Polish Site of Jewish Renaissance, Linked with Poland’S Democratic Renaissance, Is a Unique Opportunity for Jews

“While there are many sites of Jewish cultural renaissance in the world, a Polish site of Jewish renaissance, linked with Poland’s democratic renaissance, is a unique opportunity for Jews. It’s a good thing for Poland, it’s a very good thing for the Jewish people and for Judaism as well.” — D r . Arnold Eisen, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary

“Now, after twenty-ﬁve years, the legacy of Eastern European Jewry can be explored in the very place where it happened.” — P r o f e s s o r Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Director of the Core Exhibition Team, Museum of the History of Polish Jews

“In a country that was once the greatest Jewish community in the world, we are helping Polish Jews regain some of that greatness, and at the same time link Jews worldwide to their Eastern European heritage.” — T a d Taube, Chairman, Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture; President, Koret Foundation; Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in the San Francisco Bay Area Deep Roots, New Branches Personal Essays on the Rebirth of Jewish Life in Poland Since 1989

published by

in cooperation with the honorary consulate for the republic of poland in the san francisco bay area and the taube center for the renewal of jewish life in poland foundation Editor in Chief Shana Penn Managing Editor Alice Z. Lawrence Assistant Editors Vera Hannush Aleksandra Makuch Dorrie Slutsker

Translators Soren Gauger Konstanty Gebert Malgosia Grudzien-Bogley Iwona Reichardt

Design & Layout LaserCom Design

Front Cover Photos Top left: Edward Serotta, Centropa; top right: courtesy Galicia Jewish Museum; bottom left: Agnieska Szling/ Museum of the History of Polish Jews; bottom right: Getty Images.

Back Cover Photo Wojciech Kryn´ s ki/Museum of the History of Polish Jews Special Thanks Konstanty Gebert Anna Goldstein

ISBN 978-83-62887-01-9

PRINTED IN POLAND

Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland 1050 Ralston Avenue The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute Belmont, CA 94002 \S;éVTHJRPL [email protected] 00-090 Warsaw, Poland www.taubephilanthropies.org [email protected] www.centrumtaubego.org.pl Ten Years Strong The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP)

The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP), founded in 2004 by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, has three primary goals: • Strengthen the institutional life of Polish Jews; • Further awareness and appreciation of Jewish heritage and contemporary Jewish life among Jews and others; and • Foster positive interest in Poland among American Jews, 85 percent of whom have Polish roots. The JHIP aims to accomplish these goals by supporting the institutional infrastructure of Jewish educational, communal, religious and cultural programs in Poland. The JHIP also links Poland to Jewish communities in North and South America, Europe, Israel, Australia and the former Soviet Union. The JHIP further emphasizes the importance of understanding and integrating Poland’s Jewish history and heritage into a successful civil society; of addressing historical and contemporary anti-Semitism; and of strengthening the democratic values of a multiethnic Polish society. To strengthen the JHIP’s effectiveness, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture has enlisted philanthropic partners to help co-sponsor JHIP programs over multiple years, with the aim of providing material and intellectual endorsement for a revitalized Jewish culture in the New Poland. Since 2004, the JHIP has disbursed over 300 grants totaling nearly $26 million to more than 100 cultural and communal programs and organizations, including the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the Galicia Jewish Museum, Jewish Community Centers in Kraków and Warsaw, the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, the Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center and WKH2IÀFHRIWKH&KLHI5DEELRI3RODQG,WSURYLGHVFRUHVXSSRUWWRNH\LQVWLWXWLRQV and funds programs in Jewish studies scholarship, museum exhibitions, archival preservation, genealogy, community and capacity building, and heritage study WRXUVIRU\RXWKDQGDGXOWV,WVXSSRUWVWKHDUWVDQGPHGLDWKURXJKJUDQWVIRUVSHFLÀF artistic creations and through ongoing funding to selected organizations.

Ten Years Strong

Ten Years Strong: The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland 3 contents

Foreword: A Transformative Journey: Rebuilding Democracy and Jewish Life in the New Poland ...... 6 Tad Taube

Introduction: The Roots That Survive Through Us ...... 10 Shana Penn

Timeline: Polish Jewry After Communism in the New Poland ...... 16 Fighters: Survivors who stayed in Poland or returned after the fall of the Soviet Bloc

Twenty-Five Years On ...... 21 Marian Turski

A Historical Miracle: Jewish Life in Poland After Communism ...... 25 Feliks Tych

Returning Home to Raise the Phoenix from the Ashes ...... 30 Sigmund Rolat

Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014 ...... 34 Dreamers: Activists who dared to face down authoritarianism and reclaim their Jewish birthright

My Grandfather Would Be Proud ...... 36 Piotr Wiślicki

Poland, Like America ...... 41 Stanisław Krajewski

How to Live When You’re Not the Last ...... 46 Konstanty Gebert

A Festival of Jewish Culture ...... 50 Janusz Makuch

Mosaic ...... 55 Eleonora Bergman

4 Deep Roots, New Branches Expats: Foreigners who came, stayed, and made Poland their home

An American in Poland: Helping to Build a Modern Jewish Identity Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich ...... 60

Finding the Pintele Yid ...... 66 Helise Lieberman

The Third Generation: Those raised in the shadow of the Iron Curtain as Communism fell

The Polish Phenomenon ...... 72 Magdalena Matuszewska

From Stalin and Hitler to the Remuh ...... 77 Daniela Malec

Genuine Czulent ...... 82 Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz

Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014 ...... 88 The Millennials: Young people e!ecting change in today’s free and democratic Poland

I Don’t Remember Communism ...... 90 Jan Śpiewak

My Mother, My Art, My Jewish Life ...... 95 Helena Czernek

Not My Grandfather’s Poland Anymore ...... 99 Magda Dorosz

Generation Unexpected ...... 103 Maciej Kirschenbaum

Global Education Outreach Program: Extending the Resources and Impact of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute ...... 108

Contributors ...... 110

The Rebirth of Jewish Life in Poland Since 1989 5 FOREWORD A Transformative Journey: Rebuilding Democracy and Jewish Life in the New Poland by Tad Taube

ZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVDJR,ZDWFKHGLQDPD]H- We recognized that the rebirth ment as the people of Poland discarded of democracy had created the Tthe Communist regime that had misruled potential for a rebirth of Jewish them for half a century and embarked on a quest life and culture, and that strategic to create a modern democratic nation. Ten years philanthropy could have an un- ago I had the pleasure of establishing Taube precedented impact. Philanthropies’ Jewish Heritage Initiative in We then set ambitious goals Poland (JHIP), a bold investment that is produc- —to increase awareness of the ing incalculable dividends for Jews in and outside centrality of the Jewish experi- of Poland. As someone who was born in Poland, ence in Poland to contemporary Jewish life world- just before the German invasion in 1939, and wide and to recognize the millennium of Polish whose heritage includes both Polish and Jewish Jewish civilization as a foundational element of culture, I can savor the success both of Poland’s Western culture. Over the past decade, our versa- new democracy and of the renewal and growth of tile philanthropic strategy has produced remark- Poland’s Jewish community. able and tangible results. Today, JHIP supports

These essays offer a basis for better understanding both mainstream Polish society and the astonishingly vigorous Jewish community that has emerged from the shadows.

These two remarkable anniversaries are in- PRUHWKDQSURJUDPVDQGÀYHHGXFDWLRQDOLQL- timately related to each other. Overthrow of the tiatives in the arenas of scholarship, archives and Communist regime gave Poles the possibility of genealogy, publishing, community building, the reimagining themselves as an independent nation, arts, educational tourism and heritage restoration. and of frankly discussing their own history and Key components include: values, including the place of Polish Jewish culture. They have gained the freedom to acknowl- Strengthening Jewish Institutions. We pri- edge the enormous contribution of Jews to Polish oritized funding Jewish organizations in Poland KLVWRU\DQGOLIHDVZHOODVWRUHÁHFWRQWKHUROHRI that had the potential to become sustainable and Jews in Poland’s post-Communist future. were essential elements of the Jewish communal infrastructure. Among these were the Emanuel For Jews in Poland, as well as those like me Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the Jewish who may live elsewhere but trace their roots Community Centers in Kraków and Warsaw, to Poland, the overthrow of the authoritarian the Galicia Jewish Museum, and the Jewish Communist regime made it possible to re-imagine Genealogy & Family Heritage Center. Poland as a place where Jews are able not only to live in freedom and security, but to recapture Establishing a Presence in Poland. We opened the vibrancy that once made Poland the center of DQ RIÀFH LQ :DUVDZ LQ HVWDEOLVKLQJ WKH world Judaism. That is what motivated us to create Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland in 2004. Poland Foundation, making our San Francisco

6 Deep Roots, New Branches Bay Area-based philanthropy the only American also invested in programs that encourage Jewish Jewish foundation with an on-the-ground pres- youth from the United States and Israel to visit ence in Poland. In addition to providing technical Poland to shift their perceptions of Poland from DVVLVWDQFHWRRXUJUDQWHHVWKH:DUVDZRIÀFHRI- that of Holocaust site to that of personal heritage fers innovative educational programs and exten- connections and vibrant Jewish life. To make this sive resources for international visitors. opportunity widely available to other groups and individuals, we created the Taube Jewish Heritage Impacting Jewish Life and Polish Civic Life. Tour Program. By supporting Jewish cultural initiatives that attract both Jews and non-Jews, we have increased Changing the Narrative. When the new Museum recognition and appreciation for Polish Jewish of the History of Polish Jews previewed on the arts, music, literature and cultural heritage. The 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising annual Kraków Jewish Culture Festival, which in April 2013, it was the culmination of a 10-year began in 1988, has grown to be the world’s larg- journey by an unprecedented public-private part- est, with more than 25,000 participants annually, nership. The Museum is Taube Philanthropies’ the majority of whom are not Jewish. largest investment in Poland, and together with our partners at the Koret Foundation, we have Creating Firsthand Encounters. Although ac- been responsible for securing fully half the funds cording to YIVO 85 percent of American Jews donated from the U.S. to support development of trace their roots to Poland, most know little about its state-of-the-art core exhibition and education their own heritage prior to the Holocaust. In 2005 center. The estimated one million visitors an- we began bringing American Jewish leadership nually who will visit the Museum following its JURXSVWR3RODQGUHJXODUO\IRUÀUVWKDQGHQFRXQ- highly anticipated Grand Opening on October ters that challenged preconceptions and opened 28, 2014 will link themselves with a past they their eyes to the reality of the New Poland. We may previously have not even realized they have.

2007: Tad Taube in a crowd of thousands at the closing night concert of the annual Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków. 7OV[VI`>VQ[LR9HK^HǉZRP

A Transformative Journey: Rebuilding Democracy and Jewish Life in the New Poland 7 As a beacon of Jewish awakening in the new Poland, the Museum is the only major institution to present the millennium of Jewish life and culture that existed in Poland prior to the Holocaust. That millennium comprised the most important center of the Diaspora after the end of the Golden Age in Spain, producing formative religious, intellectual and political currents from Hasidism to Zionism, from Yiddishism to Jewish Socialism, IURPWKHELUWKRIWKH-HZLVKWKHDWHUWRWKHÁRXU- ishing of the Jewish press. Tragically, Poland later experienced mount- ing anti-Semitism under the growing shadow of two totalitarian neighbors — Nazi Germany and 6WDOLQLVW5XVVLD'XULQJ:RUOG:DU,,LWORVWÀYH 2013: Tad Taube, right, in the Museum of the History of Pol- million of its 38 million citizens, half of them ish Jews with Shana Penn, Executive Director of the Taube Jewish. The Nazis put their camps in Poland as Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, and Jeffrey Farber, *OPLM,_LJ\[P]L6MÄJLYVM[OL2VYL[-V\UKH[PVU a matter of expedience — that was where the Jews were — not because they expected whole- million were deported to slave labor camps. As sale support from the Polish population. Hitler’s a result of relocation, border changes, or death, plan for the Slavic Poles was to decimate them, the country’s other ethnic groups were also gone and then turn the remainder into slaves. The dev- by 1945: the Germans were expelled, and the astating experience of Poles in World War II is Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Byelorussians were forced into the Soviet orb. Instead of providing lebensraum1, Poland survived Nazism as a barely livable space. When we think “post-1939 Poland” today, we not only think of Nazi sympathizers who helped the German occupiers, but also of brave partisans like Irena Sendler, who rescued children from the Warsaw Ghetto, and of the Polish underground’s Council to Help the Jews (Ŧegota), the only body of that kind to emerge in occupied Europe. But most of all, we think of Jewish suffering and resistance: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Doctor Janusz Korczak and the orphans he did not aban- GRQRQWKHLUÀQDOULGHWR7UHEOLQNDWKHJKHWWRV 2009: Tad Taube, left, with Christopher Kerosky, his co- Honorary Consul in the San Francisco Bay Area, signing DQGÀQDOO\WKHGHDWKFDPSV documents establishing a sister cities partnership between When the war ended, an estimated 280,000 Kraków and San Francisco. Jewish survivors emerged from hiding or only beginning to be understood. Sixty percent returned from the Soviet Union to try to rebuild a of Poland’s industrial base was demolished, as communal life in a shattered Polish nation under was every major city, save beautiful medieval Soviet occupation. As the Communist govern- Kraków. About 12 percent of the country’s Polish ment lurched from crisis to crisis, Jews were population — approximately three million of them Jews — had died or been killed. Much of the 1 In German, literally “living space,” a term used by the Nazis surviving population had been dislocated. Two to indicate a vast territory necessary for the expansion of the Nazi empire and economic independence.

8 Deep Roots, New Branches made the scapegoats. Massive Jewish emigration due to Communist expulsion left only an estimated 30,000 Jews in Poland by 1970. Given the grim picture at the end of the 1960s, it seems virtually impossible that any kind of Jewish life could blossom only a couple of decades later. As described in several of the essays collected here, the 1968 anti-Semitic campaign accusing Jews of trying to subvert Communism was so shocking to educated Poles that it actually sparked an awakening of memory and conscience among both Jews and Christians, especially among the postwar generations. Jewish Poles realized that there was no escaping their 2007: Tad Taube, right, accepts his appointment Jewishness, and Christian Poles realized that as Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in the anti-Semitism could not be blamed solely on the San Francisco Bay Area from the Honorable Janusz Reiter, Soviets or Nazis but also existed internally within Ambassador for the Republic of Poland in Washington DC. Poland itself. And so, ironically, the Communist Jews could be eliminated entirely from the regime’s anti-Semitism served to de-legitimize makeup of a country to which the Jewish people Jew-hatred in the eyes of a large part of the so- had contributed so much. In the 1970s, many of ciety, and this intolerance of anti-Semitism was WKHVHDXWKRUVJRWLQYROYHGLQWKHÁHGJOLQJGHP- gradually incorporated into pro-democracy, anti- ocratic opposition, envisioning a new Poland in Communist activism. the making, one in which everybody — includ- Opposition activism culminated in the Soli- ing the Jews — could be free. They believed darity movement of the 1980s, but experienced WKHQDQGFRQWLQXHWRDIÀUPWKDWWKHSDVWVKRXOG commentators did not give it a glimmer of a never be repeated. chance against the Soviet regime. And, many of This publication is part of our effort to link the commentators asked, even if the democratic our living heritage to the Polish past. In this opposition were to succeed, would a free Poland WZHQW\ÀIWK DQQLYHUVDU\ \HDU RI 6ROLGDULW\·V respect the political and religious freedoms of victory over Communism and the anniversary its Jewish citizens? The prophets of doom began RI WKH ÀUVW GHPRFUDWLF HOHFWLRQ LQ 3RODQG ZH to be proven wrong when Solidarity unseated are proud to reissue this expanded collection of the Communist Party in 1989. HVVD\V ÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQ ZLWKVHYHUDOQHZ The original essays collected here pro- contributors. The essays offer a basis for better vide us with invaluable insights into the lives understanding both the mainstream society and and hopes, the successes and disappointments the astonishingly vigorous Jewish community that of Polish Jews who have borne witness from has emerged from the shadows. Free, democratic World War II until today. Highly divergent in Poland is today a member of NATO and a rising their personal and generational experiences and leader in the European Union since its entry a in their assessments of the present and expecta- decade ago; Poland is an ally of the United States tions of the future, they are nevertheless united and Israel, and protective of its ethnic minorities. in a commitment to the welfare of the Jewish There is no denying that the hopes of Polish Jews people in Poland. Persevering against unimagi- for genuine equality and tolerance, appreciation nable odds, the authors refused to believe that DQGUHVSHFWKDYHWKLVWLPHEHHQIXOÀOOHG. Q

A Transformative Journey: Rebuilding Democracy and Jewish Life in the New Poland 9 The Roots That INTRODUCTION Survive Through Us by Shana Penn

“ The Old World hasn’t died. Not all of it. I can ﬁnd it. The tragedy is that it mainly exists in people, not in and of itself. But at least it still exists. I had thought the Old World was dead, that that bloody Communism had destroyed everything.”

