky, Shana Penn, Adam Schorin, Maayan Stanton, Agnieszka Ilwicka, LaserCom Design. Front Cover: Chess players at the Jewish Club in Łódź. Back Cover: Backstage at the Yiddish Theater. Actress Etel Szyk in hooded shawl. Warsaw, 1980. Images courtesy of Chuck Fishman.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from Irene Pipes ...... 2

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

FEATURES Hasidism: A New History David Biale ...... 4 Museums and their Audiences in the Post-Jewish Heritage Spaces of Present-Day Poland Jakub Nowakowski ...... 7

CONFERENCE REPORTS Antony Polonsky - Jews and Others: Ethnic Relations in Eastern and Central Europe from 1917 and Onwards ...... 10 - The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. History-Legacy-Memory ...... 12 - Conferences Mark Centenary of Bolshevik Revolution ...... 16 Jewish Heritage Tourism in the Digital Age Ruth Ellen Gruber ...... 18 Polish-Jewish History Revisited: Honoring Professors Gershon Bacon and Moshe Rosman Agnieszka Jagodzińska ...... 21

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS Polish Government Will Finance Restoration of Warsaw Jewish Cemetery ...... 23 Responsibility & Empowerment: A Civic Role for Jewish Museums ...... 25 Annual International Polish Jewish Studies Workshop at Rutgers ...... 25 Annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Coming to Warsaw Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 26 JCC Kraków Early Childhood Center “Frajda” ...... 28 Celebrating the Late Bat Mitzvah of Zosia Radzikowska ...... 29 2017 Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize ...... 30

Raise the Roof Broadcasts on U.S. Public Television ...... 31 2017 POLIN Award Winners Announced ...... 32 Searching for the Roots of Jewish Traditions ...... 33 The Poetic Life of Zuzanna Ginczanka ...... 34 POLIN GEOP Conferences and Opportunities ...... 35

EXHIBITIONS Chuck Fishman: Roots, Resilience and Renewal—A Portrait of Polish Jews, 1975-2016. An Interview with the Artist ...... 38 Montages. Deborah Vogel and the New Legend of the City at Muzeum Sztuki ...... 43 Blood: Uniting and Dividing, at POLIN Museum ...... 44 POLIN Museum Marks March 1968 Anniversary with Special Exhibition, Strangers at Home ...... 45 Two Arthur Szyk Exhibitions in Kraków: Statute of Kalisz and Haggadah ...... 46

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 30, Jewish Education in Eastern Europe Co-Edited by Eliyana Adler & Antony Polonsky ...... 47 Footprints and Footsteps. Jason Francisco Re-Imagines Presence in Absence ...... 48 On Mother and Fatherland By Bożena Keff ...... 50 Preserving Jewish Heritage in Poland, Volume 2 ...... 52

A Diary from the Łódź Ghetto ...... 52 Radical, Teen, Diverse. On the Ideas of Jewish Modernity ...... 52

Sendlerwowa W ukryciu (Sendler In Hiding) By Anna Bikont ...... 53

OBITUARY Remembering Charles (Charlie) Merrill Antony Polonsky ...... 54

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 1 President of the American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies

Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta

Dear Members and Friends,

I visited Kraków and Warsaw in October. Kraków is the home of the Instytut Judaistyki (Jewish Studies Institute) of the Jagellonian University and the Marcell and Maria Roth Center for Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jewry and Polish-Jewish Relations. Since its founding in 2014 the Center has undertaken a wide range of activities. My goal was together with Professor Michał Galas, Director of Instytut Judaistyki and Professor Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska of the Marie Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin, to establish an annual prize to be awarded annually to the author of the best book written on the Irene Pipes history and culture of the Jews in Poland. The prize is named after two pioneers of that subject, Professor Józef Gierowski, formerly Rector of the Jagiellonian University and founder of the Instytut Judaistyki and Professor Chone Shmeruk founder and director of a similar institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I am happy that the prize has been established and will be awarded for the first time in 1918.

I was very saddened by the death of Charles Merrill, the obituary is in this issue of Gazeta. Charlie was committed to fostering a democratic society in Poland and to improving Polish-Jewish relations. My son attended the Commonwealth School he established in Boston. We often spent time with him and his wife Mary when she was alive and since then with Julie Boudreaux who took wonderful care of him.

With good wishes for the holidays,

Irene Pipes President

2 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Message from Chairman and Executive Director Tad Taube and of the Taube Foundation for Shana Penn Jewish Life & Culture

When we examine a topic, context matters. Consider the first article in this issue of Gazeta, a review of a new book about the history of Hasidism and its origins in the Polish lands. The authors argue that contrary to the standard interpretation, Hasidism did not arise during a period of crisis in the Jewish community, but of comparative peace and normalcy. Far from being a break with Jewish tradition, they say, Hasidism continued and elaborated on Jewish pietism. By placing Hasidism in different contexts than we might expect, the authors offer quite a different understanding of Hasidism’s history and significance for Jews centuries ago and even today.

Tad Taube Other stories in this issue of Gazeta also raise issues of context, such as the one about museums and their audiences in the post-Jewish spaces of today’s Poland. The author explains that museums can change the intellectual context in which students and others analyze historical events such as the Holocaust, and in that way change how the events are understood. Yet another article in this issue reports on a POLIN Museum conference about the impact of the Russian revolution not only on the Jewish experience, but also on the whole region of Eastern Europe. Here too, changing the context opens new possibilities for understanding.

It is not surprising that we have so many articles that address the issues of context, for Gazeta itself is an effort to find meaning through changed Shana Penn context. While recognizing and honoring those we lost in the Holocaust, Gazeta seeks to acknowledge the remarkable thousand-year history of Polish Jews (and their descendants in the Diaspora) and the revival of the Jewish community in Poland as it regains its place in the world. By placing the years of destruction within the context of such a rich history and culture, we at Gazeta hope to open the way to a broader understanding of the Polish Jewish past – and present.

Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 3 David Biale, Ph.D. Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished FEATURES Professor of Jewish History Department of History and Hasidism: A New History Director, Humanities Institute, University of California, Davis

asidism is one of Commonwealth. They the most dynamic held that Israel Ba’al Shem Hreligious movements in the Tov was the founder of a modern world. Originating movement that challenged the in the southeastern corner rabbinical establishment. And of the Polish-Lithuanian they saw eighteenth-century Commonwealth in the mid- Hasidism as the highpoint in eighteenth century, it became the movement’s history. a mass movement of the Hasidism: A New History Jews of Eastern Europe. argues against these views. Hasidism transformed the The book is the product of a Jewish religion in several unique collaboration of eight significant ways. It taught scholars from the U.S., Israel the importance of joy in and Poland. The authors met the worship of God. It also Cover Image, courtesy of D. Biale. for four summer residencies organized itself around in Leipzig, Germany for charismatic leaders, called the purpose of writing rebbes (in Yiddish) or Hasidism emerged collectively. The result is a tsaddikim (in Hebrew). The in a relatively stable work of broad scope but with followers of each of these period of the history a strong narrative thread that leaders were called Hasidim, of the Polish Jews, starts in the eighteenth century a word that means “pietists,” and ends in the twenty-first. but came to mean “disciples rather than in a time of a rebbe.” The rebbes of crisis. The authors claim that founded courts, some of them religiosity that were entirely Hasidism emerged in a quite opulent, to which their new in the history of Judaism. relatively stable period of the Hasidim made pilgrimage. history of the Polish Jews, In many cases, the leaders An earlier generation of rather than in a time of crisis. founded dynasties, some scholars, such as Simon Israel Ba’al Shem Tov was not of which have lasted since Dubnow and Gershom a rebel against his community the eighteenth century. In Scholem, saw Hasidism as but instead a communal these ways, and others, a product of various crises official, a Kabbalist who Hasidism created forms of in the Polish-Lithuanian

4 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 wrote amulets. He assembled [A]lthough Hasidsm By the end of the nineteenth a circle of followers, who claims to be opposed century, however, Hasidism were not much different from to the modern world, entered into an age of crisis as other pietists of the day and urbanization, secularization he did not set out to found it has adopted and emigration drained a movement. innovations of the its followers toward new identities. World War I It was only a decade or more modern world in created a catastrophe for after the Ba’al Shem Tov’s order to thrive Jews generally in Eastern death in 1760 that a movement and grow. Europe and for Hasidism began to form around the specifically. Many courts disciples of Dov Ber, the Hungary and Romania, in were forced for the first Maggid of Mezeritsh, himself addition to its birthplace time to move to cities, a member of the Ba’al Shem in the southeastern regions especially Vienna and Tov’s circle. It was also at this of the Polish-Lithuanian Warsaw. This was the time that the first opposition Commonwealth. Perhaps beginning of the urbanization to Hasidism developed, led 30-40% of the Jews of these of Hasidism, a phenomenon by Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna. areas counted themselves as that continues today. It seems possible that the Hasidim. It was then that emergence of this opposition the Hasidic court developed In the interwar period, caused the early Hasidim to into its full expression. Hasidism faced additional begin to see themselves as The leadership became challenges from the belonging to a movement. overwhelmingly dynastic religious oppression of the and these dynasties acquired Bolshevik regime and the Hasidim: A New History also specific character. Moreover, mass abandonment of religion challenges the conventional as a movement that was on the part of many Polish view by arguing that the real geographically dispersed, Jews. And then came the flourishing of Hasidism as a Hasidism was lived by Holocaust, which destroyed mass movement took place its members not only in the Jewish communities of in the nineteenth century, pilgrimages to the rebbe, Eastern Europe. rather than the eighteenth. By but also in the shtibl, the local the middle of the nineteenth Remarkably, the movement worship room that served century, Hasidism had spread regenerated itself with its each community. to Central Poland, Galicia, surviving rebbes and their

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 5 Hasidim, creating new homes Remarkably, Hasidism: A New History. in Israel, North America the movement David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel and elsewhere. Hasidim regenerated itself today number as many as Gellman, Samuel Heilman, three-quarters of a million with its surviving Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv adherents. They have been rebbes and their & Marcin Wodzinski. forced to adapt to life in a Hasidim, creating (Princeton University Press, 2017) democratic, secular United new homes in Israel, States (as well as other Western democracies), North America and something utterly foreign to elsewhere. their experience earlier. They where they had earlier also needed to develop a traveled on foot, in horse- response to living in a secular drawn carriages and on trains. Jewish state, especially The internet has also served challenging since virtually all to bind far flung Hasidic Hasidic leaders had rejected communities together, even as Zionism when it first appeared the leadership has expressed on the scene. grave reservations about its The Hasidim developed a temptations. new sense of place. Eastern Thus, although Hasidism Europe became holy territory claims to be opposed to the with the place names modern world, it has adopted originally associated with many of the innovations of dynasties now fixed and modernity in order to thrive irreplaceable. Pilgrimage to and grow. Indeed, Hasidism these sites grew in popularity must be understood as a alongside pilgrimage to product of the modern world, the transplanted courts of no less than secularism. It the rebbes. Hasidism thus is, in fact, one of the most became a global movement important elements in modern with Hasidim using airplanes Jewish history. n

6 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Museums and their Audiences Jakub Nowakowski in the Post-Jewish Heritage Director, Galicia Jewish Museum Spaces of Present-Day Poland

n 2016, the Auschwitz- Birkenau Memorial Museum Iwas visited by a record 2 million people. This number exceeded the 2015 visitor total by 300,000 and the 2001 total by more than 1.5 million.

