Volume 26, No. 1 Gazeta Spring 2019 Roman Vishniac (1897-1990) Albert Einstein in his office, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1942. Gelatin Silver print. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.10. A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial & Design: Tressa Berman, Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Adam Schorin, Maayan Stanton, Agnieszka Ilwicka, William Zeisel, LaserCom Design.

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

FEATURES The Road to September 1939 Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit ...... 4 Honoring the Memory of Paweł Adamowicz Antony Polonsky ...... 8 Roman Vishniac Archive Gifted to Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Francesco Spagnolo ...... 11 Keeping Jewish Memory Alive in Poland Leora Tec ...... 15 The Untorn Life of Yaakov Weksler Michael Schudrich ...... 17

ANNOUNCEMENTS BOOKS Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy Reported by Tressa Berman ...... 19 Józef Czapski: Three New Books Reported by Adam Schorin ...... 20 Recent Polish Jewish Studies Books of Note Compiled by Agnieszka Ilwicka ...... 22 Auschwitz Jewish Center Publishes Guidebook ...... 23

CONFERENCES Art and the Holocaust ...... 24

Reported by Antony Polonsky November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland ...... 25 Poland and Hungary: Jewish Realities Compared ...... 27 EXHIBITIONS The Free Bird. Der Frayer Foygl at Jewish Historical Institute ...... 29 Terribly Close Awarded Best Cultural Event ...... 30

AWARDS Marcin Wodziński Wins 2019 U.S. National Jewish Book Award ...... 32 Yiddish Glory Nominated for Grammy Award ...... 33

GENERAL Auschwitz Jewish Center Releases New App ...... 34 Helping Jews and Poles to Discover their Roots ...... 35 New Director Appointed to FODŻ ...... 38 New Leader of Union of Jewish Communities in Poland ...... 39 GEOP and POLIN Announcements and Opportunities ...... 41

IN BRIEF Reported by Fay and Julian Bussgang Jews in the Military Conference ...... 43 “I Love Poland” Blogger ...... 43 Nevzlin Book Prize Announced ...... 44

OBITUARIES Mara Vishniac Kohn ...... 45 Amos Oz ...... 46 Simcha Rotem ...... 48 Leopold Kozłowski ...... 50

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 1 President, American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies

Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta

Dear Members and Friends,

This Spring 2019 issue of Gazeta welcomes a diverse set of voices. I am pleased to see a discussion of Volume 32 of POLIN, titled “Jewish Realities Compared,” on the theme of Poland and Hungary. This volume is dedicated to my late husband, Richard Pipes, who died last May. It is a hard time for me.

The outstanding activity this past year was a performance in Lexington of Remembrance of Things Past: Keeping the Stories of Jewish Poland Irene Pipes Alive. It consisted of a performance by Witek Dabrowski of the Lublin Brama Grodzka Theater in Polish [also known as the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre] in Polish, and David Liebers and Leora Tec reading the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer. In the latter, the Jew did not feel any connection to Poland; in the former, a non-Jewish Pole did not know what had befallen the Jews during the war. Unwittingly, walking these parallel paths, they do the same work of preserving the Jewish memory in Poland.

Finally, we organized a film showing of A Town called Brzostek, from where Jonathan Weber’s grandfather emigrated, and where Jonathan restored the cemetery. The film shows how, after many years of hatred, suspicion and fear, neighbors finally united.

Looking ahead to a pleasant Passover.

Irene Pipes President

2 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Message from Chairman and Executive Director, Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life Shana Penn & Culture

Elie Wiesel once remarked that a single person of integrity can make a difference. The stories in this issue of Gazeta bear him out. Among our feature articles, for example, the first describes the strenuous efforts of Jewish leaders in Palestine and Europe during the 1930s to find a refuge for Polish Jews on the eve of a seemingly inevitable disaster. They met only partial success, but not for lack of commitment. The second article is the obituary of a modern-day Polish political leader, Paweł Adamowicz, who paid the ultimate price for publicly exercising his moral integrity, including strong support for Poland’s Jews. Another article describes the Tad Taube astonishment of an American Jew who visited the town of her mother’s childhood in Poland, to find that non-Jewish Poles were carefully preserving the history of the long-gone Jewish community because they regarded it as part of their own history. Many such persons of commitment and honor adorn the life and history of the Jews of the Polish lands. Some of them are household names, some obscure, but as Elie Wiesel would surely have agreed, they all matter. We are honored to tell you their stories.

Tad Taube and Shana Penn Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 3 FEATURES Jehuda Reinharz and The Road to September 1939 Yaacov Shavit

We are pleased to present in this issue of Gazeta an essay adapted from the introduction of The Road to September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II by Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit. Originally published in Hebrew by Am Oved Publishers in 2013, this translation, published by Brandeis University Press in the Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry, introduces English-speaking audiences to the important scholarship of Professors Reinharz and Shavit. The Road to September 1939 shows, through letters and memoirs, that contrary to popular belief, Zionists in the Yishuv worked tirelessly to attempt to save European Jews from Hitler in the years before World War II. As we approach the eightieth anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, this book offers an opportunity for critical reflection on what was, and was not, possible Jacket image for The Road to before the storm clouds of the war fell on Europe. September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II by Jehuda —Gazeta Editorial Team Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit.

his book serves as a sort We do not intend to everyday life, rather than on of collective diary of the big questions of the hour, Tstatesmen, social and political describe the events they bring to life this crucial activists, and ordinary people moment in Jewish history and by reading history whose first-person eyewitness illuminate more effectively accounts were recorded in backward. We have tried than some traditional histories personal diary entries, letters, the events that led up to World and memoirs, along with not to read the story from War II and the Holocaust. daily newspaper accounts. its endpoint but rather We do not intend to describe These accounts are a record the events by reading history of what they knew, thought, as much as possible in backward. We have tried not to and felt in “real time.” In their read the story from its endpoint focus on the vicissitudes of the “present.”

4 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 but rather as much as possible The countries of the free If in 1929 Palestine took in in the “present.” Before August less than a tenth of Jewish world had no interest 1939, as well as during that emigration from Poland, then month, no one really knew in resolving Poland’s in the years prior to the Second what was in store. It is only World War it became the a retrospective reading that internal problems by principal destination for that determines that the events opening their gates emigration. In 1935, Palestine moved inexorably toward an absorbed around 80.6 percent unequalled calamity and that to a large Jewish of the emigrants, and in 1937, it was impossible to halt their 32.2 percent. Between 1919 course. A fog of uncertainty immigration. and 1939, around 140,000 and lack of knowledge people emigrated from Poland shrouded that month. And in The reader of this book will find to Palestine—around 35 any case, even if everyone almost no German Jews in it. percent of the mandate’s total had known where history was Likewise, it will not discuss the Jewish population. During heading, they would have fate of the Jews of Romania, the mandate period, Poland been helpless to divert the Hungary, or France, for was thus the largest source ship toward a safe haven. The example. The choice to focus of immigration to Palestine processes that preceded the on Polish Jews seems obvious and the main source of the breakout of the Second World to us. Poland was home to the Yishuv’s demographic growth. War have been reconstructed largest Jewish population in the In addition, a large part of and analyzed in numerous world—around 3.5 million Jews the private capital that was books, some of them recording in 1939—and after 1924, it imported to Palestine belonged and reconstructing the behind- was the main source of Jewish to Polish Jews, who made a the-scenes occurrences that emigration across the Atlantic considerable contribution to were unknown to people at the and to Palestine. From 1929 the national funds. time. The history of the Jewish to 1938, more than 400,000 In the middle of the 1930s, as people, the Zionist movement, Jews left Poland. Initially, most the pressure to leave Poland and the Yishuv, the Jewish of them went to the United grew and Palestine became the community in Palestine prior States, but from 1924 onward almost exclusive destination, to the establishment of the the rate of those immigrating to the British government State of Israel in 1948, in the Palestine increased. Between imposed new restrictions 1930s have been the subjects 1929 and 1935, Palestine on Jewish immigration. As of an extensive body of absorbed around 43.7 percent a result, the country’s gates literature. This book could of the total Jewish emigration, were shut to many who not have been written without whereas the United States wanted to immigrate to it. consulting it. absorbed 10.9 percent. The Zionist movement and

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 5 its institutions had to lay the Polish Jews had a This led to the conclusion that bridge on which at least some it would be possible to spur the rich and multifaceted Polish Jews would cross over governments and the world’s to Palestine. The Yishuv’s existence as an integral conscience to see finding a political future and its power solution for the Jews’ plight were now intertwined with part of Polish life and as a lofty conscientious duty. the fate of Polish Jews. The under its influence. The This was also accompanied fate of Polish Jews, however, by a belief that the power as opposed to the fate of shadow of a possible war of the Jewish world could German Jews and later that weighed on them without not be reduced to its plight. of Jews under the Third Weizmann, however, did Reich, was not on the public being necessarily tied to not mean that putting the and international agenda. It the future of the Jewish subject of Jewish emigration did not occupy any place in on the international agenda British or international policy Yishuv in Palestine, and would include alternatives to considerations, because Polish Palestine. He—and others— even in isolation from it. Jews had not been expelled believed that when it would and therefore did not become become clear that there wrote to Moshe Shertok asylum-seeking refugees. The were no such alternatives, (Sharett), director of the Jewish countries of the free world Palestine’s status as the Agency’s political department, had no interest in resolving only destination would be that Poland had put the Poland’s internal problems by reinforced. question of Jewish emigration opening their gates to a large from Eastern Europe on the However, it would be a Jewish immigration. international agenda: “The mistake to describe the history The Zionist movement found recent pronouncements of of Polish Jews between the two itself in a difficult dilemma. the Poles have made a very world wars only from a Zionist On the one hand, putting great impression. The Polish or a Palestinian perspective. the need for Jewish problem transcends the Most of the Jews in Poland emigration from Poland on ordinary boundaries and makes were not Zionists, and many of the international agenda was it patent to everybody that our them opposed Zionism or were welcomed. On the other hand, misfortunes will soon grow indifferent to it. Nor did many directing this emigration to to a first-rate international Zionists show an urgency or different countries in Africa calamity for which we cannot eagerness to immigrate to or South America meant take responsibility and which Palestine. Polish Jews had a that Zionism would become may affect vitally the state of rich and multifaceted existence irrelevant. In October 1936, affairs in the East and South as an integral part of Polish for example, Chaim Weizmann East Europe.” life and under its influence.

