E.M. Lilien, “The Jewish May”

Volume 23, No. 3 Gazeta Summer 2016

A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial & Design: Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Dr. Antony Polonsky, Shana Penn, Vera Hannush, Alice Lawrence, Maayan Stanton, LaserCom Design. Front Cover: E.M. Lilien, “The Jewish May.” Back Cover: Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Bychawa

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from Irene Pipes ...... 2

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

FEATURE STORY Bruno Schulz, Ephraim Moses Lilien, and the Archaeology of Polish Jewish Modernism Dr. Karen Underhill ...... 4

SCHOLARSHIP A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step: Inaugural Doctoral Seminar of the Global Education Outreach Program at POLIN Museum Dr. Marcin Wodziński ...... 8

EXHIBITION Ringelblum Archive Exhibition to Open at the Jewish Historical Institute in November 2017 Dr. Paweł Śpiewak ...... 10

RECENT CONFERENCES AND RESOURCES POLIN Museum Jewish Cultural Heritage Conference, June 8-10 Dr. Małgorzata Owczarska ...... 12

New Maps of Jewish Warsaw and Jewish Wrocław ...... 13

Nomadic Shtetl Archive Travels through Poland Maayan Stanton ...... 14

EVENTS AAPJS Hosts POLIN Museum Director Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 16

Matan Shefi, Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center (Warsaw), in SF Bay Area Maayan Stanton...... 18 MILESTONES AND AWARDS Marian Turski Turns 90 ...... 19

Maia Ipp Awarded Polish Fellowship ...... 20

COMMEMORATIONS The 70th Anniversary of the Kielce Pogrom Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 21

Reflections on Jedwabne and the Importance of Memory Jonathan A. Greenblatt ...... 22

BOOK REVIEW Pani Stefa by Magdalena Kicińska Review by Paweł Łukasiewicz and Maayan Stanton ...... 25

NEW PUBLICATIONS Chasing Portraits: A Great-Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy by Elizabeth Rynecki ...... 27

The Marriage Plot: Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature by Dr. Naomi Seidman ...... 28

UPCOMING EVENTS ...... 29

CALL FOR PAPERS Museums and Their Publics at Sites of Conflicted History: International Conference, March 13-15, 2017, POLIN Museum, Warsaw ...... 31

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Fall 2016 Auschwitz Jewish Center Program for Students Abroad ...... 33

OBITUARIES Ben-Zion Gold: July 26, 1923-April 18, 2016 Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 34

Remembering Elie Wiesel: A Tribute From a Friend and Disciple Menachem Z. Rosensaft ...... 36

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

Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta

Dear Members and Friends,

My letter today is dedicated to thoughts about Ben-Zion Gold, who died April 18, 2016. Our friendship goes back to the ’60s, when he first came to Harvard. He had miraculously survived being burned with the rest of his family in a Nazi concentration camp. He felt that he could no longer observe all he was taught by his father in order to be a Jew, and for a while even ate pork. But after some months he realized he was punishing himself, and when he was adopted by an American family in 1947, he took their name, Gold, and decided to become a rabbi. His first and only job was to head the Harvard Hillel, which at that time was located in a small house on Bryant Street. Irene Pipes

I got to know him because we shared the country of our birth. He pretended not to know Polish but later insisted on speaking Polish to me. He knew I felt strongly as a Jew, but never insisted on my becoming observant. He bought a modest house not far from my cottage in New Hampshire, where he came whenever he could get away. We used to take endless walks in the woods, discussing plans for the future. We never missed picking mushrooms, a thing every child in Poland was used to doing.

Whenever my parents came to visit, Ben was there. During those years he decided Hillel had to grow and needed a proper building. He and my father discussed how to raise funds, and my father was the first to contribute. At the opening of Rosovsky Hall in 1994, my mother was honored.

In the past few years I saw how quickly Ben had deteriorated. He developed a problem with directions and memory, but in his own house, he read, cooked for himself, and still spoke Polish to me. I saw him for the last time at the Rosh Hashanah service two years ago, when he recited the traditional blessing before the sounding of the shofar.

I miss him very much.

Irene Pipes President

2 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Message from Chairman and Executive Director Tad Taube and of the Taube Foundation for Shana Penn Jewish Life & Culture

n this issue we mark the passing of two great souls who have helped define Jewish life and perspectives for more than half a century. Elie IWiesel and Ben-Zion Gold witnessed the enormity of the Holocaust and still found the strength to embrace life and the future. For Ben-Zion Gold, the future meant becoming a rabbi and directing the Harvard Hillel, where he inspired generations of students and colleagues. For Elie Wiesel, the future was filled with teaching, speaking, and writing about the full and humane measure of life for Jews and indeed all the world.

“Elie was a good Their lives have guided us as we seek Tad Taube friend. I first met him meaning and fulfillment in the world that has emerged since the Holocaust. on the occasion of the This issue of Gazeta reports some of the Koret Prize, which remarkable developments in that world. was awarded to him It highlights new developments in Polish Jewish Studies, from our feature story in 2007, when I served on Polish Jewish modernism to the new as president of the doctoral seminar program established as Koret Foundation. part of the Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) at POLIN Museum. I was proud that Koret This issue delves into the role of memory recognized Elie Wiesel during powerful commemorations at as the voice and the Kielce and Jedwabne, and includes Shana Penn announcements of recently published conscience of the works by Elizabeth Rynecki and Jewish people.” Dr. Naomi Seidman on searching for the lost art of a Polish-Jewish great-grandfather and the —Tad Taube evolution of Jewish love and marriage, respectively.

These stories are much more than news items. As Ben-Zion Gold and Elie Wiesel would surely agree, they acknowledge Jewish life and culture of the past and augur well for its future.

Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 3 FEATURE STORY Dr. Karen Underhill Bruno Schulz, Ephraim Moses Assistant Professor Department of Slavic & Baltic Lilien, and the Archaeology of Languages & Literatures Polish Jewish Modernism University of Illinois at Chicago

This article is excerpted from of Polish modernisms has a talk delivered at the 3rd been severely restricted by International Polish Jewish our lack of access to, and Studies Workshop, held April knowledge of, the Jewish 10-12, 2016 at the University realities out of which so of Illinois at Chicago. many of the seminal works of Polish modernism arose: his paper offers an the Jewish cultural contexts introduction to a and questions that informed Tremarkable, previously the work of canonical Polish unknown piece of writing Jewish writers like Bolesław by one of Poland’s leading Leśmian, Julian Tuwim, Jan Cover, Lieder des Ghetto (Songs modernist prose writers, the of the Ghetto) by Morris Rosenfeld, Brzechwa, Antoni Słonimski, Galician Jewish artist Bruno illustrated by E.M. Lilien, 1902 Janusz Korczak, Aleksander Schulz. Entitled simply “E.M. Wat, and Bruno Schulz. With Lilien” and published in Since 1989…the the destruction of Polish 1937 in a local Drohobycz Jewishness of the Polish Jewish communities, and a newspaper, the essay offers landscape, and of Polish- large portion of the Polish- a lengthy discussion of the language modernist speaking Jewish readership artwork of Drohobycz-born of modern Polish literature writing, is becoming artist Ephraim Moses Lilien, written by Jewish authors, the best known for his Zionist- more accessible. multi-voiced nature of this themed graphic works in Schulz’s aesthetic project – as literature, and its complex the secessionist style. As a form of participation in the resonances with Jewish the first known document in Jewish Renaissance of the early hermeneutic and theological which Bruno Schulz openly 20th century, and a contribution tradition, have slipped out of presents his views on the to the development of Jewish reach, or at the very least, out contemporary political, modernism both in interwar of the dominant discourse on cultural, and spiritual concerns Poland and internationally. Polish modernism. of his Jewish generation in Poland and Eastern Europe, the The discovery of the Lilien Since 1989, as a result of Lilien essay has tremendous article serves to highlight the several factors – the increasing significance for understanding fact that our understanding recovery of knowledge about

