Volume 22, No. 1 Gazeta Spring 2015
A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial Committee: Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Vera Hannush, Aleksandra Makuch, Alice Lawrence, LaserCom Design
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Message from Irene Pipes ...... 1
Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn ...... 2
History of Gazeta By Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 3
Polish Jewish Studies Initiative By Dr. Jessie Labov ...... 5
The Global Education Outreach Program: Extending Access and Impact By Shana Penn ...... 7
From Ibrahim ibn Jakub to 6 Anielewicz Street: International Conference to Mark the Opening of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 9
The Mandate of the Core Exhibition of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews By Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett ...... 10
Jewish Studies in Poland By Dr. Marcin Wodziński ...... 14
Update on the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute By Dr. Paweł Spiewak ...... 17
Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center Celebrates 20 Years By Anna Przybyszewska Drozd, Aleksandra Dybkowska, and Matan Shefi ...... 19
Launch of Volume 27 of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 21
The 6th “Jews and Judaism in Contemporary Research in Poland” Conference of the Polish Association for Jewish Studies (PAJS) By Dr. Michał Galas ...... 23 ii n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Bródno Cemetery in Praga By Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 25
Warsaw Judaica Team Discovers Pre-War Mezuzah Scroll ...... 26
call for applications Exploring Poland/Polin – Heritage Study Tour – Summer 2015 By Helise Lieberman ...... 27
Auschwitz Jewish Center and Jagiellonian University: Jews of Poland: History, Culture, and Memory By Dara Bramson ...... 28
International Summer Institute “Teaching About the Holocaust” at the Centre for Holocaust Studies, Jagiellonian University By Katarzyna Kopff-Muszyńska ...... 29
The 9th CENTROPA Summer Academy: July 6-14, 2014, Kraków and Warsaw By Edward Serotta ...... 32
in the news U.S. Premiere of Galicia Jewish Museum Exhibit at Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco By Jakub Nowakowski ...... 33
Sebastian Rejak of the Polish Foreign Ministry to Visit San Francisco ...... 35
The 4th Miłosz International Literary Festival ...... 36
From Galicia to New York: Salo W. Baron and His Legacy Jagiellonian University, Kraków-Tarnów, May 26-29, 2015 By Dr. Michał Galas ...... 37
Jewish Community Center of Kraków’s Second Annual Ride for the Living By Jessica Rosenberg ...... 39
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n iii 25 Years of the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival By Janusz Makuch and Robert Gądek ...... 40
Raise The Roof: A Film about an Improbable Dream Courtesy Trillium Studios ...... 42
A Town Called Brzostek: New Award-Winning Documentary By Simon Target ...... 44
Who Will Write Our History: Film Project on Emanuel Ringelblum By Roberta Grossman ...... 45
Polish Court Rules Ban on Ritual Slaughter Unconstitutional Courtesy of JTA: the Global Jewish News Source ...... 46
new publications and research projects Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland Edited by Dr. Erica Lehrer and Dr. Michael Meng ...... 47
Sefarim Seed Grants Program for Jewish Studies Publishing By Magda Matuszewska ...... 48
New Emigration and Re-emigration of Polish Jews (1989-2015) in the Context of Changes of Identity By Dr. Alina Cała and Bogna Pawlisz-Skoczylas...... 49
Recent Books from the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization ...... 52
obituaries Jerzy Tomaszewski: October 8, 1930 - November 4, 2014 By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 53
Stanisław Barańczak: November 13, 1946 - December 26, 2014 By Julian and Fay Bussgang ...... 54
Feliks Tych: July 31, 1929 - February 16, 2015 By Dr. Antony Polonsky ...... 55 iv n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 President of the American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta
Dear Members and Friends:
shall begin with informing you that Tad Taube and Shana Penn of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture have agreed Ito publish our Gazeta (Newsletter of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies), which Fay and Julian Bussgang edited for over twenty years. They have agreed to cooperate with them since they have a lot of experience in collecting and publishing material relevant to our interests and have partnered with us to produce Gazeta for several years.
I spent the most interesting and satisfactory four weeks in Warsaw last October. Of course the highlights were all the events connected with the official opening of the POLIN Museum (note the name, Irene Pipes very flattering to us, which echoes our publication of 27 volumes of POLIN and more to come). The concert by the Israeli Symphony Orchestra in the beautiful Opera House was wonderful and the reception that followed elegant while giving me a chance to see many old friends and donors to the Museum. The ceremony in front of the Rapoport Ghetto monument was attended by hundreds of people and hundreds more standing around the area who could not get into the Museum for the official opening. Both presidents of Poland and Israel spoke and spoke well. One had the feeling while going around town that everyone was somehow connected with the Museum and Jewish events.
I look forward to our cooperation.
Best wishes, Irene Pipes President
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 1 Message from Chairman and Executive Director Tad Taube and of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Shana Penn
or more than a decade, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture has had the privilege of reporting on our grantees and Fprojects in Gazeta, the newsletter of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies. Gazeta is well-known for its presentation of current affairs and program developments in Polish Jewish scholarship and communal life for over 20 years. When Irene Pipes and Antony Polonsky invited us to assume responsibility for production of Gazeta, we were honored to do so, as this partnership advances our goals to strengthen Polish Jewish culture and generate American interest in Polish Jewish developments.
In this inaugural edition of a redesigned and electronically distributed Gazeta, now co-produced by the Taube Foundation Tad Taube for Jewish Life & Culture and the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, we will continue to further awareness and foster positive interest in Polish Jewish culture and advance Gazeta’s legacy as built by its reputable founders, Irene Pipes, Dr. Antony Polonsky, and Fay and Julian Bussgang.
Best regards, Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director
Shana Penn
2 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 By Julian and Fay Bussgang History of Gazeta Co-editors, Gazeta
1992, Irene Pipes, President of the InAmerican Association for Polish-Jewish Studies (AAPJS), located in Cambridge, MA, persuaded its board to start a newsletter to inform people interested in Polish-Jewish affairs about the activities of the Association and also about Polish-Jewish events taking place elsewhere in the world. Board members Fay and Julian Bussgang were asked to undertake this Fay and Julian Bussgang task, and Fay, having just begun the study of Polish, Many of the articles in Gazeta contributed pieces, most suggested that the publication were an abbreviated version articles were written or be called Gazeta (Polish for of a wide variety of items adapted by Polish-born newspaper), to which the relating to Polish-Jewish Julian, still fluent in Polish. others agreed. issues that appeared in the Fay did much of the editing Polish or American press. and formatted the articles. Among the regular contrib- Some were direct reports Prior to publication, the final utors to the newsletter were from friends in Poland giving draft was sent to the editorial Irene Pipes, who provided a updates about the activities board (Irene Pipes, Antony “Letter from the President” of their organizations. Polonsky, Richard Fenigsen, in every issue, and Professor Other articles were devoted and, until her death, Jana Prot) Antony Polonsky, who report- to portraying prominent for review. ed on the upcoming volumes Polish Jews who had made of POLIN, Studies in Polish contributions as writers, The publication proved to be Jewry, a publication spon- scientists, and artists. While very popular among AAPJS sored by and supported by from time to time other members and subscribers, AAPJS. members of the Association who eagerly looked forward
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 3 History of Gazeta, Continued
to each issue, and even among the Taube Foundation about friends and colleagues in stepping in to continue the Poland who were interested publication of Gazeta. We in the American viewpoint are delighted that they have of Polish-Jewish affairs. agreed and also offered us The articles brought to the an opportunity to continue attention of our readers both submitting articles. We are the controversies occurring sure that the new Gazeta will in Poland pertaining to continue to be of great interest Jews as well as the many to its readers. n initiatives to improve Polish- Jewish relations. Gazeta also reported on the emergence of Jewish life among young Jews in Poland, many who had only recently learned of their Jewish heritage. The fact that a great effort was made to be fair and objective in the reporting of Polish- Jewish events was very much appreciated by our readers, who were both Jewish and non-Jewish.
Beginning in 2009, Gazeta began to include reports from the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, which shared many of the same interests as AAPJS. As the Bussgangs began thinking of retiring, AAPJS approached
4 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 By Dr. Jessie Labov Polish Jewish Center for Slavic and Eastern European Studies Studies Initiative Ohio State University
Poland over the last two decades, few changes in Inthe country’s public discourse have been as striking as the opening up of Polish Jewish history and culture as a topic of debate, in both productive and challenging ways. Our working group is dedicated to moving this conversation forward, especially as it will apply to the intertwined study of these fields in the near future. Starting in March 2014, our working group began a series of events that aim to both define and advocate for Dr. Karen Underhill of University of Illinois-Chicago leading a Polish Jewish studies the emerging field of Polish class in Kraków Jewish Studies. The goal is to develop further the path centers, and programs, as of scholars active at the marked out by the American well as in individual scholars’ intersection of Polish and Association for Polish-Jewish projects. We will discuss Jewish studies, together with Studies (AAPJS), and bring relevant courses and syllabi key institutions concerned together scholars and activists that we are collecting among with this area. We discussed from a range of institutions ourselves, and strategies for new research directions, and disciplines who would funding scholars to learn course development, various like to see Polish and Jewish necessary languages and travel approaches to teaching Polish culture more intentionally to important sites for this Jewish Studies courses, and and productively intertwined. research. the development of new Our goal is to share our vocabularies and narratives; collective vision of the field The inaugural meeting of as well as institution building as we imagine it, located in this group, at Ohio State and the development of different types of departments, University, convened a group institutional relationships
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 5 Polish Jewish Studies Initiative, Continued
among universities, NGOs and strategies for reimagining step in both acknowledging foundations in the US, Poland, the past and present of the accomplishments of the Israel, and other countries. We Polish Jews; but also of the previous generation of Polish are in the process of forming complex cultural politics Jewish Studies scholars, and working groups that will focus surrounding national and broadening our audience across on specific projects, such transnational memory and several disciplines. We are now as creating a Polish Jewish historical narratives. We will planning sessions for the 2015 Studies summer school, be working closely with its ASEEES and Association for planning panels at conferences, director, Dr. Dariusz Stola, Jewish Studies conventions, as applying for funds for and chief curator, Dr. Barbara well as a third workshop at the scholarships and fellowships, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, as University of Illinois-Chicago and working together with well as the director of the in the Fall 2015 semester. n AAPJS to integrate past efforts Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish with our current projects. Historical Institute in Warsaw, Core Organizers Dr. Paweł Śpiewak. These Dr. Irena Grudzinska Gross The OSU workshop will be two institutions, together with (Princeton University) followed by a second Polish the Polish Cultural Institute, Dr. Jessie Labov Jewish Studies workshop at New York’s YIVO Institute (Ohio State University) Princeton University, April for Jewish Research, and the 17-19, 2015. The Princeton San Francisco-based Taube Dr. Karen Underhill workshop will take as its Foundation for Jewish Life & (University of Illinois- case study a very important Culture’s Global Education Chicago) development in the narrative Outreach Program (GEOP), Shana Penn (Graduate and interpretative approaches form a new resource network Theological Union) to Polish Jewish history and of unprecedented richness. Dr. Geneviève Zubrzycki culture, namely, the opening (University of Michigan) of the POLIN Museum of We also held a roundtable the History of Polish Jews, on “Polish Jewish Studies For more information, see: in Warsaw in October 2014. in the 21st Century” at the http://slaviccenter.osu.edu/ The Museum itself represents 2014 Association for Slavic, about/polish-studies/polish- substantial new material for East European, and Eurasian jewish. analysis and discussion – not Studies (ASEEES) annual only of scholarly and cultural convention, which was the first
