Lelov: Cultural Memory and a Jewish Town in Poland
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University of Bradford eThesis This thesis is hosted in Bradford Scholars – The University of Bradford Open Access repository. Visit the repository for full metadata or to contact the repository team © University of Bradford. This work is licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence. Lelov: cultural memory and a Jewish town in Poland. Investigating the identity and history of an ultra - orthodox society. Lucja MORAWSKA Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social and International Studies University of Bradford 2012 i Lucja Morawska Lelov: cultural memory and a Jewish town in Poland. Investigating the identity and history of an ultra - orthodox society. Key words: Chasidism, Jewish History in Eastern Europe, Biederman family, Chasidic pilgrimage, Poland, Lelov Abstract. Lelov, an otherwise quiet village about fifty miles south of Cracow (Poland), is where Rebbe Dovid (David) Biederman founder of the Lelov ultra-orthodox (Chasidic) Jewish group, - is buried. His grave is now a focal point of the Chasidic pilgrimages. The pilgrims themselves are a Chasidic hodgepodge, dressed in fur-brimmed hats, dreadlocked, and they all come to Lelov for the same reasons: to pray, love, and eat with their brethren. The number of pilgrims has grown exponentially since the collapse of Communism in Poland in 1989; today about three hundred ultra-orthodox Jews make a trek. Mass pilgrimage to kevorim (Chasidic graves), is quite a new phenomenon in Eastern Europe but it has already became part of Chasidic identity. This thesis focuses on the Chasidic pilgrimage which has always been a major part of the Jewish tradition. However, for the past fifty years, only a devoted few have been able to undertake trips back to Poland. With the collapse of Communism, when the sites in Eastern and Central Europe became more open and much more accessible, the ultra-orthodox Jews were among the first to create a ‘return movement’. Those who had been the last to leave Poland in search of asylum are now becoming the initiators of the re-discovery of Jewish symbols in this part of the world. ii Aknowledgments. Completing a PhD is truly a marathon, and I would not have been able to complete this journey without the aid and support of countless people over the four seven years. I must first express my gratitude towards my supervisors Doctor Martyn Housden and late Professor John Hiden. I thank them for their time and expertise that they invested into processing this work as well as for, so much needed, steering me towards the ‘straight and narrow’. They allowed me freedom of movement and thought in the structure of this work and only corrected when it was necessary for the improvement of this thesis. The contributions of this work would be diminished without their astute supervision. I also would like to thank the people of Lelov, both Polish and Chasidic Throughout the years I have heard ideas and have been inspired by a number of people and feel indebted to them for their existence and their contribution in moulding me, even if they themselves have not known this. Their experiences and memories provided me with many details that unquestionably helped to create this work. Finally, I would like to express gratitude to my family, for their continuous encouragement, especially my late grandmother Zofia who has supported me over the years believing that education is the first step on the way to human perfection. Through the colourful memories of the pre-war Poland, her Chasidic neighbours and their encounters, she had inspired me to research this subject. iii Table of Contents Abstract.........................................................................................................ii Aknowledgments...........................................................................................iii List of Appendices.........................................................................................vi Preface ........................................................................................................ vii Introduction .................................................................................................. x Chapter One. Le-dor va-dor – small returns..................................................1 1.1 The origins of Lelov’s Chasidic pilgrimage…………………………..........2 1.2 A day in Lelov. Lelov and Pilgrimage....................................................13 1.3 Chasidic tales: Lelov’s stories and Martin Buber’s literal interpretations..............................................................................................28 1. 4 Polish - Chasidic relation in Lelov.........................................................32 Chapter Two. Historical aspects of Jewish settlement in Lelov............................................................................................................39 2.1 The Jews and the challenges of a mediaeval community.....................39 2.2 The lights of a modern era. Lelov in the seventeenth to nineteenth century.........................................................................................................57 2.3 The historical and social facts about the development of the Chasidic movement. From a general to a local landscape.........................................69 Chapter Three. Emergence and Growth. Rebbe Dovid of Lelov (1745- 1814) and the foundation of the Lelov dynasty............................................80 3.1 A hidden past. The discovery of tzadick’s grave in Lelov......................80 3.2 The first tzadick.....................................................................................93 Chapter Four. Moshe Biederman and his journey to Israel.......................115 4.1 Moshe Biederman. Early years and his Chasidic succession.............116 iv 4.2 The Aliyah. Moshe Biederman and his journey...................................128 4.3 The Jerusalem of Moshe Biederman...................................................135 Chapter Five. Lelov - a tree with many branches......................................152 5.1 Rebbe Eleazar Menachem Mendel and the Chasidic settlement in Israel..........................................................................................................153 5.2 The dynasty continued. Rebbe Dovid Tzvi Biederman and his successors in Israel. .................................................................................165 5.3 Chasidic Pillars of Torah.The Lelov dynasty in America......................179 5.4 Lelov today..........................................................................................189 Conclusion.................................................................................................195 Glossary.....................................................................................................203 Appendices................................................................................................207 Bibliography...............................................................................................235 v List of Appendices. 1. Extracts from the Interview in Lelov................................................207 2. Extract from ‘Sefer Kodesh Hilulim’................................................227 3. Donor’s Certificate..........................................................................229 4. Map of Lelov...................................................................................230 5. Extract from ‘The Tribe of Lelov’.....................................................231 6. ‘Strange world of the Chassidim’....................................................232 7. Selected genealogy of the Biederman family.................................233 8. Table of toponymes........................................................................234 vi Preface. Lelov is, arguably, one of the least known Chasidic forces in Judaism today. Its history indicates, however, that it should be otherwise. Understanding how the past, leadership and a social dynamic can contribute to discovering why a once illustrious dynasty has been gradually vanishing into the Chasidic melting pot of Israel and America is crucial. Historic experiences of aliyah, the immigration of Jews to Israel, followed by establishing a first Chasidic ‘court’ in Jerusalem and, later, in America as well as renewing a Jewish pilgrimage movement in Poland, put the Lelov dynasty back on the Chasidic map. This drew the attention of ordinary, local people to traditions and customs that otherwise might have been forgotten long ago. This contribution is particularly timely today, as many contemporary ultra- orthodox groups, for example Braclav or Ger (Gora Kalwaria) are becoming involved in regular pilgrimage movements rediscovering their European roots. I began this work in 2008 with two goals in mind: to look for traces of Jewish life in a rural district of Lelov and to examine the origin of modern Chasidic pilgrimage movement in Eastern Europe. I wanted to understand how Jewish history started in Lelov, but perhaps more importantly, how it continues to be written today. Therefore, I undertook my field research in the region of Lelov, in the Polish Upper Silesia County. My research relied heavily on the Chasidic sources, some never published. These key internal documents, among them ‘The Lelov Tribe’, provided crucial historical data as well as helped to shed light on the state of internal vii Chasidic affairs. Extracts from those documents are provided in appendices.