4 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 the Jewish past of Poland; When I was not yet 14 years powerful fertilization of my the growing study of Jewish old, my elder brother brought internal world, that revealed languages in Poland and of to me one day Lieder des itself in an early, youthful Ghetto, an illustrated book by and clumsy creativity. Yiddish language worldwide; Ephraim Moses Lilien, and the East European turn in gave it to me with the words: The book that Schulz’s elder Jewish Studies, and a renewed have a look at this, I borrowed brother Izydor brought to interest in diasporism – the it for you, but I have to return him that day – if indeed this Jewishness of the Polish it this evening. significantly autobiographical landscape, and of Polish- Schulz goes on: opening, which reads like a language modernist writing, is real-world version of events becoming more accessible. I took it indifferently into my hand, but when I opened later mythicized in the short its cover with the weeping story Księga, is true – was It is in the context of this willow and the harp, I was a 1902 German-language process – that I refer to here dazzled. From the solemn translation by Berthold Feiwel as the archaeology of Polish silence that I suddenly felt of poems by American Yiddish Jewish modernism – that within myself I knew that I poet Morris Rosenfeld, one I would like to extend my stood at the threshold of a of the so-called “sweatshop discussion of the Jewish great and decisive experience, and with a kind of fearful poets” of New York City’s sources and contexts for joy I turned the pages of Lower East Side. An Bruno Schulz’s aesthetic that great book, intoxicated expression of the Cultural project, by drawing attention and happy, advancing from Zionist project of Jewish to a previously unknown and delight to delight. artistic renewal promoted by major piece of writing that I spent that entire day over Martin Buber, it was lavishly resurfaced in late 2015 as a Lilien’s book, enchanted, illustrated by Ephraim Moses result of recent advances in unable to tear myself away Lilien. A native of Drohobycz the digitization of interwar from it, its interiors filled with and 20 years Schulz’s senior, Polish periodicals. The the pathos of shining black Lilien had become the most article, entitled simply “E.M. and white chords that stood famous and popular Jewish Lilien,” was identified almost forth from the bright quiet of these pages and ornaments. artist of his generation, simultaneously by Ukrainian developing the iconic style researcher Bohdan Lazorak and There took place in me at of Jewish-themed jugendstil, Poznań-based Piotr Sitkiewicz. that time a kind of internal based on Zionist and biblical It opens with these lines: shift. Lilien effected a

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 5 Archaeology of Polish Jewish Modernism, Continued

imagery, that critic Michael Stanislawski has playfully described as Judenstil.

“Lilien was the first spring of my sensitivity,” writes Schulz, “my mystical marriage with art; and it seems that this is the effect that he had on many of my generation.” In the opening of the essay Schulz tells his readers that his own artistic awakening began not only in the “dawn of childhood,” but in the E.M. Lilien, “The Creation of Man” encounter of a young man, in his bar mitzvah year, with Schulz reveals a strong – in other words, in the disposable margins of the a new, and, as he argues in commitment to Jewish the Lilien essay, authentic publishing world. form of the Jewish book, Cultural Renaissance. that gave vital expression – Recovered, as it were, from the is looking for it: in fairground sensual, rhythmic, organic, trash, the essay is revelatory. calendars and almanacs, in and liberating expression, and While it is not Schulz’s lost the canticles of beggars and above all modern expression novel Messiah, it contains tramps…?” Schulz published – to what he calls in his essay something that many readers “E.M. Lilien” between 1937 “the mythic roots of his tribe.” who wished they could read and 1938 in seven separate Messiah were longing for: fragments in successive issues Why was this essay not a more direct, less veiled or of the Drohobycz-Borysław- discovered earlier? In the short encrypted discussion about the Truskawiec Przegląd story “Spring,” Schulz writes, Jewish questions of Schulz’s Podkarpacia (Subcarpathian “Where is the truth to shelter, interwar generation. Situating Review), an unremarkable where is it to find asylum if Lilien’s work within the history four-page weekly newspaper not in a place where nobody of the Jewish art book, Schulz

6 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 uses his reading of Lilien’s life and work as a platform to undertake a lengthy reflection on the nature of the Jewish cultural revival of his time; E.M. Lilien, “The Jewish May” on the sources of Zionism as one form of secular messianic modernist midrash, that has trash Haggada) or tandetna expression; and on the access, in Schulz’s words, to Księga can be read as a pressing question of whether “the spiritual depths of the Polish Jewish corollary to political Zionism and the individual and the collective.” Walter Benjamin’s ambitious settlement of Palestine could Aracades Project of the same represent for him an authentic The Lilien essay, I propose, period, but in reverse. If and vital continuation or points to a turning point in Benjamin’s project was based renaissance of Jewish myth Schulz’s artistic development, on collecting, and sought to and tradition. during which he began to compile scattered fragments experiment with an ambitious of the modern historical Schulz reveals here a strong modernist project in the art and cultural landscape in commitment to the fin-de- of the Jewish book. The one magnum opus, Schulz’s siècle project of Jewish project entailed the dispersal is based on dispersal and Cultural Renaissance, and by Schulz of his writings concealment. Each model at the same time – a deep on Jewish spiritual renewal, represents a modern Jewish reticence about, and finally and on the return to a lost rewriting of the Hasidic a rejection of, political fatherland or homeland, into and kabbalistic concept of Zionism. His Lilien essay the “trash” – that is, into the divine shards or sparks, may be read as an apologia contemporary, disposable, shattered, trapped, or hidden for his own decision to seek and popular printed media; in the fallen world, which it a continuation of what he the fragmentary and transient is the work of the hasid to calls the “religious, mythic material of the modern world recuperate. n and messianic Jewish – where they would await tradition” not through discovery and exegesis. polishjewishstudies.uic.edu participation in political programs, but through the This project to create a kind medium of literature – of of tandetna Haggada (kitsch/

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 7 SCHOLARSHIP A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES BEGINS Dr. Marcin Wodziński WITH A SINGLE STEP: Director Inaugural Doctoral Seminar of the Department of Jewish Studies Global Education Outreach Program University of Wrocław at POLIN Museum

e scholars of Polish Jewish Studies have Wlong felt the need for a seminar dedicated to Jewish history and culture. None of Poland’s research institutions is independently strong GEOP doctoral seminar at POLIN Museum. Photo: Danuta Matloch/POLIN Museum enough to offer students a of the History of Polish Jews sufficiently comprehensive In the spring of last year, The concept of the seminar and methodologically POLIN Museum director was ambitious, which also rigorous Jewish Studies Dr. Dariusz Stola proposed made it rather risky. We curriculum. The community establishing an inter- assumed that the seminars of scholars has also hoped to university seminar to present would be open both to doctoral create opportunities for more doctoral projects dedicated students and to their advisors, contact between our doctoral to the history and culture of which meant encouraging the students and peers from regular attendance of people other research institutions Today, no Polish with a chronic time shortage in Poland, as well as with academy offers a and too many conflicting faculty from outside of the responsibilities. We also parent institute. We decided doctoral curriculum assumed that participants that what we could not in Jewish Studies. would commute to the accomplish individually, Warsaw-based seminar every we would do together. Polish Jews. The proposal month from places as far was received with enthusiasm, away as Rzeszów, Wrocław, Dreams do not come true and all Polish Jewish Studies and Nowy Targ. Further, easily or quickly, however, institutions and the Polish we assumed that every and definitely not on their Association for Jewish presentation would be subject own. In our case they Studies joined the venture. to discussion by students, were made possible by the We started recruiting in the advisors, and an invited expert; founding of the POLIN summer of 2015 and selected and that the seminar would Museum and the Global 16 students from over 30 provide students with the Education Outreach Program applications. opportunity to get acquainted (GEOP).