6 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 The shadow of a possible war The research literature, publicly and behind closed weighed on them without being and even more so the doors, stirring up the debate necessarily tied to the future of and creating polarization. Plans the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine, political and public can testify to the sense of time and even in isolation from it. and to a will to act. But they debate, have been do not indicate that those who At the end of a dinner held suffused for over fifty thought up the plans had the on February 22, 1938, at the power and the means to carry house of Leopold Amery, years with a bitter them out. As will become the Secretary of State for apparent in the narrative Dominion Affairs from 1924 disagreement around the that follows, individuals to 1929, Ben-Gurion told Sir question to what extent and organizations within the Harold MacMichael, who was Zionist movement feared for appointed High Commissioner Jews in general, and the the fate of the Jews of Europe for Palestine in 1938 (and held political leadership of and did what they could within the position until 1944), that the fog of uncertainty and with the Zionist movement wanted the Zionist movement in limited resources. Once the “to save the young generation particular, were aware war broke out, however, the of Eastern and Central fate of European Jewry was European Jewry—and it’s that time was pressing. virtually sealed. n possible. It’s a question of two million Jews.” MacMichael bitter disagreement around the Jehuda Reinharz is Richard replied that the Jews were question to what extent Jews Koret Professor of Modern “rushing things.” Ben-Gurion in general, and the political Jewish History, director of the wrote in his diary: “And again leadership of the Zionist Tauber Institute for the Study I saw that we are hitting a wall. movement in particular, were of European Jewry at Brandeis The Englishman doesn’t know aware that time was pressing. University, and president of what time means for us.” Did the “awareness of time” the Jack, Joseph, and Morton change between 1935 and Mandel Foundation. What was the Zionist 1939? What was done under “dimension of time” in the Yaacov Shavit is Professor the pressure of time in order 1930s? Can we distinguish Emeritus at Tel Aviv University. to break through the “wall,” between rhetoric and plans of and did the Jews of Poland and action, wishes and means? The of the Yishuv share the same research literature, and even “concept of time”? more so the political and public debate, have been suffused Various plans and solutions for over fifty years with a were mooted and discussed

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 7 Honoring the Memory of Pawel/ Adamowicz: November 2, 1965 – Antony Polonsky January 14, 2019

he tragic death of Paweł According to Adamowicz, Adamowicz, murdered civil society “is not about Ton January 13, 2019, while speaking on the stage at the enlightened absolutism concert of the Great Orchestra imposed from the top. of the Christmas Charity Foundation, has robbed Poland It takes place through of one of its most able and the activism of different progressive leaders. As mayor of Gdansk since 1998, he was entrepreneurs and people responsible for numerous of different professions civic innovations, including Poland’s first “civic panel,” and ideas, as well as to develop policies on flood through public disputes prevention, with residents drawn at random to “raise the and conflicts. That is how level of civic engagement in the Paweł Adamowicz in July 2018. Photograph by Rudolf H. Boettcher. civil society is created.” areas most challenging to the Wikimedia Commons. city.” According to Adamowicz, in politics as head of the civil society “is not about and member of Civic Platform committee that organized the (Platforma Obywatelska—PO). enlightened absolutism imposed strikes in Gdańsk in 1988, from the top. It takes place and that contributed to the He made his reputation as a through the activism of different convening of the roundtable progressive, supporting the entrepreneurs and people of talks culminating in the settlement of immigrants different professions and ideas, negotiated end of communism in Gdańsk, sex education as well as through public in Poland. He was elected to in schools, gay and lesbian disputes and conflicts. That is the Gdańsk city council in rights—in 2018 he was an how civil society is created.” 1990 and in 1998 became its honorary patron of the fourth mayor, a post to which he was Gdańsk Gay Pride Parade, in Born of parents who re-elected several times. In which he also participated— emigrated after the war 2018, he was re-elected as an and the national rights of the from Vilnius to Gdańsk, Independent, although he had Kashubes. As a symbol of his Adamowicz became active previously been a co-founder support for women’s rights,

8 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 he granted the keys of the city “The death of Mayor created by PiS had led the to the women of Gdańsk to assassin to commit his Paweł Adamowicz is yet commemorate the hundredth heinous act. anniversary of women’s another tragic warning suffrage in Poland. As he told Adamowicz had previously The Guardian in 2016, “I am a signal that in our society, been verbally attacked European, so my nature is by right-wing politicians. ideological differences, Młodzież to be open. Gdańsk is a port In 2017, the Wszechpolska and must always be a refuge and differences of (All-Polish from the sea.” Youth), whose president, worldview, can lead – in Adam Andruszkiewicz, was He spoke out strongly when recently appointed Deputy extreme cases – to acts of the windows of the Gdańsk Minister for Digitalization, synagogue were broken physical violence.” published a series of ten last year, denouncing the “political death certificates” —Joint statement issued by vandalism. In the aftermath of of pro-European politicians. Polish Jewish organizations Adamowicz’s assassination, Adamowicz’s certificate all the main Jewish described his “cause of organizations in Poland issued he was treated for paranoid death” as “liberalism, a joint statement. It asserted: schizophrenia while in multiculturalism, stupidity.” “Sadly, hatred is becoming prison but stopped taking his The prosecutor’s office more and more visible and medication before his release. decided that these tacit threats more widely accepted in After stabbing Adamowicz, did not constitute a breach Polish political and social life. the assassin seized the of the law, but were rather a The death of Mayor Paweł microphone and claimed form of legitimate criticism Adamowicz is yet another that he had been falsely of the politicians involved. In tragic warning signal that imprisoned and tortured at an interview with a right-wing in our society, ideological the hands of the previous media outlet broadcast on the differences, and differences PO government. One of the day that Adamowicz’s death of worldview, can lead—in main claims of the present was announced, the far-right extreme cases—to acts of Polish government, headed politician Grzegorz Braun physical violence.” by the Law and Justice Party described him as a “traitor to (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość— the nation.” The mayor’s assassin, a PiS), is that the courts were 27-year-old resident of dominated by a PO-created According to Rafał Pankowski, Gdańsk, had a criminal mafia, and that this had head of the Nigdy Więcej history that included bank necessitated the large-scale (Never Again) association, an robberies and an attack on a purge of the judiciary—a anti-racist campaign group, police officer. According to claim that led many to assert Adamowicz became a symbol reports in the Polish press, that the hate-filled atmosphere of something bigger than the

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 9 attack itself. “He died during It is vital to “put an end a charity event that tries to to the wave of hatred, bring Poles together. As a result, he became a symbol respect the dignity of the death of unity in this of man, and engage society.” In Pankowski’s view, Adamowicz “started to become in a reckoning of more and more outspoken on conscience.” issues of diversity and minority rights and tolerance, just as —Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, society was moving in the Archbishop of Warsaw opposite direction. It was very impressive. He was a very It is to be hoped that this brave man—and he paid for it.” tragic event will lead to a diminution of the divisive The government claimed and abusive character of there was no evidence that Polish political life. Cardinal the attack was politically Kazimierz Nycz, Archbishop motivated, and that the of Warsaw, at the mass assassin had also threatened celebrated in the presence of the president. President Duda members of the government condemned the murder as a on the Sunday after the “hard to imagine evil.” The murder, argued that it is vital stabbing was also condemned to “put an end to the wave by other members of the of hatred, respect the dignity PiS. Less than ten days after of man, and engage in a the murder, however, one of reckoning of conscience.” n President Duda’s advisers, on state television, talking Antony Polonsky, PhD, is about Lech Wałęsa, Jerzy Chief Historian at POLIN Owsiak (the founder of the Museum of the History of foundation that sponsored Polish Jews. the charity event), and Paweł Adamowicz, claimed that the public scene was affected by a form of “mystification” that “makes angels of individuals whose behavior raises many questions.”

10 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Roman Vishniac Archive Gifted to the Magnes Collection of Jewish Francesco Spagnolo Art and Life (University of California, Berkeley)

oman Vishniac (1897 – of photographic prints, but Professor of Jewish History 1990) was a Russian- also negatives, contact sheets, at UC Berkeley, which took Rborn modernist photographer slides, and personal and place at The Magnes last who is best known for his professional records. The November, days after the poignant images of traditional Magnes will exhaustively collection was moved to East European Jewish life, catalogue, document, and Berkeley. especially Polish Jewish street organize all of these materials Francesco Spagnolo: The life, in the years immediately so that they will be accessible photograph, An Elder of the preceding the Holocaust. His for teaching, research, and, Village, Vysni Apsa, is one photographs of this era also ultimately, public display. The of the most iconic and well- capture the plight of Jewish collection likewise promises known images by Roman and other displaced persons to be of inestimable value to Vishniac. It went on the cover the UC Berkeley community across Europe before and of his book, A Vanished World of research into 20th-century after World War II. Once in (1983). What does the image East European Jewry. the United States, Vishniac mean, and what does the book photographed minorities and We are especially grateful to mean? They have a global immigrants in New York Roman Vishniac’s daughter, significance, but they’re also City and elsewhere. He was Mara Vishniac Kohn, and very particular. also a passionate science her children, Naomi and John Efron: Yes. [This photographer and a pioneer in Ben Schiff, who gifted the man] is from Vysni Apsa, in microscopic photography. collection to UC Berkeley. Carpathian Ruthenia, which is [Please see obituary for Mara The Magnes Collection of sort of Ukraine today and was Vishniac Kohn in this issue of Jewish Art and Life at the divided up between various Gazeta, [page 45]. University of California, new countries after World Berkeley, is now the grateful Roman Vishniac: War I. And it’s iconic because repository of Vishniac’s A Conversation the portraiture is just perfect, complete archive, representing the way he’s both leaning the one of the museum’s most Following is an edited version hand on the cane, and his head important acquisitions since of a conversation between in his hands, so he’s in this its founding in 1962. The Frances Spagnolo, curator deep thoughtful pose, and he’s Roman Vishniac Collection of The Magnes Collection, an elder of his community. includes not only thousands and Dr. John Efron, Koret And so for Vishniac, it

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 11 Roman Vishniac (1897-1990), [Woman walking on crutches Image 1: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990), Albert Einstein in His through ruins], [Berlin (Germany)], 1947. Black-and-white Office, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1942. Gelatin silver print. inkjet print (from original negative). The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.10. Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.15. signifies the community itself. clearly, but both learned in to materials in the Vishniac Vishniac represented this part their own way, and they’re archives—things he wrote— of the community as deeply both deep in thought. You we see that there is not only religious and deeply pious. wouldn’t expect this small a poetry in how he describes town elder from the shtetl a living animal, but there FS: Once Roman Vishniac and Einstein to have much in is really a humanist gaze arrived in the United States, common, but the way Vishniac on science that we also see he set up to do studio has portrayed them, I think I reflected in a more scientific, photography, and traveled can say that they actually do taxonomic gaze on human to Princeton to take portraits have something in common, beings. So he’s a man of of Albert Einstein (Image 1), and of course we know that the two cultures combined, who apparently stated that both of their worlds came to science and humanities. He his portraits by Vishniac an end. writes about the stork, “the were among his favorites. wings of the planing bird are It’s a different type of both FS: I remember that when I the prototype of our airplane Jewish American and global exhibited these images I put wings. Gliding and sailing iconography here, right? them one next to the other for birds were the models for the very same reason. JE: Right, but there are two inventors,” and he talks about things: [the village elder and Roman Vishniac took many, the struggle of the flight of the Einstein] were both, at this many photographs of storks stork in detail in his notes. And particular point, relatively (e.g., Stork in Flight). It’s these notes in his archives were elderly Jewish men from something that could be typewritten at the same time different parts of Europe, very surprising, but if we relate this as his reflections on the city of