– Anka Grupin´ska, Holocaust researcher, 1989 Photo of Shana Penn I`7H\S4PSUL

KHQ,ÀUVWLQWHUYLHZHG$QND*UXSLĸVND personal ambivalence. For while each generation just after the fall of Poland’s Commu- had and continues to have reason to think of itself Wnist regime, the Old World of Polish as representing Poland’s “last Jews,” each was, Jewry persevered only within individual memory. and remains, committed in its own way to nurtur- But because Anka and others like her learned ing those deep Jewish roots whose gravitational that with persistence they could connect to Jew- pull toward connection and continuity they could ish history and bring its cultural riches forward, neither resist nor neglect. today there is a vibrant and growing Jewish heri- ,ÀUVWZHQWWR3RODQGLQWRLQYHVWLJDWH tage revival in Poland. The revival’s evolution is by conducting oral histories, why Holocaust intertwined with that of the country’s democratic survivors returned and/or remained after the opposition movement, for it was democratic as- war, rather than emigrate from Poland as had pirations that made the reclamation of Jewish life most survivors; what kinds of lives Jews had possible, although it would be wrong to imply that created behind the Iron Curtain; and what the it had but a single origin. Rather, it is the most FRQQHFWLRQVZHUHEHWZHHQGLVVLGHQWV·LGHQWLÀ- recent of many shoots that have sprung – despite cation with Jewishness/Judaism and their po- overwhelming odds – from Jewish roots that are litical resistance to Communist rule. sunk almost a thousand years deep into Polish soil. It was a time when a closed society was When the Allies defeated Nazi Germany, Pol- just opening, long-sealed geopolitical borders ish Jews emerged from hiding or returned from were breaking open, and people had dizzying Hitler’s camps, leaving genocide behind only ambitions for their future in a democracy. It to face Soviet domination. In the 1960s, Jews seemed that Poland was just waking up from helped to spearhead the democratic opposition World War II — as if Communism had been a that fought to regain Poland — although most did welcome anesthetic after the annihilation of the so as oppositionists, not self-consciously as Jews. country’s Jewish population and culture in the In 1989, when the revolution they helped foster Holocaust. This historic moment was marked ÀQDOO\ERUHIUXLWWKHVHVDPH-HZVIRXQGWKDWWKH\ by an awakening of individuals, which made had the freedom and the space to turn their ener- it an opportune and necessary time for taking gies to the rebuilding of Jewish life and culture. oral histories. After decades of censorship and Each of these generations has persisted, valiantly, cultural isolation, paper trails were neither ex- in the face of potentially debilitating cultural and tensive nor easily accessed, and so oral histo-

10 Deep Roots, New Branches 2012: Tad Taube and Shana Penn examine blueprints inside the Museum of the History of Polish Jews during its construction.

Each generation is committed to nurturing those deep Jewish roots, whose gravitational pull toward connection and continuity they could neither resist nor neglect. ries offered a distinct kind of primary source its democratic opposition, beginning with her material. There were then no formalized Jew- generation’s search for the truth of what had re- ish studies and only scant public discourse on ally happened to Poland in World War II. She “things Jewish.” There was hardly any visible taught me the Polish catchphrase ELDãHSODP\ Jewish presence in public life — indeed, there WKHEODQNVSRWVZKLFKVLJQLÀHVWKH&RPPXQLVW was hardly any public life to speak of, given Party’s pervasive silencing, distortions and lies the prohibitions of one-party rule and martial about that period’s tragic history. law. A few Jewish libraries and archives existed In reconstructing the taboo subject of World at the time but were in dire states of neglect, War II history, Anka not only discovered the disrepair and disuse. And yet, when I arrived suffering of Polish Jewry in the Holocaust but in Warsaw that summer as the Cold War was also learned that she was not alone in her reac- melting away, the cracks I saw in that iceberg tion to new knowledge about the recent past — revealed…Jews! Poland’s wartime and postwar generations both 2QHRIP\ÀUVWLQWHUYLHZVZDVZLWK$QND bore a tremendous burden of repressed trauma. *UXSLĸVND WKHQ D \HDUROG +RORFDXVW UH- Anka and her contemporaries risked imprison- searcher whose collection of interviews with ment in order to reclaim history by uncovering 0DUHN (GHOPDQ DQG RWKHU VXUYLYLQJ ÀJKWHUV historical and political knowledge the regime of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was just be- had brutally suppressed, but in the process they ing published, and who was organizing an began to discover their own identities. Intellec- international conference on anti-Semitism WXDOO\GHÀDQWPHQDQGZRPHQEHFDPHKXPDQ during Communism. She succinctly laid out ULJKWVDFWLYLVWVZKRZRXOGÀJKWIRUGHPRFUDF\ for me all the phenomena characterizing the and for the reinstatement of Jewish experience dynamics that link Poland’s Jewish revival to into Polish history. In the course of their strug-

The Roots That Survive Through Us 11 gle and after their victory, several thousands of Poles also discovered what many had already intuited — namely, that they themselves were, in fact, Jewish. Only 280,000 of Poland’s 3.5 million Jews survived the Holocaust and returned at the end of World War II. Why did they return? The Nazi occupation of Poland, from 1939-45, had bequeathed a legacy of tyranny and terror that was reinforced by the Communist Party, which took power in Poland by the end of the war. Postwar violence and persecution against Jews 2005: Book party for Shana Penn during the 25th was institutionalized by the Communist Party, Anniversary Celebration of the Solidarity Movement at the US Ambassador’s residence in Warsaw. Left to right: which destroyed most Jewish institutions and Shana Penn, US Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe, encouraged postwar pogroms. This reign of ter- US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Undersecretary URUVSXUUHG-HZVWRÁHHWKHFRXQWU\E\ of State Barbara Labuda, President’s Chancellery. the end of the 1940s. because they considered themselves part of Why did the 80,000 who stayed do so? the country and wanted not only to continue Among them were the historians Feliks Tych OLYLQJWKHUHEXWDOVRWRÀJKWWRPDNHLWGHPR- and Marian Turski, whose essays help us under- cratic. Others stayed with the express purpose stand this and other complex questions. Those of preserving Jewish memory and the remnants who stayed faced two more waves of persecu- of an age-old Jewish past — from crumbling tion and emigration by the end of the 1960s: gravestones to empty, burned-out cheders and in 1956–57 the government promoted Jewish synagogues. emigration from Poland to Israel by distributing In the 1970s, after their traumatic defeat, exit visas; then, in 1968 Poland’s registered Jew- students gathered to rethink their opposition ish population was further reduced by a state- activism. Meeting in secret they established a sponsored witch hunt that began with brutal nationwide, underground, pro-democracy press police repression of nationwide campus protests to be read by intellectuals and workers alike. for free speech and turned into a vicious anti- In 1976, when most Poles still knew nothing Semitic campaign. After the protesting students about the Warsaw Ghetto or its 1943 uprising ZHUH DFFXVHG RI EHLQJ =LRQLVW VSLHV ÀUVW WKH against the Nazis, the underground published government and subsequently all professions a book-length interview with Marek Edelman, were purged of their Jewish employees, whether a surgeon and the only surviving commander RUQRWWKH\NQHZWKH\ZHUH-HZLVKRULGHQWLÀHG RIWKDWXSULVLQJ'U(GHOPDQ·VÀUVWHYHUEORZ as Jews. Thousands were arrested, interrogated, by-blow account of those events broke the 33- ostracized, expelled from university or lost their year silence, and the ELDãHSODP\EHJDQWRÀOO jobs. Much of the nation was traumatized. An in. Forty thousand copies sold out with remark- estimated 20,000 Jews emigrated. Poland under able speed, and Edelman became Poland’s only Communism became a country of anti-Semites famous living Jew, the “last Jew in Poland.” without Jews, I was often told. Yet weren’t those “Marek awakened my generation,” Anka Jewish names among the Solidarity leadership *UXSLĸVNDWROGPH7KHSRZHURIWUXWKWHOOLQJ that engineered the overthrow of Communism and of personal narrative to raise political ²$GDP0LFKQLN+HOHQDâXF]\ZR%URQLVãDZ awareness and mobilize people en masse con- Geremek, to name a few? tinued to gain momentum in Poland and would Why did the 20,000 to 30,000 Jews who re- soon distinguish its history from that of all mained in Poland after 1968 stay? Some stayed other Soviet Bloc countries.

12 Deep Roots, New Branches In 1980, Solidarity came into being, the and assumed that after them there would be ÀUVWDQGRQO\JUDVVURRWVSURGHPRFUDF\PRYH- no Jewish life in Poland. “I believe we are the ment in the Soviet Bloc. Soon ten million ODVWRQHV'HÀQLWHO\µDV.RQVWDQW\*HEHUWWROG strong, Solidarity’s vision of an independent the press. trade union movement was in part fueled by the Their understandable ambivalence notwith- power of information-sharing, oral history and standing, through the study groups, the pub- truth-telling to cut through the lies, distortions lishing of Jewish topics in the underground and omissions peddled by Communist propa- press, Holocaust commemorations and religious ganda. Solidarity was a “talking revolution” obser vances, the reclamation of “things Jew- within a trade union movement. ish” became a meaningful expression of anti- “Voice was being regained in those years,” Communist resistance. Come 1989, “flying writes Maria Janion, a revered octogenarian, university” participants, Jews and Christians public intellectual and a Gentile critic of alike, came out of hiding to form the nucleus of anti-Semitism. “Story-telling exploded on an the Jewish communities and cultural programs

Intellectually deﬁant men and women became human rights activists who would ﬁght for democracy and for the reinstatement of Jewish experience into Polish history. unheard-of scale, and the missing parts of the LQ:DUVDZ âyGť:URFãDZ DQG .UDNyZ7KH\ puzzle could be completed. Soon enough… were assisted by American Jews who relocated to martial law came in December 1981 – a new Poland, such as Rabbi Michael Schudrich, now trauma. Nonetheless, the once-told history was the country’s chief rabbi, and Helise Lieberman, already inside us.” founding principal of the Lauder Morasha Day Thus, the origins of the Jewish cultural re- School; both are contributors to this volume. vival and the renewed interest in religion and Some of Poland’s non-Jewish educators and heritage can be traced back to the late 1960s custodians also helped birth the new Jewish cul- and early ’70s and can be understood to have as ture; people who, like Janusz Makuch, director much to do with the history of Communism as of the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival, self- with the Holocaust. In the late 1970s–80s, the describe as 6KDEEHVJR\LP. Acting on a healthy postwar generation, to which four contributors to impulse far stronger than fashion or whim, they WKLVFROOHFWLRQ³3LRWU:LŋOLFNL(OHRQRUD%HUJ- have had the determination and dedication to get PDQ.RQVWDQW\*HEHUWDQG6WDQLVãDZ.UDMHZVNL degrees in Hebrew Studies, restore monuments — belong, began learning about Judaism. That and cemeteries, conserve archives and estab- was the decade when, together with Gentiles lish Holocaust educational curricula and whole interested in Jewish heritage (including Janusz academic departments. To me, they carry on the Makuch, another of this book’s contributors), World War II legacy of Righteous Gentiles who Jewish activists organized secret underground rescued Jews, though in this case, they are rescu- JURXSVNQRZQDV´Á\LQJXQLYHUVLWLHVµ6HHNLQJ ing Jewish heritage and memory. to supplant the negative stigma around Jewish- ness with positive meaning, they had books For several thousands of Poles, a distinctive sent over from the United States from which feature of the post-Communist Jewish revival to study Jewish history, religion and culture. was the revelation of their own Jewish iden- Given their admirable determination to gain tity — what Rabbi Schudrich refers to as the Jewish knowledge and dissimilate, members Madeleine Albright Syndrome. For example, in of the postwar generation remained ambivalent 1989 I assumed Anka was Jewish. Imagine my about their future as Jews under Communism surprise when she blurted out:

The Roots That Survive Through Us 13 “I have to tell you right away — I cannot in Kraków and Warsaw, museums and archives, promise you that I am Jewish. I am a per- a genealogy center, and the world’s largest Jew- son without a background. It’s not uncom- ish culture festival, the community is alive and mon in Poland… Most of us grew up with well because the country was finally freed, be- no one in our families talking about either cause government and world Jewish organiza- their prewar or wartime experiences. I have tions provide significant support, and because reason to believe that my mother’s family growing numbers of people are embracing Jew- was Jewish, though my mother has always ishness, even if some think of themselves as the denied it.” last ones, as Konstanty Gebert mused. In 2004, Anka learned from her stepmother Since the early 1990s the number of Poles that her father had been a hidden child in the to acknowledge or discover their Jewish roots Holocaust. Her father, not her mother, was Jew- has been increasing. As people who had passed ish. But Anka’s scholarship and her long-held as Gentiles start to age or decline into ill-health, belief in her Jewish roots had already created a they often decide to reveal the truth of their Jewish world in which a 6KDEEHVJR\ like her- Jewish roots to their children and grandchil- self belonged. She didn’t need her stepmother’s dren. This phenomenon is sometimes referred overdue admission. Marek Edelman had already to as the “deathbed confession.” In response to embraced her. She had forged her own authentic this unexpected though now common occur- ties to the heritage.

For the youngest generations of Jews, who have no memory of Communism, the biggest challenge is not fascism or creating democracy but demographics and tradition.

Their very lack of tethers to a background, rence, several psychologists and Jewish com- I came to understand, is what led Anka and oth- PXQLW\RUJDQL]HUVLQFOXGLQJHVVD\LVW6WDQLVãDZ ers of her generation to overstep and resist the Krajewski, organized a weekly Identity Crisis state censorship that their families had internal- telephone hot line in the 1990s to take calls from ized. They did this, in part, by creating their people wanting to know their options as they own personal narrative and shaping meaning explored their newly discovered identities. This from the unvoiced losses that their families had is but one example of the Jewish community’s suffered in World War II; losses their genera- sensitive and resourceful responses to the un- tion had inherited without having had the lived expected conditions that make up the culture’s experience. The author Eva Hoffman, in her post-genocide reality. Jews and Jewish life had last work, $IWHU 6XFK .QRZOHGJH$ 3ULVRQHU been hidden for more than four decades. The RI 0HPRU\ refers to herself and others, like distinct predicament of reclaiming one’s Jewish Anka, born during or after the war as the “hinge identity after growing up Catholic or atheist generation” — hinged between experience and and fully assimilated into Polish culture leads memory of the Holocaust. Just as survivors to a process of dissimilation and a need for have written or recorded their wartime experi- Jewish education for adults ranging in age from ences from memory, notes Hoffman, their chil- 16 to 86. dren will write about memory itself. Now that Poland has become a democracy, Today’s Jewish community is not merely a Polishness is regarded in terms of citizenship, custodian of the past. With its day schools, syn- and not of race or religion. That is why anti- agogues, Jewish studies and Holocaust educa- Semitism is now widely perceived as a threat, tion courses, young adult groups, thriving JCCs not only to Jews but also to the whole of society.

14 Deep Roots, New Branches This realization stems from the student demon- strations and purges of 1968, and as Tad Taube describes in the Foreword, it is the idea that has created the New Poland. Few educated Poles would now deny that anti-Semitism has deep roots in Poland. In fact, respected intellectuals like Maria Janion initiate public debate about the linguistic and cultural roots of anti-Semitism in Poland, and these debates have engendered genuine soul-searching and catharsis, which are tracked by opinion polls. Historian Feliks Tych writes in this book’s pages: “It took the country’s opening wide to the outside world, and above all a generational change, to generate what has become something of a historical miracle.” For the youngest generations of Jews, born during martial law or at the end of the 1980s and who thus have no memory of Communism, the biggest challenge is not fascism or creating democracy but demographics and tradition. As 2013: Shana Penn being decorated with the Commander’s explored in the “Third Generation” and “Com- Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ing of Age” sections of this book, the number I`4PUPZ[LY1HJLR4PJOHéV^ZRPVUILOHSMVM7YLZPKLU[ VM7VSHUK)YVUPZéH^2VTVYV^ZRP of halakhic Jews is minute, and the population of youth with one Jewish parent or with one or build a meaningful Jewish future for his genera- two Jewish grandparents is shrinking. The next tion, Jan writes, in his essay “I Don’t Remember generations will increasingly claim Jewish roots Communism,” that “The fall of Communism and that are three or more generations removed. success of democracy have resulted in providing That’s why, like generations before them, a space for Jews in Poland. The question now is: Jewish youth today worry that they are the Can we grow the space, and encourage young Last Jews in Poland. They do not blame anti- people to stay in Poland?” Semitism and forced emigration. Instead, they Closing an historical circle, in a way, Jan re- are concerned that their generation of half- and FHQWO\PHWZLWK$QND*UXSLĸVNDDWDQRUDOKLV- quarter-Jews won’t be able to marry Jewish tory workshop she was conducting for ZOOM, and create pertinent, modern Jewish lives and his Polish Jewish Young Adult Organization. The families. They worry that every new genera- group was to interview Holocaust survivors, an tion’s connection to Jewish lineage will be too intergenerational activity that would transmit diluted to transmit Jewish consciousness. Their knowledge of the past forward to Jan and his generation can live anywhere in the European peers and extend their connections to Poland’s Union or easily go to Israel, not only for work, deep Jewish roots. but to date Jews. Why stay in Poland, where the It probably cannot be stated often enough that choice of Jewish mates is as scarce as bluebirds WKLVFXUUHQWHUDLV3RODQG·VÀUVWUHDOH[SHULHQFHRI in a Polish winter? democracy. As the contributors to this book can %RUQLQ-DQŊSLHZDN·V-HZLVKQHVVLV attest, Jewish, Christian and secular Poles who neither discovered nor invented. Both his par- were active in Solidarity have invested their very ents are Jewish. His grandfather was the revered life force in the deep and ongoing conviction that Jewish historian Szymon Datner. Determined to where democracy thrives, Jews can, too. Q

The Roots That Survive Through Us 15 Polish Jewry After Communism in the New Poland: A Timeline

Foreign observers still occasionally express surprise at the very existence of a Jewish community in Poland, which they often believe had been totally eradicated under the impact of the Holocaust. And though today’s vibrant Jewish community is but a pale shadow of the glory that was prewar Polish Jewry, it draws from the same roots — a green twig, as it were, which sprouted from a supposedly felled tree. For Jews who remained in Poland during the Communist period, it gradually became clear that only the reestablishment of democracy and independence could give Polish Jewry a chance — hence, the marked Jewish participation, alongside the majority of Poles, in the democratic opposition movement. The developments that followed the end of Communism in 1989 have conﬁrmed the validity of that assessment. The New Poland has consistently respected Jewish rights and has proven to be a reliable friend of Israel. The rebirth of the Jewish community after 1989 would not have been possible without this. In this sense, the rebirth cannot be considered surprising: a democratic society allows its members to make individual identity choices. In an existential sense, however, this rebirth — a fruit of long and patient efforts — is still nothing short of miraculous.