8 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 with one another and with from this year’s seminar, but courses to educate doctoral scholars from abroad. I also hope for some new students in Qumranistics, researchers, and I hope that Karaite studies, rabbinic It is hard to believe, but this will continue for a few literature, and Sephardi culture, we accomplished all of years into the future. while simultaneously training the above. The seminar them in advanced research started in December 2015, I say “a few” and not “many” methodologies and Jewish and its first speaker was because I see the seminar as the languages. Dr. Moshe Rosman of Bar- first step in the development Ilan University, who is of a network for scholarly and I am optimistic. The GEOP perhaps the greatest living educational cooperation in the seminar is proof that we Jewish historian. In May field of Polish Jewish Studies. can work together, and that 2016 we hosted Dr. David My dream is to see the seminar together we can succeed. n Biale of the University of evolve into an inter-university California, Davis, the author doctoral curriculum – for which www.polin.pl/en/nauka-i- of breakthrough publications there is clear demand. Today, zbiory-dzialalnosc-naukowa- and one of the greatest no Polish academy offers a pobyty-badawcze-i-warsztaty/ contemporary Jewish Studies doctoral curriculum in Jewish geop-doctoral-seminars scholars, who conducted a Studies. Our students undertake class on Hasidic messianism. their research through other A worthy start indeed! specializations: history, cultural studies, or philology. This is But the biggest successes not a bad thing for developing were the participants, who methodological awareness attended the seminars and research resources, but regularly and were active it reduces the potential for in the spirit of constructive developing strictly Jewish criticism and friendly sharing Studies competencies. The of opinions. problem will continue until an inter-university curriculum The next seminar will start in is established, because no October 2016. I hope for the individual Polish academy is return of many participants capable of conducting advanced

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 9 EXHIBITION Dr. Paweł Śpiewak Ringelblum Archive Exhibition Director Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish to Open at the Jewish Historical Historical Institute, Warsaw Institute in November 2017

n November 2017 the Emanuel Ringelblum IJewish Historical Institute in Warsaw will unveil a major new exhibition about the Jews of Poland during the Shoah. Based on the famous Ringelblum Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, the exhibition will celebrate the miraculous survival of this precious collection and mark the full Jewish writers and academics, circa 1930s. From left: Emanuel Ringelblum, Icyk publication of the documents Manger, Rachela Auerbach, Jakub Szacki, Berk Horowc, Rafael Mahler, and M. and other historical materials Weinberg. Photo is courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research that it contains. The curators apartment. In the face of people, most of them known of the exhibition include unprecedented persecution to Dr. Ringelblum before Dr. Paweł Śpiewak, director of the Jewish community, the War, including political of the Institute, and Tomasz Ringelblum and his friends activists from Poale Zion Pietrasiewicz, founder and decided to create a center that (of which Ringelblum was director of the Grodzka would document the plight of also a member), the Marxist- Gate – NN Theatre Center, the Jews under the German Zionist party, the associates along with experts from the occupation. The group chose of YIVO (where Ringelblum Emanuel Ringelblum Archive. the name Oneg Shabbat, “Joy worked before the war), and The exhibition will also of Shabbat.” A month later teachers. All understood the profile Oneg Shabbat’s the closed Jewish district was responsibility they had taken members, including its leader, created in Warsaw and the area upon themselves and the Emanuel Ringelblum, who was encircled by a brick wall. magnitude of their task. was denounced and died in March 1944. Oneg Shabbat was an They collected thousands of underground organization, a testimonies and documents On October 5, 1940, a secret from both the Germans related to all aspects of Jewish small group gathered in and the Jewish administration. life under the occupation: Dr. Ringelblum’s Warsaw Its members were trusted labor camps, the situation of

10 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 The recovery of one of the boxes of documents of the Ringelblum Archive. Photo: women, religious life, health Yad Vashem and epidemics, social work, Archives and deportations, among others. They applied research When the process of mass Rachela Auerbach. The latter methods as close to rigorous deportation and extermination spearheaded the efforts to scholarly investigation as was began on July 22, 1942, recover the buried Archive, possible under the grueling the members of Oneg which was assembled in the conditions in which the Shabbat decided to hide building of the Main Jewish organization operated. The the documents. One of the Library that now houses the scholarly apparatus, however, students tasked with burying Jewish Historical Institute. did not overshadow the the documents wrote in his The documents are still in centrality of individual voices testament, “What we did not the same building, while the and experiences. Thousands manage to scream out, we hid Jewish Historical Institute of unique testimonies were at in the ground.” has tasked itself with the heart of the archive. publishing a full edition of The members and associates the Archive, scheduled for While Oneg Shabbat was of Oneg Shabbat prepared a completion in 2017. preparing a large-scale work report about the liquidation entitled Two and a Half Years of the Warsaw Ghetto The place of the of the War, news about mass and published bulletins Ringelblum Archive in deportations and murders devoted to the ongoing mass world historiography is reached the Warsaw Ghetto. extermination. January 1943 unquestioned. UNESCO Members of the group decided saw more deportations. Six registered it in 1999 as part they had to gather and distribute thousand people perished, of the Memory of the World all available information about including many associates of program. For us, the work the death camps and the plight Dr. Ringelblum. In February of Oneg Shabbat is a symbol of the Jews. They enlisted the 1943 another large section of of Jewish resistance and, as n help of the Polish government- the archive was buried, in two such, priceless. in-exile to spread information. milk cans. Radio broadcasts based on the www.jhi.pl/en/exhibitions information gathered by Oneg Only three members of Oneg Shabbat aired on the BBC in Shabbat survived the War: June 1942. Hersz and Bluma Wasser and

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 11 RECENT CONFERENCES AND RESOURCES Dr. Małgorzata Owczarska POLIN Museum Jewish Education Department POLIN Museum of the History of Cultural Heritage Conference, Polish Jews, Warsaw June 8-10

he conference explored Dr. Brigitte Sion (Rothschild issues related to Foundation (Hanadiv) TJewish cultural heritage Europe). in contemporary Europe – preservation, animation, The 11 discussion sessions engagement, and impact. contained 56 presentations These issues were addressed from 18 countries. Each of through presentations of the presentations introduced specific projects and initiatives a separate project or initiative – historic sites, heritage considering Jewish heritage routes, museums, exhibitions, in Europe. During the Project educational programs, artistic Village, which accompanied interventions, and new for Humanity; and “Whose the conference, 35 institutions media. Participants shared heritage? Jewish heritage and NGOs exhibited their innovative methods, ideas, and social engagement” by stands, materials, or held a and good practices. Creative Ruth Ellen Gruber from workshop. Twenty-seven international networking for Jewish Heritage Europe. The films were displayed in the practitioners was one of the closing roundtable discussion Film Installation. About 140 main aims of the conference. “Where do we go from here? people attended the conference. A glimpse into the future The Jewish theater Golem The conference opened with a of Jewish cultural heritage staged The Final Cut during keynote speech by Dr. Diana projects” was chaired by the conference; it attracted an Pinto, from the Institute for Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt– audience of approximately 350. Jewish Policy Research, in Gimblett from POLIN London, titled “Jewish cultural Museum. It gathered together Participants found the heritage 1989-2015: hopes and panelists with strong academic conference important for reality. What kind of a success and practical backgrounds: networking and inspirational story?” It was followed by the Assumpció Hosta Rebés reasons. The general talks “Dark matter: the role of (European Association for the conclusion was that there the internet in society and the Preservation and Promotion of has been a lot of progress in future of memory institutions” Jewish Culture and Heritage the field of Jewish cultural by Michael Peter Edson – AEPJ), Dr. Erica Lehrer heritage that manifests itself from UN Live – Museum (Concordia University), and in the diversity of projects,