12 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Paris (from the point of view of a gargoyle on Notre Dame), as well as on the toils of the European Jews. He writes about Jews in the same way that he writes about storks, and their struggle in flight: “Four million human beings driven to despair by humiliation, suffering, and destitution, hope to be saved if not for themselves, then for their children that they may grow up to live and work in a better world.” Image 2: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990), Amino Acid (00 000), ca. 1970. Chromogenic print. JE: He doesn’t express any The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac knowledge of the systematic Kohn, 2018.15. extermination of European negatives and other materials, JE: Jewry, but needless to say, There almost is [including images like he’s fully aware of the a disproportionate Amino Acid (Image 2) systematic persecution of , of representation of Jews Europe’s Jewry. So we’re at a microscopic objects which reading, both children and point where for him personally are photographed—in stark adults, and even in the that knowledge is not there, contrast to his black-and- picture of Einstein, he is and then there’s still sort of a white photos—in color], reading. So, Jews as a sort glimmer of hope, perhaps tied that we hope will unleash of a reading civilization to ... the picture of the stork, numerous paths of research on is the way he wished to that the stork will still be able the UC Berkeley campus. portray them, irrespective of what country they’re in, or to make its ascent and remain Many of his photographs where they’re from: whether in the air, so he still sees a depict children—he they’re from Germany, like possibility at this particular devoted a whole book to Einstein, or whether they’re point ... and doesn’t realize Jewish children—but he from Carpathian Ruthenia, that there is none. photographed children in or whether they’re now in many communities, in many FS: Roman Vishniac was America, reading what looks ways, and especially children a pioneer in microscopic like an English-language who were also readers (Boy photography. The Vishniac book. They’re nonetheless Reading), like his photographs collection now at The reading. Magnes includes around of East European and Jewish cheder FS: 1,500 scientific prints, plus children in the , a Roman Vishniac traveled religious elementary school. to Israel several times, and

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 13 black-and-white photos, and the [slides] are in color. So it sort of represents a dawn, as it were, a brightness of a possible future, as opposed to a visual recording of photographs of a civilization that’s on the brink. This is a civilization on the brink of a new future; so these are in color, and they’re also very striking. But these are very intimate portraits, again, of both Jews and non-Jews.

FS: And self-portraits, as well! We see him in action, roaming the roads of Israel. What’s interesting, and very important, about these images, is that there is no real public documentation of Vishniac in Israel. This gives us a sense of the potential of this archive, and how many more roads we need to take in order to document the extraordinary n Image 3: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) [Israel], October 1967. Diapositives (slides). work of this photographer. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2018.15. Frances Spagnolo is Curator of The Magnes Collection (Image acquired for access to Jews. [his slide series] Israel of Jewish Art and Life at 3) And also there is again the depicts a trip in October- UC Berkeley, and Affiliated topic of elderly Jewish, or November of 1967, shortly Faculty with the Berkeley in this case even Samaritan, after the Six Day War. We Center for the Study of men with ritual texts, and of have no prints in the archive, Religion. but we have many, many bearded elderly men. slides. He gives a wide- John Efron, PhD is Koret JE: Also, one of the things ranging portrait of Israel, and Professor of Jewish History at that’s most noticeable is that especially Jerusalem, the Old UC Berkeley. he’s known, of course, for City, which had just been re- these stunning and striking

14 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Keeping Jewish Memory Alive in Poland Leora Tec

e trudged through When we reached the encountered them in 2005, when visiting Poland with the snow up a steep site, Inga asked if I Whill. I had to pull myself up my mother, Nechama Tec. by the bannister that our wanted to light candles Her memoir Dry Tears, about her experience passing as host, Inga Marczyńska, had in memory of the dead. installed to make access a Catholic girl during the easier. We were headed to She reached into her tote Holocaust, had just been translated into Polish, and the mass grave where 260 bag and pulled out two Jews from Kołaczyce and Lublin was one of the stops on Brzostek are buried. They candles. She never goes her book tour. I had no inkling that there were people in my were marched there on August anywhere without them. 12, 1942—mothers carrying mother’s hometown honoring their babies and toddlers, with Rescuers of Memory, Inga is the memory of Jews of that no bannister to steady them. trying to save Jewish memory place. I now must admit that Inga, who is tireless in her “from oblivion,” to quote I had barely thought about efforts to commemorate the Rafał Kowalski, Deputy my ancestors in Lublin— Jews of Kołaczyce, seemed Director of the Museum of barely thought beyond my unbothered by her high heels Mazowian Jews in Płock. My mother’s immediate family. or the fact that her skirt was recorded conversations with But the non-Jewish Poles covered in snow. When we Inga and Rafał will join other that I encountered there were reached the site, Inga asked conversations to be archived remembering for me. They if I wanted to light candles on the Grodzka Gate – NN were gathering facts, photos, in memory of the dead. She Theatre website. sounds, testimonies, and lovingly placing them in what reached into her tote bag It is appropriate that Grodzka they call an Ark of Memory. and pulled out two candles. Gate – NN Theatre should She never goes anywhere house them. Brama is an I was so moved by their without them. amazing organization of more reverence and dedication that I felt called to highlight Like so many extraordinary than fifty non-Jewish Poles them and those that do similar non-Jewish Poles whom I who, for almost three decades, work—not only people doing have had the honor to meet have dedicated themselves grassroots projects such as in the course of my work to Jewish remembrance cleaning up cemeteries, but to create a video archive of in Lublin, Poland. I first also teachers, those working

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 15 Inga Marczyńska at the mass grave where 260 Jews from Kołaczyce and Brzostek were murdered. Courtesy of Leora Tec. in institutions, and academics. Rafał Kowalski from Płock Leora Tec is the founder and What moves them to do this says it was almost as if he director of Bridge to Poland precious work? After my were possessed by a dybbuk and an AAPJS board member. friend Robert Kuwalek (an when he set out to find the She is currently in Poland as expert on the Bełżec and survivors from Płock all over a Stevens Traveling Fellow Majdanek death camps and the world and interview them. from Wellesley College. the Jews of Lublin) died Perhaps I am not possessed by unexpectedly at the age a dybbuk but I am determined of forty-seven, I became to shout from the rooftops in even more convinced of the my own way—through video, importance of recording writing and talks—to tell the the voices and stories of world about these amazing people like him. He counted people who wake up every survivors among his friends. morning looking for new In a hundred years, who will ways to fill the hole left in carry on this memory work? Poland after the Holocaust. n

16 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Michael The Untorn Life of Yaakov Weksler Schudrich

first met Yaakov Weksler more than twenty years Iago when he was Father Romuald Waszkinel, a priest and a professor of theology in Lublin. Only a few years earlier he had discovered that he had been born a Jewish baby near Vilna, around the year 1941, and had been given away by his Jewish mother

in order to save him from Former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Israel Meir Lau, Yaakov Weksler, and the Shoah. While Yaakov’s Shaya Ben Yehuda, who is reading from the Torah. adoptive Polish parents Courtesy of Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich. risked their lives to save him, that he was born to Jewish roots of Christianity as well they never wanted to tell parents who gave him to them as his own family’s roots. him that, in fact, he was not in order to save his life. A few The journey was deep and their biological child. More years later, Yaakov met his therefore took time. Indeed, it than fifty years ago, Yaakov biological uncle, the brother was the journey of a lifetime. decided to enter the priesthood of his Jewish father, and then About ten years ago, Yaakov and asked his parents if he traveled several times to Israel decided that he wanted to live was really theirs since he did to meet him. on a religious kibbutz in order not look like them. They And so began Yaakov’s Jewish to taste in some way the way responded by saying “Don’t journey. his parents and grandparents we love you?” but could had lived their lives. After not tell Yaakov the truth. For him, a theologian, this a soul-searching discussion SoYaakov went on to enter the journey was a profoundly with the rabbi of the kibbutz, priesthood. Around twenty- spiritual and intellectual Yaakov was accepted and five years ago, his adoptive one. Yaakov spent years lived on the kibbutz for over father passed away, at which learning more and more about a year. This gave him the time his adoptive mother told Judaism, following in the opportunity for the first time to him the truth—that he was footsteps of Pope John Paul see Jewish life up close, and to not their biological child and II of discovering the Jewish

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 17 live Jewishly every day. His Watching Yaakov Yaakov shared with us, in experience was an inspiration beaming from cheek Hebrew, his tremendous to others, and is depicted in the happiness, his gratitude to film Torn, made during his stay to cheek, watching a both his Jewish and Polish on the kibbutz. The movie’s man who as a baby had parents and to all of us. title aptly describes Yaakov’s “Chazarti habayita,” he said. survived the Shoah, dilemma between the two “I have returned home.” worlds in which he lived. so full of happiness The torn man is now whole.

I was in regular contact and contentment was Mazal tov, Yaakov! Ohavim with Yaakov throughout his an experience that otcha!—We love you! incredible journey of self- Postscript: Yaakov decided discovery, full of its ups and transcends words. that he wanted to stay in downs and his search for self- I arrived at the synagogue Israel and has been working at reconciliation. that day and found a packed Yad Vashem since 2011. n Over the years in which room full of people who had we met, I increasingly only one goal in mind: to wish Michael Schudrich lives in encountered a person who Yaakov a mazal tov! All had Warsaw and is the Chief Rabbi was becoming more and more gathered to wish him well of Poland. at home with himself and his in the next part of his life’s newly “untorn” identity. journey, to welcome him home. This past Yom Kippur, Yaakov was in Warsaw and Watching Yaakov beaming attended services at our Nożyk from cheek to cheek, watching Synagogue. I offered him a man who as a baby had an aliya, to be called to the survived the Shoah, so full of Torah. He declined, saying happiness and contentment that he was home in the was an experience that synagogue but not yet ready transcends words. This for an aliya. seemingly impossible moment filled the room with awe—to On February 6, 2018, Yaakov see a person who persevered decided to put on tefilin and to for over twenty-five years be called to the Torah for the as a conflicted human being first time in the Yad Vashem now standing proudly in his synagogue. A very belated tallit and tefilin in perfect Bar Mitzvah! wholeness, no longer “torn.”