In Poland, until the fall of communism, the Holocaust hardly existed in public discourse and was not part The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II, in Markowa. of the school curriculum. Image courtesy of the museum. This only changed in the [F]or many students 45% of respondents identified 1990s with the collapse Oświęcim primarily as a site of the communist regime their visit to Auschwitz of Polish martyrdom. The in Poland. A standard is their only educational results of this and other surveys Holocaust education has moment where topics should be read in the context since been incorporated of the historical experiences into the curriculum through associated with Jews of Poles who are not Jewish. the implementation of a are discussed. In the same survey, 23% of mandatory study tour to the of Jews. These observations respondents stated that they Auschwitz-Birkenau State are confirmed by survey data had a family member who had Museum into the public conducted by the Centre for been imprisoned in Auschwitz schools’ history programs. Public Opinion Research or one of the other German Through educational projects (CBOS, in Polish: Centrum concentration camps. Among run by the Galicia Jewish Badania Opinii Społecznej). those surveyed older than Museum we see that inclusion Thus, while in 1995, only 65, this percentage increased of the Auschwitz Museum 18% of respondents regarded to 30%. In Poland, and study tour into the school Auschwitz as “primarily the perhaps comparably in Israel, curriculum has indeed resulted site of the annihilation of the Auschwitz has a distinctively in increased awareness among Jews,” in 2015 this percentage strong personal dimension. The students of Auschwitz as a increased to 33% of all meaning of Auschwitz and the site of annihilation primarily respondents. At the same time, Holocaust for the Poles today

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 7 has been discussed in number of Will the story of the shelter to eight Jews who had recent articles and publications, Ulma family, escaped from nearby ghettos. most importantly perhaps, in The Ulmas hid the Jews on however worthy of the studies by professor Marek their farm for a year and a half Kucia, director of the Institute commemoration, be until March of1944 when, as of Sociology at the Jagiellonian used as a tool to obscure the result of a denunciation University in Kraków. the darker aspects from a Polish police officer, all were shot by the German What, therefore, should be the of [Polish-Jewish] military police. role of Jewish museums in relationships? such a specific environment? Although small, the museum is This is an important question, surveyed associated these distinguished by contemporary, as for many students their phrases (as a first choice) minimalist and economical visit to Auschwitz is the with Judaism, kosher food, or architecture, which refers only moment during their Jewish culture in general. to typical rural buildings education where topics characteristic of the eastern The memory of Polish Jews associated with Jews are regions of Poland. In front of and Polish-Jewish relations discussed. Students learn the museum is a square with is being shaped today by a about how Jews died without illuminated tablets listing the number of museums, including having any idea how they names of Poles who were those opened recently under lived and who they were. murdered by the Germans for the new, right-wing Polish These observations are aiding Jews as well as those government. confirmed by survey data of the Righteous Among the conducted by the Centre for An indicator of the chief Nations from southeastern Public Opinion Research goals and opinions of the new Poland. There is also a (CBOS, in Polish: Centrum politics of memory may be the memorial dedicated to Jews Badania Opinii Społecznej). Museum of Poles Rescuing murdered in the Holocaust. For 45% of respondents, the Jews during World War II, Those Jews who survived are words Jews, Jewish people which opened in March 2016. symbolized by the Orchard are associated mainly with The museum was built in of Remembrance planted near the phrases Second World Markowa, a small town in the museum. War, concentration camps, eastern Poland. This location What will be the impact of this Auschwitz, Holocaust, is not accidental. In late 1942, institution on young visitors’ persecution. Only 6% of those the Polish Ulma family gave perceptions of Polish–Jewish

8 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 relations during the Second class POLIN Museum of the to face not only the country’s World War? Will the story History of Polish Jews in extremely complicated past, of the Ulma family, however Warsaw. POLIN Museum but also contemporary matters worthy of commemoration, tells the 1000-year-old history connected to the issue of be used as a tool to obscure of Jewish life in Poland in identity and responsibility for the darker aspects of these eight distinct galleries, only the surrounding world. Such relationships? one of which chronicles the matters will need to include Holocaust in Poland. questions that address who In the last few years, museums should take responsibility for dedicated to the history of What, should be the main commemorating the history local Jews have been opened goals and tasks of other of local Jewish communities in many towns and villages in Jewish museums in present- in the towns and villages Poland, including in Kraków, day Poland? where those communities no Oświęcim, Chmielnik, Should these institutions— longer exist. Częstochowa, Będzin, Gliwice being located in a space and Dąbrowa Tarnowska. All of this means that new so inseparable from the Jewish museums in this The quality and scope of their Holocaust—focus on detailed part of the world should not exhibitions vary, as does the aspects of this particular devote themselves only to scale of their activities. Some history? Or should they not presenting history. After all, are open seven days a week, rather create a narrative in visible fragments of the past and others only for a few hours which the Holocaust would exist around us and are direct a day. Most of them are a be described as one chapter, reflections of the history of visible symbol of the interest in the broader picture of the Polish and Eastern European of the local community in their Jewish presence in this part of Jews. Conceivably, new own history, a manifestation the world? Jewish museums should of the trend that resulted in In addition to the obvious devote more effort to restoring the opening of other historical educational goals, it seems consciousness of the existence museums dedicated to the that Jewish museums in post- of those very traces in the Warsaw Uprising (Warsaw), the communist Europe should landscape of present-day Second World War (Gdańsk) engage with the contradictory Poland and their significance and Emigration (Gdynia). stereotypes present among as part of both Polish and All of these museums stand its visitors. Yet, sooner or Jewish heritage. n in the shadow of the world- later the museums will have

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 9 CONFERENCE REPORTS Jews and Others: Ethnic Relations Dr. Antony Polonsky Chief Historian in Eastern and Central Europe POLIN Museum of the from 1917 and Onwards History of Polish Jews October 2-4, 2017

n early October 2017, an the reactions they triggered. The the Jewish experience, the international conference legacies of these transformative participants were also asked Ion Jews and Others: Ethnic events and their aftermath, not to revisit the shared past of Relations in Eastern and least, the collapse of empires the different national groups Central Europe from 1917 and the birth of nation-states, throughout Central and Eastern and Onwards was held at still reverberate in many ways Europe. Before the conference the POLIN Museum of the throughout Eastern and Central opened, participants were History of Polish Jews. It Europe. The conference held taken on a guided tour of the was organized by the POLIN at the POLIN Museum was permanent exhibition of the Museum, the Leonid Nevzlin the second of a series of three POLIN Museum accompanied Research Center for Russian devoted to this important by Antony Polonsky, Chief and East European Jewry at topic, timed to coincide with Historian of the Museum, the Hebrew University of the centenary of the two which enabled them so see how Jerusalem, and the Kennan Russian revolutions. The first these issues were presented Institute (Washington, D.C.). conference, The Hundred- in the museum. After opening Sponsored by the NADAV Year Legacy of the Russian presentations from Dariusz Foundation, Israel, it took Revolution and the World Stola, Director of the POLIN place within the framework of Today: How the Revolution Museum, Ariel Borschevsky, the POLIN Museum’s Global Divided, United, and Shaped Nadav Foundation, Jonathan Education Outreach Program a Continent, was held at the Dekel-Chen, Director of the (GEOP) and was made possible Kennan Institute (Wilson Nevzlin Centre and Izabella thanks to the support of the Center) in Washington, D.C. Tabarovsky, Senior Program Taube Foundation for Jewish in April 2017 and the final Associate and Manager for Life & Culture, the William conference will take place Regional Engagement with the Kennan Institute, a session K. Bowes Jr. Foundation, and in December at the Hebrew was devoted to “Minorities in the Association of the Jewish University of Jerusalem. Interwar East-Central Europe: Historical Institute of Poland. The aim of the conference at in Search of New Loyalties?” The Russian revolutions of the POLIN Museum was to with contributions by Maciej February and October 1917 make it possible for scholars Górny of the Institute of played a key role in defining the to reassess the profound History of the Polish Academy twentieth century by virtue of implications of the events of of Sciences in Warsaw, Jan the processes they launched, the 1917-1918 through a regional Rybak of the European entities they helped create and lens. While focusing on University Institute in Florence

10 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 The conference [was] the second of a series of three devoted to this important topic, timed to coincide with the centenary of the two Russian revolutions.

and Tatjana Lichtenstein of Silber of the University of History and Claire Le Foll of the University of Texas at Haifa, Aneta Stępien of Trinity the University of Southampton. Austin. In the evening, there College, Dublin and Grzegorz The second was devoted to was a lively public discussion Krzywiec of the Institute of “The Presence of Jewish of the complex and disputed History of the Polish Academy Heritage in Current National topic, “Jews and Revolution: of Sciences in Warsaw. The Narratives and the Historical Truths and Myths.” Because next panel had as its theme Memory of East Central of illness, Paweł Śpiewak of “Jews and National Movements Europe” with presentations the Jewish Historical Institute in East-Central Europe before, by Yaroslav Hrytsak of could not take part. The during, and after World War I,” the Catholic University of panel was moderated by the with contributions from Darius L’viv, Izabella Tabarovsky, journalist Jacek Żakowski of Staliunas of the Lithuanian Semion Goldin of the Hebrew the weekly Polityka and the Institute of History, Antony University and Kamil Kijek. participants were the eminent Polonsky (London) and Jolanta The conference closed with a historian of People’s Poland, Żyndul of the Jewish Historical general discussion of the issues Andrzej Paczkowski, the film- Institute in Warsaw. raised in which the discussants maker Krzysztof Zanussi and were Antony Polonsky, Dariusz The final session was devoted Konrad Zielinski of the Maria Stola, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, to “Jews and Non-Jews in the Curie-Skłodowska University Darius Staliunas and Yaroslav ‘New’ East-Central Europe,” in Lublin. Hrytsak. In all, this was a most with contributions from Kamil productive conference. New The second day opened with Kijek of the University of contacts were made and many a session “The Russian Wrocław and Victor Karady important issues were raised Revolution, East-Central (of the Central European and clarified. It is hope that European Jewry, New Nation University, Budapest). the papers presented will be States” with presentations On the final day, there were published and all are looking by Ines Koeltzsch of Vienna two panels. The first, “The forward to the final conference and Harriet Murav of the ‘Jewish Question’ in the in this series in Jerusalem. n University of Illinois, Urbana- Politics of Nation-States in Champaign. This was followed The full program for the East-Central Europe” featured by ‘Jews in the ‘New’ Poland: conference can be found at: Dovile Troskovaite of Vilnius Violence, Antisemitism and www.polin.pl/en/system/files/ University, Eglė Bendikaitė New Identities,” in which attachments/program_jo_bez_ of the Lithuanian Institute of the participants were Marcos lanczy.pdf

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 11 The Polish-Lithuanian

Commonwealth. Dr. Antony Polonsky History-Legacy-Memory Chief Historian POLIN Museum of the Third Congress of International History of Polish Jews Researchers of Polish History. October 11-14, 2017 in Kraków he Third Congress of More than 250 conference organization, TInternational Researchers historians from nearly headed by Prof. Krzysztof of Polish History took place forty countries gave Zamorski President of the in Kraków in mid-October Programme Committee 2017. This conference is held papers in nearly and Prof. Andrzej Chwalba every five years and it aims to thirty sessions. President of the Programme bring together scholars from its history was similar to the Council worked with around the world who carry histories of the neighbouring remarkable efficiency and out research on Polish history nations as well as the states everything went without as well as Polish culture, art in other parts of Europe and a hitch. and science. The theme of this the world. The conference was on a year’s meeting was The Polish- very large scale. More than Lithuanian Commonwealth. The conference was under the 250 historians from nearly History – Legacy – Memory patronage of the Marshal of forty countries gave papers in (in Polish Rzeczpospolita the Polish Senate, Stanisław nearly thirty sessions. In all, Obojga Narodów. Historia – Karczewski, and the Mayor its proceedings were attended Dziedzictwo – Pamięć). It of the City of Kraków, Jacek by more than 1,300 people, sought to examine what was the Majchrowski. Its organizers many of them university and nature of the ‘First Republic,’ were the Polish Historical high school students from the how was its memory preserved Organization, the Jagiellonian Kraków area. The first keynote in the years that followed University and the Pedagogical speech was given by Antony its partition and the extent University in Kraków and it Polonsky, Chief Historian of to which it has influenced was made possible through the POLIN Museum of the the history and present-day the support of the Ministry of History of Polish Jews. He politics of Poland, Lithuania, Science and Higher Education, concentrated on the crisis of the Ukraine and Belarus which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mid-seventeenth century which have emerged on its territory as the Ministry of Culture and highlighted the weaknesses of well as its impact on Europe as National Heritage, the Museum the Commonwealth which led, a whole. In addition, it aimed of the History of Poland, the more than a century later, to its to investigate to what extent International Centre for partition—the political, social the Polish-Lithuanian state of Culture in Kraków and the and economic dominance of the early modern period was Foundation for the Support the Polish noble estate, the unique state and to what degree of Polish Scholarship. The