6 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 The Global Education Outreach Program: Extending Access By Shana Penn and Impact
OLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Pwhich had its grand opening on October 28, 2014, is a laboratory for understanding the functions of public history and how cultural institutions can operate as transformative agents in civil society. Its Research Program offers scholarly opportunities in multi-disciplinary fields: history, cultural anthropology, sociology, religion, museum studies, narrative studies, language studies, etc. The Research Program provides access to the Museum’s Group Tour of POLIN Museum collections, library, and digital archives; supports the worldwide through a variety support significant research, preparation of publications; of academic partnerships and writing, and college- and and provides facilities for cross-cultural exchanges. university-level teaching scholars, researchers, students, With start-up funds from about Polish Jews. The and visitors to conduct the William Bowes Jr. GEOP will provide funding research, engage in scholarly Foundation and the Taube for fellowships, faculty and exchange, and take part in Foundation for Jewish student seminars, conferences workshops, seminars, etc. Life & Culture, the GEOP and workshops, and is establishing academic international summer study The Global Education partnerships between POLIN programs. A principal focus Outreach Program (GEOP) Museum and universities and of the program is to ensure aims to transmit the POLIN research institutions in North the development of a new Museum’s educational America, Europe, Israel, generation of Polish Jewish message and unique resources Russia, and Australia to studies scholars. n
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 7 GEOP: Extending Access and Impact, Continued
geop activities n NOVEMBER 11-18, 2014 n APRIL 17-19, 2015 2013-2015 Core Exhibition Scholar of Support for the Polish Jewish Hasidism, Dr. Marcin Wodziński, n MAY 2013-2014 Studies Workshop at Princeton Linkage created between chair of Wrocław University University. Jewish Studies Department, POLIN Museum of the History n INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL hosted at UC Davis and lectures of Polish Jews and University CONFERENCE: about POLIN Museum at UC of Southern California Shoah MAY 11-14, 2015 Davis, Berkeley, Stanford, and Foundation’s Visual History POLIN Museum will host an the Graduate Theological Union. Archive of 52,000 searchable inaugural international scholars audiovisual testimonies of n NOVEMBER 15-18, 2014 conference on its Core Exhibition survivors and witnesses of the Annual conference of the and future directions in Polish Holocaust and other genocides. Association of European Jewish studies. See p. 9. n AUGUST 2014-2015 Jewish Museums (AEJM) n JULY 2015 Dr. Antony Polonsky, an held at POLIN Museum. Five Bay Area educators will award-winning historian and participate in the second edition n FEBRUARY 1-14, 2015 the Albert Abramson Professor of Polin Academy Summer POLIN Museum educators visited of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis Session (PASS), designed University, appointed as Chief and trained in the San Francisco especially for an international Historian of POLIN Museum; Bay Area at Stanford University, group of teachers and educators his affiliation with the museum Contemporary Jewish Museum, to participate in an on-site is part of the GEOP. UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection orientation to the Museum’s of Jewish Art & Life, and other n educational strategies, programs, OCTOBER 2014 Bay Area institutions. The group and exhibitions. 420-page Core Exhibition also spent a week in Los Angeles, catalogue published. hosted by the USC Shoah Visual For more information, contact: n OCTOBER 2014 Archives Foundation. [email protected] Taube-hosted delegation of n MARCH 10-13, 2015 GEOP Jewish studies professors Dr. Samuel Kassow, a Core to POLIN Museum Grand Exhibition Historian, lectured Opening including from on the POLIN Museum at Stanford, USC, and Jewish universities in the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Bay Area.
8 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 From Ibrahim ibn Jakub to 6 Anielewicz Street By Dr. Antony Polonsky International Conference to mark Chief Historian the opening of POLIN Museum of POLIN Museum the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw
OLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Pcooperation with the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute and with the finan- cial support of the Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) is organizing a schol- arly conference to mark the opening of the Museum with the title ‘From Ibrahim ibn Jakub to 6 Anielewicz Street.’
First Encounters Gallery of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews The conference will take place between May 11-14, achieved in the last thirty roles which the Museum and 2015 in POLIN Museum of years in the study of the the Jewish Historical Institute the History of Polish Jews in history and culture of the Jews can play in the development Warsaw and will be opened by in Poland and, at the same of research into the history a keynote speech by Professor time, to highlight the gaps in and culture of Polish Jews Barbara Kirshenblatt- the existing historiography. and how this research can be Gimblett, Program Director The proceedings of the made accessible to a wider of the Core Exhibition. Our conference are divided into public both in Poland and aim is for this conference five sections — the first will internationally. One round to be an opportunity for be devoted to the period down table discussion will be leading scholars in the field to 1795, the second to the devoted to this topic and a to visit the Core Exhibition nineteenth century, the third to second will examine the role of of the Museum that opened the interwar period, the fourth ‘The Historian in the Museum.’ on October 28, 2014 — to the Holocaust and the last The Museum is intending to the curators of the various to the postwar years. publish the proceedings of galleries will be explaining the conference. n what they hoped to achieve. In addition the conference It will also be an opportunity will afford the participants http://www.polin.pl/en/ of evaluate what has been the opportunity to discuss the conference-may-2015
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 9 The Mandate of the Core Exhibition of By Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett POLIN Museum of the Chief Curator History of Polish Jews POLIN Museum
Excerpted from “Historical Space and Critical Museologies: Museum of the History of Polish Jews,” by Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett, to appear in: From Museum Critique to Critical Museum, edited by Katarzyna Murawska- Muthesius and Piotr Piotrowski. Ashgate, 2015, in press.
Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett in the Encounters with Modernity Gallery efore there was a museum, before there museum; it occupies virtually The exhibition is predicated Bwas a building, before there the entire footprint of the on exploration rather than was a collection, before there building and is the inspiration guiding, learning rather than were significant funds – there for its programs. From the teaching, soft mastery (trial was the story. The plan for the outset the core exhibition was and error) rather than hard core exhibition came first, and to be a multimedia narrative mastery (information and all else followed. The story exhibition and a theater of instruction), and above all was compelling, and was what history. The designers worked on the principle of an open ultimately persuaded others with the idea of narrative narrative in multiple voices, to join the project. The core space, a story told in four sometimes in harmony, exhibition, divided into seven dimensions (time is the fourth sometimes in dissonance. For historical periods from the dimension), unfolding as the these reasons, the narration tenth century to the present, visitor moves. is driven by quotations from is at the very heart of the primary sources from the
10 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 The Mandate of the Core Exhibition, Continued
period. Scholarly commentary tackle this sensitive subject, If the exhibition succeeds, appears in its own font particularly since the task it should challenge visitors and panel and is kept to a has been in the hands of the to assess quotations and the minimum. These are among Association of the Jewish sources from which they the ways of empowering the Historical Institute of Poland, come – just as historians do. visitor, who is encouraged the private partner in the In some cases we provide to add his or her voice to private–public partnership several quotations that are in the chorus of voices in the that established the museum. opposition to one another, and exhibition. The Association was everywhere we clearly dif- responsible for creating the ferentiate between quotations As for contributing to debates core exhibition (and raising from primary sources and on fundamental issues, there the funds for it), while the texts by our scholars. is no end to the debates City of Warsaw and the provoked by any history of Ministry of Culture and Nonetheless, some historians Polish Jews, not least the National Heritage covered argued that quotations are one presented in the core the cost and oversaw not “factual,” and asked exhibition. Our challenge construction of the building. us to replace some and cut is to create an exhibition others to align them more worthy of those debates – Most important are the con- closely with statements that and equally worthy of debates cerns about interpretation a historian could defend. that will surely arise from coming from all quarters in We argue that quotations are the exhibition itself. As for Poland and abroad. What clearly not statements by exposing conflicts, sensitivity came to me as a surprise were today’s historians and are not to even uttering the word objections to our use of quo- to be taken as such. They are Jew (Żyd in Polish) is only tations. Will visitors be able our “artifacts” from within one sign that Jews, and to tell the difference between the period. They may not be what is known in Poland as quotations from primary statements that a historical ”the Jewish topic,” are an sources (documents, memoirs, expert today would make – extremely touchy subject, autobiographies, diaries, let- but they do have the authority especially in the post-war ters, newspapers, reports) and of those who lived and period. The POLIN Museum factual information authorized responded to events from their is uniquely positioned to by historians? experience and perspective.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 11 The Mandate of the Core Exhibition, Continued
Leftist critics in Poland object some stayed. The challenge we let voices from the period to our use of quotations was to strike a balance “justify” anti-Jewish feeling for completely different without creating misleading and violence by the high reasons. They accuse us of equivalences and neutralizing proportion and prominence of “hiding behind the quotes” difficult moments in the communists of Jewish origin and not taking up a position historical narration. It became in the regime. Those whom in our own voice. Rather especially important in this we quote are responsible than polemicize, we “speak” period to avoid the passive for what they say, though through the ensemble of voice and to identify the we are responsible for elements that make the historical agents in order that selecting the quotations and whole. Quotations are only actions by the communist commenting on them, We one of those elements. We regime (or aided and abetted also present high-ranking chose them, and we put by it) not be attributed to communists of Jewish them in relation to each Polish society. origin as a phenomenon other and everything else in – whether as individuals the exhibition – including Jewish stakeholders are in photos or named in our commentary. This sensitive to any account texts, Most important, the approach is inspired by the of anti-Jewish feeling or museum commentary avoids Jewish tradition of text and violence that in a subtle, even describing claims from the commentary. unintended way shifts from period in a way that might description and explanation lend credibility to them Perhaps the most sensitive to justification. This accounts as explanations, implying issue is antisemitism, above for our approach to presenting justification, for anti-Jewish all in the post-war period. “żydokomuna,” the stereotype feeling and violence. Polish stakeholders ask for that communism is a Jewish more context for violence phenomenon and that Jews A recurring concern in against Jews, for balancing were collectively responsible the post-war story is the negative examples of Polish– for communism. First, we place of assimilated Jews, Jewish relations with positive distinguish the phenomenon “Poles of Jewish origin,” ones, for providing reasons of Jewish communists as such especially individuals who other than antisemitism for from the anti-Jewish feeling do not identify themselves emigration, and for showing and violence attributed to as Jews and do not want to that while many Jews left, this phenomenon. Second, be identified as Jews. They
12 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Volunteers painting the elaborate ceiling of a close-to-scale replica of the Gwoździec Synagogue Photo: Rick and Laura Brown/Handshouse Studio may come from families who in the formation of the State and not just best known ones. converted to Christianity of Israel. Many well-known This is a story of a civilization several generations ago or individuals do appear in the that created what was once the who hid their Jewish origins historical narrative of the core largest Jewish community in from their children. Many exhibition, but in support of the world. Our mission is to people expect the exhibition to the story rather than because transmit that legacy to future celebrate the contributions of they are famous. “Jews are generations. n Polish Jews, broadly defined, important to Poland, and to Poland and the world – in Poland is important to Jews.” medicine, science, law and That said, the history of Polish politics, in Hollywood, and Jews is about all Polish Jews