1989 – Communism fell ÀUVW LQ 3RODQG IRO- relocate the institution. That same year, a group lowed by the other Soviet Bloc countries. In RI-HZLVKSDUHQWVLQ:DUVDZRSHQV3RODQG·VÀUVW early ’89, after protracted negotiations between Jewish kindergarten since 1968. the Polish government and the Aguda, the au- 1990 – Pope John Paul II visits Poland, meets WKRULWLHVFRQVHQWWRWKHDSSRLQWPHQWIRUWKHÀUVW with the Jewish community, and in a sermon in time since 1961, of a Chief Rabbi of Poland. The Kielce commemorates the victims of the 1946 position goes to Menachem Joskowicz, an Israeli pogrom. Jewish institutions start experiencing Orthodox rabbi who was a Polish Holocaust sur- a “Jewish boom,” as thousands of Poles of Jewish vivor. The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation starts origin start investigating their roots. The boom operating in Poland, supporting Jewish education, will continue for several years and lead to a media and communal life. The American Jewish revival of the community. The Jewish Culture Joint Distribution Committee is allowed to oper- Festival organizes its second summer season in ate in Poland again, after having been shut out Kraków, on a modest scale. Over the years, the LQWKH&RPPXQLVWHUD,Q-XQH·3RODQG·VÀUVW Festival will grow to become Europe’s largest semi-democratic elections since the war elect to Jewish culture event. Parliament a number of democratic politicians of Jewish origin from the former opposition. The new 1991 – 'XULQJWKHÀUVWHYHUYLVLWWR,VUDHOE\D government pledges its democratic character. Its 3ROLVKOHDGHU3UHVLGHQW/HFK:DãĕVDDSRORJL]HV ÀUVWIRUHLJQSROLF\GHFLVLRQLVWRUHQHZWLHVZLWK in a speech at the Knesset for “wrongs commit- Israel, and it makes Warsaw the main transit point ted against Jews in Poland.” Poland becomes for Soviet Jews leaving for Israel. After a crisis one of the most pro-Israel European countries. in Auschwitz over closing a Carmelite convent The Catholic Church publishes a letter deploring on its grounds, the Vatican reiterates its desire to anti-Semitism.

16 Deep Roots, New Branches 1992 – Israeli President Chaim Herzog vis- 1999 – Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and its Poland. High-level ties will be consistently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to- maintained into future years. Poland co-sponsors gether lead the March of the Living – a massive a successful drive to repeal the UN’s “Zionism is Jewish manifestation held biannually at the site racism” resolution of 1975. of the former German death camps in Auschwitz 1993 – After a personal request by Pope John and Treblinka. That same year Beit Warszawa, Paul II, the Carmelite nuns at Auschwitz move 3RODQG·VÀUVW5HIRUPFRQJUHJDWLRQVLQFH:RUOG to a new location. The 50th anniversary of the War II, is launched in Warsaw. Lauder Morasha Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is a state event in Jewish elementary school moves into its own Poland, with the participation of the President spacious premises in a restituted prewar Jewish and Prime Minister, the Prime Minister of Israel home for the elderly, and soon becomes one of and the Vice President of the United States. Polish Jewry’s most important institutions. 1994 – The Lauder Morasha Jewish elemen- 2000 – 1HLJKERUV a book by émigré Polish tary school, an offshoot of the Jewish kinder- Jew Jan T. Gross, a sociologist and historian garten started six years earlier, opens in rented WHDFKLQJLQWKH86GRFXPHQWVIRUWKHÀUVWWLPH premises in Warsaw. In another development, the massacre in 1941 of the Jewish inhabitants the American Jewish Congress’ successful lob- of the small town of Jedwabne by their Polish bying for Poland’s NATO membership gives neighbors, in the aftermath of the German inva- the organization important political credibility sion of the USSR, which had occupied Jedwabne in Poland. since 1939. The book, published a year later in the U.S., generates possibly the most impor- 1995 – A new crisis develops in Auschwitz as tant public debate in post-Communist Poland. Jewish organizations demand the removal of *URVV·V ÀQGLQJV DUH FRQÀUPHG E\ WKH ,QVWLWXWH a large cross planted on the site of the former of National Remembrance (IPN), the Polish Yad Carmelite convent. In reaction, Catholic fun- Vashem, and a clear majority of Polish public damentalists plant hundreds of smaller crosses opinion accepts them and reassesses the previ- around the big one. These crosses are eventually ously prevalent rosy portrayal of wartime Polish removed by the government, but the large cross attitudes toward Jews. remains standing today. 2001 – 3ROLVK 3UHVLGHQW $OHNVDQGHU .ZDŋ 1996 – The Polish Prime Minister attends a niewski leads the commemoration of the 60th commemorative ceremony in Kielce on the 50th anniversary of the Jedwabne massacre — the anniversary of the pogrom. ÀUVW3UHVLGHQWRI3RODQGWRRIÀFLDOO\UHFRJQL]H 1997 – A “Law on the Relations between the atrocities against Jews by Poles in World War State and Jewish Religious Congregations” is II. The Church, and the residents of Jedwabne, passed by Parliament, guaranteeing Jewish re- boycott the event – though earlier the Church ligious rights and making possible the partial holds a separate penitential service asking God restitution of the prewar property of the congre- to forgive the crimes committed by its faithful. gations. The restitution process continues, with Though the debate has brought forward new dozens of buildings and plots being returned. accusations of Polish anti-Semitism, the Polish The Catholic Church begins the observance of an Jewish community does not see itself as threat- annual “Day of Judaism” to sensitize the laity. ened. Though anti-Semitic literature, which in 0LGUDV] 3RODQG·V ÀUVW SRVWZDU -HZLVK RSLQLRQ other democratic countries would be banned monthly, is launched in Warsaw. It will become or boycotted as hate speech, is freely available one of the most important public voices of at some newsstands and churches, the level of Polish Jewry. anti-Semitic violence is consistently low. The 1998 – Extreme right-wing activists set up hun- ÀUVWSRVW::,,3ROLVKWUDQVODWLRQRIWKH7RUDK dreds of crosses on the site of the former convent in with an extensive commentary, is published by Auschwitz. The Polish government removes them. Pardes Lauder.

Polish Jewry After Communism in the New Poland 17 2002 – The Foundation for the Preservation of JTA, Weiss is “smothered in love.” (Ten-thousand Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) is established young Poles sang “May He Live a Hundred by the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland Years,” a traditional Polish birthday song, when and the World Jewish Restitution Organization Weiss celebrated his birthday during the Jewish (WJRO) to promote the history of Polish Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków the previous year.) communities and to preserve Jewish heritage 2005 – Reversing the pattern of the previous sites in Poland. Barely 1,231 people, in a nation 16 years since democracy was restored, in which of 39 million, report their ethnicity as Jewish in liberal anti-Communist governments alternated the national census. This very low number con- with reformed Communist ones, the Right wins trasts with the approximately 8,000 members of both the presidential and the parliamentary elec- different Jewish organizations and the estimated tions, but without enough votes to govern on 25,000-30,000 people who are connected one way LWV RZQ 7KH QHZ SUHVLGHQW /HFK .DF]\ĸVNL or the other with Jewish activities. One possible is known as a friend of Israel, however, and in H[SODQDWLRQ LV WKH FHQVXV·V ÁDZHG PHWKRGRORJ\ KLVÀUVWLQWHUYLHZDIWHUKLVYLFWRU\LVFRQÀUPHG which obliged respondents to deny they are Polish he compares himself to Ariel Sharon. Chabad- before they could choose any other identity. Lubavich opens centers in Warsaw and Kraków. 2003 – 7ZR-HZLVKÀOPIHVWLYDOVDUHODXQFKHGLQ 2006 – The Taube Foundation’s Jewish Warsaw, both drawing large audiences. The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland launches two new Agency for Israel in Poland assumes responsibil- Poland-based projects: one is a seed grant pro- ity for Taglit-Birthright Poland. By 2014, it will gram to support research and publishing in have sent close to 700 participants on the ten-day Jewish studies; and the second is a media project tours of Israel. The Moses Schorr Foundation is to monitor Polish press coverage of Israel. Jan established to support the expanding Hebrew- Gross’s second book, )HDUÀUVWSXEOLVKHGLQWKH language and Jewish adult education programs, U.S., is published in Poland and generates anoth- including e-learning and community projects, of er soul-searching debate, this time about the fate the Moses Schorr Center in Warsaw. of Polish Jewry in the immediate postwar years. 2004 – The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life 2008 – The Taube Foundation for Jewish & Culture starts the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Life & Culture begins development of an in- Poland, designed to support and sustain the revival novative cultural tourism program called Taube of the Jewish community and Polish-Jewish un- Jewish Heritage Tours. Righteous Gentile Irena derstanding. Continuing today, with a registered Sendler dies at age 98. A social worker and RIÀFHLQ:DUVDZWKH7DXEH)RXQGDWLRQ·V-HZLVK anti-Nazi partisan, Sendler helped organize an Heritage Initiative in Poland has provided tens underground operation rescuing Jewish children of millions of dollars toward sustaining Jewish from the Warsaw Ghetto. To honor the memory institutions representing heritage scholarship of her brave deeds the Taube Foundation cre- and preservation, cultural innovation and educa- ates a memorial award in her name, to be given tion. Michael Schudrich becomes Poland’s Chief to Polish men and women who rescue Jewish Rabbi, a position that had remained vacant since heritage and strengthen Jewish life. The inau- the departure of Rabbi Joskowicz. An American gural Irena Sendler Memorial Award is made rabbi who has been active in Poland since the late to Janusz Makuch, the director of the Jewish ’80s, Schudrich has been immensely instrumental &XOWXUH)HVWLYDOLQ.UDNyZ7KHYHU\ÀUVW-HZLVK over the years in fostering the rebirth of the Polish Community Center in Poland opens in Kraków. Jewish community. The same year sees the depar- The opening ceremony is led by Prince Charles, ture of Polish-born Israeli ambassador Shevach who initiated the project. Located in a modern Weiss (appointed 2001), who was easily the most building next to the Tempel Synagogue, the JCC popular foreign ambassador to Poland since 1989. Kraków is supported by the American Jewish His departure occasions a six-month long series Joint Distribution Committee, World Jewish of public events, in which, in the words of the Relief and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life

18 Deep Roots, New Branches & Culture, among others. It serves the needs of with a rich collection. The New Jewish Music the local Jewish community through meetings, )HVWLYDO )HVWLZDO 1RZD 0X]\ND Ŧ\GRZVND LV public lectures, workshops, language classes, cel- launched in Warsaw to promote an ongoing dis- ebrations of Jewish holidays and weekly Shabbat covery of traditional Jewish music as an element of dinners. It also offers a seniors club, a students inspiration for contemporary musicians. The City club, a library and a kosher kitchen. The vision- &RXQFLORIâyGťHVWDEOLVKHVWKH0DUHN(GHOPDQ ary design of the Museum of the History of Polish Center for Dialogue to organize activities promot- Jews receives the International Architecture ing the multicultural and multiethnic heritage of Award from the Chicago Athenaeum. âyGťZLWKSDUWLFXODUHPSKDVLVRQ-HZLVKFXOWXUH 2009 – The Taube Center for the Renewal of 2011 – The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation formally regis- Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) dedicates an WHUVDVD3ROLVKQRQSURÀWRUJDQL]DWLRQXQGHUWKH education center in the renovated Renaissance direction of Helise Lieberman, the Taube Center V\QDJRJXHLQ=DPRŋþ7KHVWUXFWXUHLVRQHRIWKH represents the Taube Foundation’s programs few surviving Renaissance-era synagogues in in Poland. A sister cities relationship between Poland and one of the most architecturally sig- Kraków and San Francisco is established. Over QLÀFDQWV\QDJRJXHVLQWKHFRXQWU\,QWKH 100 people from the San Francisco Bay Area par- Polish census, 7,353 Polish citizens surveyed ticipate in the sister-city founding ceremony in declare Jewish ethnicity, compared to the census Kraków. The Cantors Assembly USA brings 70 RIZKLFKUHVXOWHGLQWKHÀJXUH7KLV cantors and close to 400 tourists to Poland for a VLJQLÀFDQWGLIIHUHQFHLVPRVWO\DUHVXOWRIDQHZ national celebration of the Polish roots of canto- methodology: respondents can declare more than rial music. Marek Edelman, deputy commander one identity. Most of the Jewish respondents de- of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, veteran of clare both Polish and Jewish identity. Both the the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, well-known cardiol- census and the number of memberships in Jewish ogist, author and a member of Solidarity, passes organizations verify a slow but continuous growth away in Warsaw and receives a state funeral in the of the Jewish population in Poland, mostly in the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery with military honors. Masovian Voivodeship (Warsaw) and other ma- 2010 – Rabbis, with the support of the Union jor cities. The Museum of the History of Polish of Polish Jewish Communities, Shavei Israel Jews’ centerpiece, an 18th-century synagogue’s and other organizations, serve communities in timber frame and painted ceiling, are created in :DUVDZ.UDNyZ.DWRZLFHâyGťDQG:URFãDZ workshops throughout Poland. The rabbis, along with students from Warsaw’s 2012 – Poland celebrates the life and work of Kollel, provide outreach and Jewish learning Janusz Korczak, one of the most complex and opportunities in smaller communities, includ- WUDJLFÀJXUHVRIWKH+RORFDXVW$EHORYHGSLRQHHU- LQJ *GDĸVN DQG /XEOLQ$ WUDJLF DLU FUDVK NLOOV ing educator, he directed a Jewish orphanage in the 3UHVLGHQW /HFK .DF]\ĸVNL DQG WKH )LUVW /DG\ Warsaw Ghetto until he and his charges were trans- together with a 94-person top level delegation, ported to their deaths in Treblinka in 1942. The as they were about to land in Smolensk, Russia; Korczak Year includes a series of events and publi- in the Warsaw synagogue a service is held for cations in honor of his contribution to literature and the victims. The third Limmud Polska gathering, science, including a March of Remembrance. The a weekend of Jewish educational and cultural March is organized by the Emanuel Ringelblum programs organized and sponsored by JDC, draws Jewish Historical Institute, the Jewish Community over 600 participants, representing 19 communi- (Gmina), the Center for Holocaust Research ties around the country. The Cheder Café opens as IFiS PAN, Stowarzyszenie Drugie Pokolenie the Jewish Culture Festival’s club-café in Kraków. (Second Generation Association), the Jewish Formerly a Jewish prayer house, the Cheder offers

Polish Jewry After Communism in the New Poland 19 chosen to represent Poland at the 54th International a unique art installation entitled Etgar Keret’s Art Exhibition in Venice. Yael Bartana, an Israeli House — the narrowest house in Warsaw. Named DUWLVWSUHVHQWVWKHÀOPWULORJ\´«DQG(XURSHZLOO after an outstanding Israeli writer, the construction EHVWXQQHGµ serves as a studio for visiting artists. 2013 - The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 2014 – The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland opens a new exhibition in block 27, entitled celebrates its tenth anniversary. The JHIP’s goals “Shoah.” The ceremony is attended by, among have been to support the ongoing revival of others, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Jewish culture in Poland, further awareness of Netanyahu and Polish Minister of Culture and this resurgence among Jews and non-Jews, and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski. The exhi- foster positive interest in Polish Jews and Poland bition was prepared by the Yad Vashem Institute among American Jews, most of whom have Polish LQ-HUXVDOHP:DUVDZ·VÀUVWHYHUPRGHUQ-HZLVK URRWV 7KH :DUVDZ RIÀFH XQGHU WKH OHDGHUVKLS Community Center is opened. Funded by JDC, the of Helise Lieberman, runs a successful Jewish Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and heritage tourism program (Taube Jewish Heritage the Koret Foundation, the new JCC is the second Tours) and promotes leadership in the next gen- in the country and serves as a hub for a vast array eration through its Mi Dor Le Dor educational of Jewish cultural, educational and community initiative. Mi Dor Le Dor trains 20-30-year-old programs and activities, many taking place outside tour guides in living Jewish history, changing the the JCC’s walls. The Polish Parliament’s decision focus of Jewish heritage tourism from the March to reject a bill allowing Jewish kosher and Islamic of the Living’s focus on death to a new focus on halal ritual slaughter launches a heated debate in the living, thriving Polish Jewish community. Poland and internationally. At this writing, the The Parliament of the Republic of Poland (Sejm) practice’s legal status remains unclear. Poland unanimously declares 2014 to be the Year of Jan celebrates the Year of Julian Tuwim, an extremely Karski, featuring a series of international confer- SUROLÀF3ROLVKSRHWDQGDXWKRURI-HZLVKGHVFHQW ences in Washington, Chicago and Warsaw. The who embraced his Jewish identity by the end conferences focus on the historical consequences RI ::,, %RUQ LQ âyGť 7XZLP ZDV D PDMRU of Karski’s mission and its contemporary relevance ÀJXUH LQ 3ROLVK OLWHUDWXUHDQG UHFHLYHG WKH SUHV- in the context of “Responsibility to Protect,” the tigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of 8QLWHG1DWLRQVGRFWULQHGHÀQLQJWKHUHVSRQVLELOL- Literature in 1935. In March, the Museum of the ties of individuals, organizations and states to pro- History of Polish Jews unveils the awe-inspiring wooden roof and painted ceiling of its close-to- tect civilians during times of war and to intervene VFDOHUHSOLFDRIWKH*ZRťG]LHF6\QDJRJXH%RWK when ethnic cleansing occurs. On June 4, Poland the painted ceiling and the timber frame roof were PDUNVWKHWZHQW\ÀIWKDQQLYHUVDU\RILWVÀUVWIUHH constructed using only the tools and techniques of elections after World War II when it became the WKHSHULRG7KHÀQDOHOHPHQWRIWKHV\QDJRJXHUHS- ÀUVWFRXQWU\LQWKH(DVWHUQEORFZKRVHGHPRFUDWL- lica, the bimah, is installed in the late summer; the cally elected leaders wielded real political power. installation process is open to the public. On April After 44 years of Communist rule, June 4, 1989 19, the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto initiated a new beginning of Poland’s journey Uprising is commemorated in concert with the soft to freedom and democracy. The Museum of the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish History of Polish Jews receives the Association Jews. By the end of the day, over 7,000 people of Polish Architects (SARP) Award of the Year have visited the Museum. The Grand Opening of and Award for the Best Architectural Object Built the Museum will take place on October 28, 2014. Using Public Funds under the Honorary Patronage The painting of the wooden bimah for the 18th- of the President of the Republic of Poland. The century synagogue in the Museum is completed. Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków celebrates its ,QWKHFUDFNEHWZHHQWKHEXLOGLQJVRQ&KãRGQD tenth anniversary with special events highlighting DQG ŦHOD]QD 6WUHHWV -DNXE 6]F]ĕVQ\ GHVLJQV “A Decade of Change.” Q