12 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 szlachta, and the exclusion of other classes from social and political power, the weakness of the elected monarchy and the first use in 1652 of the liberum veto and the increasing alienation of non-Catholics, above all the Greek Orthodox Cossacks. It was resistance of the szlachta, based on its belief that the greatest danger to Polish liberties was the alleged desire of the Polish monarchy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Union of Lublin, 1569 to 1667. to introduce absolutum Courtesy of Library of Congress. dominium by force of arms, which led them to oppose the Lithuania and eigthteenth of the study of Polish past were military reforms of King Jan century Hungary. The two awarded to Adam Zamoyski Kazimierz. His defeat in the lectures were then followed and Paul Knoll, Emeritus civil war of 1665-1667 doomed by the award by the Marshal Professor of Medieval History all subsequent attempts to of the Polish Senate of the at the University of Southern create a large standing army Pro Historia Polonorum prize California. In addition, the in the Commonwealth and for the best book written in Wacław Felczak and Henryk paved the way first to Russian a non-Polish language. This Wereszycki prize established hegemony and then to partition. went to Professor Robert Frost by the Polish Historical The second inaugural lecture of the University of Aberdeen Association was awarded to was given by Aron Petneki for his book, The Making of Peter Rassek of the Institute of the University of Miskolc the Polish-Lithuanian Union, of History of the Carl von who examined the similarities 1385-1569 (Oxford, 2015), Ossietzky University of between the phenomenon of volume 1 of the proposed Oldenburg for his book Für ‘Sarmatism,’ with its stress on Oxford of Poland-Lithuania. ein freies Polen und liberales ‘golden liberty’ and martial In addition, prizes for their Preussen: Czatoryskis prowess in pre-partition Poland- contribution to the development Deutschlandspolitik am

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 13 Vorabend der Revolution 1848. miast i mieszczaństwa w of the Polish-Lithuanian (For a free Poland and a liberal Polsce Centralnej w świetle Commonwealth in Textbooks Prussia: Czartoryski’s policy nowożytnych lustracji and School Curricula.’ The towards German on the eve królewszczyzn (Medieval quality of the papers was of the Revolution of 1848, military obligations of extremely high and it is hoped Frankfurt-am-Main, 2016). An the towns and burghers of that the best of them will be additional award was given to central Poland according published in due course. Istvan Kovacs of the Institute to the contemporary royal There were also a number of of History of the Hungarian inspections). public events connected with Academy of Science. The first The topics discussed at the conference. These included prize in the Stanisław Herbst the conference covered an an exhibition of the works of award for the best MA thesis in enormous amount of ground Arthur Szyk in the Palace of the field of history was awarded ranging from ‘Interstate Unions Fine Arts on Plac Szczepański to Arkadiusz Bożejewicz for in the History of the Polish- which was organised by the his thesis Oblężenie Torunia w Lithuanian Commonwealth,’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and XVII i XVIII wieku Perspektywa ‘Self-Administration - attended by Jan Dziedziczak, porównawcza (The seiges Citizenship in the Polish- Secretary of State in the of Toruń in the seventeenth Lithuanian Commonwealth’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and eighteenth centuries. A and ‘Why did a large state in This was accompanied by a comparative perspective), Central Europe, the Polish- public lecture on Arthur Szyk’s the second prize to Stanisław Lithuanian Commonwealth, Illumination of Boleslaw the Witecki for Księgozbiory w fall in the 18th Century? Pious’ Statute of Kalisz kulturze ksiązki plebanów to ‘The Polish-Lithuanian by Aleksander Skotnicki, one diecezji płockiej w czasach Commonwealth in the of the pioneers of Polish- biskupa Michała Jerzego Political Memory of Lithuania, Jewish dialogue in Kraków. Poniatowskiego (Book Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, In addition, there was a special collections in the literary culture Estonia and Israel after 1990,’ exhibition in the Main Hall of parish priests in the Płock ‘Representations of the Polish- of the Pedagogical University bishopric under Bishop Michał Lithuanian Commonwealth To Whom Does Poland Jerzy Poniatowski) and the in Contemporary Literature, Belong? Propaganda third prize to Jędrzej Tomasz Theatre and Visual Culture, Postcards from World War Kałużny Średniowieczne 1945-2017’ and ‘The History I, and all participants were powinności wojskowe

14 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 taken on a conducted tour of How, over the last politics of the partitions and, the exhibition Dziedzictwo hundred years, have most recently that of the (Legacy), dedicated to the national narratives Soviet Bloc, influence these Polish cultural heritage from narratives? To what degree Middle Ages until today in the perceived their own has the collective memory National Museum in Kraków. history in the context of the unwilling heirs been An impressive concert of music of their belonging to employed for immediate from the Polish royal court was the Polish-Lithuanian political or propaganda held in the Mariacki Church. needs? To what extent is this Commonwealth? process still taking place? Finally a public discussion on Is it possible to go beyond the theme ‘The Memory of the Commonwealth among the post-colonial discourse and Heirs of the Polish-Lithuanian nationalities that lived within memory conflicts? How should Commonwealth: A Shared or its borders. Until today, no a common memory, one which Confllcted Memory?’ was held broad comparative studies have unites and not divides, be in the International Cultural been undertaken on this topic built? Is this even possible? Centre on the Rynek. This while national historiographies These are important questions was chaired by the Director lack references to the points of for the future of East- of the Centre, Jacek Purchla, view of their neighbours. In the Central Europe and the great a former mayor of Kraków view of the discussants, there achievement of the conference and his deputy, Beata Nykiel. is a vital need, therefore, to is that they were discussed in The discussants were Alvydas define what collective memory a dispassionate and collegial Nikzentaitis (Lithuania), is for each of these nations manner by historians from all Robert Traba (Poland/ as well as to how research on the countries of the area and Germany), Neliy Bekus (Great this should be conducted. A also by friendly observers from Britain), Henadz Sahanovich number of important questions further afield.n (Belarus), Larry Wolff (USA), were raised. How, over the last Yaroslav Hrytsak (Ukraine) hundred years, have national The full program for the and Tomasz Szubert (Poland/ narratives perceived their conference can be found at: Austria). The discussion own history in the context of www.coph2017.syskonf.pl/ addressed the important issue their belonging to the Polish- conf-data/coph2017/files/ of the historical memory Lithuanian Commonwealth? PROGRAM_3Kongres_ of the Polish-Lithuanian How did the historical ANG.pdf

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 15 Conferences Mark Centenary Dr. Antony Polonsky Chief Historian of Bolshevik Revolution POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews October and November 2017

t is now one hundred and Others: Ethnic Relations years since the revolution in Eastern and Central Europe Iof 1917 overthrew the Tsar from 1917 and Onwards. Nicholas II and brought On October 15-16, a related the Bolsheviks to power. conference on Ukrainian For Jews, the fall of Tsarist Jews: Revolution and Post- Russia brought what looked Revolutionary Modernization like liberation: the end to was held in Kiev. It brought the Pale of Settlement which together scholars from Russia, restricted the areas where Israel, the United States, most Jews could live and the Ukraine, Hungary and western abolition of all antisemitic Europe for presentations on laws, including quotas in topics ranging from Jewish Front page of the program for YIVO’s education and discriminatory Jews in and after the 1917 Russian involvement in the Communist military service requirements. Revolution conference. Used with Party to images of synagogues permission from YIVO Library. Soviet Russia also became in revolutionary art. One the first country in the world Among the issues of the central issues raised to declare antisemitism a was whether the leaders of examined were the criminal offense. However, Ukraine - which attempted to the revolution also opened social, economic, establish its independence in the floodgates for the greatest political, and cultural the aftermath of the revolution massacre of Jews before the conditions which made - were responsible for the Second World War in the pogroms of the Russian civil possible the revolutions civil war and its aftermath war. According to Vitaly in 1918-21, resulting in of 1917. Chernoivanenko, the president 50,000 to 100,000 deaths. richness of Jewish cultural of the Ukrainian Association Once Bolshevik rule was life in Russia was eventually for Jewish Studies and one consolidated, Jews entered obliterated. of the organizers of the into nearly every sphere conference, the Ukrainian of Russian life. However, In this issue of Gazeta we leader Symon Petliura cannot in time, they were purged describe the conference held be held responsible for the from most of these positions at the POLIN Museum of the pogroms. In his opinion, and much of the singular History of Polish Jews on Jews “Petliura himself didn’t

16 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 support the pogroms, but he Among the issues examined the revolution and the writings couldn’t control the situation.” were the social, economic, of Jewish revolutionaries and This view was rejected by political, and cultural artists such as Leon Trotsky, Gennady Estraikh, Clinical conditions which made Yuliy Martov, Marс Chagall Professor of Jewish History possible the revolutions of and Vera Inber. Other events at New York University who 1917, the different immediate include an art exhibit of the argued that “as a leader, he reactions to the Revolution works of Jewish revolutionary- didn’t stop the pogroms, during 1917 and the careers era artists, a series of lectures and in that way Petliura of Jewish revolutionary and concert with Jewish was responsible — just like leaders Esther Frumkin, revolutionary songs and poems Hitler is responsible for the Leon Trotsky and Raphael performed in Yiddish. Holocaust. A military leader Abramovitch. Panels also The issues raised in these is always responsible for what analyzed Jewish life in the gatherings are complex, his soldiers do.” Soviet Union, including difficult and disputed. It Jewish involvement in In New York City, the YIVO is a matter for satisfaction the secret police, residual Institute for Jewish Research that they can be critically underground Jewish organized a conference in discussed in these forums. n Orthodoxy during the Soviet early November on Jews in Union and the Jewish literary More information, including and after the 1917 Russian and musical culture which the full conference program, Revolution (November 5-6). emerged in the Soviet Union. can be found at: www.uajs. Jonathan Brent, the executive org.ua/en/node/128 director of the YIVO Institute, In Moscow, the Jewish was well aware that the issues Museum and Tolerance Center raised by the conference, is planning special exhibitions including the role of Jews and events to mark the 100th in Stalin’s secret police and anniversary of the revolution. Jewish communist spies in The exhibit, Freedom for All? America during the Cold War The History of One People are controversial, but stressed in the Years of Revolution, that it is important to discuss which opened on 17 October, these subjects even if they features documents from make people uncomfortable. Jewish political parties during

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 17 Ruth Ellen Gruber Jewish Heritage Tourism Author and Coordinator of the web site in the Digital Age www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu A project of the Rothschild Foundation October 23-25, 2017. Venice, Italy (Hanadiv) Europe

he conference Jewish Heritage Tourism in the TDigital Age, which took place in Venice, Italy Oct. 23-25, gathered around 90 participants from all over Europe, as well as Israel and the United States. The more than 30 speakers ranged from academics and analysts, to tour guides and other tourism professionals, to museum personnel, Jewish community representatives, and other experts and stakeholders.