18 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS Books

Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy Reported by Writings, Reflections, Photographs Tressa Berman Edited by Nadine Epstein. Foreword by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Afterword by Ted Koppel (Moment Books, 2019)

his newly released “I have learned the with that memory to prevent tribute to the late Elie danger of indifference, collective harm and to heal TWiesel (1928–2016) is a it where it already occurred. selected compilation of the crime of indifference. As he stated in his acceptance visual narratives and personal For the opposite of speech for the 1985 reflections on the life and love … is not hate but Congressional Gold Medal of legacy of one of the most Achievement, “I have learned preeminent human rights indifference.” the danger of indifference, thought leaders of the 20th —Elie Weisel the crime of indifference. and early 21st centuries. For the opposite of love, I Elie Wiesel is remembered carried with him six million have learned, is not hate but here by such prominent and fragments of our people. His indifference.” From receiving diverse Jewish voices as Itzak was the voice of memory the Nobel Peace Prize in Perlman, Michael Berenbaum, when others sought to forget.” 1986 until the final decade Dani Dayan, Mark Podwal, of his life, Elie Wiesel lived and Martha Hauptman (his Included in this compendium his words with a prophetic personal assistant for almost is an interview with Wiesel grace and an empathy for thirty years), plus many more himself, conducted by Elisha humankind borne of his unexpected contributors, Wiesel (the son of Elie and own experience. n including Oprah Winfrey. Marion), standing before the Tressa Berman, PhD, serves Most vivid are the portraits famous quote of his father: as Managing Editor of Gazeta. by those who knew him “One person of integrity can best, and most telling are the make a difference.” This praises by historians of the personal and public account of Holocaust and Jewish history, his father’s accomplishments the survivors, the celebrators and teachings segues into of life, and the recoverers of perhaps the most captivating loss, to which Wiesel’s life section of the book—Elie itself was a living testament. Wiesel’s own words, essays, Indeed, as Rabbi Jonathan and speeches, written and Sacks points out in the preface presented in over forty years. of the book, “Whatever he did His mission was not only to and wherever he went, Elie remember, but to act in accord

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 19 Reported by Józef Czapski: Three New Books Adam Schorin

Last autumn, The New York for public awareness about Review of Books published the situation in Communist three books by and about Józef Poland. Czapski, the 20th-century Polish painter and writer. The recently published books are Almost Nothing: The zapski was born in 20th-Century Art and Life Prague in 1896 and of Józef Czapski, Lost Time: Cdied in France in 1993: he Lectures on Proust in a Soviet lived through and witnessed Prison Camp, and Inhuman the Russian Revolution, the Land: Searching for the Parisian art world of the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941– roaring twenties, the front 1942. The first of these is a lines of World War II, the biography of Czapski by Eric Siberian gulag, and the fall Karpeles, a painter himself, of communism. As a young that has been reviewed by man, he studied law in Saint “Together these books Robert Hass as “an amazing Petersburg and painting in document Czapski’s and completely unexpected achievement told with a Warsaw and Kraków; in 1924, physical and spiritual he moved to Paris, where he steadiness of vision that is worked as a painter and critic. survival during a breathtaking.” Karpeles also As a Polish reserve officer nightmare era, but, more translated Czapski’s lectures fighting against the Nazis in on Proust (collected in Lost than that, they re-create the first weeks of World War Time), which he originally II, he was taken prisoner by an overlooked life, one delivered to his fellow inmates in a labor camp the Soviets. One of the few marked by an exemplary soldiers excluded from the in Siberia. measure of modesty, massacre of Polish officers at Inhuman Land is Antonia Katyn, he was sent instead to moral clarity, and artistic Lloyd-Jones’s new translation a gulag labor camp. Though richness.” of Czapski’s reportage of his he never returned to Poland time in Anders’ Army. General —Cynthia Haven, after the war, he continued in Władysław Anders had his adopted France to fight The Wall Street Journal

20 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 personally assigned Czapski Cynthia Haven writes in the task of investigating the The Wall Street Journal: disappearance of thousands “Together these books of Polish officers, including document Czapski’s physical those who had been killed and spiritual survival during on Stalin’s orders at Katyn, a nightmare era, but, more a crime for which the USSR than that, they re-create an never accepted responsibility. overlooked life, one marked In the book, Czapski also by an exemplary measure of describes his release from modesty, moral clarity, and the gulag labor camp, and his artistic richness.” n arduous journey with Anders’ Army through Central Asia Adam Schorin is Assistant and the Middle East to fight Editor of Gazeta. on the Italian front. The book includes an introduction by Timothy Snyder, Yale University Professor and historian of Eastern Europe and the Holocaust.

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 21 Recent Polish Jewish Studies Books of Note Compiled by Agnieszka Ilwicka

1. Anna Bikont, Sendlerowa. W ukryciu. Warszawa: 10. Artur Markowski, Przemoc antyżydowska i Czarne, 2017 wyobrażenia społeczne. Pogrom białostocki 1906 r. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu 2. Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne archiwum Warszawskiego, 2018 getta Warszawy, t.29. Pisma Emanuela Ringelbluma z getta, ed. Joanna Nalewajko- 11. Ojzer Warszawski. Szmuglerzy, trans. and ed. Kulikov, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Magdalena Ruta, Warszawskiego, 2018 Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie- Skłodowskiej, 2018 3. Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne archiwum 12. Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX getta Warszawy, t. 29A. Pisma Emanuela wieku. Tom 1: Literatura I sztuka, ed. Sławomir Ringelbluma z bunkra, ed. Eleonora Bergman, Buryła, Warszawa: Instytut Historii PAN, 2018 Tadeusz Epsztein, Magdalena Siek, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2018 13. Przecież ich nie zostawię. O żydowskich opiekunkach w czasie wojny. Red. Monika 4. Mordechaj Canin, Przez ruiny i zgliszcza. Podróż Sznajderman, Magdalena Kicińska. Warszawa: po stu zgładzonych gminach żydowskich, Czarne, 2018 trans. and ed. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Nisza, 2018 14. Monika Stępień, Miasto opowiedziane. Powojenny Kraków w świetle żydowskiej 5. Maria Cieśla, Kupcy, arendarze i rzemieślnicy. literatury dokumentu osobistego. Kraków: Różnorodność zawodowa Żydów w Wielkim Austeria, 2018 Księstwie Litewskim w XVII i XVIIIw. Warszawa: 15. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Pod klątwą. Społeczny Instytut Historii PAN, 2018 portret pogromu kieleckiego. Warszawa: Czarna 6. Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych Owca, 2018 powiatach okupowanej Polski. Ed. Barbara 16. Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism: Key Questions. Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Warszawa: Centrum New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, 2018 2018

7. Urszula Glensk, Hirszfeldowie. Zrozumieć krew. 17. Marcin Wodziński, Historical Atlas of Hasidism, Kraków: Universitas, 2018 Cartography by Waldemar Spallek, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018 8. Karolina Koprowska, Postronni? Zagłada w relacjach chłopskich świadków. Kraków: 18. Żydzi polscy w oczach historyków. Universitas, 2018 Tom dedykowany pamięci Profesora A. Gierowskiego, ed. Adam Kaźmierczyk, Alicja 9. Joanna Lisek, Kol isze. Głos kobiet w poezji jidysz Maślak-Maciejewska. Kraków: Wydawnictwo (od XVIw. do 1939r.). Sejny: Pogranicze, 2018 Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2018

Agnieszka Ilwicka is a Yiddish Studies scholar and a researcher at Taube Philanthropies.

22 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Auschwitz Jewish Center Publishes Guidebook to Os´wiecim Jewish Cemetery

he Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) recently Tpublished a guidebook titled The Jewish Cemetery in Oświęcim: History, Symbols, Nature, written by Dr. Artur Szyndler, the chief curator of the Jewish Museum at AJC, Dr. Jacek Proszyk, Wojciech Gałosz, and Marcin Karetta. The book describes the cemetery’s history and current condition, presented in four sections: “History,” “People,” “Symbols,” and “Nature.” Each section addresses different aspects of the cemetery, ranging from the notable community members buried there to the unique biodiversity of the Jacket image of The Jewish Cemetery in Oświęcim: History, Symbols, Nature, site. The text, illustrated published by the Auschwitz Jewish Center. with photographs from the cemetery and including details of particular headstones, is available in Polish and English. n

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 23 ANNOUNCEMENTS Conferences Art and the Holocaust Conference in July 2019

he international conference Art and the THolocaust: Reflections for the Common Future will take place on July 2–3, 2019, in Riga, Latvia. The conference is organized by the Riga Jewish Community Museum, Jews in Latvia, and the Museum of Romans Suta and Aleksandra Belcova, in collaboration with the International Centre for Litvak Photography (Kaunas, Lithuania) and the Jewish Monument at the site of the Great Choral Synagogue in Riga, which was burned Historical Institute (Warsaw, down in 1941 by the Nazis. Poland). The aim of the Photograph by Adam Jones. Wikimedia Commons. conference, according to its call for papers, is “to as depicted by non-Jewish present new researches artists, and art created in sites n about the relationships of imprisonment. between the Holocaust For more information, and art (drawing, painting, please visit http://www. sculpture, photography, jewishmuseum.lv/en/item/318- contemporary art, the art of international_conference_art_ commemoration),” as well and_the_holocaust_july_2-3. as about the ways in which html. individuals behaved during the Holocaust and how the Holocaust has influenced European society. Some thematic areas to be covered are the fates of artists during the Holocaust, the Holocaust

24 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1

Conferences Reported by Antony Polonsky November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland

n international conference [T]he fact that Jews were At the same time, these years were marked by a series —November Hopes: a significant proportion AJews and the Independence of anti-Jewish outrages, in of Poland in 1918—convened of the Communist which between 350 and 500 Jews lost their lives. As the on November 29-30, 2018, leadership in Russia and at the POLIN Museum of Poles fought to establish their frontier, they showed little the History of Polish Jews in Poland, and that some understanding for the desire in Warsaw. It was organized of them had welcomed of Jews in ethnically mixed by the POLIN Museum and areas such as East Galicia the Bolshevik revolution, the Institute of History of the or Lithuania to maintain a University of Warsaw, within was seized upon as a neutral posture in the national the framework of the Global conflicts. Moreover, the fact Education Outreach Program means of discrediting the that Jews were a significant and under the patronage postwar revolutionary proportion of the Communist of the Polish Society for leadership in Russia and in Jewish Studies. It received wave as a primarily Poland, and that some of them had welcomed the Bolshevik generous support from Taube Jewish phenomenon. Philanthropies, the William revolution, was seized upon K. Bowes, Jr., Foundation, principle of nationality. In as a means of discrediting and the Association of the the new state, the largest and the postwar revolutionary Jewish Historical Institute most powerful in East Central wave as a primarily Jewish phenomenon. of Poland, with additional Europe, the Jewish community support from the European perceived both positive These complex and Association for Jewish Studies and negative implications controversial issues received in national independence. and the Ministry of Science careful and insightful The rights of the Jews in and Higher Education, as part examination in a speech at Poland were assured under of the commemoration of the Carnegie Hall in New York on the treaty protecting national centennial of independence. July 28, 1919. Louis Marshall, minorities that the Poles one of the main architects The re-emergence of the had been compelled to sign. of the National Minorities’ Polish state after World War I The democratic constitution Treaties, described what had was the most obvious example established in 1921 been achieved in ecstatic of the postwar triumph of the strengthened the hope that terms. “For the first time, the Jews would be equal citizens.