20 Deep Roots, New Branches Fighters: Survivors who stayed in Poland or returned after the fall of the Soviet Bloc

Twenty-Five Years On by Marian Turski

n the early 1990s, Chief Rabbi Michael I also remember a debate in the late 1990s Schudrich had just begun his work to reani- on regaining Jewish identity. It was held in the Imate Jewish life in Warsaw. One of his early Jewish theater and pitted Konstanty Gebert LQLWLDWLYHVDFRQIHUHQFHKHOGDWWKHÀUVW-HZLVK against Shoshanna Ronen. He was a symbol of summer camp in Zaborów near Warsaw, was the younger FKR]UHLE·WVKXYD and she, a young convened to discuss whether there is a future Israeli academic teaching philosophy at the Uni- for Jews in Poland. The panelists were the late versity of Warsaw, was a classical sabra with a Arnold Mostowicz, then chairman of the Union secular outlook. The audience, overwhelmingly of Jewish War Veterans, younger generation in- non-religious, or even anticlerical, rooted pas- WHOOHFWXDOV 6WDQLVãDZ .UDMHZVNL DQG .RQVWDQW\ sionately for Shoshi. Partially out of contrari- Gebert, and myself. Mostowicz, a charismatic ness but mainly reaching out for new arguments, ÀJXUH DQG D SRZHUIXO WKLQNHU ZDV FRPSOHWHO\ I took Kostek’s side. Before the war, I argued, pessimistic. “No, there is no future,” he said. there were different ways, religious and secular, “We are the last remnants, and no reanimation toward Jewishness, and the secular way was itself can change this. All the young people will jump variegated, from Bundist to Zionist and more. If at the opportunity to emigrate to Israel or to the in the Poland of the ’90s religion was the way West. When the old folk die out, the last chapter toward a recovery of Jewish identity, one should of Jewish history in Poland will come to an end.” appreciate it even if it is secular. Mostowicz’s prognosis was entirely realistic ,I WRGD\ PRUH WKDQ WZHQW\ÀYH \HDUV ODWHU and well grounded in the economic, social and we were to count our assets, what would the bal- political conditions of the time. The remaining ance – both external and internal – be? panelists, however, disagreed with our veteran Externally, we are surveying a landscape af- mentor. I, too, was among his opponents, even ter the battle, as it were. It has by now become if my own arguments were based mainly on in- a cliché that the fall of Communism enabled the tuition and wobbly historical analogies. But truly UHWXUQRIDQRWLQVLJQLÀFDQWQXPEHURISHRSOHWR substantive arguments were then few and far Jewishness. This, incidentally, does not apply between. After all, those were the times when I, only to the Jews: the children and grandchildren a non-believer, was repeatedly asked to remain of many a former party activist had returned to and make the minyan because services could not their family’s political roots, including Christian have been held otherwise. Twenty-Five Years On

Twenty-Five Years On 21 Democratic or even National Democratic roots.1 The most important thing is compassion Why would the Jews be different? And let us not for everything on earth. forget that the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 had People, animals, and plants too, already led to the reclaiming of a Jewish identity by thousands then forced to emigrate abroad. rocks, seas, and again I say – people. In 1989, the optimists were convinced that It makes life bearable, democracy, freedom of association, freedom and its absence dehumanizes. of speech and the anticipated accession to the Take the perpetrators of the Holocaust, European Union would accelerate the process the devil’s servants on this earth. of overcoming xenophobic prejudices. The re- They pretended to be humans, VXOWV RI SURIHVVRU ,UHQHXV] .U]HPLĸVNL·V VRFLR- logical research in the early ’90s indicated that nay, superhumans. up to 17 percent of the population still harbored They were nothing, prejudice toward the Jews. This was not pleasant they knew not what compassion is. but seemed understandable. For over a decade,

It would be interesting to ﬁnd out how many people, then and now, called themselves “Poles of Jewish origin,” “Jews of Polish origin,” or “Poles and Jews,” and how the relative proportions changed.

Polish society tried to cope with the victims of Empathy for and a genuine curiosity about the the violent post-Communist transformation: emptiness of the post-Shoah Polish landscape people who paid for it with unemployment and have become immensely important turn-of-the- loss of social stability and status. It is only natu- century Polish phenomena. They are exempli- ral that this initially huge group could easily fall ÀHGIRULQVWDQFHE\WKHDFWLYLWLHVRIWKH%UDPD prey to the populists. Polls taken ten years later Grodzka Center and NN Theatre in Lublin,3 and proved to be much more worrying: the percent- by academic research centers and university age of those harboring anti-Semitic bias had in- chairs on Jewish culture and history, which have creased to 27 percent. On the other hand – and sprung up not only in Warsaw and Kraków but this needs to be stressed – the percentage of the DOVRLQOHVVHUFHQWHUVVXFKDV:URFãDZ3R]QDĸ so-called “philo-Semites” had increased as well. âyGťDQG/XEOLQ$OPRVWHYHU\XQLYHUVLW\QRZ I reject this term, however, preferring to speak of produces masters and doctoral theses of Jewish “anti-anti-Semites,” people who try to understand interest. A good friend of mine, who teaches cul- Jewish memory and the Jewish point of view. Their tural studies and history of art at a number of presence was, in particular, revealed through the universities, has shown me her students’ papers, debates surrounding Jan T. Gross’s books, ZKLFK UHÁHFW WKH WUHQG :KLOH VKH GRHV SUHV- 1HLJKERUV and Fear.2 In a nutshell, by the time ent Jewish topics in her lectures, they represent of the second poll there was clearly much more only a fraction of what she teaches; yet appar- empathy for Jewish memory, as illustrated by ently her students are both receptive to these top- “Compassion,” a recent poem by the eminent ics and, more importantly, are aware that this is SRHW%ROHVãDZ7DERUVNL LQP\RZQWUDQVODWLRQ an under-researched area, for they volunteer to write about it. I should also mention that there is 1 Refer ences to, respectively, right-wing and extreme right- wing political orientations in prewar Poland. 3 T ranslator’s note: A cultural center animated by non- 2 Gr ound-breaking works by an important émigré Polish- Jewish Poles, and a theater attached to it, which for years Jewish historian, dealing with the persecution of Jews by has been bringing Lublin’s Jewish past back to life and to Poles during and immediately after WWII. the attention of the city’s residents.

22 Deep Roots, New Branches 2014: Marian Turski, center, escorts the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg on their visit to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 7OV[VI`4HNKHSLUH:[HYV^PL`ZRH4\ZL\TVM[OL/PZ[VY`VM7VSPZO1L^Z a high school competition for papers of Jewish the progress made in understanding the Shoah – interest organized by the Shalom Foundation, a even though “genocide envy” is still strong and 3ROLVK-HZLVK1*2:KDW,ÀQGPRVWIDVFLQDW- even took on a new form as the state authorities ing there is the authentic, fresh and truly youth- began promoting, over the last few years, what ful penetration of local, regional, small-town and is called “historical politics.”4 This progress is YLOODJHKLVWRU\7KHVHSDSHUVRIWHQUHÁHFWWKHODVW most vividly seen in what I call the reversal of attempt to reach out to the oldest surviving local the trend to de-Judaize Auschwitz. Anyone who eyewitnesses to the Jewish presence. We have visited the exhibition at the former death camp enjoyed the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival for at Birkenau before the mid-’90s would, if vis- many years and continue to do so, but nowa- LWLQJ WRGD\ ÀQG WKDW WKH SRVLWLYH GLIIHUHQFH LV days it is supplemented by similar events in colossal, almost impossible to grasp. This is not âyGť /XEOLQ 3R]QDĸ *GDĸVN :ãRGDZD DQG only due to the opening of the sauna building, other localities. Not to mention Warsaw, where which now houses a collection of family pictures the Isaac Bashevis Singer Days, a Jewish cul- found in the effects of Jewish victims from the tural event held each autumn, are set to rival the =DJãĕELH'ćEURZVNLHUHJLRQEXWWRWKHDWWHQWLRQ Kraków festival in their scale and diversity. and concern for documenting the fate of the Jews in general. ,DOVRVHHWKLVHPSDWK\DQGFXULRVLW\UHÁHFWHG in the public interest in the Museum of the History RI3ROLVK-HZVLQ:DUVDZ,WLVDOVRUHÁHFWHGLQ 4 An attempt to gain international political credit from the recalling of Poland’s past suffering.

Twenty-Five Years On 23 I would especially like to stress the role of the staff at the Auschwitz State Museum. The evolution of their attitudes could serve as material for a research paper on progress in overcoming the process of the de-Judaization of this site of memory. The work on the museum’s new exhibition, now in progress, would further exemplify this. These changes in the general landscape have entailed changes in the mentalities of “people of Jewish origin”; I intentionally use this unhappy expression, which originated in a now happily bygone time. Please note that the new climate now 2014: Marian Turski in the Grand Lobby of the Museum of enables people of such origin to “come out.” This the History of Polish Jews. 7OV[VI`-YHULR4Ha\Y

In 1989, the optimists were convinced that democracy and the expected access to the European Union would accelerate the process of overcoming xenophobic prejudices.

is probably the most interesting phenomenon of $KLJKRIÀFLDORIWKH*:Ŧ told me not so long WKHSRVW\HDUV,WZRXOGEHLQWHUHVWLQJWRÀQG ago that some of its members would prefer that out how many people, then and now, called them- the mailman and the neighbors not know who selves “Poles of Jewish origin,” “Jews of Polish the sender is; and I am aware that some still origin,” or “Poles and Jews,” and how the relative conceal this knowledge from family members proportions changed. It would be no less interest- as well. I neither praise nor condemn – I sim- LQJWRÀQGRXWZK\RQO\SHRSOHJDYHWKHLU ply relate, though I cannot conceal my sadness “ethnicity” as Jewish in the census of 2002. Was at this. it only due to defects in the polling method? Have Do I see a future for the Jewish commu- we Jews not succumbed too easily to an opportun- nity in Poland? Intuitively – yes, I still do. ism of sorts? Why? Lessons from the past, for one. Since $IHZELWWHUVZHHWUHÁHFWLRQVWRURXQGWKLV the Babylonian exile the Jews have never com- off. It is beyond doubt that there would have pletely abandoned the diaspora. Globalization been no “comings out,” had those who decided will enhance moving around. Maybe we should to reveal their origins not felt a favorable cli- give up on the concept of permanent residence mate for investigating one’s own roots. It would in favor of sojourn or current address. Whether even be legitimate to say it has become some- permanent or long-term will depend on eco- thing of a fashion, and not just in reference to nomic and political developments regionally and the Mogen David pendants adorning the necks worldwide, especially in Europe and the Middle of young women. But at the same time, impor- East, on relations between Europe and the devel- tant Jewish organizations still send out mail in oping world, and Islam in particular. If, in two or envelopes marked by cryptic acronyms: SKŦ three generations, we are able to speak of a new instead of Union of Jewish Veterans, SDH for Jewish community in Germany, with a residual Association of the Children of the Holocaust, presence of the descendants of the German Jews, GWŦ in lieu of Jewish Religious Community. why should I be pessimistic about Poland? Q

24 Deep Roots, New Branches A Historical Miracle: Jewish Life in Poland After Communism by Feliks Tych

efore addressing the condition of the Jews reasons. Some stayed because they considered and Polish-Jewish relations since 1989, themselves part of the country and wanted not only Bthat is, after the setting up of a democratic WRFRQWLQXHOLYLQJWKHUHEXWWRÀJKWIRUGHPRFUDWL- 3ROLVKVWDWH,ZRXOGOLNHWREULHÁ\UHWXUQWRHDUOLHU zation. Others stayed because they believed, both times – to set a reference point, as it were. in the literal and in the metaphoric sense, that one Years ago a friend of mine told me how, cannot leave the Jewish graves in Poland without during the events of March 1968, he witnessed a custodian. They believed that, since the Jews of Politburo member Stefan Olszowski, then Party Poland are no more, one has to assume responsi- supervisor of the press and main orchestrator of bility – in the name of the integrity of history – the anti-Semitic campaign, barge into a journal- for the memory of the ages-long Jewish presence ists’ meeting, panting and triumphant. He headed in this land. They believed that they had to bring straight to the podium, where he declared: “Well, to popular consciousness the reasons – which comrades, we’ve put an end to the Jews.” In a included not only the Holocaust - why the Jews way he was right. The March ’68 purges and the had all but disappeared from Poland’s once multi- concomitant massive wave of emigration from national ethnic landscape.1

Among the younger generations of educated Poles, including high school youth, the percentage of those declaring anti-Semitic attitudes has declined markedly, while that of respondents expressing hostility to anti-Semitism is on the increase.

Poland, both of Holocaust survivors and of their The lesson of March 1968 – the student children born in the People’s Republic of Poland, protests and anti-Semitic campaign – made had administered to the Polish Jewish commu- everybody, or almost everybody, of those who nity what the French call the FRXS GH JUkFH, remained, realize that there is no escape from ZKLFKPHDQVÀQLVKLQJRIIWKHEDGO\ZRXQGHG,Q Jewishness – and that one can be Jewish while WKHVHQVHRIEHLQJDVLJQLÀFDQWSDUWRIWKH3ROLVK remaining totally immersed in Polish culture. community, the Jews disappeared from the ethnic landscape of the country in which their ancestors 1 Editor’ s note: Survivors returned to Poland for numerous YLHZVUZ UV[ VUS` [V WYLZLY]L 1L^PZO TLTVY` VY ÄNO[ had lived for centuries. for freedom. Some returned to look for family members. Those who claimed a secular or religious iden- Others stayed simply out of inertia, or lack of options. Still others, particularly hidden children, were not even aware tity and remained in Poland did so for different that they were Jewish.

A Historical Miracle: Jewish Life in Poland After Communism 25 ethnic cleansing so effectively conducted by the German occupants. This led to the exportation of the negative stereotype of the Pole that still lingers internationally, to the detriment of opinion about present-day Poland. As shown in Polish sociological research, WKH ÀUVW \HDUV DIWHU WKH FUHDWLRQ RI GHPRFUDWLF 3RODQGGLGQRWVLJQLÀFDQWO\FKDQJHWKHDWWLWXGH of most Poles to their former and current Jewish compatriots. Not only the DQFLHQUpJLPH or the NRPXQD (the Communists) bears responsibility for the state of mind of most Poles with respect to the Jews. This state of mind has deep roots. It took Poland’s opening wide to the outside world, and above all a generational change, to generate what has become something of a historical miracle of the last dozen years or so, and especially of the last decade – a miracle, which only to a degree was the result of the now minute presence of Jews in Poland and was mainly due to grassroots initiatives of the younger and middle- aged generations of Polish intelligentsia with no 1986: Feliks Tych in his home library, Warsaw, with Jewish roots. This intelligentsia had taken the his dog, Buka. initiative to set up university chairs in Jewish How many people claiming a secular or ob- history, languages and culture. They now exist servant Jewish identity remained in Poland af- at almost all state universities in the country and ter the March events? Presumably, some 20,000. account for the fact that among Yiddish speakers Just a small fraction of the prewar Jewish pop- there are today more ethnic Poles than descen- ulation, almost 3.5 million strong, and a small dants of Jewish families. These intellectuals also percentage of the quarter-million survivors who set up academic centers of Holocaust research in had transited through, or remained in, the coun- Warsaw and Kraków, which have since earned try then called a People’s Republic. international recognition. There are always many The memoirs of survivors who left Poland applicants for Holocaust history training cours- after World War II show that the main cause of es for teachers. It does occasionally happen in the Jewish emigres’ resentment towards their provincial centers that high school teachers who erstwhile Polish compatriots was not so much show initiative in that regard are frowned upon by the shameful behavior of some Poles toward their superiors, but such cases are rare. Recently, Jews during the war (though that was not neg- Holocaust studies have become a quasi-real part ligible). The main resentment was the way the of the obligatory school curriculum. I say “quasi- survivors were rejected when, after the war, real,” because most Polish high school teachers they tried to return to a sense of normalcy and DUHVWLOOQRW\HWVXIÀFLHQWO\SUHSDUHGIRUWKLVWDVN to their homes, if still standing. It was the wave – but the number of those who have acquired the of postwar pogroms and murders of Jews (com- necessary knowledge is systematically growing mitted both by some of their neighbors and by through teacher training programs. the anti-Communist resistance, and sometimes Recent sociological research does show that also by men wearing the uniforms of the legiti- the percentage of unfriendly attitudes of middle- mate authorities) that sought to complete the aged and older people towards Jews does not

26 Deep Roots, New Branches change much, but it also clearly indicates that Jewish inhabitants towards the Jews in wartime among the younger generations of educated Poles, is not often found in these publications. The ap- including high school youth, the percentage of proach is more often ethnographical than aimed those declaring anti-Semitic attitudes has declined at a detailed description of the wartime fate of markedly, while that of respondents expressing the local Jews and the ways the non-Jewish com- hostility to anti-Semitism is on the increase. patriots treated them. One can assume that this We still remember when tourist guides to LVEXWDÀUVWVWHSLQEULQJLQJEDFNWKHPHPRU\ Polish cities did not even mention, in their his- of the Jews and that other steps, leading into a tory sections, that before the Holocaust a large deeper understanding of the wartime situation, percentage of the population of these cities had will follow. been Jewish. Nor, of course, did they mention At least several books of Jewish interest are the Jewish contributions to the development of being published in Poland each month. These local industry or of the city itself. Today this include survivor memoirs, victims’ diaries, col- would be, by and large, unthinkable. The same lections of sources, monographs, proceedings of had been true of local museums, from which academic conferences, biographies of eminent Jews had simply been absent. Now, in most cas- -HZLVK ÀJXUHV WH[WERRNV PHWKRGLF JXLGHOLQHV es, they have reappeared. for teaching about the Holocaust, and Polish Monographs and other publications about the translations of Jewish or Israeli authors. Never presence and fate of Jews in this or that part of before in the postwar, and even, paradoxi- the country are being published with increasing cally, in the prewar history of the country had frequency. The authors are local amateur his- such numbers of books on Jewish history been torians, local teachers or archivists. However, published – though their number also includes information about the attitudes of the city’s non- works of a clearly, if not explicitly, anti-Semitic

Eleonora Bergman and Feliks Tych cataloguing documents from the Emanuel Ringelblum collection at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. 7OV[VI`,K^HYK:LYV[[H

A Historical Miracle: Jewish Life in Poland After Communism 27 orientation. I shall not delve into the national tours of anti-Semitic lecturers such as Professor -HU]\5REHUW1RZDN+HKDVQRSUREOHPVÀQG- ing hospitality in lecture halls, including some &KXUFKRQHVRULQÀQGLQJHDJHUOLVWHQHUV7KHUH are also in Poland publishers who specialize in anti-Semitic literature, such as Henryk Pajak’s publishing house in the Lublin area. Yet today they constitute but a fringe, if a lucrative one, of the publishing market.