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 13 By Dr. Marcin Wodzin´ski Jewish Studies in Poland Director Excerpted from original article of same title Centre for the Culture and Languages of the Jews in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Vol 10, University of Wrocl/ aw No. 1 March 2011, pp. 101–118
in many other post- located far away from the Communist countries discipline’s main research Asof Central and Eastern centers — in our case, Europe, Jewish studies in Israel and the United States. Poland have undergone Besides those general factors, intensive development and however, there is also a Polish transformation in recent specificity to this discipline. years. From being close to non-existent, they have Within Jewish studies in experienced impressive Poland, there are three institutional, teaching, main areas of interest: the research, and publishing Holocaust, the aftermath Dr. Marcin Wodziński developments. Their of the Holocaust, and the development owes much to a regional and local history reaching an international more general transformation of the Jews. This pattern of readership. By contrast, affecting the other countries interest is revealing when local and regional history of the region, especially the compared to patterns of is clearly an area of quite fall of Communism and the cultural and scholarly interest radical misunderstanding and lifting of the institutional and in the East European Jewish misperception between Polish, political barriers hindering past expressed outside Eastern or any other East European the development of Jewish Europe, in North America, and international practitioners Studies in the former Soviet Western Europe, or Israel. of Jewish Studies. bloc countries. And there are global aspects, such as a The Holocaust has attracted For local scholars a history proliferation of research, an growing interest in of their surrounding increased interest in minority international scholarship, so neighborhood is of immediate cultures, growing political there is nothing specific to relevance, but such studies interest in the Middle East Poland in this regard. Quite are often perceived outside conflict, which translates into the contrary, Polish research Eastern Europe as parochial a growth of related research in Holocaust studies has and lacking a wider, that is, activities, and the advent experienced a process of proper, historical context. of technologies facilitating intense maturation, with a This is only partially correct, access to scholarly resources number of excellent studies as a natural context for those
14 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Jewish Studies in Poland, Continued
studies and scholars is not a This is true of many other do not really fit within the history of the Jewish people aspects of Jewish studies in typical meta-narratives of worldwide. Rather, it is a Poland. For example, Polish Jewish studies as perceived by local and regional history of research clearly focuses Israelis or North Americans, ethnic and religious groups on those aspects of Jewish and should be considered populating a region and the history and culture that within the context of the national history of the country highlight relations between Polish, not Jewish, academy. to which this region belongs. Jews and non-Jews, especially Although an increasingly Studies of this sort and Jewish Poles. When researching larger part of Jewish studies studies are attractive to economic or social realities, undertaken in Poland refers Polish scholars not because for example, the first topics to the current directions in of their meaning for wider to be studied were those that the development of Jewish international research in highlighted interrelationships, studies worldwide, the basic Jewish studies, but because even if they were at times point of reference is Polish of their relevance for Polish painful and never glorious. scholarship and Polish meta- history and Polish culture, This is important for our narratives. Paradoxically, the even if perceived in a new and diagnosis of the research fact that such a huge part of radically broader sense. interests, because it reveals Polish-Jewish studies actively the significance of Jewish confronts Polish stereotypes, Another area of studies in Poland. It is a Polish national myths, and misunderstanding and radical question of how the Poles find Polish cognitive paradigms difference between Polish, or themselves in relation to this proves the importance of East European, and Israeli/ culture, what it says about the the context of Polish meta- American perspectives is Poles and their culture, how it narratives for those studies the post-Holocaust history was possible to live together, and how strongly Polish- of the Jews in Eastern how it affected Polish culture. Jewish studies are embedded Europe. Jewish history in Once again, this is an issue of in Polish public debate. post-Holocaust Poland is self-identity. almost invisible to Israeli or We should add, however that American Jewish interests, A consequence of such a in the past 20 years, fields while it features greatly in specific model of interest of research have emerged in Poland and other countries in and motivation is the fact Polish-Jewish studies that go this part of Europe. that Polish-Jewish studies beyond the perspectives of
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 15 Jewish Studies in Poland, Continued
interest already mentioned. North America and Israel over at North American institutions The best example is studies the last three decades, close of higher education and at on Jews of the former Polish- cooperation between Polish universities in Israel. Although Lithuanian Commonwealth. historians and Israeli and these represent the successes The Commonwealth, American scholars has proved of specific individuals, they affectionately called in to be hugely significant for also signify a collective effort Poland a Republic of Many Polish-Jewish studies. As a by many people and circles Nations, is perceived as an result of this cooperation, the within Polish-Jewish studies. ideal point of reference, as work of early modern Polish- Above all, they are the result it provides a model of pre- Jewish historians now refers of the interest in Jewish topics modern multiculturalism and, as much to the international as among the wider circles of better than any other period, it the Polish academy. public opinion, whose interest embodies the ideals of an open stimulates the development of and tolerant Poland — that The historiography of the this discipline. is, a Poland such as the new early modern period has scholarship seeks to find. definitely stopped being Polish-Jewish studies are a research arena directed gradually freeing themselves Excellent research studies inwardly toward Polish issues of Polish meta-narratives by Polish historians of and problems, and early and the Polish paradigm of early modern history are modern Polish historians can Jewish history. It is difficult developing under the influence boast impressive scholarly to say yet where they will find also of methodological achievements. themselves as a result of this transformations of early transformation and whether modern historiography Polish authors are publishing they will retain contact with in Europe and the United an increasing number of high- what enlivens Polish-Jewish States. These have set the quality articles in the most studies, that is, with the direction of transformation, prestigious Jewish Studies popular interest of Jewish as well as the methodological journals. More Polish students themes within Polish public standards, within the entire are appearing at the most opinion. n discipline. In studies of the prestigious doctoral studies Jewish community in the early courses, and scholars from modern Polish-Lithuanian Poland are finding positions in Commonwealth undertaken in departments of Jewish studies
16 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Update on the By Dr. Pawel/ Spiewak Director Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute Jewish Historical Institute
he Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical TInstitute (JHI) holds the world’s largest repository of historical resources on Polish Jews. The oldest item dates from the end of the 9th century and an extensive archive dates back to the 19th century. Since 1947, the JHI has housed the vast material heritage of pre-WWII Jewry that was salvaged, reclaimed and preserved by the Central Jewish Historical Commission in 1944 in Lublin, while the war was still raging. These Group viewing of Ringelblum archive artifacts holdings include artifacts, documents, photographs and other items housed under the war, intended for use in faced, across a path, Warsaw’s difficult and underfunded war crime tribunals against largest synagogue, the Great conditions. Nazis after the war. Most Synagogue (seating 2,200), of the documents were which was blown up by the The JHI’s most treasured later recovered and became Nazis in May 1943. collection is the Emanuel the basis for the JHI’s Ringelblum Archives. collection. The Oyneg Shabes This past year, the Emanuel Ringelblum, a historian, documentarians met every Ringelblum Jewish Historical organized a clandestine Saturday in the building Institute has focused on network of writers, journalists, which houses the JHI today; raising the standard of historians and artists in before World War II, it was exhibitions and constantly the Warsaw Ghetto, called the famous Main Judaic adding to the Central Judaic Oyneg Shabes, to document Library and Institute of Judaic Library (www.cbj.jhi.pl). The Jewish life and death during Studies (est. in 1928) and it Central Judaic Library (CBJ)
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 17 Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, Continued
presents the holdings of the Jewish History and Jewish Jewish Historical Institute in Memory by Yosef Hayim digital form. CBJ’s mission is Yerushalmi. to not only make available all texts of the Jewish Historical In 2015-16, the Institute will Institute, but also embed them be building a permanent in their historical contexts and exhibition dedicated to the provide special research tools Oyneg Shabes group and for historians, genealogists, Emanuel Ringelblum. n and all individuals interested in the history and culture http://www.jhi.pl/en of Jews in Poland. CBJ collections include the Ringelblum Archive.
The Institute has also published several books about the history of the Holocaust as well as ethical and aesthetic works on the representation of the Holocaust in art and philosophy. These include Who is that Jew? by Feliks Celnikier, Jewish Children during the Holocaust Period edited by Olga Orzel, the exhibition catalogue of Salvaged, an exhibit curated by Teresa Śmiechowska, Social Court at CKŻP: the Jewish Community in Poland Settles the War by Andrzej Żbikowski, and Zachor:
18 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 By Anna Przybyszewska Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center Drozd, Aleksandra Dybkowska, and Celebrates 20 Years Matan Shefi
he Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center T(JG&FHC) has reached its 20-year milestone, having assisted thousands of Jews to uncover their Polish roots and Poles to discover their Jewish roots. Based in Warsaw, the Genealogy Center is a department of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute (JHI), which holds the world’s largest collection of archival and other materials about Poland’s Jewish history. Here, the knowledgeable, multilingual Photo: Jewish Historical Institute staff, under the direction of Anna Przybyszewska Drozd, provide expert advice, After some years and in and others to explore the most research, attentive discussions the face of rapidly growing basic questions about their with clients, and the careful demand, the genealogy origins: Who am I? Where reading and interpretation project outgrew its modest do I come from? Also very of old and more recent physical space, staffing and important, the JG&FHC documents from Poland’s technological capacities. Enter serves scholars and students centuries-long Jewish the Taube Foundation for conducting genealogy research presence. Jewish Life & Culture, which for scholarly purposes. began supporting the project Other significant support In 1994, a small-scale in 2004 and helped it realize has come from the Kronhill genealogy project within the its strategic plan to become an Pletka Foundation, the Friend Jewish Historical Institute expanded and technologically Family Foundation, the Koret began, supported by the sophisticated center for Foundation, the Libitzky Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. helping inquiring Jews, Poles Foundation, the Morris W.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 19 Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center, Continued
Offit Family, and the San contact information about Francisco Jewish Community the Genealogy Center to Federation. all of their visitors who ask such questions, including In 2014, the JG&FHC staff JG&FHC’s key technological met with more than 1,500 access point: www.jhi.pl/en/ visitors to their Warsaw office genealogy and their popular and helped over a thousand Facebook fanpage. The more via email, Skype and Genealogy Center in turn phone. This was an increase provides its visitors with of about 35% from the information about POLIN. previous year’s numbers due The upcoming year will no to increased tourism to Poland doubt be the busiest one yet as especially family “roots” the Center embarks upon their tours. While about a third of third decade. n the visitors were from the US, there were 26 other countries represented, with significant numbers from Israel, Canada and France. Closer to home, more than 300 Poles visted the Center to explore questions about their hidden pasts.