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 25 nations of the world have speech by David Engel with recognized that, in common the title “Independence for with all other peoples, we Whom? Jews and the New are entitled to equality in Political Order in Eastern law … It has now become an Europe after 1918.” The established principle that any second day opened with a violation of the rights of a session, “Realities,” chaired minority is an offense not only by Professor Stola. Antony against the individuals but Polonsky led the concluding against the law which controls roundtable on “Jews and all of the civilized nations of Polish Independence. the earth.” One hundred years 100 Years Later.” The later, the conference amplifies deliberations of this these themes from historical stimulating and thought- perspectives. provoking conference will be published in a special The conference opened edition of East European with addresses by Professor Jewish Affairs. n Dariusz Stola of the POLIN Museum and Professor Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spano of the Institute of History of the University of Warsaw. A roundtable on “Polish Independence, the Jewish Question and the Neighbors” was then chaired by journalist Maciej Zakrocki. The next panel dealt with the “hope” of independence and was chaired by Kamil Kijek of the University of Warsaw. After that came a session, chaired by Jerzy Kochanowski of the Institute of History, that addressed the “fears” that accompanied the regaining of Polish statehood. The evening featured a stimulating and provocative keynote

26 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Poland and Hungary: Jewish Realities Compared

n January 29, a daylong Victor Karady of the Central conference at the Polish European University discussed OEmbassy in London launched how identification with the Volume 31 of Polin: Studies Magyar national idea facilitated in Polish Jewry, edited by Jewish integration in Hungary. François Guesnet, Howard Tim Cole of the University of Bristol compared the ghettos Lupovich, and Antony established in Warsaw and Polonsky, on the theme of Budapest. Anna Manchin “Poland and Hungary: Jewish compared a number of Realities Compared.” These museums in Budapest with the two communities were once POLIN Museum of the History the largest in Europe and of Polish Jews in Warsaw. among the most culturally vibrant, yet they have rarely The next session brought an been studied comparatively. examination of the role of The latest volume of Polin: Studies in Jews in Hungarian and Polish Despite the obvious Polish Jewry was released on January popular entertainment before similarities, historians have 29, 2019. World War II. Jews in Hungary preferred to highlight their These two communities were aware of their somewhat differences and emphasize precarious situation. Mary instead the central European were once the largest in Gluck of Brown University character of Hungarian Jewry. examined the unease which Europe and among the The conference opened with many of them felt, as reflected welcoming remarks by the most culturally vibrant, in the humorous sketches played in Jewish music halls. Polish ambassador, Arkady yet they have rarely been Rzegocki, Vivian Wineman, In Poland, according to Beth president of the Institute for studied comparatively. Holmgren of Duke University, Polish-Jewish Studies, and Sir the largely Jewish-created cabaret was used to mock the Ben Helfgott, its chairman. the POLIN Museum, who pretensions of acculturated The first session took the examined the main themes of Jews and depict a multi-ethnic form of an exchange between the volume. There followed a and cosmopolitan Warsaw. Howard Lupovich of Wayne session exploring the potential Issues of integration and State University and Antony of historical comparison acculturation also dominated Polonsky, chief historian of between the two communities.

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 27 the final session. Barry Cohen Association for Polish- presented his book Opening the Jewish Studies; the Institute Drawer. The Hidden Identities of Jewish Studies, UCL; the of Polish Jews (2018). This is European Institute, UCL; an account of three generations the Embassy of the Republic of Polish Jews—those who of Poland; and the Polish survived the war, those who Cultural Institute. n grew up under communism, and the third generation which has emerged since the end of communism—and how they have participated in the revival of Jewish life since 1989. The conference program included a showing and discussion of the film Pilecki (2015), directed by Mirosław Krzyszkowski, which describes the services of Witold Pilecki, a Polish soldier who volunteered to be arrested by the German authorities so he could be sent to Auschwitz to instigate a resistance movement there. After escaping from the death camp in 1943, he wrote an extensive report which has since been published as The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery (Los Angeles, 2012). Warm congratulations must go to the organizers and supporters of this stimulating, thought-provoking, and very successful conference: the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies; the American

28 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS Exhibitions The Free Bird: An Exhibition of Jewish Caricature from the Inter-War Period at the Jewish Historical Institute

n celebration of the 100th anniversary of Polish Iindependence last November, the Jewish Historical Institute opened an exhibition of satirical illustrations from the inter-war Jewish press. The title of the exhibition— The Free Bird. Der Frayer Foygl. Caricature from the Jewish Press in Independent Poland—refers to a pioneering The Free Bird. Der Frayer Foygl was on display November 16, 2018–March 24, humor magazine that used a 2019 at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. white eagle, the symbol of the In some cases, the commentary on ongoing independent Polish state, as social changes, women’s illustrations in the its logo. emancipation, the Great By sharing the work of exhibition represent the Depression, and anti- Semitism. Taken together, Jewish illustrators and only remaining traces of cartoonists of that time, the artworks paint a complex the exhibition presents a artists who were killed in picture of the inter-war Jewish community and its seldom-told perspective the Holocaust and whose of Polish independence. relationship with the non- Included in the exhibition are entire bodies of work Jewish majority. artworks by Jakub Bickels, were destroyed. The exhibition was on display Szaja Fajgenbojm, Samuel November 16, 2018–March Finkelstein, Chaim Goldberg, were killed in the Holocaust 24, 2019. n Fryderyk Kleinman, Leon and whose entire bodies of Dawid Izrael, Artur Szyk, work were destroyed. and many others. In some cases, the illustrations in the The illustrations highlight exhibition represent the only major political events of the remaining traces of artists who inter-war period and offer

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 29 Terribly Close: Polish Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust Awarded Best Cultural Event

erribly Close: Polish T Vernacular Artists Face the Holocaust was on display at the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków from December 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019. The exhibition featured work by Polish folk artists that, “intentionally or by chance,” contained depictions of the Holocaust. The exhibition was the product of three years of research conducted by its curators: Drs. Erica Lehrer and Roma Sendyka, Magdalena Zych, and photographer Wojciech Wilczyk.

Throughout the exhibition, the curators explored the forces influencing Polish representations of the Holocaust, among them the Communist suppression of Jewish issues, the demands Fragment of the artwork Oświęcim (1962) by Zygmunt Skrętowicz. Photograph by Wojciech Wilczyk from his series Blow-ups. of foreign collectors, and Courtesy of Wojciech Wilczyk. the photographs of the We hope the exhibition was able to stir up some Holocaust that were widely circulated after the war. The emotions and get people to think critically about exhibition was completed with Holocaust memory. photographs taken by Wilczyk that, by showing the artworks —Dr. Erica Lehrer, co-curator

30 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Fragment of Deutsche Fabriken (1970) by Jan Wojtarowicz. Photograph by Wojciech Wilczyk from his series Blow-ups. Courtesy of Wojciech Wilczyk. up close, attempt to bring the Radio Kraków named A book about the research visitor’s gaze in line with that that informed the exhibition is Terribly Close the best of the objects’ creators. forthcoming in Polish and English. n The weekend the exhibition cultural event in Kraków closed, the curators received of December 2018. very good news: Radio Kraków had selected Terribly about Holocaust memory... Close as the best cultural event [t]o connect with emotions in Kraków of December 2018. some of the artists may have Dr. Lehrer commented: “We felt, or to mourn this loss of hope the exhibition was able something that perhaps has to stir up some emotions and never been possible to fully get people to think critically acknowledge or assimilate.”

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 31 ANNOUNCEMENTS Awards Marcin Wodzin´ski Wins 2019 U.S. National Jewish Book Award

n March 5, 2019, Marcin Wodziński received Othe prestigious National Jewish Book Award for his groundbreaking Historical Atlas of Hasidism. (See the Summer 2018 issue of Gazeta for more information about the book.) Winner of the 2018 Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award for Scholarship, the book documents the demographic shifts, Jacket image for Historical Atlas of expansions, and migrations Hasidism by Marcin Wodziński with cartography by Waldemar Spallek. of Hasidism, visualized through a catalogue of more Hasidic centers. This is a new, than seventy maps, hundreds innovative, and very needed of photographs, and graphic corrective and I hope readers summaries that together depict will appreciate it.” n this comprehensive history. As a historiography that combines interpretive, visual, and statistical data, the book is a milestone and breakthrough in tracing this religious aspect of Jewish thought and social movement. In his March 4, 2019, interview with the Jewish Book Council, Wodziński stated, “[T]he Atlas looks at Hasidism beyond the leaders—at thousands of their followers living far from

32 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Yiddish Glory Nominated for Grammy Award

n the early 2000s, Professor teamed up with Russian Anna Shternshis, of the musician and composer IUniversity of Toronto, was Psoy Korolenko to create a sifting through documents musical presentation out of the at the Verdansky National Beregovsky collection. Many Library of Ukraine. She was of the songs in the collection conducting research for a were recorded only as lyrics, book about Yiddish culture in so Professor Shternshis and the Soviet Union during the Korolenko set them to music. Holocaust when a librarian Spurred on by the success of directed her to a cache of Album art for Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II. the presentation, Professor barely catalogued songs. Shternshis, her husband, and The collection—fragile, way we understood the history Korolenko put together a mostly handwritten— of Soviet Jews.” team of musicians to create an album out of the songs. was part of the work of The songs themselves represent The result was Yiddish Moisei Beregovsky, an a range of perspectives and Glory: The Lost Songs of ethnomusicologist famous for tones: they were written by World War II. documenting and preserving Red Army soldiers, children, Jewish music from the and widows, and contain The album was produced by beginning of the 20th century. stories of loss and mourning, Six Degrees Records and Though scholars knew defiance and love. nominated for a Grammy in Beregovsky had continued the world music category. collecting songs during the Some also poke fun at figures Though it did not go on to win war, most assumed his work like Lenin and Hitler. “On the award, the team behind had been lost or destroyed. the High Mountain,” a song the album was thrilled and written by Veli Shargorodskii surprised by the nomination. “These songs are the first eye- near the end of the war, ends witness testimonies by Jews with the words, “Germany is “Given the whole history, on the eve of the Holocaust,” in trouble, Hitler is kaput!” where it all started,” Professor Professor Shternshis told Shternshis told JTA, “it’s CBC News. This discovery Instead of merely showing her unbelievable.” n “actually changes the whole findings, Professor Shternshis

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 33 ANNOUNCEMENTS General Auschwitz Jewish Center Releases New App

he Jewish Museum at For more information about the Auschwitz Jewish the Auschwitz Jewish Center TCenter has released a new please visit www.ajcf.pl. phone application called Oshpitzin. The app includes a guide to the museum and to the traces of Jewish history in Oświęcim. It makes use of a Beacon technology to help visitors interact with the exhibition, and lets users view an augmented-reality version of the streets of Oświęcim, with historical photographs and 3-D models of long-gone buildings superimposed on what’s currently there. Homepage of the Auschwitz Jewish “The project started six Center’s Oshpitzin iPhone application. years ago when we decided that the hand-drawn map from Sefer Oshpitzin, a Development of the app was memorial book compiled by funded by the US Consulate survivors from Oświęcim in General and the German the 1970s in Israel, needed Consulate General in Kraków, to be made more accessible the Town of Oświęcim, to our visitors,” said Maciek and the Dutch Jewish Zabierowski, the app’s project Humanitarian Fund. The app manager at the museum. “We is available for free download wanted to give them a chance in English, German, Hebrew, to look at this unique town and Polish in the Apple App through the eyes of its former Store and Google Play. n Jewish residents.”