Recently we have witnessed gestures seldom, 1943 illustration of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw RU QHYHU VHHQ LQ WKH ÀUVW \HDUV RI SRVWZDU (building at left) situated next to the Great Synagogue on Poland: local authorities have started erecting ;éVTHJRPL:[YLL[ monuments to commemorate local inhabitants such as the complexes at Auschwitz-Birkenau, murdered in the Holocaust. In March 2009 this 0DMGDQHN%HãŧHFDQG6WXWKRII7KLVREYLRXVO\ happened in the industrial town of Radomsko, limits the means available for maintaining this home to 14,000 Jews before the war. Earlier, if site, so important for Jews and for Jewish memo- such monuments or plaques did appear, it was at ry, in adequate conditions. the initiative and expense of a former inhabitant 1RWZLWKVWDQGLQJWKHSRVLWLYHDQGVLJQLÀFDQW residing abroad, or of his or her children. changes in Polish attitudes towards Jewish com- The importance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau patriots and the growing interest in the Jewish State Museum for the dissemination of knowl- historical presence in Poland among the younger edge about the destruction of Polish Jewry and generations of Poles, the goals set by educators of Jews from all over Europe has increased in in this respect are not uniform. How deep will UHFHQW \HDUV HVSHFLDOO\ VLQFH 3LRWU &\ZLĸVNL this educational work go, and to what extent will Ph.D., has become the Museum’s director. Their it unveil inconvenient truths that are often re- work is not limited to sharing knowledge about jected by the national ego? How present, in the what happened there and then; it also facilitates educational process, is the entire truth about the an ever-broader perspective on the phenomenon reasons for the disappearance of the Jews from of the Holocaust itself. Poland’s ethnic landscape? To what extent does Poland’s most modern Holocaust museum WKLVSURFHVVVLGHVWHSWKHGLIÀFXOWLQFRQYHQLHQW and memorial site was set up in 2004, with issues, including prewar anti-Semitism and the WKH SURJUDPPDWLF DQG ÀQDQFLDO VXSSRUW RI WKH approval of the Nazi genocide by a part of its ad- Holocaust Museum in Washington. It is located herents and the real scope of the denunciations on the site of the former German death camp in RI-HZVÀJKWLQJIRUWKHLUOLYHVLQKLGLQJ3RVWZDU %HãŧHF ZKLFK KDG FODLPHG KDOI D PLOOLRQ YLF- pogroms and murders of Jews are gradually be- tims. The Holocaust site at Sobibor, where a ing addressed and this must continue. These acts quarter million had been killed, many of them were committed not only by persons who did Dutch Jews, is becoming more civilized, thanks not want to return the property of Jews emerg- to substantial help from the Dutch government. ing from wartime concealment but also by those It is only in Treblinka, where the Germans and who, for example, singled out Jews in repatria- their Ukrainian helpers gassed the major part tion transports and killed them on the spot. of the Jewish population of the Nazi General What conclusions should one draw from this Government territory in occupied Poland, where juxtaposition of noble and historical truth-seeking not much is happening. Treblinka is still merely a academic, educational and cultural initiatives on section of the regional museum in the provincial the one hand and on the other, acts and manifes- town of Siedlce rather than a national museum tations that clearly hurt this process? Much still

28 Deep Roots, New Branches remains to be done to make the demons of Jew A portion of the Jews remaining in Poland hatred disappear, or at least be banished to the are active in religious life and all its different margins of Polish spiritual life; however, the pos- options, from the moderately Orthodox through itive phenomena seem to be much more dynamic Reform to Chabad, remain vibrant. Each year than the actions of the still well-entrenched big- a certain number of Jews who have discovered ots. One of these positive phenomena is the sup- their Jewishness late (but not too late) join these port of the State and of the municipal authorities DFWLYLWLHVDQGWUHDWWKHLUQHZDIÀOLDWLRQYHU\VHUL- of Warsaw of such important institutions as the ously. This has been going on at least for the past Jewish Historical Institute and the new Museum 30 years. of the History of Polish Jews. The fact that almost no Jews return to live What is especially interesting about all the in Poland is an important issue in shaping the above mentioned positive developments is that Jewish community’s future. Fortunately, we still they manifest themselves while the Jewish pres- have prominent Jewish intellectuals among us ence in Poland, as expressed in the number of the whose impact is not limited only to Jewish mi- country’s Jewish citizens, continues to decline lieus and issues. We still remember when tourist guides to Polish cities did not even mention, in their history sections, that before the Holocaust a large percentage of the population of these cities had been Jewish. Today this would be, by and large, unthinkable. due to biological depletion. The Union of Jewish It would appear, however, that for now the Religious Communities, the Jewish Socio- effort of maintaining the memory of Polish Jews Cultural Association, the Association of Jewish in Poland remains in the capable hands of the War Veterans and the Association of the Children Polish intellectual and moral elites. More and of the Holocaust are all active organizations, but more young Poles also participate in this effort. each year, their membership declines. Biology With increasing frequency Polish schoolchildren has its rights. take upon themselves the preservation of ne- The overwhelming majority of Jews living in glected Jewish cemeteries and other vestiges of Poland today have blended into society to a hith- the Jewish presence. For many of these young erto unprecedented extent. One proof is that the SHRSOH WKLV LV WKH ÀUVW RSSRUWXQLW\ WR GLVFRYHU Jews have not moved to reestablish even one of that Jews had once lived in their cities and towns, the many Jewish political parties that still existed DQGLWLVDOVRWKHÀUVWVWHSWRZDUGVJHWWLQJPRUH LQWKHÀUVWSRVWZDU\HDUV7KLVSKHQRPHQRQLV interested in the fate of Polish Jews and the rea- a positive indicator that the civic rights of Jews sons for their disappearance from Poland. are being respected. But we also feel, within In the future, it will be these young Polish WKH FRPPXQLW\ WKH ODFN RI FKDULVPDWLF ÀJXUHV men and women, who are not necessarily Jewish, VXFKDV0LFKDã)ULHGPDQ$UQROG0RVWRZLF]RU who will care about and preserve the country’s 3DZHã:LOGVWHLQ2 who, barely a few years ago, Jewish history. They will care about it because were still among us. they want to know Poland’s history better, and 2 A highly respected translator from the Yiddish, a that is a history where Jews played important well-known author and chairman of the Veterans roles in all walks of life, though they were only Association, and a former chairman of the Union of Q Jewish Religious Congregations. an ethnic minority.

A Historical Miracle: Jewish Life in Poland After Communism 29 Returning Home to Raise the Phoenix from the Ashes by Sigmund Rolat

realize that I am a somewhat unusual Ho- Years ago I took my son and my daugh- locaust survivor; in fact I have always held ters to Poland to see their ancestral land and I on to happy memories of my life in Poland &]ĕVWRFKRZD²RQFHDZRQGHUIXOPLFURFRVPRI before Nazi Germany invaded my country. I Polish municipalities. I wanted my children to never held Poland or its citizenry responsible VHHWKHVLWHRI&]ĕVWRFKRZD·V2OG6\QDJRJXH for Hitler’s genocide of the Jewish people. Af- the beautiful Mirowska, where traditionally, ter surviving the war, I immigrated to the United with a Torah in his arm, the Grand Rabbi would States, married and raised a family in New York greet the Polish President when he visited. The and built a business there. I observed from afar synagogue boasted ceiling and wall frescoes by the suppression of Poland’s liberty under Soviet the renowned Professor Peretz Wilenberg, and &RPPXQLVPDQGLWZDVGXULQJWKHKLVWRULFÀQDO for over a hundred years it preserved a battle days of its Communist system, which was over- ÁDJHQWUXVWHGWRLWIRUVDIHNHHSLQJE\D3ROLVK WXUQHGE\/HFK:DãĕVDDQGWKH6ROLGDULW\PRYH- troop detachment retreating with the Napoleonic ment, that I grew eager to return to Poland. $UP\7KHÁDJEHFDPHWKHLQQHUOLQLQJRIWKH Throughout its postwar history, Poland has struggled with the memory of its Jewish past. Human societies do not witness genocides in their homeland and then carry on as usual. Since the victory of democracy in 1989, I plush cover of the Holy Torah ark sanctum. have worked to help Poland build a strong civic This and other information was available to society and Jewish community. Though this new my children from my own experience, but how life’s chapter was wholly unanticipated, my now wonderful it would have been to take them to a WZHQW\ÀYH\HDU LQYROYHPHQW LQ EXVLQHVV YHQ- IXOOÁHGJHGPXVHXPRIRXUKLVWRU\LIRQO\RQH tures and cultural initiatives in Poland remains had existed then. GHHSO\ IXOÀOOLQJ 0\ PRVW VLJQLÀFDQW FRPPLW- I was born in 1930 and fondly remember ments are to reviving Jewish life in the city of my childhood. My grandfather operated a small &]ĕVWRFKRZDZKHUH,ZDVERUQDQGUDLVHGDQG school at Stary Rynek, where all subjects were to my role as board co-chair of the Museum of taught in the Polish language. My older brother the History of Polish Jews, a world-class educa- Jerzyk and I attended the Hebrew Gymnasium, tional institution that will present and teach the a most prestigious old school once headed by thousand-year history of Polish Jewry on the 'DQLHO 1HXIHOG ZKR ÀUVW WUDQVODWHG WKH VLGXU historic site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Hebrew prayer book into the Polish language. World War II.

30 Deep Roots, New Branches &]ĕVWRFKRZDIDPHGIRUWKH%ODFN0DGRQQD icon at Jasna Góra, is the most Catholic city in Poland. One-third of its prewar population was Jewish, a very important and productive third. -HZVEXLOWWKHÀUVWWH[WLOHPLOODQGSDSHUPLOOD concert hall and theater were funded by Jewish philanthropy. I was a Pole whose religion happened to be Jewish. On High Holidays, we attended the handsome New Synagogue but we also celebrated Polish Constitution Day on May 3rd. :HZKROLYHGLQZDUWLPH&]ĕVWRFKRZD²LQ the ghetto, in hiding, in the Hasag camp where I survived with some 30 other youth – carry with us some harrowing memories. My parents and my 2007: Sigmund Rolat and Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich older brother, Jerzyk, were killed during the war. HMÄ_HTLa\aHOH[[OLKLKPJH[PVUVMHUL^1L^PZO At 18, Jerzyk was the youngest in a group of six *VTT\UP[`*LU[LYPU*aǇZ[VJOV^H[OLJP[`VM:PNT\UK partisans. My father was killed in the Treblinka Rolat’s birth. 7OV[VI`9VU:OPWWLY death camp uprising. cal body that existed between the destruction of After the war, I was lucky to emigrate to the Second Temple and the creation of the Jewish the United States, where I proved, as did mil- Agency in Palestine. lions before and after me, that a young, penni- The Kingdom and the Commonwealth of less, orphaned boy willing to apply himself can Poland, where Jews lived for nearly a millen- receive the best education, prosper and secure nium, was much bigger than the territory of the a solid place in society for his family and him- present Polish State. At their maximum, they self. America made it possible for me to return to stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea, from Poland in a position to help strengthen its Jewish Germany to the borders of Asiatic Russia, coin- community and tell the long suppressed story ciding broadly with what we call today Eastern of their history. The Museum of the History of Europe and housing a very diverse array of peo- 3ROLVK-HZVPDJQLÀFHQWO\SRUWUD\VLQPXOWLPH- ple and cultures. Under Polish rulers, the peasant- dia narrative exhibitions, the centuries of Jewish ry was largely Polish but also, at various times, life and accomplishments in the early settlements included Lithuanians, Latvians, Byelorussians and during the Middle Ages. and Ukrainians. The cities and towns, populated The history of Polish Jews is almost as old as predominantly by Poles, Jews (often 50 percent historic Poland. The earliest mention of Poland is or more of the population) and Germans, also RQWKHÀUVWFRLQVHYHUPLQWHGWKHUH²E\-HZLVK housed Armenians, Greeks, Kazakhs, Tatars minters – and we also learn about Poland from and other groups. In the largely agricultural -HZLVK PHGLHYDO FKURQLFOHV 0RUH SUROLÀF DUH economy, Jews cultivated commerce and crafts. later accounts of the great Golden Ages of the They helped shape the country – not as tolerated Polish Commonwealth, when Polish kings wel- guests but as proud builders. A strong minority, comed Jews and granted them privileges and they managed to maintain an identity rooted in special charters – even as Spain and Portugal per- DFOHDUO\GHÀQHG-HZLVKZD\RIOLIH+XQGUHGV secuted and expelled Jews and onerous restric- RIPDJQLÀFHQWZRRGHQDQGPDVRQU\V\QDJRJXHV tions were commonplace elsewhere in Europe. became the backdrop for Yiddish, the vernacular For hundreds of years more Jews lived in Poland language of Polish Jews. Born was Hasidism, the than anywhere else in the world. The Va’ad Arbà revivalist movement that wished to serve God Aratsot, the (Jewish) Council of the Four Lands through song and dance. Countless Talmudic (of Poland), was the only Jewish executive politi- study centers spawned great sages and teach-

Returning Home to Raise the Phoenix from the Ashes 31 people (more than half of them Jewish) or over 15 percent of its population, and then it fell victim to the Soviet’s brutal Communist regime. The country was too traumatized to engage in much intellectual introspection, and when on occasion it tried, the Communist censor would intervene. &RPPXQLVP QRW RQO\ VWLÁHG GHEDWH EXW twisted and perverted history. To be fair, some prominent Polish Communists were of Jewish origin, but this only further complicated Poland’s postwar “Jewish question” – at least until the 2009: At the invitation of Sigmund Rolat, famed “anti-Zionist” purge of 1968. By then, Poland’s violinist Joshua Bell performed two concerts, one in small and shrinking community of Jewish survi- *aǇZ[VJOV^H4Y9VSH[»ZIPY[OWSHJLHUKVULPU>HYZH^ vors was too weak to provide any counterweight [VILULÄ[[OL4\ZL\TVM[OL/PZ[VY`VM7VSPZO1L^Z as their history was erased. Apart from perhaps ers – Baal Shem Tov and the Vilna Gaon, other a brief mention, Polish Jewry disappeared from JDRQLP and WVDGGLNLP. The intellectual ferment Polish history textbooks and even from guide- brought about the Haskalah movement, the pre- books for once largely Jewish towns. The Jewish cursor of Zionism and Israel. RULJLQV RI PDQ\ RXWVWDQGLQJ ÀJXUHV RI 3ROLVK Through the millennium, while Yiddishkeit science, art and letters became unmentionable. Remaining Jewish monuments gradually de- (Jewishness) thrived and was preserved in Poland cayed; cemeteries became dumps or construction and the world through the descendants of Polish sites; synagogues were converted to other uses. Jews, Polish Jews also played an integral part in enriching the culture of their homeland. The po- The Communists considered the new ethnic etry of Julian Tuwim, the prose of Isaac Bashevis unity of Poland to be one of their main successes. Singer, the art of Bruno Schulz, the music of As the history of the war was rewritten, its Jewish $UWXU5XELQVWHLQWKHJUHDWVRIWKHDWHUDQGÀOP victims became anonymous “Polish citizens”; – all are proud elements of Polish culture. Jews the Shoah was merely a footnote to the – only also fought in Poland’s wars and in uprisings to too real – “suffering of the Polish nation at the reclaim Polish independence – from that great hands of the Hitlerites.” The Auschwitz site was cavalry commander Berek Joselewicz to the RIÀFLDOO\ QDPHG ´0XVHXP RI WKH 0DUW\URORJ\ RYHU3ROLVK-HZLVKRIÀFHUVEXWFKHUHGE\WKH of the Polish Nation and Other Nations.” In that 6RYLHW5HG$UP\DW.DW\ĸLQ:RUOG:DU,, list, Jews were mentioned last, as the Polish word for Jews begins with the last letter of the Throughout its postwar history, Poland has Polish alphabet. (I well remember my heated ar- struggled with the memory of its Jewish past. gument with an Auschwitz guide in 1967 when Human societies do not witness genocides in a 3-hour tour ended without him once mention- their homeland and then carry on as usual. The ing the word Jew). The only remaining visible burden of these memories alone would have been sign of nearly a millennium of history – Natan hard to bear; but it was compounded by the fact Rapoport’s towering Monument to the Warsaw that while many Poles risked their and their fami- Ghetto Uprising Fighters – stood on the central lies’ lives to save Jewish neighbors, others col- square of a new housing development, which had laborated with the occupiers. grown around it out of the ghetto’s ruins. The advent of Soviet Communism precluded Much has been done to change this sorry any meaningful discussion of Polish Jewish history state of affairs since Poland recovered its inde- – whether of the wartime years or of the nine hun- pendence in 1989, became part of Europe and dred years preceding them. Poland lost 6 million proudly a friend of the United States and Israel.