12 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Dr. Małgorzata Owczarska Education Department POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw

but they are not sufficiently connected. The conference MAP OF JEWISH WARSAW was a good starting point for A new map of Jewish making those connections. Warsaw has been published through a partnership The conference was organized between the POLIN Museum by POLIN Museum of the of the History of Polish Jews History of Polish Jews in and the Warsaw Jewish collaboration with The Center Community. It is published in for Studies of the Holocaust both Polish and English. and Religious Minorities in Norway, and the ‘Never PL: www.polin.pl/sites/default/files/mapa_pl_e4.pdf Again’ Association in Poland. EN: www.polin.pl/sites/default/files/mapa_eng_ed4.pdf The project was supported by the Norway and EEA Grants by Iceland, Liechtenstein, MAP OF JEWISH WROCŁAW and Norway. n A new guide to Jewish Wrocław, created by the City www.polin.pl/sites/default/ of Wrocław, was announced files/program_konf_ost2.pdf by Jewish Heritage Europe: www.jewish-heritage-europe. www.polin.pl/en/education/ conference-jewish-cultural- eu/2016/04/06/poland-new- heritage-projects-methods guide-to-jewish-wroclaw- online/%E2%80%9D Wroclaw City Museum

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 13 Nomadic Shtetl Archive Maayan Stanton Travels through Poland

he Nomadic Shtetl Archive is a mobile Tarchive that recently traveled through former shtetls in southeastern Poland, gathering archival materials, documenting the present conditions of Jewish material Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kraśnik Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kraśnik heritage, and juxtaposing architectural memory of these formerly Jewish towns with their current urban reality. The Nomadic Shtetl Archive works to generate new knowledge about the urban aspects of former shtetls, in order to trigger social imagination to deal with the void left by the absence of the Jewish population who had once lived there. The project is a response to the neglect and slow eradication of Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe, Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Biłgoraj Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kraśnik as the traces of the former populations disappear, not only from urban reality, but also from public discourse and social memory.

From July 25-August 4, 2016, the Archive stayed for one day in each town it visited: Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Piaski Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kock

14 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Kock, Piaski, Bychawa, Romik, under the patronage Koret Foundation, Polish Lublin, Biłgoraj, Tyszowce, of the Bartlett School of Association of Architects, Szczebrzeszyn, Józefów, Architecture - University Singer Festival, Virtual Krasnobród, and Kraśnik. College London. Other Shtetl, as well as by the It served as a mobile library, members of the Archive’s Polish Ministry of Culture meeting spot, and a traveling team include Sebastian and National Heritage in the exhibition. It hosted a Kucharuk, Piotr Jakoweńko, framework of its program meaningful public program, and Agata Korba. “Patriotism of Tomorrow.” n engaging each town’s residents, politicians, and other cultural The Nomadic Shtetl Archive www.facebook.com/ actors in discussions related to is supported by the Brama Nomadyczne-Archiwum- the issues of Jewish heritage. Cukermana Foundation, Sztetla-Nomadic-Shtetl- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Archive-289476394735718/ The Archive is the project of Historical Institute, Grodzka ?fref=ts artist and architect Natalia Gate - NN Theatre Center,

Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Bychawa Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Biłgoraj

Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Tyszowce Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kraśnik Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Kraśnik

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 15 EVENTS Julian and Fay Bussgang AAPJS Hosts POLIN Co-editors Museum Director Gazeta

n a packed lecture hall at Harvard Hillel in ICambridge, MA, Dr. Dariusz Stola, director of the POLIN Museum, addressed the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies (AAPJS) on June 18. The speaker was introduced by Dr. Antony Polonsky, an AAPJS board member and professor emeritus at Brandeis Dr. Dariusz Stola. Photo: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews University, who is chief historian of the Museum. The success of the Museum Four successive presidents Explaining the goals and can also be measured by how of Poland supported the tasks of the POLIN Museum, many people have walked creation of the Museum, as Dr. Stola described some of through its doors. Some did successive presidents the honors it has received, 450,000 visitors are expected of Israel— in particular, including most recently being this year. Initially the Museum Shimon Peres. named the 2016 European had mainly local visitors. Now Museum of the Year by the the number of international The City of Warsaw donated European Museum Forum – an visitors is growing, many of the land, and the Ministry award given to newly opened them coming from Germany of Culture and National or refurbished museums and Israel. Heritage gave much support. that promote excellence. An unprecedented number In November the Museum When questioned, 95% of the of donations from many will receive the European visitors expressed satisfaction sources made the building Museum Academy Prize, with their visit, 87% of and the creation of the Core which recognizes pioneering them having expressed Exhibition possible. The museums and projects destined great satisfaction. These are building opened with much to influence international remarkable numbers for a celebration in April 2013, museological discourse. historical museum. and in October 2014 the

16 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Julian and Fay Bussgang Co-editors Gazeta

Before the public presentation, Dr. Polonsky hosted a meeting at his home in Cambridge for Dr. Stola to meet with academics from universities in the greater Boston area, among them Harvard, Brandeis, Boston College, Boston University, Dartmouth College, Brown, Clark, and the University of New Hampshire. The topic for discussion was how to strengthen cooperation between these institutions and the Museum and how to begin joint projects. n

Photo: Magdalena Starowieyska/POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Grand Opening of the Core towns where residents might Exhibition took place. not have the opportunity to travel to Warsaw. Looking to During the question period, the future, the Museum plans Dr. Stola mentioned that in to raise funds for updating its addition to educational and technology to keep abreast of cultural programs held inside new developments. and outside the Museum, there is now a “Museum on Dr. Stola’s presentation Wheels,” a traveling exhibit elicited great appreciation that brings the history and and applause. culture of Polish Jews to

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 17 Matan Shefi, Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center Maayan Stanton (Warsaw), in SF Bay Area

atan Shefi, one of the studied history and reconnected genealogists at the with his Polish-Jewish ancestry. MJewish Genealogy & Family His pursuits led him to move to Heritage Center (JGFHC), Poland where he began working housed in the Emanuel at the JGFHC. Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, visited The free 45-minute sessions, the Bay Area in August to sponsored by the Taube hold three days of private Foundation for Jewish Life genealogical consultations. & Culture, were held at the There was overwhelming Magnes Collection of Jewish interest from those around Art & Life in Berkeley, the the greater Bay Area to learn JCC San Francisco, and more about their Polish- where JGFHC can help so the San Francisco Jewish Jewish family history — many people translate, Community Federation. over 100 people requested relate, and connect people Shefi came to the Bay Area consultations, five times the to their own story, family, after participating in the number of available sessions. and identity.” 36th IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Shefi had 19 consultations Established more than Genealogical Societies) with nearly 30 people. Each 20 years ago, the JGFHC Conference in Seattle, WA. of the consultations took promotes the study and The 37th Conference unique, interesting routes. For preservation of Polish-Jewish will be held in 2018 and one family, scans of an 1870 heritage and helps individuals will be co-sponsored by Russian marriage book were and families from around the Emanuel Ringelblum used to locate the hometown the world discover new Jewish Historical Institute of their forefathers. Another information about their and the POLIN Museum. n family managed to find Jewish ancestry originating pictures of a lost relative in within the borders of today’s www.jhi.pl/en/genealogy the Grodno Yizkor books. Poland and interwar Poland.

Shefi said of the experience, Israeli-born, Matan Shefi served “It is great to be in a place in the Navy, after which he

18 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 MILESTONES AND AWARDS Marian Turski Turns 90

his past June, Marian and former President of Turski turned 90 and a Israel Shimon Peres. Their Tcelebration was held in his words are reflective of the honor at the POLIN Museum significance of Turski’s work. of the History of Polish Jews, Chancellor Merkel said, “I where he serves as Chairman wish you furthermore health, of the Museum Council vigor, and success in your and Vice-Chairman of the so very important work Association of the Jewish for understanding between Historical Institute of Poland. Jews, non-Jews, Poles, and Germans.” President Obama Turski and his well-wishers wrote, “In the example you had much to celebrate over have set throughout your his many years of dedication Marian Turski conducts a private life, we see the resolve and to developing relations and performance of the Warsaw courage the human spirit is Symphony Orchestra. Photo: POLIN cooperation between nations. Museum of the History of Polish Jews capable of summoning.” His efforts have had a tremendous positive impact, has tirelessly advocated for He has been decorated with the and they continue to do so. Polish-Jewish relations, prestigious French National and relations between the Order of the Legion of Honor As a birthday present, the Jewish Diaspora and many medal, and in 2015 the Polish Polish National Symphony nations, including Poland, Commissioner for Human made a dream of Turski’s Israel, France, and Germany. Rights decorated Turski come true – he was allowed Upon his 90th birthday, he with the honorary medal to conduct a private received greetings from “For Merit to Human Rights performance of the Warsaw President of the Republic Protection” for the “[devotion Symphony Orchestra. of Poland Andrzej Duda, of] his entire creative life to President of the United States reminding us about the human A Holocaust survivor from Barack Obama, Chancellor right to dignity.” n Łódź, Turski is a historian of Germany Angela Merkel, and a long-time journalist President of Germany www.polin.pl/en/ and editor for the Polish Joachim Gauck, President news/2016/06/26/happy- news weekly Polityka. He of Israel Reuven Rivlin, birthday-marian-turski