34 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Helping Jews and Poles to Discover their Roots Highlights from the 2018 Annual Report of the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

or over twenty years, parents were murdered. The the Jewish Genealogy children (Adam was fourteen F& Family Heritage Center years old, Lolek was just a few has been helping people months old) were separated. from around the world with Adam and his sister were taken their family history searches. to a children’s home outside It is important to us to Warsaw while Lolek was put share the understanding of in an orphanage for younger the differences between a children. Adam and his sister genealogy search and a were adopted by a Jewish family history search, and family and moved into a new the search for an individual apartment in Warsaw. Adam versus the search for general insisted that the family also answers. While we may not Adam and Lolek meeting for the first adopt Lolek, but his younger have the answer to every time in Warsaw. brother was already adopted by Courtesy of the Jewish Genealogy & Family question, thanks to little Heritage Center at the Emanuel Ringelblum another family. pieces of information, Jewish Historical Institute. Adam could never forget family stories, gossips in the Lost and Found: his brother. He searched for family, photos of unknown Brothers Reunited After him for seventy years. Then people, or documents in Seventy Years he came to our office. With foreign languages, we try, documents in our archives we and almost always succeed, Adam, age eighty-six, came to were able to find information to find something—a trace— us with the kind of story that regarding Lolek’s adoption. As which we can follow. can usually only be seen in films. He was born to a Jewish it turns out, the adopting family Below are just a few human- family in a small village near left for Israel a few years interest stories taken from Tarnów. The family—Adam, after his adoption. In Israel the many accomplishments, his younger sister, and their we were able to find Lolek, or meetings, and people we parents—survived the war in Arie, Adam’s brother. Lolek enjoyed over the past year, hiding. Toward the end of the knew nothing about his early and the beneficial outcomes war, another brother, Lolek, years nor about the fact that he of our work. was born. Not long after, was adopted or had a brother. tragedy hit. In early 1946, both Thanks to our work, the

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 35 brothers met for the first time Polish army are named. These in decades. Sadly, both passed Polish patriots of Jewish away shortly after the meeting. heritage fought to protect We can only find comfort in the young state from Nazi the fact the brothers were able aggressors. Many of them to meet at the last years of their lost their lives during the first life, and that we could play a weeks of battles. Below is the part in making that so. story of one of them:

Special Guests: Alfred (Fred) Putzman was A Visit from the Tzadik born in Łódź on August 10, (Biała Admor) 1904. He was the son of Zygmunt (Zyskind) Putzman, Every guest in our office is a dentist from Łódź, and a blessing, but it is not every Cecylia (Cyrla) Beldoch, the day that one of our guests can The Admor (Tzadik) of Biała-Bnei- Brak installing a new mezuzah at daughter of hotel owners from give us a blessing. Earlier this the Jewish Genealogy & Family Warsaw. The young family did year, the Admor (Tzadik) of Heritage Center. Courtesy of the Jewish Genealogy & Family not enjoy many happy days, Biała-Bnei-Brak sought our Heritage Center at the Emanuel Ringelblum as shortly after Alfred’s birth, help in locating information Jewish Historical Institute. Cecylia fell ill. At the age of about his ancestors, the survived the war under false three, young Fred became an Rabinowicz family of Admors identities, living with non- orphan. From that time on, of Biała. To thank us, he took Jewish families, and located he came under the care of his the time to install our new after the war by Lejb Majzels, mother’s parents in Warsaw. mezuzah. a representative of the Central Two years later, in 1909, Special Projects Jewish Committee. To date, Zygmunt left Poland to the Continuing into 2019 we have tracked down several United States, where some of these children and their of his brothers were already Relocating Children: families. living. He settled in Boston Seventy Years Later with and lived there until his death Anna Bikont Jewish Soldiers in 1957. In the meantime, We regularly cooperate with Among hundreds of Alfred received his education local and foreign writers and unidentified soldiers and in Warsaw and discovered researchers. Currently we are victims of oppression buried his athletic tendencies. As assisting renowned author at “Sector 3a” at the Okopowa a young adult he played Anna Bikont with research Jewish Cemetery, only around professionally as a member for a new book. The book fifty fallen soldiers of the of the Warszawianka football is focused on children who club. In 1925 he travelled to

36 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 only Alfred Putzman, but all of the fallen soldiers whose stories remain to be told. n

For more information about these projects and the work of the JGFH, please visit: http://www.jhi.pl/genealogia.

The grave of Alfred Putzman at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw. Courtesy of the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute.

Grenoble, France, to continue Okopowa. We do not know his studies, while also much about Alfred’s adult continuing his professional life: Where did he live? What sports career at the F.C. did he do for a living? Did he Grenoble team. have a family? These are all questions we try to answer. Eventually Alfred returned to We would like to apply our Poland. When the war broke resources to recover the out in September of 1939, biographies of Alfred and the he was drafted as a reserve other soldiers buried at Sector officer. Alfred was killed 3a. To do this we would like to during the first month of the conduct archival research (for war and is buried together example, in the the military with three unknown soldiers archive in Rembertów), in an at the Jewish cemetery at effort to commemorate not

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 37 . New Director Appointed to FODZ

he Foundation for vital need to preserve Jewish the Preservation of cultural heritage.” TJewish Heritage in Poland Since 2002, FODŻ has worked (FODŻ—Fundacja Ochrony to protect and commemorate Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego) sites of Jewish cultural recently appointed as its heritage in Poland. The new executive director Piotr foundation has been especially Puchta, an experienced Polish active in parts of Poland diplomat with more than thirty where no Jewish community years of service in the Polish exists today or where small Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Jewish communities lack He is the second director of the funding to provide long- the 17-year-old organization, term care and maintenance of succeeding lawyer Monika Piotr Puchta. Courtesy of Piotr Puchta. these sites. FODŻ has been Krawczyk, who is the new involved in the restoration board president of the Union “I am honored to join FODŻ and preservation of 200 of Jewish Communities of in leading an organization that synagogues and 1200 Jewish Poland. (See page 39.) has a well-established mission cemeteries across Poland. to preserve the dynamic Mr. Puchta has served Jewish heritage of Poland,” Mr. Puchta officially assumed in Israel, Egypt, and said Mr. Puchta. “I believe the position of Director on the Palestinian National preserving these meaningful n Authority, and was the April 8, 2019. memories will help connect Ambassador of Poland to both Jews and Poles and will Egypt from 2009 to 2013. have a special significance for From January 2014 to March future generations.” 2016, he was the chairperson of the Polish delegation to Alicja Kobus, Co-Chair of the International Holocaust the FODŻ Board of Directors, Remembrance Alliance, said, “Mr. Puchta’s extensive an organization devoted experience and leadership to promoting Holocaust skills will advance FODŻ’s education and remembrance work in Poland in the many worldwide. communities where there is a

38 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 New Leader of Union of Jewish Fay and Julian Bussgang Communities of Poland

n March 2019, Monika publishes its own magazines Krawczyk became and books. Through its Social Ipresident of the board of the Welfare Department, the union Union of Jewish Communities offers its members financial of Poland (ZGWŻ–Zarząd support, material aid, medical Gmin Wyznaniowych assistance, and home and Żydowskich). The main nursing care. In addition, it office in Warsaw was created helps Polish Jews, including in 1949 as the Religious the descendants of Holocaust Association of Jews in Poland. survivors, in a variety of legal In 1992, not long after the matters, both communal and fall of communism, it was personal, including aiding in reorganized and renamed the the process of recovery and Union of Jewish Communities restoration of property once in Poland. The Association, owned by the Jewish Kehilla located in Warsaw, is currently and later nationalized in composed of eight Jewish Communist Poland. Monika Krawczyk, the new President municipalities: Bielsko-Biała, of the Board of the Union of Jewish ZGWŻ activities are financed Katowice, Kraków, Legnica, Communities of Poland. Image courtesy of Monika Krawczyk. by the resources of the union, Łódz, Szczecin, Warsaw, and and, in part, by grants from Wrocław. food, and the administration the American Jewish Joint of ritual baths. It is a partner The goal of the association is Distribution Committee with many state institutions to organize both religious and (JDC). Certain specific and non-governmental cultural life for all members projects are also supported organizations, working of the Jewish community in financially by the Ministry of toward the preservation and Poland. The union maintains Culture and private sponsors. promotion of Jewish heritage all seven of the active in Poland. Monika Krawczyk will be synagogues, fifteen prayer the first woman to hold the houses, and the historical The association also runs position of President of the cemeteries in Poland. It language schools, organizes Board of the Union of Jewish oversees the organization of educational courses, lectures, Communities of Poland. A real ritual dining, slaughter of seminars, conferences, estate and mortgage lawyer, animals, distribution of kosher and training sessions, and

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 39 for fifteen years she was the In 2013, Krawczyk was head of the Foundation for honored by the President of the Preservation of Jewish Poland with the Commander’s Heritage in Poland (FODŻ– Cross of the Order of Merit of Fundacja Ochrony Dziedzictwa the Republic of Poland for her Żydowskiego). During her work as the head of FODŻ. n tenure, FODŻ worked closely with ZGWŻ to enact part of Fay and Julian Bussgang its mission in the protection of edited Gazeta for years. Jewish synagogues, cemeteries, Today they serve as and other physical sites of Contributing Editors. Jewish significance.

In accepting the position, she stated, “I am very honored to be elected President of the Jewish Community in Poland. This is a very responsible and important task – taking into consideration the symbolic value of Polish Jewry and the magnitude of historical heritage. We need to focus on stabilization of the financial side of our work, and support the individual Jewish Communities and strengthen them by offering integrated social, cultural, educational and religious services. I would like to take this opportunity and thank Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture for many years of supporting Jewish activities in Poland. We hope to continue this important cooperation.”

40 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Global Education Outreach Program and POLIN Announcements and Opportunities

GEOP Distinguished https://www.polin.pl/en/ The conference also enjoyed Lecture Series—new event/international-academic- support from the European lectures online conference-november-hopes- Association for Jewish Studies. jews-and. A new lecture in the GEOP The project was implemented Distinguished Lecture The conference was attended as part of the celebrations Series is now online. Daniel by distinguished scholars from of the 100th anniversary of Kupfert Heller from Monash Europe, the United States, Polish independence. University spoke about and Israel, and addressed the GEOP Call for one of inter-war Poland’s lack of historical awareness Applications for 2019 most popular Jewish youth concerning the history of and 2020 will soon open movements, Betar, and the Polish Jews in the study of turbulent lives of Polish their problematic relationships The Global Education Jewish youth on the eve of with the government, as well Outreach Program invites the Holocaust. His lecture as with non-Jewish residents scholars to join us in activities “Two Fatherlands? Right- of reborn Poland. for 2019 and 2020. We Wing Zionism and the Politics welcome applications and of National Belonging in The international conference proposals from scholars at all Interwar Poland” is available November Hopes: Jews and stages of their careers and in all online at: https://www.polin. the Independence of Poland relevant academic disciplines, pl/en/event/two-fatherlands- in 1918 was financed under including history, political right-wing-zionism-and-the- contract no. 880/P-DUN/2018 science, literature, art history, politics-of-national. by the Ministry of Science and musicology, theater studies, Higher Education within the philosophy, religion, sociology, International academic framework of disseminating anthropology, and law. conference November research findings. The Hopes: Jews and the conference was made possible Soon, we will open calls for: Independence of Poland thanks to the support of the n GEOP Research in 1918—recordings now Taube Foundation for Jewish Fellowships for Doctoral available online Life & Culture, the William K. and Post-doctoral Bowes, Jr., Foundation, and candidates 2020 The recordings from the the Association of the Jewish n international academic Historical Institute of Poland. GEOP Doctoral Seminar conference are now available at: 2019/20