The Genealogy Center also began a significant partnership with POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, starting with a series of well-attended genealogy workshops in January 2015. The Museum’s Resource Center now distributes
20 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Launch of Volume 27 of Polin: Studies in By Dr. Antony Polonsky Polish Jewry
anuary 2015 saw two launches of Volume 27 Jof Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, the first in Kraków on January 13 at the Maria and Marcell Roth Center for the History and Culture of Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish Relations and the second two days later at the Polish Embassy in London. Volume 27 investigates the situation of the Jews in the Kingdom of Poland, the autonomous, semi-constitutional state, in dynastic union with the Dr. Antony Polonsky Romanovs, created at the Congress of Vienna to satisfy, In the first half of the 1863 changed this situation at least in part, the national nineteenth century the Polish as a competition developed aspirations of the Poles. nobility, which even after between the Viceroy of Its autonomous status was the failure of the revolution the Kingdom, Alexander severely restricted after the of 1830-1 was the dominant Wielopolski, a Pole who was unsuccessful Polish uprising force in the area, took the trying to introduce a measure of 1830-1, and almost view that Jewish emancipation of self-rule that would also entirely done away with in was conditional on the Jews’ be acceptable to the Tsarist the aftermath of that of 1863- abandoning their religious authorities, and the growing 4. It did however possess a and social separateness, a Polish national movement, constitution and a concept of development which was to win the support of the citizenship, which meant that, regarded as rather unlikely, Jews. As a result the Jews of in theory at least, there was a or, at best, could be expected the Kingdom received their basis for the transformation to take a very long time. The emancipation on June 4, 1862 of the Jews into citizens. run-up to the insurrection of from Wielopolski.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 21 Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Continued
The granting of equal rights the dominance of the also featured a round-table was not rescinded after the integrationists was challenged discussion of POLIN Museum failure of the uprising, and by the adherents of Zionism of the History of Polish Jews, the Jewish elite remained and of Socialism. This in which the participants were committed to an integrationist culminated in conflict over the Dariusz Stola, Director of the view of the Jewish future. elections to the Russian Duma POLIN Museum of the Their position was weakened of October 1912 that finally History of Polish Jews, by the slow progress of undermined the position of the Barbara Kirshenblatt- acculturation, the impact of Jewish assimilationists. Gimblett, Chief Curator and the ‘new Jewish politics,’ Antony Polonsky, Chief which stressed ethnicity rather The specific features of Jewish Historian of the Museum. n than religion as the marker life in the Kingdom of Poland of Jewish identity, and the have not, by and large, been http://www.aapjstudies.org/ growth of antisemitism. The recognized in the scholarship period between 1890 and on this area, and this volume, 1914 thus saw a fundamental with contributions from transformation of Polish leading scholars in Poland, political life in the Kingdom Israel and the United States, of Poland and the emergence seeks to fill this gap and of new political movements provide a clear picture of what which challenged the made the Kingdom of Poland dominance of the Positivists, different from the other areas the exponents on Polish of partitioned Poland and soil of a variant of Western from the centres of Jewish liberalism, and the Jews life in Central Europe. Some who were associated with were present at the launch them — integral nationalism, in Kraków, while others, in the form of the National including the two editors, Democratic movement led Glenn Dynner of Sarah by Roman Dmowski, and Lawrence College and Marcin socialism, both in national Wodziński of the University and in revolutionary forms. of Wrocław took part in the Within the Jewish world launch in London, which
22 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 The 6th “Jews and Judaism in By Dr. Michal/ Galas Contemporary Research in Poland” Institute of Jewish Studies Conference of the Polish Association Jagiellonian University for Jewish Studies (PAJS)
November 1995 a On September 29-October 1, History of Polish Jews and group of scholars from 2014, PAJS organized the 6th its Role in the Development Invarious Polish universities and “Jews and Judaism in Con- of Jewish Studies in Poland,” academic institutions made temporary Research in Po- with mediators Prof. Dariusz a decision to establish the land” conference, which took Stola, POLIN Museum Di- Polish Association for Jewish place at the Polish Academy rector; Prof. Antony Polon- Studies (Polskie Towarzystwo of Arts and Sciences (PAU) sky, POLIN Museum Chief Studiów Żydowskich, PAJS), in Kraków. Over 100 scholars Historian; and Prof. Marcin which would have as its from Poland and guests from Wodziński, a POLIN Museum main goal the consolidation abroad participated in the Core Exhibition Historian. and integration of scholars conference. Representatives and institutions involved in of institutions that collaborat- After this general session, Jewish Studies in Poland. ed in the organization of this participants of the conference Statutory aims of PAJS are the event and spoke at the plena- delivered lectures and presen- promotion and popularization ry opening session included: tations in panels during three of scholarly research on Prof. Jerzy Wyrozumski and next days that were dedicated Jewish history and culture, Prof. Maria Kłańska (PAU), to such major topics as: histo- with particular attention to Prof. Edward Dąbrowa (Jagi- ry of Jews from ancient times the history of the Jews in ellonian University and the to the contemporary period; Poland, and the development European Association of demography and statistics; of collaboration with Polish Jewish Studies (EAJS), and history of Judaism, philoso- and foreign institutions Assoc. Prof. Michał Galas phy and kabbalah; Jewish cul- and associations. From its (PAJS and EAJS). Follow- tures, languages, literatures inception the Association ing that Dr. Sebastian Rejak and press; anthropology and has organized conferences from the Polish Ministry of folklore; antisemitism and to analyze the state of Foreign Affairs delivered a Holocaust; and commemora- Jewish Studies in Poland lecture on: “Jewish Studies tion of Jewish life in Poland. entitled: “Jews and Judaism and Revival of Jewish Life in Contemporary Research in Poland, and Polish For- The conference included the in Poland.” The Association eign Policy.” This was fol- General Meeting of PAJS also publishes its semi-annual lowed by a panel discussion members during which a periodical “Studia Judaica.” on “POLIN Museum of the new board of the Association
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 23 Jews and Judaism in Contemporary Research in Poland, Continued
for the period of 2014-2018 For more information about was elected. For the second PAJS please click on: time, Assoc. Prof. Michał www.jewishstudies.pl Galas became the President www.studiajudaica.pl. of PAJS; Prof. Marcin Wodziński, Vice-President; Prof. Stefan Gąsiorowski, Treasurer; and Assoc. Prof. Magdalena Ruta, Secretary. For the first time at the General Meeting of PAJS, members decided to award Honorary PAJS Membership to scholars who played leadership roles in the development of Jewish studies in Poland and Polish- Jewish relations: Prof. Jerzy Wyrozumski, Prof. Antony Polonsky, and Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewski.
In November 2015 the Polish Association for Jewish Studies will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its existence and activities. This will be a great occasion to summarize achievements and create a program for future development. n
24 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Bródno Cemetery By Julian and in Praga Fay Bussgang
the JTA of February 4, Penny Schwartz of InBoston reports on a visit to the 225-year-old Bródno cemetery, Warsaw’s oldest and largest Jewish burial ground — located in Praga, on the opposite side of the Vistula River. Substantially destroyed during and after the war, some restoration began in the late 1980s, and in 2012, ownership of the cemetery was formally transferred to the Jewish Community of Warsaw. Bródno Cemetery Anna Chipczyńska, the 36-year-old president of the area. The Jewish Community Jewish Community of Warsaw is now responsible for more explained that the Jewish than 12 Jewish cemeteries in Community is committed Poland. n to spending approximately $800,000 to restore the 13- For more information about acre Bródno cemetery and the Bródno cemetery, see: is hoping that much of the http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/ money will come from a article/warszawa/12,cemeteri Minister of Culture grant es/3529,jewish-cemetery-in- for which they have applied. odrowaza-street/ The group is planning to open the cemetery to the public for educational and communal programs about the shared Polish-Jewish history of the
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 25 Warsaw Judaica Team Discovers Pre-War Mezuzah Scroll
arsaw-based Judaica designers Helena WCzernek and Aleksander Prugar, co-founders of “Mi Polin,” create beautiful Judaica and engage in many interactive art projects. They have become best known for their mezuzah project, in which they travel to different towns across Poland, Mezuzah scroll discovered by Mi Polin in Przemysl; photo: Mi Polin locate and make casts of pre-war mezuzah traces, and preservation of monuments Bay Area (the first time was turn the casts themselves into of history from the National in September at the Osher mezuzot for Jews in Poland Museum in Warsaw. We will Marin JCC) at the Peninsula and around the world. Czernek decide together what to do JCC, April 1-June 25. In says the goal is to give the old with that precious piece of partnership with Lerhaus mezuzot new life. Jewish ceremonial art.” Judaica and with support from Taube Philanthropies, While the duo are determined Mi Polin’s project coincides Czernek and Prugar will speak to find any mezuzot traces, they with a national initiative to at the April 13 opening, with are most excited when they can identify homes whose former an introduction by Shana find a klaf, or scroll within the Jewish owners perished in Penn, Executive Director mezuzah. They were rewarded the Holocaust. This particular of Taube Philanthropies. in early January, when they homeowner, noticing the Mi Polin Judaica can be discovered a 70-year old scroll diagonally placed metal on the purchased at the PJCC during in excellent condition in the doorframe, and knowing of Mi the exhibit and regularly at Polish town of Przemysl, two Polin’s project, immediately the Contemporary Jewish hours south of Warsaw. contacted Czernek and Prugar. Museum in San Francisco. n “The parchment seems to be Mi Polin’s mezuzot and mipolin.pl perfectly preserved,” said other art will be on display Czernek. “It has been taken for the second time in the care of by experts on the
26 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 By Helise Lieberman CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Director Exploring Poland/Polin - Heritage Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Study Tour – Summer 2015 Life in Poland
he Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in TPoland is pleased to announce a call for applications for the second year of its summer study program for American students of Polish and Polish Jewish descent, Exploring Poland/Polin – Heritage Study Tour–Summer 2015.
The intensive immersion program, created by the Taube Center and supported by a grant from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is built on the success of last summer’s Participants in the inaugural summer program, “Towards a 21st Century Polonia: pilot program, “Towards a Explore, Connect, Get Involved” (Summer 2014) 21st Century Polonia: Explore, Connect, Get Involved.” Two For more information, Helise E. Lieberman, 11-day study programs are and to send information Director, Taube Center for offered this summer: to potential candidates the Renewal of Jewish Life Study Tour I: June 18-29 electronically, please visit in Poland Foundation the program’s website: http:// Study Tour II: August 3-14 Exploring Poland/Polin - www.21stcenturypolonia.pl/ Heritage Study Tour - recruitment.html Deadline for application is Summer 2015 April 15, 2015. Almost all ex- Email: polonia21@ penses per student are covered Applications may be centrumtaubego.org.pl by the grant, excluding interna- downloaded from the website. tional airfare, travel insurance, Cell: 48 530 834 040 and personal expenses. Please Program Contact: Website: share this announcement with Bartosz Rozbicki, www.21stcenturypolonia.pl students and friends. n Program Coordinator
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 27 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS Auschwitz Jewish Center and By Dara Bramson Jagiellonian University: Jews of Program Coordinator Poland: History, Culture, and Memory
he Centre for European program fee includes Studies at Jagiellonian accommodation during TUniversity, the Auschwitz the program, materials, Jewish Center, and Museum participation in seminars, of Jewish Heritage are proud study trips, site visits and to offer a new joint summer tours, travel costs in Poland, school program in 2015: Jews and three dinners (opening, of Poland: History, Culture, closing, and one Shabbat and Memory
The summer school runs For more information on from June 22-July 8, 2015 any of the AJC’s Signature and offers 4 US credit hours Programs, please visit (8 ECTS points) to ajcf.org or contact participants. The $2,225 [email protected].