Organized by Jewish

Heritage Europe along with Collage of images promoting the conference Jewish Heritage Tourism in the the Rothschild Foundation Digital Age. (Hanadiv) Europe and Beit thematically — and it was not Key areas of discussion Venezia, the conference was an easy task to narrow down a were the challenges and a specialized follow-up to the choice of invited speakers. We opportunities posed by Jewish working seminar on managing were therefore delighted that heritage tourism and travel in Jewish built heritage held in so many other stakeholders Europe, both in places where Kraków in April 2013, and the and interested individuals there is an active local Jewish cross-disciplinary conference registered to attend. population and in places on Jewish cemeteries in where there are sites of Jewish Europe held in October 2015 Sessions were hosted at the heritage but no organized in Vilnius. Venice Jewish Community’s Jewish community. function room, Sala We organizers wanted Montefiore, and also at Speakers addressed the the widest possible the Ghimel Garden kosher growing diversity and energy range of speakers — restaurant on the Campo del of Jewish and Jewish-themed both geographically and Ghetto Nuovo. tourism in Europe, both for

18 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Jews and for others. Some addressed specifics regarding, for example, how to manage tourists, or the creation and viability of Jewish heritage routes and itineraries. There was also discussion of new technology such as mobile apps, interactive museums, web sites, and the like.

Specific sessions at the conference focused on: n The Interpretation of Jewish heritage sites n Marketing Jewish Heritage Tourists in the Scuola Spagnola, Venice. © Ruth Ellen Gruber n Mapping, Trails, and Virtual Tourism Beit Venezia, to celebrate 25 the Venice Jewish Museum years since the first edition (and tour of three of the five n Managing Visitors of her book Jewish Heritage synagogues in the Ghetto) and/ n  Tourism as Education Travel and 15 years since her or a visit to the ancient Jewish n Festival Judaism book Virtually Jewish were cemetery, on the Lido, which n Jewish Cultural Festivals published. dates back to the 14th century. Here they were taken around n Jewish Quarters/Networks Discussion was lively, intense, the cemetery by Aldo Izzo, a of Jewish Sites and provocative, both during retired sea captain in his 80s the formal sessions and at The first night of the who has cared for the cemetery coffee breaks and meals. conference saw Jewish for more than 30 years. Heritage Europe Coordinator Participants also had the The conference concluded with Ruth Ellen Gruber in opportunity to take part in a wide-ranging roundtable conversation with Prof. Shaul a Jewish heritage tourism on the challenges of being a Bassi, the co-founder of experience: a guided tour of tourist attraction in three

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 19 cities where mass tourism is reality: Venice, Kraków, and Amsterdam.

“One of the points in the thought provoking final roundtable […] was exactly the human aspect of heritage and the preservation of the memory in regards to the people and the fragile nature of these human ‘monuments,’” Venice Guided Tours by Luisella Romeo wrote on their Facebook page. “Aldo Izzo gave a lesson to everyone. First, as a person Signage at the ruin of the synagogue in Brody, Ukraine. © Ruth Ellen Gruber that worked to preserve memory against oblivion and second, as a person that remembers people…” n

Reprinted with permission from Ruth Ellen Gruber, Jewish Heritage Europe http://jewish-heritage- europe.eu/

Ruth Ellen Gruber and Shaul Bassi, at the Venice Jewish Heritage Tourism conference. © Ruth Ellen Gruber

20 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Polish-Jewish History Revisited: Honoring Professors Gershon Agnieszka Jagodzińska Taube Department of Jewish Bacon and Moshe Rosman Studies, University of Wroclaw November 7-9, 2017

wo leading scholars in the field of Polish- TJewish history, Professors Gershon Bacon and Moshe Rosman, retired this year. To mark this event, their Alma Mater – Bar-Ilan University, hosted a conference in their honor, “Polish Jewish History Revisited.” The conference provided an opportunity not only to summarize the academic achievements of both scholars but also to verify what is happening in the field of Polish-Jewish Studies.

Professors Bacon and Rosman Moshe Rosman and Gershon Bacon. have more in common than Photo by Uriel Gellman just their shared interest in the ordained rabbis. Although focus on Polish-Jewish history history of Polish Jews. They at different points in time, and archival research. both started their studies in they both eventually moved the 1970s – at a time when Professor Moshe Rosman is to Israel where they taught the field of Polish-Jewish a scholar of the early modern at Bar-Ilan University and Studies was just developing period who takes a special embarked on their respective as a previously neglected field interest in history of Hasidism research on the history of of study. They both wrote and the history of Jewish Polish Jews over the next 30 their Ph.D. theses under the women, relations between years. Most remarkable in their supervision of Professor Polish magnates and the Jews, common paths, they were both Andrzej Kamiński and and historiography. Rosman’s the first two scholars allowed received their diplomas from quest for historical Baal Shem to study in communist Poland Columbia University in New Tov led to the publication of from the Iron Curtain of the York. Both scholars are also the ground-breaking study then Soviet Union, and to

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 21 on the founder of Hasidism, The conference confirmed while his analysis of the the observation of the late postmodern challenges to Professor Jacob Goldberg the Jewish historiography who said that “there is no (published in English as history of Jews without history How Jewish Is Jewish of Poland and no history History? and translated into of Poland without history 3 other languages) remains a of Jews.” The twenty-one fundamental methodological scholars from Israel, Poland, guidebook for any scholar in Canada and Germany that the field of Jewish Studies. took part in the event made this statement evident. It Professor Gershon Bacon, was encouraging to observe who specializes in political, that the papers presented at social, religious and the conference, inspired by intellectual history of Jews the scholarship of Bacon of Poland and Russia in the and Rosman, testify to 19th and 20th centuries, great diversity and vibrant authored or edited several developments which have studies which explored taken place since both scholars various aspects of that lay the groundwork in the field history: from the history of of Polish Jewish Studies. n Orthodox Jewry in Europe, through the history of Jewish The full program of the women in Poland, to political conference can be found at: and ideological movements www1.biu.ac.il/File/news/ in European Jewry. His filebiu_17_10_19_9_42.pdf important book, The Politics of Tradition, describing the history of Agudat Yisrael in the interwar period in Poland, has been published in English and Hebrew.

22 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS Polish Government Will Finance Restoration of Warsaw Jewish Cemetery

uring a special meeting, grounds in various stages of including in Poland, to make Polish Deputy Prime neglect and repair. Restoration every effort to curb anti- DMinister Piotr Glinski informed of the cemetery will make the Semitism and xenophobia World Jewish Congress gravesites more accessible once and for all. It is critical (WJC) CEO and Executive and dignified for the more that all minorities, and Vice President Robert Singer than 40,000 people who visit all people, living on this that the Polish government each year. continent enjoy the basic will invest 100 million zloty human right of living in peace Mr. Singer welcomed the (approximately $28M USD) and security.” Polish government’s decision to restore the Warsaw Jewish on behalf of its President, Founded in 1806, the Warsaw Cemetery. This 200-year-old Ronald S. Lauder, and the Jewish Cemetery at Okopawa historic landmark contains WJC, stating: “The World Street contains some of the 250,000 graves and an Jewish Congress urges all largest numbers of 20th estimated 150,000–200,000 European governments, century Jewish burial sites tombstones within 83 acres of

Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. Photo by Alexsander Schwarz.

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 23 in Poland prior to World War contained rich cultural the Polish parliament with a II. It is considered the most knowledge on tombstones and nearly unanimous vote of 416 recognizable of the 1,400 cultural markers. Restoration in favor and four opposed. Jewish cemeteries in Poland, and preservation will The government is expected to and one of the largest in no doubt yield important transfer the funds to Poland’s Europe. In 1943, during the genealogical and historical Cultural Heritage Foundation, Nazi occupation of Poland, the information. which will implement the Germans burned the cemetery restoration in cooperation The decision to restore the records and destroyed many with the Warsaw Jewish cemetery was adopted by of the gravesites, which Community. n

Warsaw Jewish Cemetery. Photo by Alexsander Schwarz.

24 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Responsibility & Empowerment: A Civic Role for Jewish Museums Council of American Jewish Museums Annual Conference February 25-28, 2018, in Washington D.C.

he next annual conference challenges, and opportunities institutions, and keepers of for the Council of these museums face in history?” n TAmerican Jewish Museums their mission of public More information, as well as (CAJM) will take place in education. The brochure a registration form, can be Washington, DC, on February asks participants: “What found on the CAJM’s website: 25-28, 2017. The conference, does bravery look like in a www.cajm.net/conferences- titled Responsibility & museum, and when is risk events/washington-dc- Empowerment: A Civic Role unnecessary? What are our in-2018/. for Jewish Museums, focuses ultimate responsibilities— on the responsibilities, as public centers, Jewish

Annual International Polish Jewish Studies Workshop at Rutgers March 5-6, 2018. Rutgers University

n March 5-6, 2018, and Spaces. The organizers Associate Professor of Rutgers University of the conference, the Polish History and Jewish Studies Owill host the 5th Annual Jewish Studies Initiative, and Director of the Center for International Polish Jewish aspire, according to their European Studies at Rutgers Studies Workshop. The title website, to “bring together University, at nsinkoff@ of the workshop is “Centering scholars and activists from rutgers.edu or Natalia the Periphery: Polish Jewish a range of institutions and Aleksiun, Associate Professor Cultural Production Beyond disciplines who would like of Modern Jewish History at the Capital,” and the two to see Polish and Jewish the Graduate School of Jewish days are divided into six culture more intentionally and Studies at Touro College, at panels, each focusing on a productively intertwined.” natalia.aleksiun-madrzak@ different subject: Geographies; touro.edu. For any questions about this Translations; Traditions; year’s workshop, please Audiences; High and Low contact Nancy Sinkoff, Cultures; and Embodiments

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 25 Annual International Conference on Jewish Genealogy Coming Julian and Fay Bussgang to Warsaw Co-editors, Gazeta August 5-10, 2018

enealogy has become a passionate pursuit Gfor many people, and international Jewish genealogical conferences have grown enormously since the first conference in 1981. For the first time, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) will hold its annual conference in Warsaw. Outside of Jerusalem, London, Paris, and Toronto, all previous conferences have been in the Visitors consult a map at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute United States. Therefore, it is a in Warsaw. major event for the conference to be held in Poland, which all over the world are expected once had the largest Jewish For the first time, the to attend the conference population in the world. International Association whether their roots are in Poland or elsewhere. The Jewish genealogical of Jewish Genealogical conference in Warsaw has Societies (IAJGS) The conference will last for stimulated much interest, will hold its annual six days, Sunday, August 5, and about 1,000 participants through part of Friday, August conference in Warsaw. are expected to attend. Many 10. The main language of the attendees will combine the the new POLIN Museum of conference will be English, conference with visits to the History of Polish Jews and talks in different languages their ancestral towns. Unique and the Emanuel Ringelblum (e.g., Polish) will typically at this conference will be the Jewish Historical Institute, have a translator. Most sessions fact that two very important will be partnering with the will be filmed and recorded, institutions in Warsaw IAJGS. Members of the Jewish and these recordings will connected to Jewish history, genealogical community from become available for purchase

26 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 when the conference is over. of giving the prospective For information about Some sessions will be streamed attendees an opportunity to various tour opportunities live so that people who cannot share information with each during, before and after the attend the conference can view other and ask questions. conference, please contact: the sessions from afar. iajgs2018@taubejewish The official website for heritagetours.com and visit: Typically, there are as many the conference will taubejewishheritagetours.com as eight sessions at any one become active soon at: time, starting early in the http://www.iajgs2018.org. To submit abstracts to the morning and lasting until late 38th IAJGS International Taube Jewish Heritage Tours in the afternoon. In addition Conference on Jewish partners with IAJGS to to talks, there are workshops, Genealogy, please see offer group and family tours panel discussions, meetings of the information below: before, during, and after special interest groups (SIGs), the conference. The International Association of films, and displays by vendors Jewish Genealogical Societies, with products relevant to As a supplement to the in cooperation with The Polish genealogy. The evenings are conference, various State Archives and co-hosted by filled with special programs. organizations, including the POLIN Museum of the History Taube Jewish Heritage Tours, of Polish Jews and the Emanuel For the 2017 schedule and will be handling tours of Ringelblum Jewish Historical program, see: http://s4.goes Warsaw and Kraków and of Institute, invites submissions how.com/iajgs/annual/2017/ particular areas of Poland, for abstracts for the 38th IAJGS program_schedule.cfm Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, International Conference on and other places for those A special Facebook page Jewish Genealogy. has been established for who wish to visit the those interested in attending communities where their The deadline for submitting the 2018 conference: https:// families once lived, to see abstracts is: December 31 (at www.facebook.com/groups/ the historic Jewish centers of midnight; Central Time). IAJGS/. It serves the dual learning and culture, and to For more information on purpose of providing a place journey to Holocaust sites to submissions, go to: for officials of the conference mourn the loss of relatives n https://s4.goeshow.com/ to make announcements to and all who perished. iajgs/annual/2018/abstract_ prospective attendees and submission.cfm