19 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 2 GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 19 MILESTONES AND AWARDS Maia Ipp Awarded Thesaurus Poloniae Fellowship FROM MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL HERITAGE

e congratulate our colleague Maia Ipp on Wbeing awarded a Thesaurus Poloniae Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Hosted by Kraków’s International Cultural Center, Maia will spend the autumn in Kraków continuing work on a project she began last summer as part of the Taube Study Seminar Seminar (PASS) of the POLIN on the contribution of non- Museum of the History of Jewish Poles to Jewish culture Polish Jews, supported by the and heritage initiatives. Jim Joseph Foundation.

Maia Ipp is a 2015-2016 Ipp is a graduate student at Taube Study Seminar Fellow, San Francisco State University, in the fellowship program led studying theoretical and by TCI/Jewish LearningWorks historical models of post- in partnership with the conflict dialogue, and also University of San Francisco a practitioner of sustained, (Museum Studies Program guided intercultural dialogue and the Swig Program in among groups who share a Jewish Studies and Social common legacy of historical Justice) and made possible trauma. n by the support of Taube Philanthropies. In 2015, she also participated in the POLIN Academy Summer

20 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 COMMEMORATIONS Julian and Fay Bussgang The 70th Anniversary of Co-editors the Kielce Pogrom Gazeta

ceremony took place in the city of Kielce on AJuly 2-4 to commemorate the pogrom that occurred there in 1946, shortly after the War, when Jews were returning from Russia and elsewhere. Reporting on the ceremony, the Polish weekly Polityka of July 3 stated that 37 Jews had been killed and 35 wounded and to the chair of the Karski wpolityce.pl/polityka/299206- during the pogrom. It also Society that was read at the beata-Szydło-dzisiejsze- mentioned that persons ceremony. It emphasized kielce-i-dzisiejsza-polska- accused of participating in that there was no place in z-szacunkiem-chyla-glowy- the murder had been tried Poland for racism or for przed-ofiarami-pogromu-i- and nine were executed. A persecuting people because czerpia-ze-wspolnego-polsko- memorial ceremony organized of their religion. Prime zydowskiego-dziedzictwa by the Jan Karski Society Minister Szydło expressed also took place in Kielce. particular respect and www.jankarski.org.pl The society is named for appreciation for the work Jan Karski, a Polish of the Karski Society. underground courier, who, in November 1942, secretly A special attendant at the traveled from occupied Poland ceremony was Yaacov to London and Washington, Kotlicki from Israel, chair DC, to brief British and of the Kielce Area Jewish American leaders about the Association in Israel. His persecution of Polish Jews father was one of the few under German occupation. who survived the pogrom. Mr. Kotlicki made a solemn Polish Prime Minister Beata plea at the ceremony for the Szydło sent a special letter to individual victims of the the city president of Kielce pogrom to be remembered.

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 21 REFLECTIONS ON Jonathan A. Greenblatt Jedwabne and the Importance CEO and National Director of Memory Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

tanding at the Jedwabne massacre memorial, I had Sone foot in the past and one in the present. Seventy-five years earlier, Polish residents of Jedwabne had burned hundreds of their Jewish neighbors in a barn at that spot. Though the area was under Nazi occupation in 1941, native anti-Semitism drove the attackers, who wanted to remove the Jews and loot their property. Today Jedwabne has become a rallying cry of Polish ultra- nationalists, who see any L: Jonathan Greenblatt, R: Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich. Photo: Marek Czekalski mention of the pogrom as a smear on Poland’s reputation. to remember the murdered ground our work to fight Responsibility for the mass and to stand with the anti-Semitism, bigotry, and murder is deflected onto slandered; to reject the anti- racism. I noted that Jews the Nazi regime. Jews are Semitism of the past and the had lived in Poland for a blamed for falsely accusing anti-Semitism of today. long time as Jews and as Poles of murder as a means Polish citizens. But they of blackmailing Poland. I was honored to have been were killed as Jews, and died invited by Chief Rabbi of here because of their faith. I came to Jedwabne with Poland Michael Schudrich Remembering honestly the members of an Anti- to say a few words at a entirety of the past – the good Defamation League (ADL) memorial ceremony. I told and the evil – was necessary leadership delegation to the group that had gathered to build a future in which express solidarity with both to commemorate the victims Jews felt able once again to Jewish and Polish citizens, that it was events like the live openly and freely as both the dead and the living; Jedwabne massacre that Jews and Polish citizens.

22 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 The day and evening before, Remembering honestly and Holocaust revisionism we had spent Shabbat the entirety of the past is also anti-Semitism. We with leaders of the Jewish saw instances during and community in Warsaw, – the good and the evil immediately after our visit. including our wonderful – is necessary to build a hosts at the Taube Center In a meeting with Dr. Rafał future in which Jews feel for the Renewal of Jewish Pankowski of the ‘Never Life in Poland, and later able once again to live Again’ Association, he that week we visited Jewish openly and freely as showed us that week’s edition leaders in Kraków. Our of the news magazine W delegation was delighted to Jews and Polish citizens. Siece, which had put on its hear about the growth of their cover a burning barn and communities, but we had also political demonstrations. the headline, “Jedwabne: seen plenty before this trip Most notably, an effigy of a We Need to Investigate to cause us concern. Hasidic Jew holding an EU Anew” (“Jedwabne: Trzeba flag was burned at an anti- Zbadać Od Nowa”). As I was While anti-Semitic incidents immigrant demonstration flying back to New York, I are fortunately few, ADL’s in Wrocław, and at a pro- learned that Polish Education Global 100 survey of anti- government demonstration Minister Anna Zalewska Semitic attitudes found in in Warsaw a huge banner in a televised interview 2014 that 45 percent of Polish read, “We demand that had repeatedly refused to adults believed a majority of the government eliminate acknowledge that Polish anti-Semitic stereotypes on Jewish Masonry in Poland. It citizens were responsible for which they were tested. In the threatens the Polish people.” killing their Jewish neighbors 2015 follow-up survey, 37 in Jedwabne and during the percent of respondents agreed The anti-Semitic nature of 1946 anti-Semitic pogrom with a majority of stereotypes such actions and statements in Kielce. that were tested. Since the is clear to all, but such nationalist Law and Justice egregious cases are not Exactly one decade ago, government entered office in the only ones. Denying ADL published “Poland: November 2015, instances Polish responsibility for the Democracy and the Challenge of anti-Semitic rhetoric Jedwabne pogrom is a form of Extremism,” a report about have increased at right-wing of Holocaust revisionism, the inclusion of anti-Semitic