28 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS International Summer Institute By Katarzyna “Teaching about the Holocaust” at Kopff-Muszyn´ska the Centre for Holocaust Studies, Program Coordinator Jagiellonian University
he International Summer Genocide Studies, University The main sponsor of the Institute’s Teaching about of Minnesota (2007), Museum Summer Institute is the Claims Tthe Holocaust is an annual of Jewish Heritage: Living Conference: the Conference summer program that has been Memorial to the Holocaust on Jewish Material Claims held at Jagiellonian University in New York (2008), and Against Germany. The project in Kraków since 2006, State of California Center has also been supported by initiated by Tess Wise, the for Excellence on the Study different American funds and Founder and the Chair of the of the Holocaust, Genocide, trusts, including: Michael Holocaust Memorial Resource Human Rights and Tolerance, H. Traison Fund for Poland, and Education Center of California State University, the Elisabeth Morse Genius Central Florida. Chico (2008). Since 2009, the Charitable Trust, the Taube strategic partner of CHS has Foundation for Jewish Life & Born in Szydłowiec, Poland, been the Illinois Holocaust Culture, and the Segal Family the great-granddaughter of Museum and Education Foundation. Private donors, the chief rabbi of Warsaw Center in Skokie, Illinois; some of whom wish to remain in the 1920s and the first the co-partner institutions anonymous, have generously Jewish member of the Polish are: the International contributed to the Summer parliament after regaining Center for Education about Institute’s budget. freedom in 1918, Wise is Auschwitz and Holocaust at a Holocaust survivor and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State The mission of the Holocaust education expert. Museum, the Galicia Jewish International Summer Since 2006, nine sessions of Museum, the International Institute Teaching about the the Summer Institute have Youth Meeting Centre in Holocaust, specified in 2006, taken place. The Centre for Oświęcim/Auschwitz, the is the sustainable integration Holocaust Studies (CHS) Auschwitz Jewish Centre in of Holocaust studies into has organized the Summer Oświęcim, and in 2014 the Polish schools with the goal of Institute since the CHS was Historical Museum of the building an open, pluralistic established at Jagiellonian City of Cracow. Yad Vashem and inclusive society in which University in 2007. Over a has also been a partnering prejudice, discrimination and span of eight years, several institution since the first antisemitism are condemned American institutions joined session of the Summer and rejected. In 2014, thanks the project, including: The Institute in 2006. to a new partner in the project, Center for Holocaust and the Ukrainian Center for
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 29 International Summer Institute “Teaching about the Holocaust,” Continued
Holocaust Studies in Kiev, aware that teaching about They show participants two schoolteachers and one the Holocaust is not only what sources, materials and young leader from Ukraine providing dates, numbers teaching tools to use, and what could take part in the program. and facts, but sensitizing methodologies and strategies One teacher from Azerbaijan students to the dangers of to apply. and two others from Russia intolerance, prejudices and also attended the Institute xenophobia. Therefore, One of the participants in 2014. The important it is vitally important to commented: It is important objective of the project is to provide participants with for me to have the chance to provide Polish teachers with practical skills for placing the meet in person people whom I contemporary research about Holocaust in the context of know only from their scholarly the Holocaust and its impact human rights and fundamental works. Their involvement, on the present and future. The values. Such an approach is dynamic personalities, care, historical, social, religious and extremely important now, professionalism, dedication to moral context of the Holocaust when racist and nationalistic the topic and “spark”…give that the participants study ideas are getting more and me strength in my efforts, and during the week of training more traction with the younger I am moved and thankful that can help them in their work generations. Responsible and they share their knowledge with students and facilitate a thoughtful approaches as well and pay excellent attention to common ground to share ideas as carefully chosen methods their audience. and experiences with other and strategies are required colleagues, non-governmental from a teacher; otherwise Besides taking part in organization members, lessons about the Holocaust presentations, lectures, university lecturers and can result in strengthening practical workshops, and film researchers and consequently prejudices and negative sessions, participants go for build a network of competent stereotypes. The Summer study visits to memory sites educators. During the seminar, Institute experts — recognized and historical places. A study participants have many academics, educators, museum visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau opportunities to broaden curators and experts from State Museum in Oświęcim knowledge and reflect on the United States, Israel and is the central point of the their opinions. The lecturers Poland — come to the seminar program. Each year there are and experts invited to work to share their expertise and participants for whom it is with participants make them experience with teachers. their first visit to Auschwitz-
30 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 International Summer Institute “Teaching about the Holocaust,” Continued
Birkenau, mainly because they initiative, and we hope to come from distant parts of continue to help it evolve. Poland (this is a particularly The tenth edition of the tailored target group of the program will take place in the Institute). first week of July 2015. n
Many participants from previous sessions of the Summer Institute expressed the desire to take part in a more advanced program in teaching about the Holocaust, and suggested that the organizers offer a master training for graduates. The Centre for Holocaust Studies at Jagiellonian University and the UNESCO Chair for Education about the Holocaust at Jagiellonian together with the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie are now constructing the agenda of such training for those graduates whose actions and initiatives in teaching about the Holocaust and preserving Jewish heritage locally have achieved positive, far-reaching results. The Summer Institute is a growing and developing
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 31 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS th By Edward Serotta The 9 CENTROPA Summer Founder and Director Academy: July 6-14, 2015 CENTROPA Kraków and Warsaw
CENTROPA, we believe that the city Atis our classroom, and we bring teachers from a dozen countries together to learn from and with each other.
If you are interested in a Holocaust-specific visit to Poland, read no further. During our eight days in Kraków, Auschwitz and Warsaw, we will study interwar Poland — its culture, history and its place in post-Versailles Europe. We will visit Auschwitz with historians and discuss one CENTROPA Workshop, photo: CENTROPA of the century’s great works of literature, Primo Levi’s day with Polish and German projects created by students Survival in Auschwitz. historians discussing Poland’s in Greensboro, Kielce, Haifa, Communist decades; the rise Mannheim and other cities. In Warsaw we will have of Solidarity, the overthrow We will send you home with a private screening and of Communism, and Poland’s lesson plans that you have discussion about Pavel relations with Germany, created, and partnerships Pawilkowski’s Academy the European Union, Israel that you have made — and Award winning film, Ida, and America. will draw from during the and we will tour the largest school year. n and most impressive Jewish Best of all, teachers who museum in Europe. attend our summer academies For cost information and work in cross-border groups available subventions, The CENTROPA Summer as they write their own contact Dr Lauren Granite Academy will also spend a lesson plans and watch at [email protected]
32 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 IN THE NEWS U.S. Premiere of By Jakub Nowakowski Galicia Jewish Museum Exhibit at Director Contemporary Jewish Museum of Galicia Jewish Museum San Francisco
Poland over the last two On February 26, 2015, In decades, few changes in a small portion of this the country’s public discourse collection opened for display have been as striking as the at the Contemporary Jewish opening up of Polish Jewish Museum in San Francisco as a history and culture as a topic part of the exhibition “Poland of debate, in both productive and Palestine: Two Lands and and challenging ways. Two Skies. Cracovian Jews in the photographs of Ze’ew In 2003, in an attic of a house Aleksandrowicz,” created by in Tel Aviv, a remarkable the Galicia Jewish Museum in discovery was made. A Kraków, Poland. The images young boy, looking through on display paint a powerful Jakub Nowakowski, Director of the the things of his grandfather picture by introducing their Galicia Jewish Museum (GJM) at the opening of the GJM’s exhibit, “Poland who passed away 11 years subjects in two distinct and Palestine: Two Lands and Two earlier, found an old leather cultural contexts: in the Skies,” at the Contemporary Jewish streets of Aleksandrowicz’s Museum (CJM) in San Francisco on suitcase bearing metal, rusty February 26, 2015, with CJM Director cans — inside he discovered home city, Kraków, and in Lori Starr. over 15,000 negatives made distant Palestine. In turn, the in the 1930s. The author of photographs have become the The program was designed to those photographs, Ze’ew entry point for telling stories encourage pupils and students Aleksandrowicz, was born in about the relationship between to trace their own roots 1905 in Kraków to a wealthy those two worlds, full of and discover their family histories and communities, and assimilated Jewish family. contrasts and contradictions. as well as the histories of His collection contains The opening of the exhibition students from other parts photographs taken from all was accompanied by the of the world. Through this over the world — Poland, projection of short movies medium, the project helps the US, Japan, Egypt, and prepared by Polish and build openness and interest many other places that American students as a part in intercultural exchange, and he visited throughout his of the project “Our Roots.” at the same time encourages numerous journeys.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 33 U.S. Premiere of Galicia Jewish Museum Exhibit, Continued
exhibitions are not only things of the past, but rather fascinating tools that enable us to discover our mutual roots and build bridges that can connect even the farthest shores. n
http://www.thecjm.org/on- view/currently/poland-and- palestine-two-land-and-two- skies/about
From the Poland and Palestine – Two Lands and Two Skies. Cracovian Jews through the Lens of Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz exhibition (Galicia Jewish Museum) reflection on the differences of Polish Jews, but also and similarities in our local challenge stereotypes and histories. misconceptions connected with this subject, presenting Both projects are part of it as a part of our common, the educational and cultural universal narrative. The programs of the Galicia fact that Aleksandrowicz’s Jewish Museum. In 2014 photographs, taken over 80 the Museum arranged years ago in Kraków and eight traveling exhibitions British Mandate for Palestine, that were presented in are today presented in San more than 20 locations in Francisco, accompanied Poland, the United States, by short movies made by Lithuania, and Estonia. These students from the US and projects not only promote Poland, is proof that the knowledge about the history stories we tell through our
34 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 IN THE NEWS Sebastian Rejak of the Polish Foreign Ministry to Visit San Francisco
ebastian Rejak, Special Dr. Rejak will also attend Envoy of the Minister the Polish Flag Raising at Sof Foreign Affairs for San Francisco City Hall the Relations with the Jewish morning of May 4, meet with Diaspora, will be visiting Polish Honorary Consuls the San Francisco on May Tad Taube and Christopher 4-5. At the Commonwealth Kerosky, the San Francisco- Club of California, he will Krakow Sister Cities deliver a noontime lecture, Association, and members entitled: “How Europe’s of the Polish- and Jewish- Challenged Stability Affects American communities. Its Minorities: A Polish Perspective.” He will give an Dr. Sebastian Rejak overview of the issues facing Ukraine (east of Poland) and the terrorist challenges in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom (west of Poland), as well as discuss how terrorism affects multicultural dynamics and immigrant communities in Europe and specifically in Poland. He will also speak about the issue of recent Jewish emigration from Europe as linked to the ubiquitous feeling that Europe is no longer safe for Jews.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 35 The 4th Mil/osz International Literary Festival
May 14-19, 2015, Venclova (Lithuania), and Czesław Miłosz’s work serves Kraków, a UNESCO Adam Zagajewski (Poland). as an inspiration and an entry OnCity of Literature, will host point for reflection and cross- the fourth annual Miłosz This year, the program will cultural dialogue. n International Literary Festival. include: Ruth Padel (UK), Organized by the Book Marie Lundquist (Sweden), Information about past seasons Institute, the Festival will Valzhyna Mort (Belarus- of the Festival is available at: consist of poetry readings, USA), Robert Hass (USA), www.milosz365.pl panel discussions, art Charles Simic (USA), Uros exhibitions and multimedia Zupan (Slovenia), Xavier events held in various historic Farre Vidal (Catalonia), venues, including churches, Kornelijus Platelis synagogues, theaters, and (Lithuania), and Alice Oswald Jagiellonian University. (UK). Polish authors will include: Dariusz Suska, A biennial event, the Miłosz Dariusz Sośnicki, Krzysztof International Literary Siwczyk, Julia Fiedorczuk, Festival has hosted many Wioletta Grzegorzewska, famous authors, including Wojciech Bonowicz, Klara Adonis (Syria), Mark Danner Nowakowska, and Marta (USA), Bei Dao (China), Podgórnik. Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Germany), Lars Gustafsson The 2015 season of the (Sweden), Seamus Heaney Miłosz International Literary (Ireland), Edward Hirsch Festival is entitled “A Book (USA), Jane Hirshfield (USA), of Luminous Things.” The Michael Krüger (Germany), theme is taken from Miłosz’s Richard Lourie (USA), Philip anthology of international Levine (USA), Lev Rubinstein poetry. The Festival highlights (Russia), Tomaž Šalamun the important place of Polish (Croatia), Zadie Smith (UK), poetry in the international Gary Snyder (USA), Wisława literary scene and Poland’s Szymborska (Poland), Tomas role as a living cultural center.