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 27 JCC Kraków Early Childhood Center “Frajda”

Kraków officially celebrated the JCCopening of its Early Childhood Center, Frajda, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 16. Frajda was made possible through the generous lead grant of Eric and Erica Schwartz of New York City, who spoke at the ceremony about the revival of Jewish life. “The preschool years are the ideal time for learning about Jewish culture, values, and traditions. We are so pleased to make it possible for Kraków’s Jewish families to send their children to a school Children play at Frajda, at JCC Kraków. Photograph by Jakub Włodek. Used with permission of JCC Kraków. that focuses on providing this foundation for the youngest Three dedicated teachers will sponsored by Taube members of the community,” deliver instruction this year, Philanthropies (www. Erica Schwartz said. and the JCC will provide taubephilanthropies.org) transportation to students from and will augment Frajda’s The Early Childhood Center’s across the city. The program activities. n name, Frajda, means “joy” is headed by Małgorzata in both Yiddish and Polish. Pustul, who directed a public Created in consultation preschool in Częstochowa with leading Jewish early for 20 years. childhood education experts from Poland, the United The outdoor Taube Family States, and Israel, Frajda’s Playground and the Shana state-of-the art facility can Penn Garden, to be opened serve up to 22 students. in Spring 2018, will be

28 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Celebrating the Julian and Fay Bussgang Late Bat Mitzvah of Co-editors, Gazeta Zosia Radzikowska

n November 2017, in a festive ceremony at the ITempel Synagogue in Krakow, Zosia Radzikowska, on her 82nd birthday, became an adult Bat Mitzvah. An active member of the Kraków JCC, Zosia participates in Shabbat dinners and many other activities, but a Bat Mitzvah would not have occurred to her had it not been for the Kraków rabbi, Avi Baumol, and his wife, Hadley, who conceived of the idea. Zosia Radzikowska speaks to congregants at her bat mitzvah, on the day of her The Bat Mitzvah ceremony 82nd birthday. Rabbi Samuel Rosenberg stands behind her. consisted of a Mincha service, Photograph by Darek Gawlik. Used with permission of JCC Kraków. performed by Conservative by using a false identity and member and one of the leaders Rabbi Samuel Rosenberg from leading a Christian life. Her of Kraków’s branch of the Israel, during which Zosia father and other relatives Association of “Children of read from the Torah, and a were killed. After the war, she the Holocaust” in Poland, Havdalah ceremony in which returned to Kraków and went and returned to Judaism. She she participated with Rabbi briefly to a Jewish school, became active in the Jewish Baumol, an Orthodox rabbi. but, under the many years Community Center in Kraków, Zosia was tutored for her Torah of communism in Poland, which opened in 2008. She portion by Conservative Rabbi she maintained no Jewish also sings in the JCC choir, George Schlesinger of the San connection. She became a attends the senior club, studies Francisco Bay Area, who served lawyer and law professor, with the rabbi, and edits the as a Taube Visiting Fellow in married, and raised a family. monthly newsletter. n Krakow last May. In 1991, after communism (Source: http://blogs. As a young child, Zosia had lost control in Poland, she timesofisrael.com/a-survivors- Radzikowska survived the connected with other Jewish bat-mitzvah-in-krakow/) Holocaust with her mother survivors, became an active

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 29 2017 Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize

n 14 November, the Emanuel Ringelblum OJewish Historical Institute presented the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize to Dr. Eleonora Bergman and Professor Tadeusz Epsztein, scientific editors of the complete edition of the Ringelblum Archive. Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum stated that “completing this work required faith, vision, and persistence. The work initiated by Oneg Shabbat consisted of four stages: collecting Tadeusz Epsztein and Eleonora Bergman, recipients of the 2017 Jan Karski and writing down materials, and Pola Nirenska Prize. burying and finding the Image courtesy of Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. Archive, publishing the especially important by the The Jan Karski and Pola Archive in printed and digital fact that the material “tells Nireńska Prize, established versions, and the English the story of actual people, by Jan Karski in1992 and translation, which has just of their experience, their jointly administered by YIVO begun. The fact that all these suffering.” Dr. Bergman Institute and the Emanuel stages have actually happened added that “it is not up to us Ringelblum Jewish Historical is unbelievable. It is the to decide what parts of the Institute, is awarded every second birth of Oneg Shabbat: collection are important. The year to authors of works the work and the people fact of the archive itself is dedicated to Polish-Jewish who created it.” Professor what is important for history relations and documenting Epsztein emphasized that this and for the future of its the Jewish contributions to extraordinary collection is understandings.” Polish culture. n

30 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Raise the Roof Broadcasts on U.S. Public Television

rillium Studios is pleased side-by-side to create stunning, to announce that its mysterious, and profoundly Taward-winning documentary meaningful buildings. Raise the Roof will have its The production company American broadcast premiere behind the film, Trillium on national public television. Studios, has at its helm the Raise the Roof will be film’s director and editor Yari broadcast as part of the Jewish Wolinsky. Yari has directed Film Showcase, an exciting and edited narrative and slate of three dynamic feature documentary films for clients documentaries presented The replica of the Gwożdziec synagogue roof, now on display at that include the Massachusetts by The National Center for the POLIN Museum. Institute of Technology, Jewish Film and distributed by Image used courtesy of Trillium Studios. Boston University, National American Public Television. 200 magnificent wooden Geographic, and PBS. He The Showcase will begin synagogues destroyed in began documenting the broadcasting in late 2017 and the Holocaust. Browns’ efforts to rebuild continue through 2018. the Gwoździec synagogue The original Gwoździec Raise the Roof in 2007. Yari worked on the comes to synagogue was built in the film with his father, producer public television after a highly 18th century, at a time when Cary Wolinksy. Cary has successful international run these wooden synagogues were published historical, scientific, of more than 150 festival and at the center of Jewish life in and cultural photographic event screenings, having won Eastern Europe. Elaborate and essays in National Geographic six best documentary film sophisticated, unique to their since 1977. He has been awards. The film documents time and place, they flourished collaborating with his son on the ten-year journey of artists for centuries, growing more documentary films since 2006. Rick and Laura Brown, complex during this period co-directors of Handshouse of Jewish prosperity. As the Visit www.raisetheroofmovie. Studio in Massachusetts, as Browns and their team hew the com to view the movie they inspire more than 300 log structure and recreate the trailer and press kit and for students and professionals painted ceiling, they discover a information about past and to travel to Poland to rebuild little-known period of history future screenings. n Gwoździec, one of over when Jews and Poles worked

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 31 2017 POLIN Award Winners Announced

he third annual POLIN Awards were presented Tduring a ceremony on Tuesday, November 28, 2017. The winner of the 2017 Award was Joanna Podolska, director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. Through her work at the Center, Podolska has helped preserve the memory of Łódź’s pre-war Jewish community and made Jewish Łódź a “bustling element of the present,” according to the POLIN Museum’s website. Receiving distinctions were Dariusz Paczkowski, a graffiti artist and activist from

Żywiec, and Ireneusz Socha, a Joanna Podolska, director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center, with her 2017 musician and composer from POLIN Award. Photograph by Magda Starowieyska. Used with permission of POLIN Museum. Dębica. Paczkowski’s work has long challenged anti- appreciation for people and organization that works to build Semitism, xenophobia, gender organizations that work to and connect a community of discrimination, and fascism preserve the heritage of Polish Holocaust survivors in modern- in the public sphere. Socha Jewish in Poland.” Awardees day Poland. The ceremony has worked for almost 40 received financial prizes from featured a concert by Kayah years to preserve remnants of Tomek Ulatowski and Ygal and Marcin Wyrostek. n Jewish life in Dębica. Dariusz Ozechov, distinguished donors For more information,visit: Stola, director of the POLIN of the museum. The 2017 www.polin.pl/en/news/2017/ Museum, said at the ceremony, Special Award was given to the 11/28/the-2017-polin-award- “The POLIN Award allows us Association of “Children of winners-announced to express our gratitude and the Holocaust” in Poland, an

32 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Searching for the Roots of Jewish Traditions XIth Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies. July 15-19, 2018 in Kraków

he Organizing Committee n Libraries, Archives and countries who wish to attend. of the XIth Congress of New Technologies; For further information and TEuropean Association for History of the Book additional inquiries, please Jewish Studies will be held in n Jewish Museology visit http://eajs2018.uj.edu.pl/ Kraków from 15th to 19th of or contact the Organizing n Karaite Studies July 2018. Sample conference Committee: eajs.congress topics will include: n History and Culture of [email protected] n the State of Israel n Ancient Jewish History and Archeology n Jewish-non-Jewish Relations; Antisemitism n Biblical Literature n Talmud, Midrash The conference fees and Rabbinics (excluding accommodation or catering) are € 55.00 for n Medieval and Early EAJS Student Members, Modern Jewish History € 80.00 for EAJS Full and and Literature Associate Members and n  Hebrew Manuscripts € 175.00 for non-members. n Modern and Contemporary In order to qualify for the Jewish History lower congress fee for EAJS n Jewish Mysticism members, membership subscriptions must be paid n Hasidism up to and including 2017. n Yiddish Literature Members in arrears should n Jewish Culture and Arts pay membership fees from 2016. Please note also that n Jewish History in Central- the Organizing Committee Eastern Europe will offer travel bursaries n  Polish-Jewish Heritage to PhD students and early n Holocaust Studies career researchers from lower than median income

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 33 The Poetic Life of Zuzanna Ginczanka

Can you be a refugee in your own country?

n November 21, 2017, Open Republic and OTeatr Polski im. Arnolda Szyfmana hosted their XIII Public Debate, focusing on the question: Can you be a refugee in your own country? The debate was held in memory of Zuzanna Ginczanka, the Polish-Jewish poet who was murdered in the Holocaust. Preceding the debate was a performance of Ginczanka. Żar-Ptak/Fire-Bird, an interdisciplinary artwork that combines elements of theater, music, and visual arts to celebrate Ginczanka’s life and work. Originally premiering in January 2016, the piece was created by Kamilla Baar-Kochańska, Dorota Jarema, Paweł Szamburski, Bożena Keff, Robert Bęza, Marek Gajczak, and Gabi von Seltmann. n From the November 21 performance of Ginczanka. Żar-Ptak/Fire-Bird. Photographs by Gabi von Seltmann. Used with permission.