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 23 Reflections on Jedwabne and the Importance of Memory, Continued

and xenophobic parties in party leader Jarosław Jedwabne reinforced for me Poland’s governing coalition, Kaczyński, President Duda, the importance and sense of led by the Law and Justice Foreign Minister Witold obligation to do so. n party. We saw a political Waszczykowski, and Culture landscape shaped by ultra- Minister Piotr Gliński have www.adl.org/press-center/ nationalist politicians and all made statements about press-releases/anti- civil society actors that the need for a new “politics semitism-international/adl- encouraged anti-Semitic of memory,” which would leadership-delegation-75th- speech and intimidated the show Poland’s wartime anniversary-commemoration- small organized Jewish history in a more favorable polish-pogrom-jedwabne. community. light, solely as a victim. html?referrer=https://www. The Ministry of Culture google.com/#.V6u0ZSMrKfU Today we see the same reportedly has a department worrying signs, though devoted exclusively to we note some positive historical policy. signals as well. We were glad when representatives As we wrote to Foreign of President Andrzej Minister Waszczykowski, Duda and Prime Minister “Minister Zalewska’s Beata Szydło attended obfuscations about well- and presented memorial established historical truths wreaths at the Jedwabne represent the insidious ceremony. President Duda phenomenon the Polish gave a remarkable speech at government should be the commemoration of the fighting, not promoting.” Kielce pogrom, where he said “there is no room for The Anti-Defamation anti-Semitism” in Poland and League will continue to acknowledged that “ordinary speak out to make clear [Polish] people were that the Polish government involved in the attack.” needs to be on the right However, Law and Justice side of history. Standing at

24 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 BOOK REVIEW Review by Paweł Łukasiewicz and Pani Stefa Maayan Stanton By Magdalena Kicin´ska (Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2015)

famous Jewish orphanage refused to abandon the once located on children, accompanying them AWarsaw’s Krochmalna Street to their death at the Treblinka was run by a woman who, death camp. until now, has lived in the shadow of the renowned In her award-winning book pedagogue and children’s Pani Stefa, journalist and author Janusz Korczak. first-time author Magdalena Stefania Wilczyńska, born in Kicińska has restored Warsaw in 1886 to a well-to- Wilczyńska’s deserved do family of assimilated Jews, place in history. She tells us had not completed her studies Wilczyńska’s story against in Belgium before she and a meticulously delineated Korczak began to organize background, from the hardships a house for orphaned Jewish of young pedagogues trying children in 1912. Deploying to establish an innovative and sometimes creating the Warsaw Ghetto drew great orphanage designed to protect revolutionary ideas about attention and appreciation. children’s individuality and childrearing, such as respect Emanuel Ringelblum, the well-being in the early 1900s, for their dignity, individuality, chronicler of the Warsaw through the reestablishment and intellect, Wilczyńska Ghetto, wrote: “Everything of independent Poland when directed the day-to-day life of that is being associated with their work gained both the children and staff while Korczak – the boarding applause and harsh criticism, Korczak was the public face house, the propagation of until the end of Jewish Warsaw of the orphanage. love for children, and so on, in the early 1940s. everything – is their common After Nazi Germany invaded achievement. It’s hard to say The book also delves into Poland in September 1939 where Korczak starts and the complicated relationship and began persecuting where Wilczyńska ends.” between Wilczyńska and Polish Jews, the efforts of When the liquidation of the Korczak. They worked Wilczyńska and Korczak to Warsaw Ghetto began in 1942, together for three decades and care for the Jewish orphans of Wilczyńska and Korczak gave up their personal lives

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 25 Pani Stefa, Magdalena Kicin´ska, Continued

“It’s hard to say where The accolades include the prestigious 2016 Literary Korczak starts and where Award of the City of Warsaw Wilczyńska ends.” and the Poznań Literary Prize n —Emanuel Ringelblum of 2016.

czarne.com.pl/katalog/ksiazki/ for the good of orphaned pani-stefa children, but their partnership had deeper layers. It was an encounter of two individuals Author photograph courtesy of devoted to their work and Magdalena Kicińska shared values. Kicińska depicts it as a strange form of love that Wilczyńska felt for Korczak, and that Korczak also felt, based on a mutual indispensability. “She was simultaneously his secretary, colleague, reviewer, confidante, personal assistant, and guardian,” Kicińska writes. “He had to be thrilled when he found in Stefania Wilczyńska someone who thought as he did. She loved him.” In this insightful biography Wilczyńska takes her place among the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto. The book has gained wide acclaim among Polish critics and the general public.

26 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 NEW PUBLICATIONS Chasing Portraits: A Great-Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy By Elizabeth Rynecki New American Library September 2016

hasing Portraits: A art, and that many more CGreat-Granddaughter’s pieces remained to be found, Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy Elizabeth set out to find them. is the memoir of one woman’s Before Moshe was deported emotional quest to find the to the Ghetto, he entrusted art of her Polish-Jewish his work to friends who great-grandfather, lost during would keep it safe. After he World War II. was killed in the Majdanek concentration camp, the Moshe Rynecki’s body art was dispersed all over of work reached close to the world. With the help eight hundred paintings and of historians, curators, and sculptures before his life came admirers of Moshe’s work, to a tragic end. It was his Elizabeth began the incredible great-granddaughter Elizabeth and difficult task of rebuilding who sought to rediscover his “A page-turning personal his collection. legacy, setting upon a journey history of Rynecki’s to seek out what had been lost search for her great- Spanning three decades of but never forgotten. Elizabeth’s life and three grandfather’s legacy… generations of her family, The everyday lives of the A wonderful story this touching memoir is a Polish-Jewish community beautifully told. Rynecki’s compelling narrative of the depicted in Moshe Rynecki’s years-long search, richness of one man’s art, the paintings simply blended into devastation of war, and one the background of Elizabeth successes, frustrations, woman’s unexpected path Rynecki’s life while she and failures are a study in to healing. n was growing up. But the art perseverance.” transformed from familiar For more information —Kirkus Starred Review to extraordinary in her eyes about the book and a list of after her grandfather, Moshe’s World War II, including upcoming talks by the author, son George, left behind Moshe’s art. Knowing that please go to this link: journals detailing the loss her her family had only found www.chasingportraits.org/ ancestors had endured during a small portion of Moshe’s book/

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 27 The Marriage Plot: Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature By Dr. Naomi Seidman Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture Series Stanford University Press June 2016

or nineteenth-century “Once again, Naomi to the European romantic Eastern European Jews, Seidman has given us sublime has become the central F sexual ideology of our time. modernization entailed the a beautifully written abandonment of arranged marriage in favor of the “love book that is equally About the author match.” Romantic novels illuminating about Naomi Seidman is Koret taught Jewish readers the traditional texts Professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological rules of romance and the and contemporary choreography of courtship. But Union in Berkeley, and a 2016 because these new conceptions performances. The Guggenheim Fellow. She is the of romance were rooted in Marriage Plot is a author of Faithful Renderings: the Christian and chivalric foundational work for Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation traditions, the Jewish embrace anyone interested in of “the love religion” was (2006) and A Marriage Made always partial. Jewish literary and in Heaven: The Sexual Politics cultural studies, in of Hebrew and Yiddish (1997). In The Marriage Plot, Dr. questions about gender Naomi Seidman considers For more information about and translation, and in the evolution of Jewish love the book and upcoming talks and marriage through the understanding how Jews by the author, please go to literature that provided Jews ‘fell in love with love’ in these links: with a sentimental education, the mid-19th century.” highlighting a persistent www.sup.org/books/ – Dr. Anita Norich, ambivalence in the Jewish title/?id=25475 University of Michigan adoption of European romantic ideologies. Nineteenth- Jewish writers turned back to us8.campaign-archive1.com/ century Hebrew and Yiddish tradition, finding pleasures in ?u=fb445b531689306ab9fb literature tempered romantic matchmaking, intergenerational 49bda&id=f7bb912aff&e= love with the claims of ties, and sexual segregation. e21a07fa4f family and community, and In the modern Jewish voices treated the rules of gender of Sigmund Freud, Erica Jong, complementarity as comedic Philip Roth, and Tony Kushner, fodder. Twentieth-century the Jewish heretical challenge