36 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 From Galicia to New York: By Dr. Michal/ Galas Salo W. Baron and Institute of Jewish Studies Jagiellonian University His Legacy
Jagiellonian University, Baron. Salo W. Baron was Kraków-Tarnów, born in 1895 in Tarnów (75 May 26-29, 2015 km east of Kraków) and in 1913 became a student at Jagiellonian University where 2012 the Center for he studied until the outbreak Jewish Studies at of World War I. After further InArizona State University studies in Vienna in 1926, (ASU) launched a formal Baron was brought to the U.S. partnership with the where he went on to become a Institute of Jewish Studies prominent professor of Jewish at Jagiellonian University history at Columbia University (UJ) in Kraków, Poland. and one of the founding The collaboration between fathers of Jewish Studies at ASU and Jagiellonian American universities. Salo University began with a Salo Baron W. Baron is connected with research symposium about the ASU through his family and birthday on May 26, 2015. revival of Jewish Studies, the the Salo W. and Jeannette M. The conference, “From proceedings of which were Baron Foundation, which is a Galicia to New York: Salo published in a recent issue of benefactor of Jewish Studies W. Baron and His Legacy” the journal Scripta Judaica at ASU. will be held at Jagiellonian Cracoviensia (Vol. 11 (2013)). University in Kraków on May In light of this connection, 26-29, 2015 and will host Comparing shared interests, both institutions — ASU scholars from Europe, Israel, we realized that ASU and UJ and UJ — decided that the Canada, and United States. had a lot of common fields next step in our scholarly The presentations will explore for collaboration. Assoc. collaboration should be a Baron’s biography and life Prof. Michał Galas from the conference to commemorate experience, assess Baron’s Institute of Jewish Studies and examine the intellectual contribution to various of Jagiellonian University, legacy of Salo W. Baron. sub-disciplines of Jewish during his lecture at ASU, It will be also the perfect Studies, and evaluate Baron’s drew attention to the most occasion to celebrate his 120th scholarship in a historical tangible connection, Salo W.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 37 Salo W. Baron and His Legacy, Continued
perspective. One day of the Studies at Stanford University; conference (May 29) will be Institute for Israel and devoted to a visit to Tarnów, Jewish Studies at Columbia Salo Baron’s birthplace University; Galicia Jewish and will focus on Baron Museum in Kraków; and family history. the Regional Museum in Tarnów. n Sessions will be open to the academic community of Jagiellonian University, scholars from other universities in Europe, and the general public. The detailed program of the conference will be announced soon on the websites of both universities: www.jewishstudies.asu.edu and www.judaistyka.uj.edu.pl
The conference is co- organized and supported by: Arizona State University Center for Jewish Studies; Institute of Jewish Studies at Jagiellonian University; Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation; The Knapp Family Foundation; Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and the Global Education Outreach Program; Taube Center for Jewish
38 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Jewish Community Center of By Jessica Rosenberg Kraków Announces Second Jewish Community Center Annual Ride for the Living of Kraków
55-Mile Bicycle Ride from Auschwitz to Kraków Will Take Place on June 5, 2015
June 5, 2015, Jewish Community Center of OnKraków members, supporters and friends from the diaspora will cycle from Auschwitz- Birkenau to JCC Kraków for the Second Annual Ride JCC Kraków member Robert Desmond, who inspired the Ride for the Living for the Living. Ride for the Living was inspired Ride for the Living is an survivors from the JCC’s by JCC Kraków member annual event under the Senior Club to Israel – many Robert Desmond who cycled patronage of Chief Rabbi of for the first time. 1,350 miles from London to Poland Michael Schudrich. Auschwitz visiting WWII sites Riders will tour Auschwitz- “I’m 82 years old and I sur- of liberation. After joining Birkenau on Thursday, June vived the Nazi occupation by the JCC, he realized his ride 4; join the community for being hidden as a Catholic. should end in a place of hope Shabbat dinner on Friday Over the past six years, the — JCC Kraków. “Auschwitz night after the Ride; and JCC has become the center cannot be and never was the then participate in the 7@ of my life. I’m so thankful to end of the Jewish story in Nite Festival (an annual Ride for the Living for making Poland; it must, like all other event which presents seven it possible for me to travel to times in Jewish history, lead different programs (music, Israel for the first time with my us towards a Jewish future,” art, photography, multimedia) fellow JCC Senior Club mem- explains Rabbi Avi Baumol, in seven unused and unique bers,” shared Jan Libin upon n Rabbinic Representative of synagogues over the course his return from the trip. the Chief Rabbi of Poland of one evening) on Saturday, in Kraków. June 6. Last year’s Riders http://www.friendsofjcckra- raised funds to send Holocaust kow.org/ride-for-the-living/
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 39 25 Years of the Kraków By Janusz Makuch and Robert Gadek Founder/Director and Deputy Director Jewish Culture Festival Jewish Culture Festival
his summer 2015 the Kraków Jewish Culture TFestival will celebrate its 25th anniversary season. Founded in 1988, one year before the fall of Communism in Poland, the Festival has transformed from a small event commemorating the Jewish past in Poland into the world’s largest celebration of contemporary Jewish culture from the entire Diaspora. While honoring the Jewish past, the Festival looks to the Jewish future. Each year, the Festival’s 200+ Shalom on Szeroka, the final concert of the week-long Jewish Culture Festival events (including concerts, workshops, lectures, seminars, to celebrate the quarter- The Festival’s presence in exhibitions, live street art, century by looking to the term the quarter of Kazimierz has DJ-parties, and guided tours) “quarter” itself. The term inspired us to make the term draw an audience of over “quarter” reminds us of our “quarter” the theme of this 30,000 from around the environment, Kazimierz – the year’s festival. We will present world. Jewish quarter of Kraków. the cultural achievements Thanks in large part to the of various Jewish quarters Each of the past 24 Festivals Festival, Jewish life has around the globe, including has built upon the success returned to this quarter after Kazimierz, and discuss their of the previous year’s decades of absence, and now development and vibrant Festival. Reaching the 25th flourishes there like nowhere cultural and social life. anniversary gives us an else in Europe. We are proud opportunity to reflect on our that over 25 years we have As in previous years, the Festival’s achievements and contributed so much to our concept of Mi Dor Le Dor sustainability. We decided quarter, Kazimierz. (Heb.: “from generation
40 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 25 Years of the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival, Continued
to generation”) will be On that night, the Jewish in Poland. A quarter of a emphasized during this quarter of Kazimierz will century for the Jewish quarter anniversary season. This truly be an epicenter of global of Kraków, Jewish quarters year’s Festival will feature Jewish culture. around the world, and the presentations by Festival entire Jewish community. founders and leaders in the Other Festival performers will Join us this summer for the Jewish cultural revival as include Meron Benvenisti, anniversary celebration, June well as by members of the former Deputy Mayor of 25-July 5! n younger generation. Seasoned Jerusalem during the era performers Shlomo Bar, David of Teddy Kolek, Francesco http://www.jewishfestival.pl/ Krakauer and the Grammy Spagnolo, Curator of the Award-winning band The Magnes Collection of Jewish Klezmatics will share the Art & Life and a Lecturer stage with contemporary in the Department of Music stars of Israeli music scene, at University of California, including Shai Tsabari, Berkeley, and journalists Kutiman, and the Polish group Ruth Ellen Gruber (based in Alte Zachen. Warsaw), Chris Silver (based in Los Angeles, and who The Festival’s opening concert explores Jewish quarters in will feature prominent cantors, Muslim countries), and Sam including Yaakov Lemmer, Norich, Editor-in-Chief of The Ushi Blumenberg, David Forward (based in New York). Weinbach, and The Bells Vocal Ensemble with maestro For 25 years the Festival has Yosi Schwartz from Israel. been effectively building The grand finale concert of the bridges between generations, Festival, Shalom on Szeroka traditions, cultures, and Street, will take place in the religions; it has changed heart of the Jewish quarter. people’s hearts and minds. For This 7-hour-long outdoor 25 years it has contributed to event will feature all of the the rebirth and renaissance Festival artists on one stage. of contemporary Jewish life
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 41 Raise The Roof: A Film about an Courtesy Trillium Studios Improbable Dream
rtists Rick and Laura Brown are not Jewish Aand not Polish, and yet they set out to rebuild Gwoździec, a magnificent wooden eighteenth century synagogue in Poland that was later destroyed by the Nazis. Their vision inspires hundreds of people to join them, using their hands, old tools and techniques to bring Gwoździec’s history, culture, science, and art back to life.
Volunteers work on the Gwoździec Synagogue Project in Sanok, Poland. Raise The Roof follows the Photo: Rick and Laura Brown/Handshouse Studio Browns and the Handshouse Studio team to Sanok, Poland, To paint the intricate ceiling gallery in Rzeszów, Poland. as they begin building the murals, the Browns face In fact, this building and new Gwoździec roof. The another challenge: the 1914 those in seven other Polish crew has only six weeks photographs of Gwoździec cities where they will work to hew, saw, and carve 200 are black and white and there during the summers of 2011 freshly logged trees and is only one small color study, and 2012, are all former or assemble the structure. called the Breier. Using that active masonry synagogues. Working against a seemingly as their Rosetta Stone, the Each Handshouse-trained impossible deadline and Browns slowly build a library painting leader is tasked despite torrential downpours of Gwoździec’s colors. with creating the mural’s and exhaustion, the team most iconic images, training must create the structure, Armed with pigments students to paint thousands and disassemble it again and rabbit skin glue, the of flowers and vines and for shipping and eventual Handhouse team sets up greeting visitors — creating installation. to paint the ceiling mural a community throughout in what seems to be an art Poland.
42 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Raise The Roof: A Film about an Improbable Dream, Continued
In the city of Szczebrzeszyn, population can trace its Evelyn Tauben paints a flower ancestry to Poland. honoring her great aunt and namesake, Bluma, a Holocaust The reconstructed Gwoździec victim, explaining that she synagogue is now the joined the project to encounter centerpiece of the POLIN Poland in a generative way. Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which opened When student Ariel its doors to the public in Rosenblum agrees to paint the October 2014. n many inscriptions that wrap the mural, Ania Michalska, a Learn more about the film’s Wrocław University Jewish release at: http://www. Studies major, jumps in to polishsynagogue.com/press- help. Together they face release the Rabbi of Poland and successfully defend their reconstruction of the texts.