34 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 POLIN GEOP Conferences and Opportunities

history from the Bible until GLOBAL EDUCATION GEOP Distinguished Lecturer Series today, and consider their impact OUTREACH on Jewish life in various ways, The lecture What is Kabbalah? PROGRAM NEWS including questions regarding by Professor Moshe Idel, The mission of the Global the place and role of women senior research fellow at the Educational Outreach in synagogues, rituals, Jewish Shalom Hartman Institute and Program (GEOP) is to further cemeteries, marital intimacy, the Max Cooper Professor of international exchange in the reproductive medicine, and Jewish Thought at The Hebrew fields of Polish Jewish Studies Jewish demography. University of Jerusalem, is now and Jewish Museum studies. online. To watch the lecture go GEOP is supported by the Evyatar Marienberg is an to: www.polin.pl/en/event/what- Taube Foundation for Jewish Associate Professor in the is-kabbalah-a-lecture-in-the- Life and Culture, the William Department of Religious series-old-and-new-questions K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, and Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the Association of the Jewish Lectures: (USA) presented his work on Historical Institute of Poland. What is the Niddah? November 23, 2017. Niddah is the term used Call For Applications For more information, please Now Open: GEOP in Jewish tradition for a go to: http://www.polin.pl/ Research Fellowships menstruating woman and, by en/event/what-is-niddah- for Doctoral and extension, for menstruation, Postdoctoral Candidates menstrual impurity, laws menstruation-in-judaism-a- related to menstruation, and the lecture-in-the-series Applications and letters like. The word derives from of recommendation for 14 December 2017 - a Hebrew root (ndd/ndh) that 2018/19 should be submitted Professor Federico Gobbo: pertains to “wandering” or by Feb 28, 2018. For more Is it Possible for all People to “exclusion,” suggesting that a information, and to submit Speak the Same Language? menstruating woman should be an application, visit: The Story of Ludwik excluded from the community. www.polin.pl/en/ Zamenhof and Esperanto news/2017/11/02/call-for- The laws of “Niddah” affect While often presented as an applications-geop-research- observant Jews to this day. In utopian dream of the 19th fellowships-for-doctoral-and this presentation, prof. Evyatar Marienberg will explore their century, Esperanto did survive

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 35 two World Wars and it shows on Women in Israel: Myth On the 50th anniversary of a new vitality in the web era. and Reality. March ‘68, POLIN Museum Why did Ludwik Zamenhof of the History of Polish Jews, Doctoral Seminar 2017/18 devote his life in the definition the Institute of History and and Timothy Snyder lecture and launch of this linguistic the Institute of Sociology at project? How did he eventually On October 18, 2017 the third the Warsaw University invite succeed to form a stable edition of the GEOP Doctoral you to an interdisciplinary community of speakers? Seminar was launched. 14 academic conference. doctoral candidates and their Professor Federico Gobbo of supervisors attended the The conference is organized the University of Amsterdam seminar, and had an unique within the Global Education explored the pillars of opportunity to listen to prof. Outreach Program. Zamenhof’s thinking and Timothy Snyder’s lecture on For more details, please see: why his linguistic project the Holocaust History and the http://www.polin.pl/en/conf68 attracted the Esperanto Future of Europe. The lecture pioneers. For details, please was supported by the GEOP. CFA: Greenberg Family see: http://www.polin.pl/en/ The recording of the lecture International Internship event/is-it-possible-for-all- (in Polish only) is available Program people-to-speak-the-same- at: http://www.polin.pl/pl/ language Greenberg Family International wydarzenie/historia-zaglady- Internship Program Interns In January and February i-przyszlosc-europy-wyklad- will spend eight weeks at 2018 POLIN Museum prof-timothy-snydera POLIN Museum, in summer will host two lectures by 2018, working on specific March ’68. Fifty Years distinguished speakers projects related to their Later - International qualifications and interests, On February 1 Elyakim Academic Conference, and to opportunities at POLIN Rubinstein will speak about March 13-15, 2018 Museum. The program is the path to peace that lead Please see related exhibit also supported by the Global to Camp David Accords and announcement Strangers at Education Outreach Program. its aftermaths. Home – the Events of March ‘68 Information on how to apply On February 15 Dr. Sharon in Exhibitions section of can be found here: http://www. Geva will deliver a lecture this issue. Page 45 polin.pl/en/Application-Process

36 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 The deadline for applications The key-note lecture on the 15th Warsaw Festival of is February 16, 2018. principles behind the post-war Films on Jewish Themes gallery at the POLIN Museum – film screenings, 24-30 GEOP supported the was delivered by prof. November, 2017 conference Analysing Stanisław Krajewski. Jewish Europe Today: POLIN Museum was the perspectives from a For the full conference chief partner of the 15th new generation Third program, visit: www.jewish Warsaw Festival of Films Conference of Emerging europe2017.splashthat.com. on Jewish Themes. Researchers, October 23- For more information, go 35, 2017 ASEEES Convention, Chicago, November 11, to: http://www.polin.pl/en/ The conference was aimed at 2017 event/15th-warsaw-festival- analyzing a broad spectrum of of-films-on-jewish-themes- issues pertaining contemporary Revolution of Photography – film-screenings Photography as Revolution: Jewish Europe, covering topics Jewish Topics in Photography Workshops Jewish ABC before and after 1917 session such as: future perspectives for Jewish ABC is a new series by Dr. Michał Trębacz, Jewish Europe, new Jewish of meetings and workshops Dr. Konrad Zieliński, identities, political divisiveness dealing with basic ideas in Dr. Iwona Kurz and Dr. Artur in relationship with Israel, the Judaism and Jewish culture, Markowski chaired by prof. role of Jews and the need of co-organized by the Jewish Antony Polonsky during Jewish voices in European civil Community Centre, Warsaw. society, the development of the 2017 Convention of the Jewish “spaces” – encounters Association for Slavic, East For details go to: http://www. between Jews and non-Jews European, and Eurasian polin.pl/en/event/jewish-abc in contemporary Europe, Studies. as well as anti- and philo- For the full conference semitism. The conference was program, visit: http://www. organized and sponsored by aseees.org/convention/program. JDC International Centre for Community Development (JDC-ICCD) with the additional support of the GEOP.

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 37 EXHIBITIONS Chuck Fishman: Roots, Resilience and Renewal — A Portrait of Polish Jews, 1975-2016. An Interview with the Artist September 17, 2017 – January 7, 2018. Derfner Judaica Museum

urrently on display at the Derfner Judaica Museum, Cin Riverdale, New York, is an exhibition titled Chuck Fishman: Roots, Resilience and Renewal—A Portrait of Polish Jews, 1975-2016. As a college student in the summer of 1975, Fishman traveled to Poland to photograph the remnants of post-Holocaust Polish Jewry. He returned several times between then and 1983, capturing images of Jewish life in Communist Poland—a Woman knitting outside Majdanek concentration camp, wartime forced labor period during which Jews in the and killing center. Lublin, 1975. rest of the world had little or no Image and caption courtesy of Chuck Fishman. access to or awareness of Polish Jewish communities. In 2013, Fishman and Susan Chevlowe, and culture there. The result he returned to Poland to bear Chief Curator and Museum was Polish Jews: The Final witness to the revival of Polish Director at the Derfner Judaica Chapter, which was published Jewish life that he says “would Museum. The exhibition will be by McGraw-Hill and New York have been unthinkable before.” on view until January 7, 2018. University Press in 1977. The His work in the exhibition project also became my first Susan Chevlowe: What depicts over forty years of professional portfolio of printed brought you to Poland in Jewish life in Poland, a range photographs, which I brought to the 1970s? from Soviet-era underground New York City six months later. practice to current-day renewal Chuck Fishman: I was a college With it I met editors, agents and that few single photographers student in the summer of 1975 professional photographers, have been privileged to capture. when I first went to Poland with who helped shape my future What follows is an interview a writer to hopefully produce as a “new” photographer. that originally appeared in the a book on the remains of what One person I sought out, exhibition’s brochure, between we could find of Jewish life Roman Vishniac, who had

38 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 photographed Jewish life in This first trip in 1975 trip in 1975 lasted about six Poland and Eastern Europe lasted about six weeks. weeks. I had no idea if I’d before World War II, was very I had no idea if I’d be be able to get my film out of kind. His favorite photograph the country. Alone, I took an from my original 1975 portfolio able to get my film out overnight train from Katowice was Woman knitting outside of the country. crossing through Communist Majdanek, (above) included Czechoslovakia to Vienna. I in this exhibition. (We later started from western Poland kept my exposed film on the exchanged prints.) The original in the city of Wroclaw. There, bottom of my shoulder bag portfolio was exhibited in New through some literature we somewhat “hidden.” Of course, York City in the late ’70s. had, we eventually found the I was nervous at the border White Stork Synagogue, which crossings where each time SC: What did you find there? was the Jewish epicenter in military officials would come that city. Attached was also a CF: Locked synagogues with through the train to check your study house (beit midrash) and broken windows; sometimes passport and belongings. If my kitchen. I then felt, for the first desolate cemeteries when film was confiscated, I had only time, that I had a responsibility they could be found; kosher memories and (maybe) notes. to show the rest of the world kitchens in Warsaw, Kraków what was still left as I was SC: Why did you decide to and Wroclaw serving a small now “on the other side of return to Poland? What year did aging population; some Jewish the iron curtain.” Seeing the you first return and what was clubs (Łódź); Friday night or enormity and condition of that your intention for that visit? Shabbat services in Warsaw synagogue, I was overwhelmed How many trips have you made and Kraków; the Yiddish with the realization of what since then and what did you theater in Warsaw—primarily I felt I needed to do. We hope to accomplish? older people on pensions. traveled by bus and train, often CF: I returned to Poland SC: How did you locate the splitting up so I could shoot three-and-a-half years later in Jewish communities? What unaccompanied, and comparing the winter of 1978. My book cities did you visit? How notes later on. The larger cities had come out and I was there did you navigate through we visited included Wrocław, as a working, professional the country? Łódz, Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, photojournalist to photograph and many smaller towns CF: Crossing Communist the country of the then throughout Galicia. This first East Germany by train, we newly-elected Pope John

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 39 Paul II. Again, Poland was a This body of work now I had photographed before. Communist country and there spans four generations I thought I would return to was now interest in the west to Poland someday, when I was of post-Holocaust Polish see this “off the radar” place. much older and the people in As a working photojournalist, Jewry: the survivors my pictures would be gone one needed to work with the being the first generation; and the few younger ones official “Interpress” government assimilated. My thought was their children and grand- agency for access to most I’d photograph some buildings areas. Discreetly and with small children (the “unexpect- or remains and then take out my prints I made to give away, I ed” generation); and older work from the ‘70s and returned to the kosher kitchens, now great-grandchildren, ‘80s to combine with the newer, synagogues and study houses and possibly seek publication. without any official “guide,” growing up as Polish Jews In 1989 with the fall of and saw some of the people aware of their heritage. Communism, history took a from three-and-a-half years very sharp turn and very earlier. Some remembered me, I continued photographing slowly there has been a especially when I gave them a Polish Jews during several reawakening of Jewish life photograph of themselves. working trips from 1978–1983, and culture in Poland. I also saw, and photographed, archiving the negatives and After a 30-year hiatus I returned children learning Hebrew. My contact sheets. I felt I was in 2013, then again in 2014 next trip a few months later helping to capture and preserve, and 2016. It’s a fascinating was during a Passover seder for future generations, the story of renewal that’s going on in Warsaw’s kosher kitchen. last of a 1,000-year history there now. I’ve photographed I met a few young Jews (my of Jewish life in Poland. I in schools, in synagogues, age or younger), who were was in Poland to photograph daily life and events, large actors in the Yiddish theater. I both of Pope John Paul II’s and small, including a decided that I would not seek trips in 1979 and 1983, and wedding, ritual circumcision to publish any of these “newer” spent time with Lech Wałęsa (brit milah), funeral, Jewish pictures. Under Communism and the Solidarity trade union [Culture Festival], conversions I didn’t want any of my work in 1980. I always, quietly, to Judaism of those who to possibly have negative would seek out the Jewish have discovered or are just effects on the lives of the few community to photograph and now discovering their Jewish younger people in my pictures. give small gift prints to those

40 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 roots—many aspects of contemporary life today. This body of work now spans four generations of post-Holocaust Polish Jewry: the survivors being the first generation; their children and grandchildren (the “unexpected” generation); and now great-grandchildren, growing up as Polish Jews aware of their heritage.