28 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Upcoming Events

Festiwal Singera / 72nd Anniversary of 8TH BET DEBORA Singer Festival the Liquidation of the CONFERENCE Łódź Ghetto Warsaw, Poland Jewish Women in Europe: August 27-September 4, 2016 Łódź, Poland Creating Alternatives August 29, 2016 www.festiwalsingera.pl Wrocław, Poland www.centrumdialogu.com/ September 1-4, 2016 program-obchodow Showcasing Yiddish theater, www.bet-debora.net/ films, music, and themed activities/8th-conference The commemoration will artistic exhibitions, the begin with a March of festival aims to “reconstruct” Held in the White Stork Remembrance from the Jewish the arts and cultural scene Synagogue, the conference Cemetery to Radagast Station, of interwar Warsaw. The will honor the women culminating in an official Festival was started by the who have contributed to ceremony. The exhibition Shalom Foundation, a Polish the formation of a lively “Post 41. Relations with initiative to re-animate Yiddish and diverse Judaism in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto” will language and culture, on the past and present, as well open to the public, followed 100th anniversary of Isaac as to fighting for a tolerant by a medal ceremony for Bashevis Singer’s birthday in and pluralist Europe. The newly recognized Righteous 2004. Singer, the Festival’s conference is organized Among The Nations. The namesake, was a Nobel Prize- by Bet Debora (based in day’s events will culminate winning Yiddish language Berlin and Vienna), Bente with the film premier of author who captured much of Kahan Foundation (based in Dziennik Sierakowiaka the life and spirit of interwar Wrocław), and Czulent (based (Sierakowiak’s Journal) (dir. Yiddish Poland. The Festival in Kraków). Michał Bukojemski, Poland, includes a recreated street of bookshops, newspaper stands, 2016), after which there bakeries, and other small will be a panel with director stores, providing a momentary Bukojemski, Marian Turski, experience of a culture that no and Adam Sitarek. longer exists.

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 29 Upcoming Events, Continued

EUROPEAN DAYS OF JEWISH CULTURE CONFERENCE

Jewish Languages Lviv, Ukraine September 4, 2016 www.jewisheritage.org/web/ agenda/2016/ukraine

The conference will investigate the numerous Jewish languages and dialects from around the world and ZBLIŻENIA Festiwal / throughout history. Thirty- “Close Up” Festival five countries will be taking Gdańsk, Poland part in this conference. The September 8-11, 2016 conference is a program of the zbilzeniafestiwal.org European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of The “Close Up” Festival is Jewish Culture and Heritage. a Jewish culture festival in Gdańsk, started in 2013. The 2016 Festival includes panels by authors Bella Szwarcman- Czarnota, Marek Suchar, and Magdalena Kicińska (author of Pani Stefa, reviewed on p. 25), art and dance workshops, films, concerts, art exhibits, and theater performances. The event is free and open to the public.

30 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 CALL FOR PAPERS Museums and Their Publics at Sites of Conflicted History

INTERNATIONAL population transfers), radical complex history it presents. CONFERENCE, border changes, and other While seeking to present MARCH 13-15, 2017 disruptions. The present day an authoritative, but not brings additional tensions: authoritarian, historical POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, liberal democratic societies account, museums such as Warsaw in the West are called on to POLIN offer an open narrative respond to global crises, the in multiple voices and invite the public to play an active Museums of history face massive population shifts that part in interpreting historical a particular challenge in ensue, and creation of new processes and events. The societies that have recently national and ethnic minorities exhibition itself, using a experienced conflict and within multinational and variety of media, offers an violence, radical geopolitical ethnonational states. In experience that is thought- and ideological change, some societies, attempts at provoking, sensory, emotional, and socioeconomic and expanding democracy and and memorable. Projects and technological challenges. human rights, through such events such as performances, Multiple and rival historical mechanisms as truth and workshops, debates, and perspectives characterize the reconciliation commissions, lectures invite the public to dynamics of public memory bring new waves of difficult add their experiences and in these societies. Differing knowledge into public voices. Curating historical narratives of the past are told circulation, challenging narratives becomes a in parallel or appear in open long-held national narratives collaborative, inclusive, and conflict with each other, while enshrined on the walls of dynamic process. memories still hidden and museums and in the minds of silent await public articulation. many visitors. Museums have a responsibility to those whose story they tell, Divided memories are The conference aims to as well as to their publics and characteristic of post- explore these issues in relation stakeholders. As institutions communist Europe and to the changing character of public history, they aim in other regions that have and role of museums today. to build lasting relationships experienced totalitarian POLIN Museum of the with audiences, both local regimes, wars, mass History of Polish Jews in and international. This is violence (ethnic cleansing, Warsaw is a prime site for such a conference, given the especially important in post-

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 31 Museums and Their Publics at Sites of Conflicted History, Continued

communist and post-conflict Send abstracts, maximum societies, where museums 300 words, and short bio to can help build a robust civil [email protected]. society and bring history – and The deadline for submission historical debate – into the of abstracts is September 15, public domain. 2016. The conference will explore the Academic Committee: role of museums in negotiating new public histories in • Prof. Bruce Altshuler societies in transition, as (New York University) old narratives and historical • Prof. Dorota Folga- policies are questioned and Januszewska stories once silenced are given (International Council voice. Of special interest is of Museums) how the historical narratives • Prof. Barbara constructed in museums help to Kirshenblatt-Gimblett shape new social relations in a (POLIN Museum, chair) dynamically changing present. • Dr. Gabriel Koureas (Birkbeck University Scholars in various disciplines of London) (anthropology, sociology, history, memory studies, • Dr. hab. Iwona Kurz museology, art history, and (University of Warsaw) political science, among • Prof. Erica Lehrer others) and museum (Concordia University) professionals, including • Dr. Małgorzata Pakier curators and museum (POLIN Museum, educators, are invited to conference coordinator) discuss the role of museums in negotiating contested histories www.polin.pl/en/conference- n in relation to their publics. museums-and-their-publics

32 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Fall 2016 Auschwitz Jewish Center Program for Students Abroad

pplications are now open for the Fall 2016 AAuschwitz Jewish Center Program for Students Abroad (PSA). The program takes place from October 6-9, 2016; applications will be accepted until September 6.

The AJC, under the auspices of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, has offered subsidized educational programs for students of all program fee, covering meals, backgrounds since 2000. accommodation, entrance fees, The PSA, established in and local transportation during 2010, is a long-weekend the program. Please visit our (Thursday-Sunday) academic website for a sample syllabus program in Kraków that takes and eligibility FAQ; flyers place during fall and spring are available for distribution semesters. Its curriculum upon request. includes tours of historical and contemporary Kraków, For more information on the testimony, in-depth study PSA, funded fellowships, visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau, local programming, and year- and academic discussion. round Customized Programs, please contact DBramson@ Students of all backgrounds mjhnyc.org or visit ajcf.pl/en/ and nationalities who are education-center. studying in Europe, Israel, and the region are encouraged to apply. Financial aid is available for the $375

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 33 OBITUARIES Dr. Antony Polonsky Chief Historian Ben-Zion Gold: POLIN Museum of the July 26, 1923-April 18, 2016 History of Polish Jews

en-Zion Gold, a long- my childhood...They speak time member of the Yiddish, their children go to BBoard of the American Heder and Yeshiva the way I did, even the foods served in Association for Polish-Jewish their restaurants are similar. Studies, who died on April 18, But it is only an illusion. was Hillel rabbi at Harvard For all of the similarity in University from 1958 until language and way of life there he became rabbi emeritus is a significant difference. The in 1990. He grew up in a resemblance is like that of a traditional religious Jewish sect that is dedicated to the preservation of a way of life family in Radom in central that no longer exists. Poland and has described his Ben-Zion’s parents, three childhood in a beautifully sisters, and brother were After liberation he found written memoir, The Life murdered in the Holocaust. himself in the Feldafing DP of Jews in Poland Before He attributed his survival to camp in Germany, where the Holocaust (University his religious faith and claimed he learned the details of his of Nebraska Press, 2007), that experiences in German family’s destruction. In 1947 which was translated into concentration camps deepened he emigrated to the United Polish as Cisza przed burzą. his attachment to Judaism and States. In spite of his crisis Życie polskich Żydów przed strengthened his devotion to his of faith, he decided to enroll Holokaustem (Austeria, heritage. But he was also aware in the rabbinical school 2011). In it he described his that the world of unquestioning of the Jewish Theological experiences as a student in faith in which he had been Seminary. As he wrote, “Once a number of yeshivot, most brought up could not be the certainty of knowing the notably in the preparatory recreated after the devastating ways of God was gone, I had program of the Khakhmei revelation of what humanity to live with imponderables Lublin Yeshiva, which had was capable of. As he put it: and paradoxes, with more opened just a few years earlier questions than answers. in 1930 in the building that Sometimes when I visit Eventually I understood still stands, and has recently Meah Shearim, the quarter of ultra‑Orthodox Jews in that questions, no matter been returned to the Jewish Jerusalem, I feel as though I how many and how cogent, Community of Poland. had returned to the scenes of are only questions. It is our