32 Deep Roots, New Branches Literally hundreds of books of Jewish interest have been published in Poland. The Jewish culture festivals in Kraków and Warsaw have become the European continent’s largest. Hundreds of Polish scholars, writers, journalists and community activists have produced an impressive DUUD\ RI ZRUNV VFLHQWLÀF PRQRJUDSKV MRXUQDO- istic debates, memoirs and local commemorations of neighbors lost. Jan Gross’ seminal work 1HLJKERUV has been read or read about by a stun- ning 85 percent of Poles. Public debates about the iniquities of the past – honest now and dar- ing – attract widespread attention and passion. 2013: Foreground, Sigmund Rolat and Tad Taube at the Through its recovered and rebuilt synagogues, soft opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. schools and organizations, and events directed to society at large, the renascent Jewish community DVWLUULQJ0LOLWDU\5ROO&DOO)RUWKHÀUVWWLPH is very much part of this vibrant scene. at a Polish Jewish cemetery Jewish resistance ÀJKWHUVZHUHJLYHQWKHLUGXHE\D3ROLVK$UP\ Beginning in those heady days in 1989, I be- Honor Company in a ceremony broadcast by na- came a frequent visitor to my native land, and on tionwide television. RQHYLVLWWR&]ĕVWRFKRZD,ZDVRIIHUHGDZRQGHUIXO opportunity. Professor Jerzy Mizgalski asked for Hundreds of Jews and Christians, young and my help in organizing an exhibition in which origi- old from around the world, attended these events, nal archival information, artifacts, photographs and replete with joy and sadness, drama, emotion multimedia presentations would present, for the and nostalgia. There was not one untoward inci- ÀUVWWLPHWKHORQJKLVWRU\RI-HZVLQWKDWFLW\ dent – quite the contrary, even from Up High the verdict seemed favorable, for the weather was I decided to sponsor the exhibition for many just glorious. reasons and they have much in common with why I support the Museum. We wanted young Poles to Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Shewach Weiss, learn the long history of their fellow countrymen. VXFFLQFWO\ GHVFULEHG WKH H[KLELWLRQ DV ´3U]\NãDG (In my meetings with Polish young people, I in- &]ĕVWRFKRZ\µWKH([DPSOHRI&]ĕVWRFKRZD7KH variably encountered almost total ignorance on largest national newspaper judged it the best cul- this subject, though without exception, they were tural event of the year. Perhaps its most important eager for knowledge. Professor Mizgalski told consequence was a program at a local college of me over 300 students applied for his Jewish his- ÀQHDUWVHQWLWOHG´)URPWKH,QVSLUDWLRQRI-HZLVK tory course, which had been assigned a 35-seat &XOWXUHµ$IWHU &]ĕVWRFKRZD WKH H[KLELWLRQ ZDV classroom.) We also wanted Jewish visitors to shown at the National Library in Warsaw and shed their own stereotypes and misconceptions. then incorporated by the Ministry of Culture and We wanted to kill the terrible lie that Jews went National Heritage into nationwide curricula. Art to their death like sheep, and we wanted to clean from this program also accompanied the “Jews of XSWKH&]ĕVWRFKRZD-HZLVKFHPHWHU\ZKLFKKDG &]ĕVWRFKRZDµ H[KLELWLRQ RQ LWV WUDYHOV WKURXJK- become a jungle. out the United States. (A condensed version was shown in 2006 at the Rotunda of the Russell We persuaded the city authorities to start the 6HQDWH2IÀFH%XLOGLQJ cemetery clean-up, and by several weeks prior to the exhibition’s opening, they had done an in- This then is the milieu and the need and credible job that set the stage for the rededication the spirit in which our Museum of the History of of the cemetery. This was done not only with a Polish Jews has been built. It shines like a phoe- Kaddish and El Maleh Rachamim but also with nix risen from ashes, a paragon of excellence. Q

Returning Home to Raise the Phoenix from the Ashes 33 Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014

Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 7OV[VI`0|PNV)\QLKV(N\PYYL

34 Deep Roots, New Branches Jewish Community Center, Kraków. 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, April 19, 2013.

At center, 2013 Irena Sendler Memorial Award Czulent, Jewish young adult association, Kraków. recipients Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz- Waltz and Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski.

Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków. Poland Flag Raising, San Francisco City Hall.

Ringelblum Archives in the Jewish Historical Jeffrey Farber, CEO, Koret Foundation, and Institute, Warsaw. Shana Penn, Executive Director, Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, in Warsaw.

Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014 35 Dreamers: Activists who dared to face down authoritarianism and reclaim their Jewish birthright

My Grandfather Would Be Proud by Piotr Wiślicki

KHDUG WKH ZRUG IRU WKH ÀUVW WLPH DV D ÀYH fully conscious of my Jewish year old at a summer camp. The other chil- identity. I had a rudimentary un- I dren were calling out to me “Hey Jew!” “Jew derstanding that I was a Jew, but it didn’t mean ER\µ LQ 3ROLVK ´Ŧ\G]LHµ ´Ŧ\GNXµ , GRQ·W anything to me. After 1968 I started to be afraid. think it was even meant pejoratively; I’ve sim- When someone mentioned the word “Jew” in my ply always had “Semitic features.” As a matter presence, I would avert my eyes and try to re- RIIDFWUHFHQWO\WKHUHZDVDÀOPKHUHLQ3RODQG move myself — so as to avoid being a witness to called 5XQ%R\5XQ about a Jewish child in hid- the way people talked about Jews. In the 1970s I ing during the Holocaust. When one of my old started to open up, but only to very few people. IULHQGVVDZWKHSRVWHUIRUWKHÀOPKHDVNHGLI I implored my most trusted friends to keep my that was a photo of me from my childhood. Jewish identity a guarded secret. When I was a boy, the topic of Jews and Today I am proud of who I am. It’s not sim- Jewishness was not so much concealed — it just ply that Poland has changed, but rather it is the wasn’t a topic at all. The fear was such that no one passage of time in my own life, my own strength, talked about being or not being a Jew. Every time and my own understanding of the world. Now my aunt Rena, my mother’s sister, came from Is- when someone tells “concentration camp” jokes rael, everyone at home would say she came from about Jews, I speak up. I say who I am and ask Croatia — because that’s where she went after the him or her to stop. I don’t want to hear such talk. war. I don’t even remember if I visited my grand- In 1968 we nearly left the country. Both my father’s grave when I was a boy. I probably did parents had lost their jobs. My mother, Janina and it must have been in a Jewish cemetery — but .UyOLNRZVND:LŋOLFND FDPH IURP D WUDGLWLRQDO for me it could have been any cemetery. Jewish family. According to my grandfather, they I didn’t ask and no one told me anything. were Cohens (Hebrew: .RKDQLP), the priestly I began to understand a little when I started class descended from the Biblical Aaron. Until primary school, but until 19681 I was not yet 1968 my mother was the head of the prestigious &HSHOLDFRPSDQ\ WKHRIÀFLDO3ROLVKIRONDUWHQ- 1 1968 refers to the anti-Semitic campaign launched terprise). Afterwards she became a pharmacist’s by the Communist party. In the media, at meetings in assistant on Brzeska Street in Warsaw’s desolate government institutions and in factories, Jews were presented as traitors. Many people considered to be 13,000 Jews left Poland with one-way visas, among Jews were dismissed from workplaces, some were [OLT THU` WYVMLZZPVUHSZ NV]LYUTLU[ VMÄJPHSZ HY[PZ[Z harrassed, all were encouraged to emigrate. More than and intellectuals.

36 Deep Roots, New Branches Praga district. It could not have been worse. Par- adoxically, the events of 1968 ended up helping P\IDWKHU$OIUHG:LŋOLFNL:KHQKHORVWKLVMRE in mechanized construction, he returned to university and eventually became a professor. He DXWKRUHGQXPHURXVLPSRUWDQWVFLHQWLÀFSXEOLFD- tions on the history of technology and mechani- zation. He was also the founder and president of the Polish Society for the History of Technology. But after my parents lost their jobs, they were ready to leave Poland. My father had even received an offer of a full-time job in England. It was then that Anna, my nineteen-year-old sister, announced that indeed she loved us all very much, but she wasn’t going anywhere because she had met the love of her life and was going to !7PV[Y>PǋSPJRPPU[OL4\ZL\TVM[OL/PZ[VY`VM7VSPZO stay in Warsaw. So we remained in Poland with Jews. 7OV[VI`(UKYaLQ+HUPS\R (ZZVJPH[PVUVM[OL1L^PZO my sister, and her great love has been my broth- /PZ[VYPJHS0UZ[P[\[LVM7VSHUK er-in-law ever since. perhaps the SB would have been successful in After 1968 I visited my grandfather’s grave breaking me down and I would have cooperated. with full awareness of who he was. But when en- I honestly don’t know. They threatened me: they tering the Jewish cemetery, I would look around said my parents would lose their jobs, I would be carefully — making sure that no one might see kicked out of the university, taken into the army. me. I donned my kippah only when I was safely They tried to force me to sign a document stating past the cemetery gates, never on the street out- that I wouldn’t tell anyone about our meeting. For the past four years I have been responsible for the production of the Core Exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. I don’t know precisely when this exhibition became my life’s goal, but it is now of the highest importance to me. side. I was ashamed, but something was begin- I refused, telling them I couldn’t sign anything ning to change. Pride in being a Jew was starting like this because I always tell my parents every- WRJHUPLQDWHLQVLGHPH,VWDUWHGUHDGLQJÀQGLQJ thing. At home my parents told me: you won’t out things, talking to my parents. Slowly I was go to the army because you have a medical ex- becoming a Polish Jew. emption thanks to a spinal disorder; we already There were times that I regretted we hadn’t lost our jobs long ago, and if they kick you out left Poland in 1968. There was a radically anti- of university, so be it. Only then did I under- Semitic patriotic group called “Grunwald.” Out stand that the Security Services could not hurt of youthful curiosity I went to a demonstration me. My father wrote an open letter demanding they were holding outside of the former Secu- that they leave me alone. He also told me that ULW\6HUYLFHVRIÀFHRQ.RV]\NRZD6WUHHW:KHQ, if the situation became too unbearable, I could stood in the crowd I realized that if someone rec- always emigrate. For many years the SB denied ognized who I really was, I would be attacked and PHWKHULJKWWROHDYHWKHFRXQWU\DQGDIWHUÀQLVK- beaten. I was afraid. Later, in 1972, the Security ing my studies I couldn’t take any job that would Services (SB) wanted to recruit me as an infor- put me in contact with foreigners. That was the mant. If I hadn’t had such great and wise parents, only repression I personally suffered at the time.

My Grandfather Would Be Proud 37 Before I became active in the Jewish com- came a board member and later munity, I went to the Institute of National Re- the chairman. For the past four membrance (IPN)2, where the Security Services years I have been responsible for archives are kept. As an injured party under the the production of the Core Exhi- &RPPXQLVWUHJLPH,DVNHGWRVHHP\ÀOH,ZDV bition of the Museum of the His- very frightened what might be in those docu- tory of Polish Jews in Warsaw. ments, but they turned out to contain merely non- I don’t know precisely when sense and invented denunciations. this exhibition became my life’s In 1989 I was fully aware of who I was but goal, but it is now of the highest I was still nervous. I decided to go to the Jewish importance to me. &RPPXQLW\RIÀFH7KHGD\,ZHQW,UHPHPEHU I repeat time and again that that I kept looking around, checking to see if any- the Museum of the History of 7PV[Y>PǋSPJRP»ZNYHUKMH[OLY one was watching me. I received an application >HJéH^>PǋSPJRPHWYVTPULU[ Polish Jews is a museum of life, Member of the Polish WRÀOORXW,FRPSOHWHGLWOHIWWKHV\QDJRJXHDQG not death. Most of Poland’s Jews Parliament for four terms. immediately went back in. I took the document were indeed murdered and not back and said that I wanted to be part of the com- many remain but our history exists and contin- munity, but that I wouldn’t sign anything. Then I ues to go on. After the war the state tried to erase left again. Moments later I came back, signed the that history. The museum’s goal is to tell the story necessary documents, and started to be active in from the beginning. We all need it, and I’m sure the community without looking back. that there is no Jewish history without the history By 1990 I was already a person of profes- of Poland, just as there is no Polish history with- VLRQDODQGÀQDQFLDOVXFFHVV,KDGDJRRGOLIHD out the history of Jews. wonderful family and many friends. I think that 0\ZRQGHUIXOJUDQGIDWKHU:DFãDZ:LŋOLFNL under such fortunate circumstances it is easier to was a Member of Parliament for four terms be- ÀQGRQH·VRZQLGHQWLW\,ZDVLQGHSHQGHQWVWDEOH fore the war and belonged to the “Jewish Circle” and strong, and no longer had to fear the Secu- of deputies. Julian Tuwim3 wrote about him rity Services. I was invited to cooperate with the ²´,ILW·VD-HZLWPXVWEH:LŋOLFNLµ+HZDVD Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heri- very well known social worker, very modest, tage in Poland and became seriously involved in contrast to his brother Feliks, who was a rich with their working group. My activities with the manufacturer and founder of the Factory of Syn- )RXQGDWLRQDQQRXQFHGGHÀQLWLYHO\WRWKHZRUOG thetic Silk in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, the larg- that I am a Jew. est such factory in Europe at the time. Although In 2006 I was one of the founders of the newly both brothers were assimilated, my grandfather revived B’nai B’rith organization in Poland. Since was the one who followed Jewish tradition. His I’ve always been a good organizer, Marian Turski, brother steered clear of political issues, while my Chairman of the Council of the Museum of the grandfather was active in the Parliament and was History of Polish Jews and Chairman of the As- great friends with Janusz Korczak. sociation of the Jewish Historical Institute of Po- At one of the Parliament’s debates, my grand- land, came to me and asked if I could help with the father said something that entered the language museum. He got me involved with the Association and is still valid: “If things are so good, then why of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland – I be- is it so bad?” He was referring to the abysmal liv- 2 Established by the Polish Parliament in 1998, the Insti- ing conditions of the Jewish poor at the time. To- tute of National Remembrance – Commission for the day, I think that if my grandfather were to see the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a research institute with prosecution powers that is tasked -HTV\Z 1L^PZO WVL[ )VYU PU è}KǍ OL with investigating Nazi and Communist crimes commit- ^HZ H THQVY ÄN\YL PU 7VSPZO SP[LYH[\YL HUK YLJLP]LK [OL ted in Poland between 1939 and 1989 and disseminating prestigious Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of the results of its investigations to the public. Literature in 1935.

38 Deep Roots, New Branches Museum of the History of Polish Jews, he would no longer feel the need to say this. Today the words of my grandfather are no longer valid for Poland’s Jews. I think that today things are indeed good.

No matter what one might say about Polish anti-Semitism, I think that there is neither more nor less anti-Semitism here than anywhere else in the world. The reality in Poland today is different. For example, my daughter once showed me a scan of a postcard circulating on the Internet. It was a card a girl wrote to her grandmother while !3LM[[VYPNO[7PV[Y>PǋSPJRP:OHUH7LUU;HK;H\IL on summer holiday: “Dear Grandma, I’m send- and Jeffrey Farber next to the mezuzah at the entrance to ing you best wishes from the seaside. P.S. I saw the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. D-HZµ7KRVHMRNHVDQGWKHSDLQWLQJVDQGÀJXUHV and Jewishness — so what then? Once I talked of Jews with coins (which supposedly bring good about this with Hanna Krall4. I asked her: “Who luck) represent folklore, not anti-Semitism. Today is a person who was born of a Jewish mother but I am not afraid to walk in public wearing a kippah, doesn’t feel like a Jew? What should we call this not even in a small village. Naturally they would person?” Hanna Krall’s response was that such say: “Oh look! A Jew is walking!” He is, so what? people are the children of Jewish mothers.

Pride in being a Jew was starting to germinate inside me. I started reading, ﬁnding out things, talking to my parents. Slowly I was becoming a Polish Jew.

So nothing. I don’t know, maybe I should go to I’m aware that it is impossible to rebuild what a soccer match in my kippah? Of course, expres- existed before the war with only a small number sions like “Jews to the gas chambers” appear in of people. The renewal of Jewish life in Poland various places, but I want to believe these are only has taken on the nature of a fairground with its naïve childish insults and pranks, not someone’s PDQ\IHVWLYDOVDQGÀOPV%XW-HZLVKFRPPXQL- real views. Some people in Poland imagine that ties are slowly forming and now there is also the there are at least ten million Jews here, or at least Museum of the History of Polish Jews. And what two hundred thousand in positions of power, but is interesting is that this renewal is also happening to some extent spontaneously. My son had a such people are marginal. serious car accident a few years ago, when a tram The renewal of Jewish life after 1989 can- crashed into his car. The driver didn’t even want not be compared with what it was like before the to get out of the tram as he was convinced he war. Some three and a half million Jews had been had killed the car’s driver instantly. The car was living in Poland. Today, according to estimates, so smashed that the driver’s seat didn’t exist. By we represent from four thousand to two hundred some miracle my son was not injured. He was thousand. Perhaps at this point it’s worth asking not hurt at all. The morning after, I went into his the question, Who is Jewish here in Poland after room but he wasn’t there. When he came back a all? Religious Jews scarcely exist, those born of couple of hours later I asked where he had been. Jewish mothers are also few. We may recognize He answered, “In the synagogue.” He didn’t pray that one can be a Jew after his or her father. But for me a Jew is someone who wants to say, “I’m 4 A well-known Polish writer of Jewish origin, born in 1935, a Jew.” Are my sister’s children Jews? For sure who survived World War II in hiding. Her works focus on the relations between Jews, Poles and Germans during they are, but they have little to do with Judaism and after the war and the search for her own identity.