SC: In your Polish Jews: The Final Chapter, a great many of your photographs were of Chess players at the Jewish Club in Łódź. The mural, completed in 1960 by places—for example, architec- Adam (Aron) Muszka and no longer extant, depicts the Holocaust. Łódź, 1975. Image and caption courtesy of Chuck Fishman. ture, Talmudic academies, Yeshivas and synagogue build- CF: The book was a collection I feel that certain elements ings, most of them abandoned, of all that we could find and have come together in a frame, and cemeteries. This is quite document at the time. It was the nuances of expression and different from the photographs important to show the places reality that shape a story, and in we’ve chosen for this exhi- and architecture as those could turn, move the viewer in some bition; for example, we have vanish (in fact, the Jewish fundamental way. only two cemetery images, Club in Łódź did, after I SC: Can you speak to your one old and one new, and the had photographed two men relationship with your subjects? synagogues are now filled with playing chess in front of Adam Were you able to keep in celebrations of Jewish rituals Muszka’s mural before it was touch? Did you find any of and traditions. And there is destroyed [above]; the building your original subjects when quite an emphasis on portraits. became condominiums). My you returned? Can you talk about your interest primary interest in photography in portraiture over architecture has always revolved around CF: I have with a few. In fact or landscape in relationship to people. I enjoy capturing a the picture of Jerzy Kichler these images? specific moment in time when with his mom in her kitchen

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 41 from 1983 was one that I gave him when we met again in Wroclaw at a Jewish wedding in 2014.

SC: Can you reflect on Polish Jews: The Final Chapter? Does the significance of the book change now that Jewish communal life in Poland is in a state of renewal? How does it remain meaningful?

CF: The book’s significance continues, albeit with fresh Burlesque artist Anna Ciszewska (Betty Q), 28, backstage with her mother Joanna. implications, especially when Anna’s Jewish roots are through her mother’s father. Warsaw, June 2014. considering the broader scope Image and caption courtesy of Chuck Fishman. of historical context. Its This interview is reprinted with immediate importance lies in as the finale to 1,000 years of permission from a brochure the fact that it reveals both the Jewish life in Poland. In larger produced in conjunction conditions and what was left terms, I think that, as much as with the exhibition in 1975, seven years after the it is an invaluable chronicle Chuck final government purge in 1968 of a vanished past, the book Fishman: Roots, Resilience and of Jews from Poland. That serves equally as a cornerstone Renewal––A Portrait of Polish , at Derfner action led to the majority of of, and a counterpoint to, Jews, 1975–2016 Judaica Museum, Riverdale, middle-aged or younger Polish my recent work, affording New York, September 17, 2017– Jews with families leaving the me the unique opportunity January 7, 2018. country by giving up Polish to revisit what was, by all citizenship, becoming stateless accounts, an epilogue in Jewish RiverSpringHealth.org/art. and declaring they would be history, to thereby redefine More of Chuck Fishman’s work going to Israel. They went the narrative—a stunning is on display on his website: primarily to Israel, Scandinavia about-face in history—and to www.chuckfishman.com. and the US. The remaining illuminate one of hope and n Jews thought of themselves future possibilities.

42 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Montages. Debora Vogel and the New Legend of the City at Muzeum Sztuki October 27, 2017 - February 4, 2018. Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland

n exhibition titled Montages. Deborah AVogel and the New Legend of the City is currently on display at Muzeum Sztuki, a modern art museum in Łódz, Poland. According to the museum’s website, the exhibition, curated by Andrij Bojarov, Paweł Polit, and Karolina Szymaniak, focuses on three concepts: first, montage, the avant- garde practice of compiling and comibing, present in a variety of art forms, such as Illustration by Marek Włodarski from Debora Vogel’s 1936 book Akacje kwitną. cubist collages, constructivist Used with permision of Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi. installations, surrealist works, and film experiments. Second, conflict of the modern city. Léger and William Klein. The the exhibit examines the pre- Lviv is both the geographical exhibition will be on display war avant-garde of Galicia center of the exhibition and until February 4, 2018.” n in which Vogel operated: the center of Vogel’s personal For more information, visit the Artes Group in Lviv, the geography: it’s where she the museum’s website at Krakowska Group, and her produced her most defining www.msl.org.pl/en/ contact with contemporaries artworks and where she was exhibitions/current- like Bruno Schulz, Leon murdered, in August 1942, exhibitions/montages-- Chwistek, and Władysław during the liquidation of the debora-vogel-and-the-new- Strzemiński. In her lifetime, Lviv Ghetto. The exhibition legend-of-the-city,2472.html. Vogel worked to bring the includes the work of several of visual experience of the avant- her Galician contemporaries, garde into Polish and Yiddish as well as several foreign writing. Lastly, the exhibit influences and artists inspired explores the spectacle and by her, such as Fernand

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 43 Blood: Uniting and Dividing, at POLIN Museum October 13, 2017 - January 29, 2018. POLIN Museum

lood courses through the The spectacular sculpture, veins of each and every titled Blood Cinema (2000), Bone of us. It is not merely a will be an autonomous entity, bodily fluid; it is a universal a prologue to the exhibition of symbol of our identity and sorts, and its visual symbol. sense of belonging. What It is the first presentation of is blood? What is its role in Anish Kapoor’s artwork in culture, religion, social life Poland. and medicine? All these issues Joanne Rosenthal, curator are raised by the exhibition of the Blood exhibition Blood. Uniting and Dividing, in London, said: “The which opened at POLIN exhibition Blood: Uniting Museum of the History of and Dividing presents visitors Polish Jews on 13 October with difficult questions and 2017. The exhibition, which A visitor to Blood: Uniting & Dividing takes in Untitled (Permanent Star) deliberately avoids offering was originally produced by by Piotr Unklański. Photograph by straightforward answers,” says Jewish Museum London, will Magda Starowieyska.Used with permission of POLIN Museum. Joanne Rosenthal, curator run until 29 January 2018, of the original exhibition and will be accompanied inside our bodies: the source in London.” The idea that by lectures, workshops, which defines our identity our blood somehow defines performances, film screenings but also yields divisions and us or contains the essence and curator-guided tours. prejudices. The exhibition asks visitors to consider how of who we are still holds The exhibition is a multi- they think of blood, both potency, as demonstrated by threaded story of an physically and metaphorically. the persistence of concepts unusual substance which such as bloodlines and blood has permeated the tradition A special place has been communities.” n and the present of Jewish- reserved for a sculpture by For more information on the Christian relations in its world-renowned artist Anish exhibition’s accompanying religious, historical and social Kapoor, whose artworks are events please visit contexts. It is also a universal on display at MoMA in New www.polin.pl/krew story of the source of motifs York, Tate Modern in London, and values that pulsate and Centre Pompidou in Paris.

44 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 POLIN Museum Marks March 1968 Anniversary with Special Exhibition, Strangers at Home March 9, 2018 - September 24, 2018. POLIN Museum

n June of this year, fifty years will have passed Isince the beginning of the worst antisemitic campaign in post-War Polish history. We are recalling the causes of that campaign, what occurred and its resultant effects. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has prepared a program entitled “Strangers at Home – the Events of March ‘68”.

This program includes specially prepared workshops for youth, classes within the exhibition, relevant walks around Warsaw, a cycle of lectures, discussions, meetings with those who emigrated, film screenings, a live theatre competition, the publishing of selected interviews by Mikołaj Grynberg and an academic conference Postwar Years Gallery, POLIN Museum. Photograph by Magda Starowieyska.Used with convened in conjunction permission of POLIN Museum. with Warsaw University. For more information, please The main event will be a see: http://www.polin.pl/en/ temporary exhibition which estranged-march-68-and-its- n will open on March 9, 2018. aftermath

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 45 Two Arthur Szyk Exhibitions in Kraków: Statute of Kalisz and Haggadah Szyk’s Haggadah: October 23, 2017 - April 2018. Popper Synagogue Statute of Kalisz: October 2017. Palace of Fine Arts

Szyk’s Haggadah displays the 48-page Haggadah Arthur Szyk illustrated and illuminated over six years in the 1930s.

n October, two exhibitions of the work of Polish-Jewish Iillustrator Arthur Szyk opened in Kraków. The first, organized in conjunction with The Third Congress of International Researchers of Polish History (see Conference Report infra.). The exhibition, titled Statut Kaliski, displayed Szyk’s miniature illustrations, including the Statute of Kalisz, the set of privileges granted to Polish Jews in 1264, and from which the exhibit received its title. The exhibit, at the Page from Arthur Szyk’s Haggadah, 1940. From the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Palace of Fine Arts, was only Collection of the Judah L. Magnes Jewish Museum at U.C. Berkeley. on display for three weeks in Used with permission. October. at the Popper Synagogue on Haggadah, produced over six Still on view for the public is Szeroka Street. Szyk’s Haggadah years, was printed in 1939 and Szyk’s Haggadah, an exhibit displays the 48-page Haggadah bound and published in 1940. organized by Austeria and which Szyk illustrated and The exhibition at the Popper Klezmerhois, with the help of illuminated in his signature Synagogue was opened on Dr. Aleksander Skotnicki and ornamentation style, drawing October 23, and will continue to Paulina Najbar, and housed from Medieval codices. The be on view until April 2018. n

46 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Co-Edited by BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS Eliyana Adler Assistant Professor of History and Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Jewish Studies, Penn State University Volume 30 Jewish Education Dr. Antony Polonsky Chief Historian in Eastern Europe POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

n emphasis on education academic or practical subjects eastern Europe, and the has long been a with equal attention. In so degree to which this vision Asalient feature of the Jewish doing, it sheds light not only interacted with forces within experience. The pervasive on schools and students, but and external to Jewish society. presence of schools and also on informal educators, In this way they highlight teachers, books and libraries, youth groups, textbooks, and the interrelationship between and youth movements, even in numerous other devices through Jewish educational endeavors, an environment as tumultuous which the mutual relationship the Jewish community, and as that of nineteenth- and between education and Jewish external economic, political, twentieth-century eastern society is played out. It also and social forces. n Europe, is clear from the places male and female historical records. Historians education on a par with each of the early modern and other, and considers with equal modern era frequently point attention students of all ages, to the centrality of educational religious backgrounds, and institutions and pursuits within social classes. Jewish society, yet the vast The essays in this volume majority treat them as merely span two centuries of Jewish a reflection of the surrounding history, from the Austrian and culture. Only a small number Russian empires to the Second note how schools and teachers Republic of Poland and the could contribute in dynamic Polish People’s Republic. The ways to the shaping of local approach is interdisciplinary, communities and cultures. with contributors treating their This volume addresses this gap subject from fields as varied in the portrayal of the Jewish as east European cultural past by presenting education history, gender studies, and as an active and potent force language politics. Collectively, for change. It moves beyond they highlight the centrality a narrow definition of Jewish of education in the vision of education by treating formal numerous Jewish individuals, and informal training in groups, and institutions across

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 47 Footprints and Footsteps. Jason Francisco Re-Imagines Jewish Heritage Europe Presence in Absence

he writer and Could I create a process of the walked space so as to photographer Jason looking capable of conjuring create a space of conceptual TFrancisco has written a that which was not there to projection in which the lost powerful text-and-photo be seen––a visual method structure can dwell in the essay called “Footprints that could counter absence? imagination. and Footsteps” centering on My strategy involved three The issue of how to mark his attempts to re-imagine simple actions: determining the site of a synagogue or destroyed synagogues (or the footprint of the non- other building is one that has another building) by closely existent building; walking been discussed and debated exploring the space — in many that footprint; making for decades — one of the ways now a void — on which photographs that would cast sites Francisco explores is they stood. He writes: the gaze into and through

The site of the barn in the Jedwabne, Poland, where, in 1941, 40 local men locked 340 of their Jewish neighbors in a wooden barn and set it on fire. Jason walked around the inside of the perimeter of the barn’s site and shot photos in the direction of the opposite border. He then stood in the middle of the barn and took photos in the directions of all four corners. Used with permission of Jason Francisco.

48 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 the site of the destroyed Great Synagogue complex in Vilnius, now partially covered by a school. Archaeological excavations as currently under way there, and a conference on how to commemorate the site was held in early September.