34 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 impatience that turns them Bashevis Singer. He fought the my life to ensuring that into answers.” As Hillel latent cultural anti-Semitism nothing like the Holocaust rabbi, he lovingly evoked at the University and delivered would ever happen again, to anybody. That is why I am this destroyed world and an angry sermon reprinted in here today. attempted to convey its the Harvard Crimson when the deep spirituality, while festive first-year registration Ben-Zion was a unique distancing himself from its was scheduled on Yom Kippur. individual, a survivor from a fundamentalism and ethnic A strong supporter of Zionism lost world. He will be sorely self-centeredness. and the State of Israel, he missed by his long-standing was also critical of the Israeli partner Nurit, his daughters The principal theme of his treatment of the Palestinians. Merav and Hannah, and his life was his recovery of faith As he put it in 2002, “Those many friends. n in a new and contemporary of us who criticize Israel do so form. He seldom discussed his because Israel is an important experiences in Nazi camps, part of our identity, because a central episode in his life criticism is an integral part of that functioned as a void. Its our traditional culture.” absence spoke much louder than any description, no matter He was also keenly committed how moving, of the horrors of to social justice. At a rally camp life. Ben-Zion’s life was calling for Harvard to divest an account of the resilience of itself of its holdings in the human spirit. corporations doing business in South Africa, he remarked: As Hillel director he was committed to strengthening When I departed the gates Jewish faith and communal of Auschwitz, leaving my sentiment, and succeeded in family behind in the ashes, I made two promises to myself. fostering an active Jewish life First, that I would dedicate at Harvard where its presence my life to the well-being had previously been somewhat of the Jewish people. That tenuous. He was a devoted is why I am a rabbi today. Yiddishist and friend of Isaac Second, that I would dedicate

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 35 OBITUARIES Menachem Z. Rosensaft Remembering Elie Wiesel: General Counsel A Tribute From a Friend World Jewish Congress and Disciple

lie Wiesel died Saturday, place among the living. He July 2, at the age of acquires a new language. He E87. Much has been said and makes a few friends who, written about this man, who like himself, believe that the emerged from the horrors of memory of evil will serve as Auschwitz and Buchenwald a shield against evil; that the determined to perpetuate the memory of death will serve as memory of the millions of a shield against death.” European Jews murdered in the Shoah. He became the Elie Wiesel came to public acknowledged voice of its prominence as an author Photo: Sergey Bermeniev/NPR survivors. He often said that whose use of words was he could not, would not speak “gives man no privileges; it invariably elegant, direct, on behalf of the dead. He did, all depends on what he does and piercing. The overriding however, speak forcefully, with it. If he uses his suffering common theme of his books eloquently for the collectivity against man, he betrays it; is survival, not just the factual of the survivors, and they if he uses it to fight evil circumstance of survival but revered and loved him for and humanize destiny, then its transformative nature and it. “Accept the idea that you he elevates it and elevates power. Equally important was will never see what they have himself.” He described his Elie Wiesel the teacher, who seen – and go on seeing now,” own reflective existential made a lasting, often life- he wrote in his classic essay, crossroads in his lecture upon changing impact on thousands “A Plea for the Survivors,” receiving the Nobel Peace of students who sat in his perhaps subconsciously Prize: “A recollection. The classes. His lectures at the opening a window into his time: After the war. The place: 92nd Street Y in Manhattan own heart. Paris. A young man struggles made the mysteries of to readjust to life. His mother, Hasidism and Jewish biblical Not all survivors of the Shoah his father, his small sister thought accessible to Jews were able to transcend their are gone. He is alone. On and non-Jews alike. At the experiences in what Elie the verge of despair. And yet same time, he was adamant in Wiesel famously referred to he does not give up. On the excoriating those who sought as the “Kingdom of Night.” contrary, he strives to find a to exploit or trivialize the Suffering, he once observed, Holocaust. “Auschwitz,” he

36 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 wrote, “signifies not only the “To be Jewish is to teacher’s comments. Elie read failure of two thousand years recognize that every it over, and said, “I see what of Christian civilization, but you mean. You won’t learn also the defeat of the intellect person is created in anything that way.” He then that wants to find a Meaning – God’s image and thus offered to get together with with a capital M – in history. worthy of respect. me once a week to review the What Auschwitz embodied readings with me, as well as had none.” Being Jewish to me my weekly papers. He was is to reject fanaticism living at Master Apartments Much has also been said on Riverside Drive and 103rd everywhere.” and written about Elie Street, and for the rest of that Wiesel the activist and man —Elie Wiesel year I went there to receive a of conscience, who urged weekly tutorial. one U.S. president publicly challenges of remembrance not to honor the memory of and on improving the lot of When Elie was appointed members of Hitler’s notorious their fellow survivors. Distinguished Professor Waffen-SS, and who implored of Judaic Studies at New another to put an end to the One evening at the beginning York’s City College in 1972, crimes against humanity of my senior year of high I was back in New York being perpetrated in Bosnia. school, he asked me, as he after graduating from Johns invariably did, what I was Hopkins. He asked me to be I knew Elie from the time studying and how my classes his teaching assistant for a I was a teenager. He was a were going. I told him that course on the literature of close friend of my parents, a the only class I did not enjoy the Holocaust and a seminar frequent guest in our home. was an advanced English on Hasidic thought. What He and my father would seminar. I was frustrated by struck me the most was how sit for hours discussing the teacher’s approach and his accessible he made himself the politics of the day. Far insistence on intellectually to his students, especially more than dwelling on their pigeonholing the assigned the sons or daughters of respective memories of material. I showed Elie survivors, who wanted to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the most recent written speak with him not about their other Nazi camps, they would assignment I had received studies but about themselves, focus on the present-day back annotated with the their relationships with

GAZETA SUMMER 2016 n 37 Remembering Elie Wiesel: A Tribute From a Friend and Disciple, Continued

their parents, their efforts to Tribunal and, still higher, to understand what their parents the Celestial Throne, and they had experienced. He would will say, ‘Look, he did not listen patiently, empathize, forget us.’ Day in, day out, give advice. from morning until late at night, everywhere and under Elie was always unabashedly all circumstances, even on Jewish. But he neither simchas, his spirit glowed in flaunted his Jewishness nor our fire. Few sanctified the presumed to impose it on Holocaust as he did. Few others. Rather he sought suffered it as he did. Few to explain its mysteries loved its holy martyrs as he and to convey his love of did. So they will embrace Jewish religion, culture and him with love and gratitude tradition, mysticism and as though he were their mysteries. Most important, defender.” his Jewishness was never chauvinistic or exclusionary. I can think of no more “To be Jewish,” he explained, appropriate words with which “is to recognize that every to bid a most reluctant and person is created in God’s love-filled farewell to my image and thus worthy of friend, my teacher, my mentor, respect. Being Jewish to Elie Wiesel. n me is to reject fanaticism everywhere.” A longer version of this story originally appeared in Tablet In his eulogy at my father’s magazine, at tabletmag.com funeral he said, “I know www.tabletmag.com/jewish- countless souls, sanctified by news-and-politics/206702/ fire, will soon greet you there remembering-elie-wiesel-a- … And they will embrace tribute-from-a-friend-and- you as one of their own and disciple bring you to the Heavenly

38 n GAZETA VOLUME 23, NO. 3 Nomadic Shtetl Archive, Bychawa

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