Raise the Roof visits Warsaw in mid-January where Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett, the Core Exhibition Director at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, is walking among the impressive gravestones of the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in deep snow. She brushes snow from an intricately carved tombstone and explains that 70 percent of the world’s Jewish
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 43 A Town Called Brzostek: By Simon Target New Award-Winning Film Director Documentary
hen Professor Jonathan Webber leaves Oxford Wfor Kraków few people know of his ambition to rebuild an abandoned Jewish cemetery in the remote Polish town of Brzostek. Like many Jews, Jonathan traces his family’s roots to Poland, and Brzostek is where his grandfather was born. He asks the local Poles for help and invites Jewish families from around A Town Called Brzostek the world for an opening Interviews with Anne “All I can say is thank you ceremony. But will they Applebaum, Prof. Norman Jonathan Webber, thank you come? Do Poles and Jews care Davies, Chief Rabbi Michael Simon Target the filmmaker, about their common history? Schudrich and the Polish thank you the people of What happens next surprises townsfolk of Brzostek help Brzostek!” – Dr. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, even the stoic English explore centuries of Polish/ Chief Curator, POLIN Museum of Professor himself. Jewish history, and the the History of Polish Jews Filmmaker Simon Target Jewish cultural revival in follows three families from Poland today. n www.handheldfeatures.com New York, Sydney and Paris as they travel back to Winner of the Camera of David Brzostek for the cemetery Special Award opening ceremony. He records n W ARSAW JEWISH FILM their stories of life in pre- FESTIVAL 2014 war Poland, and eyewitness Director: Simon Target accounts of miraculous Executive Producer: survival, bravery and Beata Zatorska brotherhood during the Music: Nigel Westlake Nazi occupation. Editor: Justina Grubski
44 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 Who Will Write Our History: By Simon Target By Roberta Grossman Film Director Film Project on Film Director Emanuel Ringelblum
ho Will Write Our Dead Sea Scrolls rising from History is a feature- the rubble of the Ghetto. And Wlength documentary about the yet, the Oyneg Shabes Archive Oyneg Shabes Archive and its remains largely unknown out- creator Emanuel Ringleblum. side academic circles. This film The film is based on the book will change that, in the way that of the same name by historian only a film can do, by making Samuel Kassow. In the words the story accessible to millions of project adviser Deborah of people around the world. Lipstadt, “This is perhaps the most important Holocaust A panel of the foremost schol- Emanuel Ringelblum, photo: story yet to be told to a general ars in the field have committed Jewish Historical Institute audience.” The film is directed to advising on the project. In by Roberta Grossman and addition to Samuel Kassow Death of Hannah Senesh, was produced by Nancy Spielberg. (Trinity College), they include shortlisted for an Academy Academy Award nominated Deborah Lipstadt (Emory Award and nominated for a actress Joan Allen has come University), Barbara Kirshen- Primetime Emmy. onboard to voice Rachel blatt-Gimblett (Program Direc- Auerbach. One of only three tor, Core Exhibition, POLIN Grossman’s Hava Nagila survivors of the Oyneg Shabes, Museum of the History of (The Movie) was the opening Auerbach’s prolific wartime Polish Jews, Warsaw), Antony or closing night film of more and post-war writings will Polonsky (Brandeis Univer- than 40 Jewish film festivals in provide the film’s narration. sity), David Roskies (Jewish 2012. Recently, Nancy Spiel- Theological Seminary), Yehu- berg and Grossman released The Oyneg Shabes Archive is da Bauer (Yad Vashem) and Above and Beyond to audience n an extraordinary achievement of Michael Berenbaum (American and critical acclaim. scholarly self-study in the very Jewish University). depths of hell. The 30,000 pag- es of documents preserved in The filmmakers’ previous the milk cans and metal boxes work has been preparation are considered the most import- for the challenge of Who Will ant cache of in-the-moment, Write Our History. Roberta eyewitness accounts to survive Grossman’s 2008 film, Blessed the Holocaust. They are the Is the Match: The Life and
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 45 Polish Court Rules Ban on Ritual Courtesy of JTA: the Global Jewish Slaughter Unconstitutional News Source
(JTA) — A de facto ban in with the tribunal over a year conscious before their necks Poland imposed last year ago to review the case. are cut. Before the ban, on the slaughter of animals Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Poland had a $500 million without stunning, which president of the Conference industry of halal and kosher includes the kosher and halal of European Rabbis, said in meat for export. rituals, is unconstitutional, a a statement that the ruling Polish court ruled. meant that “shechitah can In July 2013, a draft bill continue in Poland as it has aimed at legalizing ritual On December 14, 2014, done for generations.” He slaughter failed to pass in a 5-4 majority of Polish thanked Poland’s chief rabbi, the parliament. Constitutional Tribunal Michael Schudrich, for his justices ruled that the ban efforts to reverse the ban. On March 5, KRIR, or ran contrary to the country’s the National Council of constitution, the European Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Agricultural Chambers in Jewish Association, a director of the European Poland, filed a bill that would Brussels-based lobby group Jewish Association, said the legalize ritual slaughter. that has fought to scrap the ruling was a “relief” because With the Constitutional ban, said in a statement. it “prevents a dangerous Tribunal’s judgment, the precedent that would have parliament will now take The ruling was on a petition affected all European Jewry.” up the bill. n that argued the ban violated the European Convention Ritual slaughter was banned http://www.jta.org/2014/12/10/ on Human Rights and led in Poland starting Jan. 1, news-opinion/world/polish- to “discrimination in social 2013, after the country’s court-rules-shechitah-ban- and economic life of Jews in constitutional court scrapped unconstitutional Poland,” polska.newsweek.pl a government regulation that reported. exempted Jews and Muslims from a law requiring the The Union of Jewish stunning of animals prior Religious Communities in to slaughter. Jewish ritual Poland was among several slaughter, or shechitah, as well entities that appealed the ban. as Muslim ritual slaughter, or The union filed its petition halal, requires that animals be
46 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 NEW PUBLICATIONS AND Edited by RESEARCH PROJECTS Dr. Erica Lehrer and Dr. Michael Meng Jewish Space in Indiana University Press Contemporary Poland Publication date: 4/27/2015
ince the early 1980s, Poland has reemerged in tension and has been home to profound synergy with other remembered Sdebate and reflection on the loss minorities, and in complex of its once large – and today negotiation with at times diver- minuscule – Jewish minori- gent local, regional, national, ty. This explosion of the past and international groups and into the present is visible in a interests. These involve primar- variety of media –– print, film, ily Poles and Jews, Americans music, and even food –– but it and Israelis, but also Germans, has been expressed most of all and to a lesser extent Roma in the built environment and the and even sexual minorities. cultural meanings such physical New global actors have become heritage enables. Across the increasingly interested in “sites country, dilapidated synagogues of pluralism,” even as some and cemeteries have been re- spaces – such as Auschwitz and stored, Jewish streets recreated, communal properties embroiled of nations in the aftermath of and Jewish museums built. Be- in restitution claims – remain large-scale political violence cause Poland was the geograph- contested, fractured grounds. and genocide. This volume ic epicenter of the Holocaust, This volume unearths the enriches these topics through few other European countries multiple factors, paradoxes, and the breadth of its focus and have attracted as much global possibilities represented by spe- its interdisciplinary approach. interest and experienced such cific sites and initiatives. Using It scrutinizes diverse types of intense reflection on the Jewish space as the common analytical sites (museums, memorials, genocide. But Poland’s new category, the book will enrich sites of atrocity, tourist conjurings of Jewishness can- understanding of newly emerg- districts, gentrifying urban not be read as simple gestures ing forms of pluralism and neighborhoods, provincial of reparation for past wrongs, nostalgia in post-1989 Europe. towns, and Jewish communal nor as mere mercenary projects properties), and employs a of development or instrumental This impulse to restore, broad range of analytical national self-fashioning. preserve, and memorialize approaches (history, raises a range of issues salient anthropology, sociology, Rather, a “Jewish” presence in to current studies of memory, economics, literary and both urban and rural landscapes heritage, and the re-imagining religious studies). n
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 47 NEW PUBLICATIONS AND By Magda Matuszewska RESEARCH PROJECTS Taube Center for the Sefarim Seed Grants Program in Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Jewish Studies Publishing
ince 2013 the Sefarim One of the works to be Jewish Joint Distribution seed grants program for published this year is Committee in Poland, 1945- SJewish studies publishing, Mishnah: Nashim edited 1989] by Anna Sommer co-sponsored by the Dutch by Roman Marcinkowski, Schneider; Na szczęście to Jewish Humanitarian Fund, Professor of Hebrew Studies Żyd/ Lucky Jews by Erica Taube Foundation for Jewish and an expert in Talmudic Lehrer; My, Żydzi z Polski Life & Culture and Taube studies. The publication is [We, Jews from Poland] Center for the Renewal of part of a broader project that by Irena Wiszniewska; Jewish Life in Poland, has encompasses the first Polish Rzecz o Irenie Sendlerowej supported the co-publication academic coverage of these [About Irena Sendlerowa] of high-caliber non-fiction essential rabbinic texts, by Halina Grubowska; and works of Polish Jewish including the first translation Wieloplemienny tłum: Jakub interest which reflect a broad of several orders of Mishnah Frank i ruch frankistowski range of issues and contribute from the original languages 1755–1816 [The Mixed to the field of Polish Jewish into Polish. Sefarim will also Multitud: Jacob Frank and the studies for Polish and introduce Vagabond Stars: Frankist Movement, 1755– international readers. It A World History of Yiddish 1816] by Paweł Maciejko. awards grants of up to 1,200 Theatre by Nahma Sandrow Euros toward the publication to Polish readers, a book that http://www.centrumtaubego. of selected works that bring provides an illustrated world org.pl/sefarim-book- new insights and perspectives history of the Yiddish drama publishing-project on Jewish history, heritage over more than 300 years. and contemporary life. In contradistinction to other Other books awarded within grant programs in publishing the projects are: Sze’erit that prefer to fund completed hapleta: Ocaleni z Zagłady studies awaiting publication, Działalność American Joint Sefarim accepts works-in- Distribution Committee progress. In addition, the w Polsce w latach 1945- project hosts sessions with 1989 [Saving the Remnant authors and their publishers. of Polish Jewry. The Activities of the American
48 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS New Emigration and By Dr. Alina Cal/ a and Re-emigration of Polish Jews Bogna Pawlisz-Skoczylas (1989-2015) in the Context of Research Project Coordinators Changes of Identity
After the fall of the Communist regime in Poland, and even a little earlier (with the re-establishment of diplomatic relations after 1985), it became possible for Polish citizens to travel to Israel. Emigration also became possible. An example is the first trip for young Polish Jews organized by the Joint Distribution Council in 1989, of which most of the approximately 10 participants chose to remain in the State of Israel. Others emigrated to Farewell to Gdańsk Station, photo: E. Turlejska Israel by leaving legally from Poland to Western Europe Jews from books. In the late Hasidism and/or Orthodoxy, or the United States, and 1980s, Jewish associations instead. The latter usually then continuing to Israel in the United States began to decided to emigrate to Israel. from there, which was the support the religious life of intended but unstated purpose Jews in Poland. Due to their Emigration has not always of their trip. patronage, the national rebirth ended in success. There have of Jewish life in Poland been cases of maladjustment, Some of the Jews born was centered around Jewish and even most tragically — after WWII undertook to religion. After 1989, the new suicide. Those who have give new meaning to their Jewish communities began found their place in Israeli Jewish origins. Starting in attracting mostly younger society changed their religious the late 1970s they created Jews. Most of them identified identity; they became devout their own identity, ab initio with mainstream conservative followers of Judaism, or the as it were, learning the Judaism, with a relatively opposite – they abandoned history and customs of the small group affiliating with religious customs completely
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 49 New Emigration, Continued