There have been various solutions — the outline of the destroyed synagogue in Frankfurt, Germany was traced on the ground. The bimah, the only part of the The steps of the Protestant Church in Vilnius, Lithuania, was built between 1830 and 1835. In the 1950s, the building’s front steps were replaced with headstones synagogue in Tarnów, Poland, from the city’s old Jewish cemetery. Hebrew inscriptions were sandblasted off the that survives, also stands in stones, but some are still partially visible. Image and caption courtesy of Jason Francisco. a space that traces the pre- Holocaust footprint. And Jedwabne, Poland where local Read Jason’s entire essay the destroyed sanctuary of Jews were herded and burned at www.jasonfrancisco.net/ the Oranianburgerstrasse to death by their neighbors footprints-and-footsteps. synagogue in Berlin was in 1941. He then took left open, while the ruined photographs of the site from front part of the building various angles — locating was restored: a glass wall those angles on the map. n separates them. In his essay, Francisco used maps and old Excerpted and re-printed with pictures to locate the site of permission from the Jewish three destroyed buildings: the Heritage Europe website: Great Synagogue in Vilnius, http://jewish-heritage-europe. the synagogue in Stawiski, eu/2017/09/26 Poland, and the barn in

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 49 On Mother and Fatherland . by Bozena Keff

he much-anticipated connection between patriotism English-language and hatred for what is Ttranslation of Bożena Keff’s foreign. Bożena Keff’s book masterpiece, On Motherland is an example of an unusual and Fatherland (Utwór expression of hatred for the o matce i ojczyźnie), was mother-fatherland.” published this year by Mad In his review of the original Hat Press. Translated by Polish edition, Przemysław acclaimed translators Alissa Czapliński wrote: “[W]e Valles and Benjamin Paloff, may regard this as the the autobiographical, book- Polish version of Art length poem is described as Spiegelman’s Maus—in a cross between an opera, its form, an excellent and a tragedy and an oratorio. utterly unexpected version. Through the mixed voices of Such a comparison is not the Narrator, mother Meter, Jacket image for On Mother and about imitation, nor about and the Chorus, Keff tells “the Fatherland by Bożena Keff. formal similarity, but about life stories of a Polish Jewish something essential for both mother who has survived the the Mother, has no right to authors: the child-artist’s Holocaust, and her daughter, suffer nor to her own separate struggle with the historical whom the Mother has trapped existence. The daughter experience represented by in her own suffering. She lived seeks her release above all the parent. A struggle for through it, and so her suffering through art. The mixture one’s own identity, for the is without doubt, her sense of anti-Semitic drivel that right to one’s own life, for a of her place within history appears tangled throughout way out of the mausoleum goes without question, the proves that xenophobia of the Holocaust. A struggle proof of her right to existence is the cement binding the played out in the arena of art.” is indisputable,” writes the Polish fatherland community (http://www.bookinstitute. UK Polish Cultural Institute. together. To construct the pl/ksiazki-detal,literatura- “She has had a daughter in motherland differently one polska,7099,piece-about-a- defiance of oblivion and the needs narratives that express mother-and-the-fatherland-- Holocaust, so the child, unlike this murky, albeit sturdy, a.html)

50 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Keff and her book represented regularly to Poland’s leading Poland in this year’s European magazines and has worked as Literature Night, one of six a researcher at the Emanuel authors from six countries Ringelblum Jewish Historical (including Italy, the Czech Institute and lectured Republic, Poland, Latvia, in gender studies at the Austria and Flanders), who University of Warsaw. gathered in London’s British Library to read their works. About the Translators Alissa Valles’s poetry The original Polish edition of volumes include Orphan On Mother and Fatherland Fire (2008) and Anastylosis was shortlisted for the Nike (2014). She edited and co- Literary Award and the Cogito translated Zbigniew Herbert’s Literary Award. The book Collected Poems (2007) and was also staged as a theater Collected Prose (2010). She production in Wrocław by also translated Anna Bikont’s director Jan Klata. The Crime and the Silence, About the Author which received the National Jewish Book Council Award Bożena Keff is a lecturer, in 2015. poet, writer, columnist, and feminist activist, living in Benjamin Paloff is author Warsaw where she was born of And His Orchestra and in 1948. In addition to three The Politics, and Lost in previous books of poetry, she the Shadow of the Word is the author, most recently, of (Space, Time, and Freedom Anti-Semitism: An Unfinished in Interwar Eastern Europe). History (2013) and (as His translations include Bożena Umińska) Figure with Richard Weiner’s The Game Shadow: Portraits of Jewish for Real. He teaches at the n Women in Polish Literature University of Michigan. (2001). She contributes

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 51 New Releases and Radical, teen, diverse. On the ideas of Jewish Book Events modernity on the basis of books by Kamil Kijek and Michal/ Trebacz, November 30, 2017 discussion inspired by / A Diary from the Lódz´ two books dedicated to Ghetto – book launch AJewish youth and to political in the series POLIN differences within the interwar Reading Room, Jewish community took place November 27, 2017 on November 30, 2017, at the Rywka’s Diary: The Writings POLIN Museum of the History of a Jewish Girl from the of Polish Jews. The books were Dzieci modernizmu. Preserving Jewish Lodz Ghetto. Edited by Świadomość, kultura i Heritage in Poland, Ewa Wiatr socjalizacja polityczna Volume 2 diary of Rywka Lipszyc młodzieży żydowskiej w II seems to be a classic he Foundation for the A Rzeczypospolitej (in English: Preservation of Jewish teenager’s diary, and yet Children of Modernism: the reality in which it was THeritage in Poland (FODZ) Awareness, culture and written is far from ordinary, announces Volume 2 of their political socialization of as described by the book’s freely available publication Jewish youth in the Second editor, Ewa Wiatr. on their many important Polish Republic) by Dr. Kamil restoration projects in Poland The Polish edition of the book Kijek (University of Wrocław) and Izrael Lichtenstein. between 2002 and 2017. A was published by Austeria Biografia żydowskiego free download of the volume, with the cooperation of POLIN socjalisty (in English: Izrael by Lesław Piszewski, Museum. Thanks to the support Lichtenstein: Biography of a President of the Union of of the Koret Foundation, the Jewish Socialist) by Dr. Michał book is being distributed Jewish Religious Communities Trębacz (head of the Research and promoted among Polish in the Republic of Poland, is Department, POLIN Museum). available at the following link: teachers. The lesson on this The discussion included both http://fodz.pl/download/e- landmark publication is also authors and was moderated album_Dziedzictwo_2017.pdf going to be published on by Dr. Artur Markowski IWitness portal of the USC (POLIN Museum, University n Shoah Foundation. of Warsaw). For more information visit: For details, please see: http:// http://www.polin.pl/en/event/ www.polin.pl/en/event/radical- a-diary-from-the-lodz-ghetto- teen-diverse-on-the-ideas-of- a-meeting-in-the-series-polin jewish-modernity-on-the

52 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 Sendlerwowa W ukryciu Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2017 (Sendler In Hiding) [Editor’s Note: This book will be By Anna Bikont reviewed in the Spring issue of Gazeta]

n 2001, a group of gave shelter and those who American students came sought shelter. Ito Poland to write a play It is a story about about a Pole who saved extraordinary Polish women Jewish children during the and hundreds of children war.After years of oblivion, saved by them. n Irena Sendlerowa became a media hero and a symbol of An exceptional, wise, all those who had the courage to oppose evil. important book - written with great respect for To organize the rescue of Jewish children, Sendlerowa historical truth and and her team needed an with great understanding efficient system, money and a for people. network of people involved, willing to risk their lives. - Dr. Barbara Engelking, Jacket image for Sendlerowa. W Ukryciu [Sendler: In Hiding] by As Professor Bartoszewski Center for Holocaust Anna Bikont. recalled, “it was easier to find Studies, Polish Academy a flat to store a weapon chest of Sciences, Warsaw than to hide one Jew.” https://czarne.com.pl/katalog/ Irena Sendlerowa, a woman ksiazki/sendlerowa who undoubtedly did great things, deserving of admiration, and in the most difficult times, emerges slowly in this book among a group of people who have joined together the fate of the rescuers and those who have been saved, those who

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 53 OBITUARY Dr. Antony Polonsky Remembering Charles Chief Historian POLIN Museum of the (Charlie) Merrill History of Polish Jews 1920-2017

harles (usually known On December 4, 2017 Charlie was an accomplished Cas ‘Charlie) Merrill, the he was to be awarded author of five books and a son of Charles E. Merrill, the Jerzy Giedroyc painter. Determined to find one of the founders of the an outlet for his humanitarian Merrill Lynch & Co banking prize of the Instyut principles in education, he co- firm, died on 29 November Literacki. Sadly, he founded the Thomas Jefferson 2017 at his home in Nowy did not live to receive School in 1946, a small co- Sącz. A longstanding the very well-deserved educational and international member of the Board of the boarding and day school in American Association for honor. St. Louis. In 1957, he put Polish-Jewish Studies, he his educational principles about privilege, a sense of graduated from Harvard, but into action in the Boston the fragility of civilization decided not to join his father’s Commonwealth School, and culture, and sympathy firm. Alarmed by the rise of where, as founder, he served for oppressed people.” In Nazism, he decided to see its as Headmaster until 1981. Germany, he encountered a impact at first hand, traveling Charlie frequently funded teenage Jewish survivor of widely in Poland in 1939, the tuition of those unable to Auschwitz, Bernat Rosner, where he developed a strong do so, following the school’s whom he brought to the United sympathy for the country strongly humanistic character, States. With Charlie’s support and also for its fellow Jewish which was reflected in Joseph he graduated from Harvard citizens. He gave an account Addison’s school hymn, Law School and became of his European travels The Spacious Firmament General Counsel of Safeway in his book The Journey: on High, with its evocation Stores, the grocery story chain Massacre of the Innocents of the principles of the founded by Charlie’s father. (Cambridge, MA, 1996). Enlightenment. The symbol of Rosner told this story in the During the Second World the school, the Warsaw Syrena book he wrote with with the War, he served in the Fifth (mermaid) reflected Charlie’s former Hitler Youth member, US Army in North Africa, Polish interests. These also Frederic Tubach, Uncommon Italy and Germany, which found expression in his support Friendship: From Opposite in the words of the obituary for the Paris-based Instytut Sides of the Holocaust written for the Commonwealth Literacki and his friendship (University of California School which he founded, with Czesław Miłosz. Charlie Press, 2001). “instilled in him ambivalence gave an account of how he

54 n GAZETA VOLUME 25, NO. 1 saw the school in his book with Polish citizenship who The Walled Garden: The Story was then working at SPLOT, of a School (Rowan Tree an independent middle and Press, 1982). high school in Nowy Sącz. He bought a small apartment As Chairman of the Charles in Nowy Sącz where he now E. Merrill Trust, the charitable spent a significant part of the foundation named after his year and where he established father, he helped to endow scholarships for able students Merrill College at the at the SPLOT school. In 2002, University of California, he was awarded the Officers Santa Cruz. He also served Cross of the Order of Merit for more than fifteen years as by the Polish government. On the Chairman of the Board December 4, 2017 he was to of Trustees of Morehouse be awarded the Jerzy Giedroyc College, a historically black prize of the Instyut Literacki. college in in Atlanta and Sadly, he did not live to receive also served on the Boards of the very well-deserved honor. Marlboro College in Vermont He will be sorely missed. n and Hampshire College in western Massachusetts. In A short obituary appeares on addition, he provided financial the homepage of Małopolskie support for the Palacky Towarzystwo Oświatowe, University of Olomouc in the the organization that founded Czech Republic and for Polish SPLOT: www.mto.org.pl/pl/ students in the United States.

The father of five adult children, he was married to Mary K. Merrill for more than 50 years until her death in 1999. Subsequently he married Julie Boudreaux, an American

GAZETA FALL 2017/WINTER 2018 n 55 Backstage at the Yiddish Theater. Actress Etel Szyk in hooded shawl. Warsaw 1980. Photograph by Chuck Fishman. 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 17, 2018.

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