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 41 New GEOP Fellow at the POLIN Museum and JHI In February 2019, Dr. Grzegorz n International in Poland, received a Rossoliński-Liebe from Freie conference on the bouquet of yellow daffodils Universität Berlin, Germany, biographical method in from an anonymous person started his fellowship at the Polish-Jewish studies every year on April 19. POLIN Museum and JHI. During in winter 2019 He would lay them at the his stay, Dr. Rossoliński-Liebe n GEOP Research Monument to the Ghetto will be working on the project Workshop 2020 Heroes in memory of those Polish City Mayors and the Jews who fought and died. The For open calls please check: in the General Government: paper daffodils, which https://www.polin.pl/en/ Collaboration, Occupation, and people wear on this day, are Administration. Rossoliński- geop-open-calls. inspired by this custom. Liebe is a research associate at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut At the POLIN Museum Our Daffodils Campaign of the Freie Universität Berlin. Ambassador The Daffodils Campaign He studied cultural history at the Our Daffodils Campaign April 19, 2019, marked the Viadrina European University and ambassador is Marian seventy-sixth anniversary of holds a PhD from the Universität Turski (b. 1926), a the outbreak of the Warsaw Hamburg. He is the author of the Holocaust survivor, Ghetto Uprising—the biggest first comprehensive and scholarly historian, journalist, human Jewish military revolt during biography of the Ukrainian rights activist, and chair World War II, and the first fascist politician Stepan Bandera. of the POLIN Museum Rossoliński-Liebe has published urban insurgency in occupied Council. He is a member many articles and edited three Europe. of the International volumes about various aspects of What is the Daffodils Auschwitz Council, and the Holocaust in Ukraine and East Campaign? he was awarded Poland’s Central Europe, anti-Semitism at European universities, transnational POLIN Museum created Commander’s Cross with fascism in Western and Eastern the Daffodils Campaign to the Star of the Order of Europe, racism and historiography, commemorate the Warsaw the Rebirth of Poland. In World War II, and Ukrainian, Ghetto Uprising. Every year addition he was awarded the Polish, and Jewish history. He is on April 19, hundreds of country’s Medal for Merit to currently exploring German-Polish volunteers hand out paper Culture, as well as France’s collaboration during World War II daffodils to raise awareness National Order of the Legion of Honor, and Germany’s and the conduct of mayors in the of the uprising and its General Government. significance. Federal Cross of Merit. In January of 2019, Turski was Information on the GEOP Fellows Why the Daffodil? a keynote speaker at the can be found here: https://www. Marek Edelman, a leader of United Nations International polin.pl/en/research-collections- the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Holocaust Remembrance research-global-education-outreach- who survived and remained Day. n program/current-fellows.

42 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 ANNOUNCEMENTS In Brief Reported by Fay and Julian Bussgang

war and many were interned in the Jabłonna Camp, where about 17,000 Jewish officers and soldiers were detained. The camp was created at the order of the Minister of Military Affairs, General Kazimierz Sosnowski, in August 1920, but it was closed twenty-five days later at the initiative of Deputy Prime Minister Ignacy Daszyński. The Polish repulsed the Bolshevik troops and the reconstituted Poland continued until World War II. n Jewish recruits in Poznań pledge their allegiance to Poland in December 1932; Rabbi Sonnaben receives the oath. Image courtesy of the National Digital Archive (Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe). “I Love Poland” Blogger Yossi Klein Jews in the Military The lecture, which accompanied In Poland, King Halevy Conference at the exhibit Matt, the 100th Anniversary he Times of Israel of POLIN Museum of Regaining Independence, February 20, 2019, has n March 7, 2019, addressed the military service of Ta remarkable blog entitled Dr. Christhard Henschel Jews in the Polish Army during “I Love Poland” by Yossi Ogave a talk at the POLIN the period between the two Klein Halevy (https://blogs. Museum of the History world wars. At the beginning of timesofisrael.com/i-love- of Polish Jews in Warsaw this period, Jews were included poland/). He begins with the titled “Loyalty. Jews and the in the battles of the legions statement: “A people deserves Military between Integration of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. to be judged by its best, not and Exclusion.” Dr. Henschel However, for fear they would its worst, and the best of the has been affiliated with the sympathize with the Bolsheviks, Poles are among the Jews’ German Historical Institute in they were excluded from most trusted friends.” Warsaw since 2015. fighting the Polish-Bolshevik

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 43 Catholic Church. He commends Świadomość, kultura i Jan Karski for his courage socjalizacja polityczna to gather evidence about the młodzieży żydowskiej w Holocaust and communicate it Polsce międzywojennej), to the British and to President University of Wrocław Roosevelt. He praises the Press, won first prize in an annual Jewish Culture Festival international competition in Kraków started by Janusz for outstanding academic Makuch, and the work of publications on “Jews and many Polish youngsters who Illiberal Regimes in Eastern undertake to restore Jewish Europe after 1917” organized cemeteries. by The Leonid Nevzlin Halevy is an American-born Research Center for Russian While Halevy acknowledges Israeli writer, senior fellow and East European Jewry at that there are some things he and co-director at the Shalom the Hebrew University of does not like about Poland, Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Jerusalem. An international such as the effort to suppress Halevy spells out for the reader committee selected the scholarly inquiry into certain the many reasons why he loves best academic book and parts of the past and the re- Poland. He reminds us that the best article on the topic emergence of anti-Semitism, while the pain that the Jews published in Hebrew, English, he nonetheless reaffirms that in Poland were subjected to is Polish, German, Russian, or he is incurably in love with not forgotten, many Poles were Ukrainian. n Poland. Halevy’s recognition of among the best of humanity and Polish contributions to the fate were trusted friends of Jews. and memory of the Jews is a At Yad Vashem, there are more welcomed voice of tribute. n trees to honor Righteous Poles than trees that honor individuals from any other nation. He Nevzlin Center credits the Polish people as International Book being major contributors to bringing down Stalin and later Prize for Kamil Kijek to the freeing of thousands of amil Kijek’s monograph Soviet Jews to depart and come Children of Modernism. to Israel. Halevy also notes KSocialization, Culture and that the Polish Pope, John Paul Political Consciousness of II, was the greatest friend of the Jewish Youth in Interwar the Jews in the history of the Poland (Dzieci modernizmu.

44 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 OBITUARIES Mara Vishniac Schiff Kohn September 24, 1926 – December 17, 2018

ara Kohn, age ninety- in connection with exhibitions two, a forty-year and related publications. Mresident of Santa Barbara, In 2018 she donated passed away on Monday, approximately 30,000 items to December 17, at Cottage the University of California at Hospital. Born in Berlin, she Berkeley’s Magnes Collection escaped Nazi Germany with of Jewish Art and Life, her family, arriving in New constituting the bulk of the York City in 1940. Residing Vishniac archive. first in New York, then in Professor Kohn, a 1998 Nobel North Carolina and Ohio, Laureate, died in 2016. Mara she arrived in California in is survived by her daughter 1959 with her first husband, Mara Kohn. Naomi Schiff, son Ben Schiff, Otto Schiff, and their children Photograph by Laura Bialis. Used with granddaughters Ruby and Zina Naomi and Benjamin. permission. Goodall and Melina Schiff, Volunteering at the Sunair Physics at UC Santa Barbara Walter’s family, and many Home for Asthmatic Children (now the Kavli Institute for wonderful friends. in Tujunga, beginning in Theoretical Physics). Mara This obituary originally 1963, she rose to become taught English as a Second appeared in the Santa Barbara the institution’s director. Language and brought the Independent. n Subsequently she entered the Portraits of Survival project field of special education, to the Jewish Federation of Thanks to Ben and Naomi eventually becoming a lead Greater Santa Barbara. Schiff, the surviving son and teacher and administrator at the From 1990 onward, Mara daughter of Mara Vishniac Mardan School in Costa Mesa. was absorbed with organizing Schiff Kohn, for permission Mara moved to Santa Barbara and managing the legacy of to reprint this obituary which in 1978 with her second her father, photographer, and first appeared in the Santa husband, Professor Walter biologist Roman Vishniac. Barbara Independent. Kohn, when he became the She edited three books founding director of the reproducing his work and Institute for Theoretical managed innumerable details

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 45 OBITUARIES Amos Oz Antony Polonsky January 4, 1939 – December 28, 2018

he death late last year local Tachkemoni religious of Amos Oz has robbed school, from where he went TIsrael and the Jewish world to the Rehavia gymnasium. of a leading literary figure, His life changed drastically and an outstanding moral in January 1952, when his authority—in the words of mother, a depressive, took her the New York Times, one of own life. He became a Labour “Israel’s most prolific writers Zionist and left home to join and respected intellectuals.” the radical Kibbutz Hulda, Born in Jerusalem, the only where he changed his name to son of Yehudia Arieh Klausner Oz (which means “courage” in and Fania Mussman, Amos Hebrew)—perhaps a reference Oz came from a family of to what he needed to come intellectuals. His great uncle to terms with his mother’s was Joseph Klausner, who Amos Oz in 2005. death, but also as a way of Photograph by Michael Hendryckx. held the chair of Hebrew Wikimedia Commons. cutting himself off from his literature at the Hebrew Klausner relations. As Oz University, and his father the daughter of an enlightened put it, he “decided to become had studied history and mill-owner from Równo (now everything his father was not.” literature at Vilna University. Rivne) in west Ukraine. She In his new life, in his own Frustrated in his desire to had been forced to abandon words, he was “a disaster as pursue an academic career, her studies of history and a labourer ... the joke of the he worked for most of his life philosophy at the Charles kibbutz,” but when he became as a librarian at the Jewish University in Prague when her a successful writer the kibbutz National and University father’s business collapsed. did agree to give him one Library. Many of the day a week off to practice his Neither of Oz’s parents had Klausners were politically on vocation. According to Oz, much interest in organized the right, and Joseph Klausner, when his novel My Michael religion. However, because of a revisionist Zionist, stood became a best-seller, “they their hostility to the Labour against Chaim Weizmann as still said I could have only Zionist character of the lay the group’s candidate for the three days a week to write. school system in mandate presidency of Israel. Oz’s It was only in the eighties that Palestine, they sent him to the mother, Fania Mussman, was I got four days for my writing,