My Grandfather Would Be Proud 39 but wanted to talk to God. Another example — Association of the Jewish Historical Institute I gave him a medallion with the Star of David of Poland, the Ministry of Culture and National on it. He always wears it, but with this differ- +HULWDJHDQGWKH&LW\RI:DUVDZWKXVRIÀFLDO- ence: he has always worn his with the star facing ly establishing the Museum of the History of out, while for years I wore a similar medallion Polish Jews. The three institutions shared re- with the star reversed so that no one would see sponsibility. The Ministry and the City Mayor it. Now I’m no longer afraid, but for years I was constructed the building, while the Association hiding it from the world. Such behavior would of the Jewish Historical Institute donated the not cross my children’s minds. Today it’s hard land, which had been donated by the city, and for them to understand that fear from my youth. raised funds for creating the Core Exhibition. 0\\RXQJHUVRQÀQLVKHG-HZLVKSULPDU\VFKRRO Today the building, which is the most beauti- and my children proudly say that their father is ful modern architecture in Poland, stands be- a Jew. My daughter wants to get involved in a fore the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish organization. For me such behavior is a Heroes, and the Core Exhibition is in produc-

I’m sure that there is no Jewish history without the history of Poland, just as there is no Polish history without the history of Jews.

symbol of the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland. tion. Its content was created by an internation- First, the synagogue is open. Second, people talk al team of scholars who have cooperated and about their Jewish roots openly, aloud, and with- FRQVXOWHGZLWKPRUHWKDQDKXQGUHGDQGÀIW\ out fear or shame. experts from around the world. We succeeded The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in raising over 160 million Polish zlotys (about should be a monument to life. It is not full of $53 million dollars) from donors worldwide for sadness; one can visit it for pleasure and interest. creating the Core Exhibition and for other mu- Most Jewish museums in Europe are museums of seum programs. the Holocaust, commemorations of tragedy, mis- This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of fortune and massacre. Our museum will sponsor my company, thanks to which I have been able concerts and many educational programs. Only to dedicate myself SURERQR to the creation of the one of its eight galleries is dedicated to the Holo- Core Exhibition. The Museum of the History of caust because we also want to show the thousand Polish Jews now takes so much of my time that \HDUV GXULQJ ZKLFK -HZLVK FXOWXUH ÁRXULVKHG ,ZRUNÀYHWRVHYHQKRXUVDGD\IRUWKHPXVHXP here. Poland was, after all, once the largest Jew- quite apart from my regular profession. ish cultural center in the world. Historians esti- I’m very proud that I can be a part of this mate there are over 13 million Jews living in the monumental project and eager to see it fully re- world today and that about 70 percent of them, alized. Our exhibition awakens profound emo- more than nine million Jews, have their roots in tions. How to show a millennium of common the historical territory of Poland. We hope that history? We don’t yet fully know what the effect many people who are interested in what Jewish will be, but we are putting together thousands of life here was like will come. pieces of a puzzle that I hope and believe will be The original idea of the museum arose in truly fantastic. the early 1990s in the minds of a few dreamers, truly marvelous people. Later another group of I’m very glad that I didn’t emigrate in 1968, dreamers wanted to invest money in this same that I stayed here. I feel at home. I think my FRQFHSW,QWKHÀUVW3ROLVKSXEOLFSULYDWH grandfather would be proud of me. Q agreement in history was signed between the 3UHSDUHGE\-XVW\QD3RELHG]LĸVND

40 Deep Roots, New Branches Poland, like America by Stanisław Krajewski

he year 1989 was a watershed. Nobody relationship between synagogue life and the rest could have predicted it. My wife, Monika, of their lives. That we and they both read Buber Tour one-year-old son, Gabriel, and I spent did not provide common ground. We felt much most of 1988 in New York. We witnessed innu- more in common with the American Jewish merable conversations among Poles on the single visitors to our home: they knew about Buber as topic of whether to go back to Poland or stay in well as about the hippies, the Beatles, Shlomo the U.S. We participated with as much fervor as Carlebach, vegetarianism … and they knew anybody else. No argument seemed decisive. about our dissident activities. We did come back, even though abandoning our Living in America in 1988 we could enjoy a newly established connection to Jewish life in spirit of commonality, Judaism was made relevant America in general and on the Upper West Side to other dimensions of life, and being Jewishly in particular was a weighty consideration. involved did not mean being marginalized. This The richness and variety of Jewish expres- was my deepest experience: the respectability sion is taken for granted by New Yorkers, but of Judaism. Important, successful, well-to-do we were fascinated by it. I felt at home in the people, university professors and artists, social Minyan Me’at of the Anshe Hesed shul. It was leaders and even politicians, were not only read- a truly powerful feeling to know that some peo- ing or discussing Jewish themes but were also ple in that synagogue, beginning with Michael going to their synagogues on Yom Kippur, or Strassfeld, were among the creators of 7KH even much more frequently. We had known about -HZLVK &DWDORJXH $ 'R ,W

Poland, Like America 41 I was a member of the Path’s planning commit- wonderful feeling of trust in the government and tee, which was composed of people who were its good will. This might have been a bit naïve, opposed to the regime. However, the project was as we were to learn soon that good will is not sanctioned and assisted by the government, oth- enough, and a system of checks and balances is erwise it would not have happened. The inaugu- equally necessary. Still, I felt strongly connected ration took place in 1988, so I could not attend, to the new policies, the new politicians and the but I learned later that it had been a dual event. whole “revolution,” and this, combined with my First a many-thousand-strong anti-Communist American experience and contacts, led to a short rally took place at the ghetto monument and pro- period of consultancy for the American Jewish ceeded from there to the Umschlagplatz, where Congress followed by lengthy involvement with Marek Edelman, the surviving leader of the the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from the ghetto uprising, was the main personality. The 1990s through to the present. I had been trying to RIÀFLDOFHUHPRQ\WRRNSODFHODWHU,QWKH explain the Polish realities, history and sensibili- winds of freedom were already being felt, and ties to American and other Jews, and at the same the oppositional event was not bothered, unlike time to explain Jewish history and sensibilities WKH XQRIÀFLDO FRPPHPRUDWLRQV WKDW KDG WDNHQ to Poles. After so many years of hiding our con- place in an atmosphere of fear in previous years. tacts with the West, of publishing underground, After 1989, in democratic Poland, the of- of never speaking freely on the phone, the new ÀFLDOFRPPHPRUDWLRQVZHKDGDYRLGHGEHFDPH freedom to cooperate with foreign Jewish orga- generally “kosher” to all sorts of Jews, includ- nizations was exhilarating. LQJWKRVHZKRKDGLGHQWLÀHGZLWKWKHRSSRVLWLRQ In addition to gaining civic and political free- many of whom, having been political prisoners, dom, we were also experiencing an economic had just become members of government in- transformation. In the market system that was VWLWXWLRQV,NQHZPDQ\RIWKHPVRLQWKHÀUVW about to be introduced in Poland, one needed to years after the collapse of Communism I had a be able to put forward one’s qualities or achieve-

!:[HUPZéH^2YHQL^ZRPH[SLM[^VYRPUN^P[OV[OLYZ[VOLSWLYLJ[HTVU\TLU[THKLVMKPZWSHJLK[VTIZ[VULZH[[OL Jewish cemetery in Kazimierz Dolny. 7OV[VI`4VUPRH2YHQL^ZRH

42 Deep Roots, New Branches ments, even to boast. Our stay in America had given us a taste of that skill, which was contrary to the Polish upbringing, and even more to the Communist style where to say something positive about oneself was considered bad taste, to boast ZDVGHÀQLWHO\DVLQ2QHZDVVXSSRVHGWRZDLW passively until others noticed one’s qualities or achievements. In America, we found that we had to explain why it would be a good idea to invite us to give a talk. It was a revealing experience that people who lived surrounded by manifestations of Jewish presence could be interested in hearing !4VUPRHHUK:[HUPZéH^2YHQL^ZRP^P[O[OLPYZVU about the modest attempts to revive Jewish life Gabriel.7OV[VI`3LUH:[LPU in Poland in a way appropriate for our postwar generation. Only gradually did we come to under- Poland in a way that would have been unthinkable stand that problems of Jewish identity, involve- LQWKH86DQGWKLVZDVRQHRIWKHVSHFLÀFDOO\ ment and continuity also exist in America. Jewish arguments for us to go back to Poland.

In the U.S., Judaism was being made relevant to all dimensions of life, and being Jewishly involved did not mean being marginalized. This was my deepest experience in America: the culture’s respect for Judaism.

One American market economy experience 'HVSLWH RXU FRQVLGHUDEOH HIIRUWV WR ÀQG D we had was as frustrating as it was instructive. U.S. publisher – we even hired a literary agent Monika’s book, 7LPHRI6WRQHV, combined artis- – nothing worked. The reactions were positive tic photographs of Jewish cemeteries in Poland but, as one of the publishers said, “Death is not with poetic quotations. This much-praised book salable.” We were shocked: to us the book was was the fruit of our many years spent locating about life, values, former presence and current and visiting the remnants of Jewish cemeteries absence, history, tragedy and also beauty, not just in an era when almost no one else was doing so. about death. It was published in Poland in 1993 It appeared in 1982 and had gone out of print, with the title $7ULEHRI6WRQHV. and when we were living in New York we tried Although better and better produced, it had a WRÀQGDSXEOLVKHUIRUDQHZDQGH[SDQGHGHGL- VPDOOHU LPSDFW WKDQ WKH ÀUVW ERRN EHFDXVH DIWHU tion. Prepared for publication during the creative 1989 the book market had changed very quickly. time of the initial Solidarity movement, of which No longer severely limited and censored it became we were enthusiastic members, it was among the a Western-like heaven of abundance. This was well books allowed to appear after martial law was illustrated by Jewish-interest books alone. Before, introduced in December 1981 and was published they appeared once every few months, and every- separately in four languages. It was a huge suc- body in our circle bought them, and read them, cess and helped many people discover a new too. After, an avalanche of books, both translated way of relating to Jews, or rather the absence and in Polish, reached us – and made us happy but of Jews, and many artists were inspired by the frustrated, since hardly anybody could know the photographs. Many people have told us that the really good ones among so many. book began a new phase of their artistic projects, and some people made university careers out of Partly due to freedom, partly because of the studying the cemeteries. Monika and I under- computer revolution, new Jewish periodicals as stood from this that we could make a difference in well as numerous bulletins and brochures began Poland, like America

Poland, Like America 43 the absurd conclusion that Jews had been ruling in Poland. Fortunately, the post-Communist freedom gradually made all issues public, be it the issue of Jewish Communists or the fact of anti- Jewish violence in postwar Poland. Freedom led to deep changes in Jewish life in Poland. The impact on institutions was, how- HYHU UDWKHU VORZ :KDW ZDV YLVLEOH ÀUVW DQG meant so much to us personally, was the presence of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which was organizing summer camps and Jewish schools, and assisting many initiatives. Summer camps in Rychwald, southern Poland, became for us and many other families an invaluable Jewish experience. There were also other programs, some of them assisted by the JDC, but the Lauder activities represented a new trend: a religious revival. Though this was exactly what I needed, I quickly understood that the sophisticated blend of tradition and modernity, with traces of coun- terculture, that we saw at Anshei Hesed was very GLIÀFXOW WR LPLWDWH :KDW UHPDLQHG ZDV HLWKHU 2004: Daniel Krajewski at his bar mitzvah, leading the the more traditionalist approach, often at risk JVUNYLNH[PVUH[[OL5VǏ`R:`UHNVN\LPU>HYZH^HZOL of becoming fundamentalist, or a strongly anti- takes the Torah scroll from the Holy Ark to the bimah. At right, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. Orthodox one, often at risk of becoming sepa- 7OV[VI`4VUPRH2YHQL^ZRH rated from the tradition. to appear. I was publishing mostly in the monthly The reemergence of Judaism became the trend, 0LGUDV], but I also felt a deep connection to a with the rise of religious communities instead of short-lived magazine, ,GHOH, produced in the mid- the hitherto dominant secular, formerly strongly 1990s by a group of teenagers. Though a gen- Communist, Jewish association. The change was eration younger, they were discussing the same slow but visible. While in the 1980s there was no problems of identity, history, tradition, prospects rabbi in Poland, in the 1990s there were one or for the future, etc. that had been debated by our two; now there are about thirteen. This does not FLUFOHÀIWHHQ\HDUVHDUOLHU8QOLNHXVKRZHYHU mean that Polish Jews became so religious en they did it in public. I was especially pleased that masse. Yet basic religious observance is now seen they organized a debate about their grandparents’ as normal among vastly more people, including generation’s involvement in Communism, an some – not many – successful and respectable involvement that included support for Stalinism, individuals, though not – not yet? – politicians. To the cruelest form of Communist rule. This debate give an example, in the 1980s only a few dozen was inspired by an article I had written in the people in Poland participated in a Pesach seder. 1980s for an underground publication. We have had one at our home since 1980, but we These younger colleagues were at ease talk- felt ourselves to be an exception. Now in Warsaw ing about an issue that most Jews my age were alone many hundreds participate, in homes and at reluctant to discuss, namely, the presence of Jews communal seders. In the course of this evolution among the Communist power elite. My peers, let PDQ\´ÀUVWVµRFFXUUHG)RUH[DPSOHLQDGGLWLRQ alone the older ones, were afraid that the discus- to the traditional balcony, I was able to introduce sion would strengthen the anti-Semites who drew a mechitza downstairs LQ RXU 2UWKRGR[ 1Rŧ\N

44 Deep Roots, New Branches Synagogue; this was done on the occasion of the bar mitzvah of our older son, Gabriel. And the bar mitzvah of our younger son, Daniel, was especially memorable. Daniel has Down syndrome, so he could not follow the standard way, and with the support of Rabbi Michael Schudrich, we found a for- mat that we hope can be used elsewhere. Daniel did not read the Torah or haftarah, he only said the blessings. Before that, however, he led the congregation in taking the Torah scroll from the Holy Ark to the bimah. He did it so beautifully that people had tears in their eyes. In addition, after the prayers, he presented big paintings he had made on the theme of the SDUVKDK and the Torah in general; he accompanied that with explana- tions using words and gestures. This was also powerful and memorable. We are sure this was WKHÀUVWHYHUEDUPLW]YDKRID'RZQV\QGURPH boy in Poland. And before 1989 for at least 20 years there had been no bar mitzvahs at all! Gradually, new Jewish institutions have been formed. For example, I helped organize a Jewish !:[HUPZéH^HUK4VUPRH2YHQL^ZRPYLJLP]LK[OL telephone hotline in Warsaw in the late 1990s. It inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Taube was available to people looking for information Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and the AJC. but was meant primarily for those who were unsure 7OV[VI`7H^Lé4Ha\Y

Yet in 1978 or even in 1988, nobody would have guessed that in 1998 or in 2014, Jewish life would exist, let alone be much stronger, more genuine, pluralistic and youthful. of their Jewish identity or were hiding it – some- visa was put on a separate sheet rather than in the times from their closest family members! – and passport). Now, we need no visas. were afraid to “come out.” I felt that my friends For all these dramatic improvements, the and I knew much about such problems, since we participants in Jewish life are relatively few, had discussed them at our underground meetings especially when compared with American under Communism, and therefore we could help Jewish life. Yet in 1978 or even in 1988, no- others. The most recent of the new institutions is body would have guessed that in 1998 or in the B’nai B’rith lodge, reconstituted after almost 2014, Jewish life would exist in Poland, let 70 years. It includes some respectable individuals alone be much stronger, more genuine, pluralis- who did not want to be active in religious commu- tic and youthful. Nor would they have guessed nities. Among the chief concerns are contacts with that we would have to pay for our success by ,VUDHO DQG ,VUDHO DGYRFDF\ ,VUDHO IHHOV LQÀQLWHO\ facing the many problems of Jewish identity, closer than before 1989, when one had to hide involvement, continuity and tensions among visits to Israel from the Polish authorities (one various trends of Judaism that are quite similar went there from another Western country and the to those in America. Q

Poland, Like America 45 How to Live When You’re Not the Last by Konstanty Gebert

ne should never speak to the media. No, Recalling my state of mind I mean seriously. The words you say will at the time, I might have added Oreturn to haunt you. The only comfort that Poland might one day be independent and is that almost nobody bothers to read the papers democratic again, and no longer a Soviet satel- anymore, even on the day they are published, let lite – even if I did not expect to live to see the day alone years later. Unless your journalist is writ- – but Jews in Poland? No way. It all ends with us. ing a book, not just a report, you are probably So here I am, more than a quarter century safe. So make sure they do not write books. later, sitting at my desk in Warsaw, the booming But back in the early 1980s, I had no under- capital of a country which is a NATO and EU standing of this. I was just becoming a journalist member. I have lived to see the day – indeed, I myself – in the democratic underground, that is; no have seen the days and years, and even grown self-respecting person would serve as a mouthpiece used to a free Poland as if it were the most natu- for the military regime that was running Poland at ral thing in the world. One impossibility has been the time. So my problem was how to acquire pa- duly accomplished. And what about the Jews? per and printing ink, how to organize underground Well, there is a bar mitzvah in my shul next distribution without my people getting caught, how week. The yearly Jewish Culture Festival in to gather the scattered bits of information: a dem- Kraków is just around the corner. 0LGUDV], the onstration here, an arrest there, someone seriously Jewish magazine, comes to my mailbox regu- beaten in jail. I was hardly bothered by what would larly late, as always. My younger son graduated become of my words years later – especially if I from the Jewish school. My older son was press was discussing not the problems of the underground spokesman of the Warsaw kehilla for some time. political struggle, but something more simple and The invitation for the Israeli Independence Day personal. Like being Jewish. reception just came in. “We are the last ones. My interviewer was herself a former Solidarity 'HÀQLWHO\µ8JK1HYHUWDONWRWKHPHGLD activist and almost certainly, I thought, involved So why had I been so sure then that it was in the underground as well, but of course we did over? not discuss that either. But she was writing a book about contemporary Polish Jews, so she wanted Maybe it was loneliness. There were so to talk to me. few of us then, Jews trying to do something Jewish. All right, there was the shul – but it “How do you see the future?” she asked. looked and felt like a geriatric ward; I was the ´,EHOLHYHZHDUHWKHODVWRQHV'HÀQLWHO\µ youngest congregant by two generations. There “And there will be no Jews in Poland?” was the Jewish Socio-Cultural Association, “In the sense of a religious, national RIÀFLDOO\ VDQFWLRQHG DQG FRQWUROOHG E\ WKH group, no.”1 Ministry of the Interior – but it mainly served