or drifted to a loose form of and Israel (and sometimes The Questions We Seek to traditionalism. In other cases, other countries, especially the Answer Include: emigration failed, and those United States, as well). 1. Circumstances behind Jews returned to Poland. the decision to emigrate/ Although the total number re-emigrate; While some Jews are strug- of Jews emigrating and then gling to emigrate from Poland re-emigrating is of necessity 2. Problems in Poland/Israel, to Israel, others struggle to small, due to the small size of which had an impact on abandon Israel and return the Jewish minority in Poland, the decision; to Poland and rebuild their it is more than a marginal phe- 3. Relationship to Judaism lives there. This phenome- nomenon, and seems interest- and halacha (including non is most commonly found ing and worthy of exploration the individual elements of amongst Jews from previous in its own right. religion: holidays, kashruth waves of emigration, mainly observance, other extents of from the years 1968 to 1971. The methodology we will religious observance); These returnees are confront- use in these studies is quali- 4. Transformation of ed by the need to redefine tative, in-depth interviewing, religiosity after emigrating/ their identities to adapt to life drawing on sociological and re-emigrating (including in a new Poland that is totally ethnological methods. We will religion as a motive, such different from their memories also use group interviews and as for conversion); of the old Poland. Additional- focus-groups. Due to the lan- ly, they are challenged to find guage of the study’s subjects, 5. Perceptions of positives new careers and solutions to interviews will be conducted and negatives of living in ordinary life problems such as in the Polish language in Isra- a new country; dealing with a family scat- el and in Poland by a group of 6. Transformation of national tered across two continents. co-workers who live in these identity; two countries. Still others do not formally 7. Transformations of attitude change their nation of resi- and approach to the cultures dence, but find themselves of the old and new country; perpetually in transit, moving back and forth between Poland
50 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 New Emigration, Continued
8. Problems of adaptation life strategies, as well as Dr. Alina Cała is a historian (learning a foreign the system of values and specializing in 19th and 20th language, finding the right awareness, of the respondents. century Polish-Jewish history, job, neighborhood and We will complete the research antisemitism and Jewish social contacts); with the publication of a book, assimilation in Central and summarizing the results and Eastern Europe. She is the 9. Changes in personal indicating the regularity and author of, among other works, circumstances, including specificity of the issues raised “Assimilation of Jews in the family (starting a family, by the respondents. Kingdom of Poland (1864- keeping in touch with 1897)” (1989) and “The family and friends living This research project is Image of the Jew in Polish in the old country, etc.) supported by a grant from Folk Culture” (1987) and a 10. Contacts with the old the Taube Center’s Sefarim former board member of the country (family, social, seed-grant program in Jewish Jewish Historical Institute. professional, cultural, studies publishing. n etc.). Bogna Pawlisz-Skoczylas is a tour guide and official We prepared a detailed translator (International questionnaire focusing on the Bible Contents) at The Jewish research questions outlined Agency for Israel and served above, to be used by the for seven years as Editor- interviewers. Should first in-Chief of the Jewish contacts with respondents Magazine, Jidełe. raise new questions, the questionnaire will be expanded as needed, and previous interviewees will be re-queried. We hope that the interviews will bring sufficient material to enable identification of common themes in attitudes and
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 51 NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS Recent Books from the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
n HASIDISM AND POLITICS teenth century. The essays in this n POLIN: STUDIES IN POLISH THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, volume look at the past through JEWRY, VOLUME 26 1815–1864 the prism of the lives of ordi- JEWS IN THE KINGDOM OF Marcin Wodziński nary people, with results that are POLAND, 1815–1918 sometimes surprising, and always Glenn Dynner, Antony This analysis of the political re- stimulating. The topics they treat Polonsky & Marcin Wodziński lations between the Kingdom of are varied, but the concern to ex- Poland and the hasidic movement The Kingdom of Poland had the plain what lay behind the visible shows that by creating advanta- largest concentration Jews in reality is common to all of them. geous socio-political conditions eastern Europe and a liberal poli- 428 pages, paperback the government actually accel- cy towards them that engendered 978-1-906764-53-1 £19.95 erated the growth of the move- cultural and political movements ment, to the extent that unique n LITHUANIAN YESHIVAS of all sorts. Hasidic courts flour- features of Polish hasidism can OF THE NINETEENTH ished despite the opportunities of be attributed to the impact of CENTURY CREATING A modernization, yet modernizing government policy. The study TRADITION OF LEARNING maskilim similarly established also demonstrates the unusual- Shaul Stampfer institutions that influenced ly modern character of hasidic Jewish society in a completely This is the first systematic study political activity, and charts its different direction. Later came of the Lithuanian yeshivas that distinctive path of development integrationism, Zionism, Jewish flourished from 1802 to 1914 in the Kingdom of Poland into socialism, and cultural autonomy. in their social and cultural ‘anti-modernist modernity’. The resulting ferment was a crit- context; their legacy still 2348 pages, 43 text figures, ical factor in shaping the modern dominates orthodox Jewish 2 maps Jewish experience. society. The main focus is the 978-1-904113-73-7 £35.00 512 pages, 6 illustrations, map, yeshiva of Volozhin, which in 4 tables, paperback n FAMILIES, RABBIS, AND its independence of the local 978-1-906764-22-7 £21.95 EDUCATION TRADITIONAL community was the model for JEWISH SOCIETY IN everything that followed, but Further details can be found on NINETEENTH-CENTURY chapters are also devoted to the the Littman website: EASTERN EUROPE yeshivas of Slobodka and Telz, www.littman.co.uk Shaul Stampfer and to the kollel system. 432 pages, paperback All these books may be purchased The family and the community, from the Littman Library at a 25% 978-1-906764-60-9 which were in a very real sense discount on the prices shown (plus the core institutions of east Eu- shipping). Please send your order, ropean Jewish society underwent with credit card details for payment, to [email protected]. very rapid change in the nine-
52 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 October 8, 1930 – November 4, 2014 By Dr. Antony Polonsky Jerzy Tomaszewski
erzy Tomaszewski, who the history of Central Europe, Zarys stosunków społec- died on November 4, 2014 particularly that of the Czechs zno-ekonomicznych (On the Jat the age of 84, was one of the and Slovaks. He was present at History of Polesie 1921–1939. principal figures in the revival all the conferences that trans- An Outline of Social and of the study of the history of formed Polish-Jewish studies. Economic Conditions) (War- Jews in Poland. He was born As one of the founders of saw, 1963); Rzeczpospolita in Radomsko, a town between Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, wielu narododów (A Republic Łódź and Częstochowa that, he was a member of its edito- of Many Nations) (Warsaw, before the war, was the home rial collegium and contributed 1985), Ojczyzna nie tylko Po- of a large Jewish community frequently to its volumes. For laków: Mniejszości narodowe and of the court of the Ra- many years, he was connect- w Polsce w latach 1918–1939 domsker rebbe. He often re- ed with the Jewish Historical (A Fatherland not only for marked that it was the constant Institute in Warsaw. A member Poles: National Minorities presence during his childhood of the its Scientific Council in Poland in the Years 1918– years of hasidim in traditional since 1970, he was also elected 1939) (Warsaw, 1985), and Jewish dress which made him in 1985 to serve on the Insti- Preludium zagłady: wygnanie aware of the multi-ethnic and tute’s Board of Directors and, Żydow polskich z Niemiec w multi-confessional character in addition, served as Deputy 1938 r. (Prelude to Destruction: of Poland. He was for many Chairman of the Jewish His- the Expulsion of Polish Jews years a professor at and Direc- torical Institute Association. In from Germany in 1938) (War- tor of the Mordechai Aniele- 2005, he was one of the signa- saw, 1998). His latest book wicz Centre for the Study and tories, along with the Minister Czechy i Słowacja (Czech Teaching of the History and of Culture and National Heri- Lands and Slovakia) was pub- Culture of the Jews in Poland tage and the Mayor of Warsaw, lished only a few months be- at Warsaw University and was of the agreement establishing fore his death. The conference also, subsequently, professor of POLIN Museum of the Histo- held in London on January 15, the Wyższa Szkola Gospodarki ry of Polish Jews. In 1998, he 2015 to launch volume 27 of Krajowej in Kutno. was the recipient of YIVO’s Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska was dedicated to his memory. Professor Tomaszewski was Award and thereafter served on He will be sorely missed. We one of the pioneers in the study the Karski Award Committee. express our condolences to this of national minorities in Poland wife Zofia, his daughter Agata, in the twentieth century, above His many publications include and his family. n all Jews, and a great expert on Z dziejów Polesia 1921–1939.
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 53 November 13, 1946 – By Julian and December 26, 2014 Fay Bussgang Stanis/law Baran´czak
Barańczak was Barańczak was also a prolific born in Poznań, translator of Polish poetry into Dr.Poland, and received his English and English poetry doctorate from the Adam into Polish. He translated into Mickiewicz University in English such works as the Poznań, where he continued poems of Zbigniew Herbert teaching and writing poetry. and Polish Nobel Prize-win- After he became politically ners Wisława Szymborska and active against the oppressive Czesław Miłosz and translated Communist-controlled into Polish works of Shake- government, he was forbidden speare and other poets such to publish in Poland. Thus, in as Robert Frost. He continued 1981, when he was offered working at home even after a position at the Slavic his illness forced him to retire Department at Harvard, he from teaching and his family moved to the Until Parkinson’s disease be- Boston area. gan to disable him, he served Barańczak was a leading poet as a valued member of the in the Polish ‘New Wave,’ board of the American Associ- and after his move to Bos- ation for Polish-Jewish Stud- ton, he continued to produce ies in Cambridge, MA. When impressive work dominated he was no longer able to serve by his ethical and political on the board, his wife, Anna concerns. Some of his works Barańczak, became a member were influenced by the English and kept him informed of our religious poet John Donne activities. Professor Barańczak and the American poets Emily left a great legacy and will be Dickinson and Robert Frost. greatly missed. n His book Surgical Precision [Chirurgiczna precyzja] won the 1999 prestigious Nike Award for a publication in Polish literature.
54 n GAZETA VOLUME 22, NO. 1 July 31, 1929 - February 16, 2015 By Dr. Antony Polonsky Feliks Tych
eliks Tych, who died on of the Polish Communist Party in 1982 was again appointed February 16, 2015, was a to publish a journal on social professor of history. Fleading figure in Jewish life in and labor history, the quarter- As he grew older Feliks be- Poland and was, from 1996 to ly Z pola walki of which he came more interested in his 2007, Director of the Jewish became editor-in-chief. He was Jewish background. This led Historical Institute in Warsaw. also subsequently employed by him to take the position of Born in Warsaw, he grew up in Institute of History at the Polish Director of the Jewish Histor- Radomsko in central Poland, Academy of Science. ical Institute (ŻIH). Here his the ninth child of the owner of He was dismissed from this post expertise in the publishing of a metal works. The town was in the ‘anti-Zionist’ campaign of document collections gave a the site of the first ghetto to 1968 and also ‘purged’ from all new impetus to publishing the be established in the General other scholarly bodies, losing rich archives of ŻIH, above all Government after the German his position at Z pola walki. His the archive organized in the invasion of Poland in 1939. wife, Lucyna, daughter of Jakub Warsaw ghetto by Emanuel In the summer of 1942, his Berman, a key figure in the es- Ringelblum. A prolific author parents entrusted him to a non- tablishment of communist rule and editor, he edited and co-au- Jewish friend who brought him in Poland after 1944, lost her thored Pamięć. Historia Żydów secretly to Warsaw, where he position as stage director. Feliks polskich przed, w czasie i po survived on false documents continued his scholarly research zagładzie (Warsaw 2004, 2006, as the ‘orphaned’ nephew of as an ‘independent writer,’ pub- 2008), published in English a Polish high school teacher. lishing three volumes of the let- as Memory: History of Polish His parents and siblings were ters between Rosa Luxemburg Jews Before, During and After murdered in Treblinka. and Leon Jogiches. These made the Holocaust. Most recently He studied history at the Uni- him well known outside Poland he co-edited, with Monika versity of Warsaw and received and he became a key figure in Adamczyk-Garbowska, an his habilitation with a study of the International Conference of extensive study of the history the left wing of the Polish So- Labour and Social History hon- of Jews in Poland since the cialist Party (PPS) during World orary member, playing an active Second World War, published War I. He had already become role in the conferences it orga- in English by Yad Vashem in a researcher at the Archive and nized in Linz in Austria. In the 2013 as Jewish Presence In Institute of the Polish Labor early 1970s, he was again hired Absence: The Aftermath of the Movement and succeeded in as a researcher in the archive of Holocaust in Poland, 1945– convincing the Historical Insti- the Central Committee of the 2010. Our condolences go to tute at the Central Committee Polish Communist Party and his wife and family. n
GAZETA SPRING 2015 n 55 Diary of Gela Seksztajn, photo: Jewish Historical Institute
[email protected] www.taubephilanthropies.org