46 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 two days for teaching, and Knight’s Cross of the Légion Palestinian conflict is not a Saturday turns as a waiter in D’Honneur. He was regularly war of religion or cultures the dining hall.” Oz, his wife, considered a possible or traditions, but rather a and three children continued recipient of the Nobel Prize “real estate dispute,” to be to live on the kibbutz until in Literature. solved in a painful territorial 1986, when they moved to compromise. Indeed, in a 2013 In an interview with Arad in the Negev because of interview with the New York Judy Bolton-Fasman he his son’s asthma. In 2014, the Times he observed: distinguished between his family moved to Tel Aviv, but fiction and his political The Israeli-Palestinian Oz was buried in Hulda. writing: conflict is a clash of right Oz was sent by the kibbutz and right. Tragedies are When I am full of rage and to the Hebrew University of resolved in one of two ways: anger, I write an essay. I write Jerusalem, where he studied The Shakespearean way or for rage and nothing else. In a philosophy and Hebrew the Anton Chekhov way. In a different mood I might write a literature and then taught in the tragedy by Shakespeare, the story. On my desk I have two kibbutz high school. He served stage at the end is littered with simple ballpoint pens. I have as a reservist in a tank unit that dead bodies. In a tragedy by them for symbolic reasons. fought in the Six Day War in Chekhov, everyone is unhappy, One is for stories and the Sinai and on the Golan Heights bitter, disillusioned and other is for telling government in 1973. From 1987, he was a melancholy, but they are alive. what to do or where to go. professor of Hebrew literature My colleagues in the peace at Ben Gurion University of He had a strong sense of movement and I are working the Negev. empathy and attempted to for a Chekhovian, not a reach out to Palestinian Shakespearean conclusion. n Oz was a prolific writer. figures—in March 2011 Among his published works he sent a copy of his are fourteen novels, five autobiographical A Tale of collections of stories and Love and Darkness to the novellas, two children’s imprisoned Palestinian leader books, and twelve books of Marwan Barghouti with a articles and essays. Among personal dedication: “This his many literary prizes were story is our story, I hope you the Israel Prize, the country’s read it and understand us as highest civilian award, the we understand you, hoping to Goethe Prize, the Brenner see you outside and in peace.” prize, the Franz Kafka prize, In his view the Israeli- the Primo Levi prize, and the

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 47 Simcha Rotem Antony Polonsky February 24, 1924 – December 22, 2018

imcha Rotem, one of the appearance—he was blond— last surviving fighters from and knowledge of Polish, he Sthe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, was able to obtain documents died in Jerusalem on December which made it possible for him 22, 2018. He famously led a to leave the ghetto. In 1942, group of fighters through the he spent several months with sewers to the “Aryan” side, relatives in Klwów, which had and in so doing, saved the an unwalled ghetto. According life of Marek Edelman. He to Rotem: subsequently fought in the [I]t was here that I saw for Israeli War of Independence. the first time a German killing Born Szymon Ratajzer in the a Jew and how his blood Warsaw suburb of Czerniakόw, flowed. He had been caught he was the eldest of four A still of Simcha Rotem from the outside of the ghetto and even documentary film Rotem by children. His mother came from Agnieszka Arnold. though there was no wall, a “Polonized” family and ran a it was prohibited to exit the soap factory. In the biographical was a chazan. Simcha grew ghetto limits. The head of the film Rotem (Warsaw, 2013) up speaking Polish among Judenrat arrived and begged made by Agnieszka Arnold, the mixed Polish and Jewish for the Jew’s life, but to no he observed, “My mother was populations of Czerniaków. avail. They shot and killed not a typical Jewish woman.” He was also active in the him, departing on their horses. He gave an account of his Zionist youth movements Simple. That was the first time life in Wspomnienia bojowca Akiba and HaNoar HaTzioni. I witnessed killing. ŻOB (Warsaw, 1993), which In September 1939, his He decided to return to the was translated into English as grandfather’s house where the Warsaw ghetto where he Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto family was living was hit by joined the Jewish Fighting Fighter: The Past within a bomb. His grandparents, his Organization (Żydowska Me (New Haven, 1994), as aunt and uncle, and his brother Organizacja Bojowa—ŻOB) portrayed in the TV mini-series were killed and he and his and took the pseudonym Uprising (New York, 2001). mother were seriously wounded. Kazik. In his memoirs, he has His father, who came from In 1940 the family moved to the described the outbreak of the a traditional Hasidic family, ghetto. Because of his “good”

48 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 uprising in the ghetto on April outside help to continue the (Nakam), who attempted, for 19, 1943: revolt. When the uprising was the most part unsuccessfully, coming to its end, he organized, to take action against those At dawn, about 4:00 am we saw with the help of sympathetic they held responsible for the German tanks advancing from Poles, the escape of thirty ŻOB Jewish fate. In autumn 1946 Nalewki. Tanks, armoured cars, fighters (some sources give he moved to Israel, taking the cannons and columns of SS higher figures) through the name Rotem (Broom Tree), the men on motorcycles. “It looks sewers. In 2010, a monument tree under which the prophet like they are going to war,” was erected over the manhole Elijah sat in the desert. He was observed a girl standing next at 51 Prosta Street from where interned by the British as an to me. I realized how weak we the group emerged. Waiting for illegal immigrant in the Atlit were, how limited our strength. them was a lorry acquired by Detention Camp. Subsequently We had only revolvers and some members of the Polish he joined the Haganah, and, grenades. But the desire to fight Workers’ Party. According to after fighting in the war of didn’t leave me. We would have Rotem: independence, served as a to deal with them. manager in a supermarket [I]n all the confusion a Polish He felt his fellow fighters had chain until retiring in 1986. On police officer passed by and no choice but “to choose the the seventieth anniversary of started walking in the direction kind of death” they wanted, but, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of the Germans. I went over in his words, “to this very day I in 2013, he was awarded the to him and told him that this keep thinking whether we had Grand Cross of the Order of was an operation by the Polish the right to make the decision Reborn Poland. He remained underground and I asked him to to start the uprising and by the active until the end of his life. go back to where he had come same token to shorten the lives He was a public speaker and from … In retrospect this was of many people by a week, a member of the Yad Vashem foolish, because he could have day or two.” He fought with committee responsible for reached the Germans from a the group of Henoch Gutman adjudicating the award of the different direction. But I wasn’t in the brush makers’ workshop decoration “Righteous Among thinking … I was thinking only on Świętojerska Street and the Nations.” of preventing him. then in the center of the ghetto. He is survived by his two On April 29, on the orders of After this lucky escape the children and five grandchildren. the ŻOB, he left the ghetto whole group, including We owe it to him that the through a tunnel under the Edelman, was transported to difficult task of investigating wall. He became the principal shelter in Łomianki, a town these complex and painful liaison between the fighters and outside Warsaw. In 1944, matters is carried out with the “Aryan” side and he was Rotem took part in the Warsaw honesty and empathy so that we instructed to to link up with Uprising in an Armia Ludowa can seek to establish a view of Antek Zuckerman, the deputy formation. After the war he the past acceptable to all those of ŻOB leader Mordechai belonged to a secret Jewish of good will. n Anieliewicz, in order to get organization, “The Revengers”

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 49 Leopold Kozl/owski Antony Polonsky November 26, 1918 – March 12, 2019

eopold Kozłowski, often described as the “last Lklezmer,” died on March 12, having reached the venerable age of one hundred. Born in Przemyślany near Lviv (now Peremyshlany in western Ukraine) into a musical family, his original name was Kleinman. His maternal grandfather Pesach Brandwein was a famous klezmer violinist, and his father Zvi Leopold Kozłowski in 2007. Wikimedia Commons. (Herman) and Zvi’s eleven brothers were also musicians. Przemyślany, a town of 7,000 from their hiding places in the According to Kozłowski, people, half of them Jews, town and surrounding forests. “They even appeared before was annexed after the Polish Kozłowski, along with Kaiser Franz Joseph.” Another defeat in 1939 by the Soviets. his father and his brother, of Pesach Brandwein’s Its population nearly doubled initially fled eastward with the sons, Naftule, a clarinetist, as Jews fled there to escape retreating Red Army soldiers; emigrated to the United Nazi rule. It was occupied by his mother stayed behind States in 1908, where he had the Nazis after the invasion of believing that the Germans a successful career. Leon’s the Soviet Union in 1941, and would not harm women. They brother, Yitzhak-Dulko, was a a ghetto was established from got as far as the outskirts of gifted violinist, the winner of a which many Jews were sent Kiev, where they hid in a pre-war music competition in to nearby labor camps and to cemetery “right among the which Kozłowski won second the death camp at Bełżec. The graves.” Subsequently they place. After graduating from final destruction of the ghetto returned to Przemyślany, where gymnasium, he studied piano took place in May 1943, and in November 1941 the Gestapo at the Lviv Conservatory. the town was then declared ordered all the Jewish adults to Judenrein. When it was Leopold and his family assemble in the town square. liberated in July 1944, only a suffered greatly during the war. According to Kozłowski, “My few dozen survivors returned

50 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 father went, together with 360 conductor and musical director which needed to be preserved other Jews … They brought of a military orchestra. and to retain its links with them to the forest and shot He subsequently became the past. He was conscious them all.” His mother was musical director of the Jewish of the difficulty of achieving murdered soon after when her Theatre in Warsaw and of a this, in spite of the revival of hiding place in a barn was Roma musical ensemble. He interest in klezmer. “I’m the discovered. Kozłowski spent composed music for films and last klezmer who stayed real several months in the labor the theatre, and even acted in and with a Jewish soul. The camp at Kurowice. He recounts Schindler’s List, also serving others are new, with chords that he taught a Nazi officer as an advisor on the music of and a different harmony, the accordion in exchange the ghetto. He produced six musicians who profess to be for food, and that, on another versions of Fiddler on the klezmorim, but play modern occasion, the Nazis forced him Roof. Music was central to music. Genuine Jewish music to compose a “death tango” him. “Music saved my life. I isn’t a melody—it’s a story, and play while other Jews were was in a concentration camp, the story of what is in the led to their deaths. He and his in a ghetto and in the forest. heart.” He instructed the brother escaped and joined Music gave me strength. young musicians in Kraków to the Partisans in the summer Hitler destroyed Judaism, but keep sheet music at a distance of 1943, but his brother was not its music. It lives forever.” and to improvise. “In Jewish stabbed to death by Ukrainian music the notes are in the He performed widely in collaborators. heart, the heart will tell you Poland, Europe, the United how to play.” He survived and resettled in States, and Israel and Kraków, where he studied continued to play until the end Asked why he remained in conducting at the Higher State of his life, appearing annually Poland, he responded, “My Music School. He recalls that at the Kraków Jewish Culture father, my brother, my whole he came there for the first Festival. He was the subject family lie in this soil, I cannot time as a soldier after the war of a 1994 documentary film, leave them … Music is my ended in the spring of 1945. “I The Last Klezmer: Leopold revenge, my life, I intend knew nothing about this city, Kozłowski, His Life and to keep playing to the last even less about Kazimierz. I Music, made by Yale Strom, moment.” To hear him was went there, I saw around me which documented his first a great privilege, a link with the landscape of death: houses trip back to Przemyślany since an almost vanished world. without people, mutilated 1945, and also of a biography He has now gone from us, blinds, silent stones and I felt by Jacek Cygan, Klezmer. but fortunately, through that these stones need music, Opowieść o życiu Leopolda recordings we can still savor my klezmer music, which was Kozłowskiego-Kleinmana his artistry, though they cannot so brutally taken from them.” (Kraków, 2009). He saw replace the vivacity and joy himself as the guardian of a his life brought to us. He will For twenty-three years tradition of music-making be sorely missed. n Leopold Kozłowski was the

GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 51 Roman Vishniac (1897–1990), [Woman walking on crutches through ruins], [Berlin (Germany)], 1947. Black-and-white inkjet print (from original negative). The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.15.

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