4HéNVYaH[H5PLaHIP[V^ZRH;VTHZa;VTHZaL^ZRP! to lay down the Party line, even if in Yiddish. 9LTUHU[Z;OL3HZ[1L^ZVM7VSHUK New York 1986, A friend of mine had asked why the Association Friendly Press. does not observe the Jewish holidays. “We did

46 Deep Roots, New Branches have a ceremony for the anniversary of the October Revolution, didn’t we?” came the somewhat puzzled reply. There was the Yiddish theater, but all it did was stage the classics, from Goldfaden onwards, in a caricatured, pseudo-folkloristic way, which put us all off. And that was it. Oh yes, there was the anti-Semitism too, IURPRIÀFLDOVWDWHPHQWVWRVQLGHFRPPHQWVPDGH by people who otherwise were on our side. When a leading underground activist was arrested, the minister of police proudly announced it on TV, adding that “all he had in common with Poland was that he was born and raised here” – and of course everyone understood he was Jewish. And among the underground publications, printed and distributed at risk, one would encounter tracts de- nouncing the Jewish enemies of Poland and her 1987: Konstanty Gebert, at left, celebrating Purim in Warsaw. Church. Between that, the desolation of tolerated 7OV[VI`4VUPRH2YHQL^ZRH Jewish life, and the number of Jews I knew being easy to count on two hands (even give or take And then it was all over. The regime went, an amputation), there seemed not much to build not with a bang but with a whimper. The un- hopes on. “Do you think your grandchildren will derground press went aboveground. The elec- be Jewish?” an American visitor once asked. My tions were contested. The Communist Party worry was – will they be allowed to be Jewish. was out of the government coalition, and soon Or will they even want to. Or will they live to dissolved. The Soviet army left Poland. Poland see the day. left the Warsaw pact. With everything that we To have a Jewish life, you need Jews. And a knew would never happen happening all at once, little bit of freedom. Forget it. “We are the last with the impossible becoming yesterday’s news – RQHV'HÀQLWHO\µ well, why not try to be Jewish? For all you knew, Messiah could be just around the corner. But there were Jews around us; we just did not see them. The old gentlemen at shul – OK, And so they came out of the woodwork, by the it’s no crime to be old – were terribly concerned KXQGUHGV&RPLQJWRVKXOIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQWKHLU that our involvement in the underground would lives, and standing at the entrance, unsure about bring terrible reprisals against the community how they should comport themselves. Should one DVDZKROH1RWWKDWZHFRQÀGHGLQWKHPDERXW make the sign of the cross? Probably not – but in our extracurricular activities, but when you had this Jewish church where is the altar, so that at least survived Nazi or Soviet camps – or both – you one could kneel? Attending lectures about Jews in GLGQRWQHHGYHUEDOFRQÀUPDWLRQWRUHDOL]HZKDW Poland, standing up to ask a question, hesitating, young bearded men in their twenties were up to. and then blurting out: “Well, I’m Jewish…” and And there were those who would never show up then looking around in vain for the lightning bolt in shul, never admit their origins outside of the they had spent their lives trying to avoid. Society four walls of their rooms, and sometimes not at large reacted favorably. It was a time in which even there. They never thought to contact us, everything was possible. WKHWLQ\XQRIÀFLDO-HZLVK)O\LQJ8QLYHUVLW\OHW We were woefully unprepared to meet them. alone the underground movement. They had seen The Jewish institutions had to be reorganized their share of tsures, and considered it stupid to IURP VFUDWFK UHRULHQWHG DQG UHGHÀQHG $QG go out searching for more. most of these Jews, fresh out of their closets,

How to Live When You’re Not the Last 47 could not contribute. They needed certainties on which to root their identities, not arguments about whether the shul should remain Orthodox, hotly debated between people who knew no Hebrew and ate WUH\I: there were no Jewish schools and no kosher shops. And anyway, the scale of the problems would have daunted JHGR- lim, let alone poor us. One day a middle-aged Polish peasant showed up at shul. His father had passed away a few days HDUOLHUDQGRQKLVGHDWKEHGKDGWROGKLP´6WDŋ you know that of all our children you are the one whom I love most – but you have to understand: you will not inherit the land. You see, you are not our blood. You are a Jewish orphan from the 2VUZ[HU[`.LILY[PU[OL>HYZH^VMÄJLZVM4PKYHZa ghetto, whom we have rescued and adopted. We magazine, the Polish-Jewish monthly he founded in 1997. 7OV[VI`,K^HYK:LYV[[H could not leave you to die: God would not have forgiven us. But you understand that you cannot And yet we did manage to do some things be my heir.” right – with a little help from our friends. An 6XUH6WDŋXQGHUVWRRGD-HZFDQQRWLQKHULW extraordinary young American rabbi came along WKHÀHOGVRID3ROH3UREOHPZDVWKDW-HZZDV to help us on our way. Today Chief Rabbi of him. He had lived all his life as a Polish peas- Poland, Michael Schudrich has left his mark on ant: elementary grade education, very Catholic, literally hundreds of lives. A kindergarten was vaguely anti-Semitic. A good and decent man, set up, with funds provided by the Ronald S. by all appearances, and the child of evidently Lauder Foundation from New York. American very brave and righteous people. But his entire Jewry, itself, like us, a descendant of the great world had just collapsed around him. He had Polish Jewry of before the war, came to assist its been told he is somebody else. So he came to long-lost relatives. Soon the Taube Foundation those of whom he was told he was to ask what joined the fray. With that aid, both spiritual and he is supposed to do with the rest of his life. material, we grew. “Should I get circumcised? (His Jewish parents And it was probably the kindergarten that did had evidently decided not to brand him with the trick. Initially, we never expected it to grow the mark that spelled death.) Should I leave into something more. A kindergarten is just an for Israel?” institution of convenience; it leaves no trace on We had no answers. This was beyond us. those who attended. A school, on the other hand, So he returned to his village, to try and pick up is an institution of commitment: it is supposed to what remained. We had failed him. And we had leave traces, in the minds and hearts of the stu- failed others. By the time we got our act together, GHQWVDQGRQWKHLUFHUWLÀFDWHV6RZKHQWKHÀUVW the shock which had made everything possible batch or two of the graduates of the Jewish kin- was over. People were again settling in the new dergarten of Warsaw entered the regular school Poland which, for all the earth-shattering chang- system, we thought we had seen the last of them es, was not that different from the previous one. – institutionally, that is. They were all children The sun still rose in the East, for one thing. And of friends and acquaintances, to be NYHOOHG about adopted identities remained familiar, even if the for years. But we hardly expected the parents to reason for which they had been adopted was return to us and say that the kids were missing no longer there. The wave had crested before it out. That they needed – and deserved – some- could reach the shore. thing more. A Jewish school.

48 Deep Roots, New Branches But we were supposed to be the last ones, remember? Well, these parents – even if they had shared the same experiences we did – did not seem to think so any more. Until you have kids, the future is just a word. With kids, it becomes an everyday presence. And you want to shape that future, to make it all that it could be. ,NQRZP\\RXQJHUER\ZDVRQHRIWKHIRXUÀUVW kindergarten graduates. So we set up the school. Today, it has over 240 students. They all came from somewhere, from some closet their parents had decided to leave. To make sure their kids 2012: Konstanty Gebert speaking to a Taube Jewish will never need one. Heritage Tour group.

So we set up the [Jewish] school. Today, it has over 240 students. They all came from somewhere, from some closet their parents had decided to leave. To make sure their kids will never need one.

This commitment could be expressed only Sure, on two Upper West Side blocks there because the country was now free, because assis- are today still more Jewish children than in all of tance and support was at hand, and because there Warsaw. So what? were people around who wanted to be Jewish, even While some were busy with the school, oth- if they had thought of themselves as the last ones. ers brought the shul back to life. Today we have Yet these conditions, though necessary, would not congregants’ children running up the aisles, and KDYHEHHQVXIÀFLHQWE\WKHPVHOYHV7KH\RSHQHG I am counted among the DOWHNDNHUV. Others still, the way – but did not create the will to start walk- uncomfortable with our shul’s Orthodoxy, set ing. That will had come from somewhere else. up a Reform congregation. Fine, the more the The parents. The grandparents. Emerging merrier. Jewish organizations started springing bloodied and numb from the greatest disaster up, more chiefs than Indians, as usual. A youth our people had ever seen. Trained in survival, in association was created, went into crisis, split, assimilation, eagerly grasping for ways of living reemerged. Jewish summer camps would start that would conceal the mark of death. Doggedly with davening shaharitDQGHQGZLWKÀHUFHGLV- and determinedly raising their children not to be cussions of just how much religion can a normal Jewish, to know nothing of their heritage and Jew stand. A normal Jew. As if it were normal to past. Raising them to be safe. And yet, in the discuss normal Jews. middle of all that, against the strategy of survival, $QG\HWLQWZHQW\ÀYH\HDUV·WLPHWKLVLV possibly without knowing it, often assuredly not what we have become. A normal Jewish com- wanting it, they had planted in their children the munity, with people attending one kind of ser- guilty knowledge. The giddy knowledge. The se- vices, and certainly not the other kind, or GDIND cret Yiddishkeit to be concealed – but preserved. never going to pray. Not because there is no This is what had made their children and grand- shul. Not because they are afraid. Not because children want a Jewish school for the children WKH\WKHPVHOYHVQRZKDG:HZHUHVREXV\ÀOLQJ they would not know what to do once they are for construction permits, renting premises, set- there. Just because it is their Jewish pleasure to ting up curricula, that we had been oblivious to do it their way. the miracle we were witnessing. We’ve got it made. Never speak to the media. Q

How to Live When You’re Not the Last 49 A Festival of Jewish Culture by Janusz Makuch

he older I get the more distant, calm, but And Kraków was my destiny. also curious I am in my observations of Is there any other city in the T people’s daily struggles with life. I am fas- world where I could be doing what I am doing? cinated by the arc of energy that stretches between I am under the impression, I am certain, that our the day of birth and death — its growing build-up, festival is one of the very few in the world that the intensity of light, the geometry of human fate would die if it were moved somewhere else. We in which the axis of symmetry is marked by the are like old trees — deeply rooted in this land, in middle, between moments of going up and falling this city, in these walls, in this history, in every- GRZQXQWLOWKDWÀQDOÁDVKEHIRUHGDUNQHVVFRPHV day life. We have been rooted here for centuries irrevocably. I also look at myself and what I have and for centuries will remain rooted here. We can been doing in the last quarter century as nothing create and develop only here, absorbing juices more than an attempt to manage my own life. from the hidden sources, branching out and going Would I ever, 26 years ago, have predicted where higher. When I left my family house and closed I would be today? No. At that time I had no idea its door I threw, as the saying goes, the key into what the Jewish Culture Festival, which I have di- the river. I came to Kraków and found myself in rected in Kraków since then, would become, both a new house, in Kazimierz, the Jewish district of for me and for others. Kraków. This was the year 1980. 7ZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVDJR,ZDVMXVWIROORZLQJ The 1980s were the beginnings of a search the voice of my conscience and intuition, staying for the buried foundations of a world that had away from any form of speculations, business passed. This search included many Jews and non- plans and long-term goals. I was just enjoy- Jews alike. If I had to give a name to the interest ing every day and every book I read, as well as young Poles were then showing towards Jewish steeping myself in the newly discovered beauty culture, I would call it a “syndrome of searching of Klezmer, Sephardic, Chasidic, and Cantorial for the sunken Atlantis.” It was as though there — or to put it simply, -HZLVK — music. Step by was a revelation that this mysterious and beauti- step, I became more knowledgeable, and the ful world was irreversibly lost. And if I were to thread that connected me with this newly discov- give a name to the interest of young Jews in their ered world slowly became my lifeline. I eventu- own culture, I would say it was “a syndrome of ally realized that this was my world. Since that a searching for a destroyed Jerusalem.” Both moment, which can’t be marked in a calendar, groups experienced a revelation and a sense of I became part of it, and this land of milk, honey sadness at the same time. These feelings gener- and blood, fertilized with the ashes of millions, ated fascination, longing, love and a new form became my land. of shared awareness. Such was the atmosphere RIWKHÀUVW-HZLVK&XOWXUH)HVWLYDOZKLFKWRRN Destiny place in Kraków in 1988. When I left my hometown at the age of 20, The 1990s were a period of “archaeology.” I knew that I would never go back. There was a We realized that we lived in a world of ashes and kind of certainty that took the form of destiny. started to rediscover what was hidden beneath

50 Deep Roots, New Branches them. We gradually uncovered different parts, trying to piece them together. When we weren’t successful — and quite often we weren’t — we relied on what we had built as an imagined pro- jection of our own dreams and visions. Then wise and insightful people arrived and told some of us that we were creating a virtual Jewish world. A world without Jews. They told us that we had no right to it, as if the sphere of love were limited only to the selected ones. For some, “Jewry” became a great business opportunity, a true cash cow. This is why quite soon pseudo- Jewish restaurants popped up everywhere. This increasingly virtual Jewish world was shrouded 1989: From left to right: Krzysztof Gierat, co-founder of the by the pall of kitsch, while the ghost of a Jewish Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków; Mordechai Palzur, then- Disneyland rose above Kazimierz. Israeli Ambassador to Poland; and Janusz Makuch. 7OV[VI`1HJLR.PUKH At the same time, others were deepening their love and fascination with Jewish culture, leading Was it simple coincidence or destiny? them to a completely new level of awareness, Neither. Ever since it happened, I have carried a namely to the point where the borders that divide G\EEXN1 in me, this GDLPRQLRQ2 of everyday life the Jewish and Polish worlds were becoming leads my mind and my heart. I do this because blurred. This was our common world; a world this is my choice; because this is my life and this where nobody would ask who you were, where is how I want to live it. There is nothing unusual you came from, or why. It was enough to be pres- in it except the fact that it is unusual in itself. ent and belong to the rebirth of the Polish-Jewish However, it is also not enough to say, “I have community. made a choice.” And although I am under the impression that this choice was made somewhat for Here my observations can be put simply: me, or even against me, that moment, that murky following the emergence of Jewish culture in moment of my life during which this choice was Kazimierz, something more important also PDGH ZDV DOVR D EHJLQQLQJ RI D GLIÀFXOW \HW emerged — Jewish life — with its whole diversi- bright and beautiful road that led me to good, ty, contradictions and continual desire to express even if, at times, it took the form of evil. Since its own rebuilt status quo. Of course the scale of then I have found the meaning of the words of this new Jewish life can’t be compared to what 5DEEL1DFKPDQRI%UDFãDZZKRRQFHVDLG´$ it was before the Shoah. This would be a useless man goes through life on a very narrow bridge. comparison. But there is a point in discussing The most important is not to be afraid.” And: what this new world is like. “You are there, where your thoughts are. Make An actor in history sure that your thoughts are where you would want them to be.” I have been directing the Jewish Culture Festival for 26 years. What does this time mean? 1 In Jewish mythology, a dybbuk is a malicious spirit Everything. And yet nothing. It might sound believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. strange, but I have become an actor in Poland’s Although the term appears in the sixteenth century, it was history. My face is very Polish, and no matter not until Ansky’s play ;OL+`II\RÄYZ[Z[HNLKPU>HYZH^ how hard I try to change it, it will always be my in 1920) that the term was popularized in literary circles. face. So how is it possible that a JR\, born in 2 In the Old Testament, a natural spirit that is less than divine but greater than human; in the New Testament, eastern Poland to a family that is just like any more of an evil spirit or demon. Socrates used it as a other Polish family, transformed into a Jew? reference to an “inner voice.”

A Festival of Jewish Culture 51 I direct this festival because I was very lucky. I was born in Poland. In fact, this is one of the YHU\IHZWKLQJVWKDW,KDYHKDGQRLQÁXHQFHRQ I was born in Poland, a strange country with a complex history; a nation at one time noble and another time wicked. Or both at the same time. $QGHYHUVLQFH,UHDOL]HGKRZGLIÀFXOWWKLV3ROLVK heritage is, I have also realized that I am doomed to constantly confront it. In this unequal confron- tation with history, myths, stereotypes, prejudices and the whole plethora of Polish vices and weaknesses, I turn for succor to Polish writers: &\SULDQ.DPLO1RUZLG&]HVãDZ0LãRV]:LWROG 2009: Janusz Makuch and Tad Taube onstage at the closing night concert of the Jewish Culture Festival, in Kraków. Gombrowicz and Aleksander Wat. I come from a country of rabbis and tzadiks3 JHRQLP4 and I come from the country of the Jewish PHODPHGV5; a country of Jewish thinkers, writers, Parliament — the Council of Four Lands (Va’ad bankers, architects, painters, doctors, shoemak- Arbà Aratsot), from the country of countless HUVWDLORUVGLUHFWRUVÀOPSURGXFHUVSROLWLFLDQV shtetls, yeshivas, Chasidic courts; in a country scientists and Jewish soldiers; from a country of of Jewish autonomy and pluralism, but also a pious and good people. country of numerus clausus7, bench ghettos8, po- I come from a country of anti-Semites and groms and mass murder. I come from a country people of good and pure hearts; a country of of anti-Semitic madness where Jews were burned blackmailers; a country with the biggest num- alive in rural barns. And I come from a country of ber of the Righteous Among the Nations. It is a Christian mercy where Jews were hidden in rural FRXQWU\ZKHUHWKHDQWL6HPLWHVZRXOGVDFULÀFH barns. I come from a country of blood and ashes, their life for the life of others, and a country with the shade of synagogues and churches; from where the Jewish police killed its own brethren. a country where, in one long night, Germans I come from a country of the belligerent Father gassed, burned and murdered almost six million Tadeusz Rydzyk6 and the country of John Paul people. What I have found here is my heritage ,,IURPDFRXQWU\ZKHUHDQWL-HZLVKJUDIÀWLLV — mixed languages, the same God in different painted on the walls of synagogues, and a coun- forms, memory of the past, pride and shame, try where thousands of non-Jews study Jewish painful love and sturdy faith that no matter what history, culture and religion; from the country happens, life goes on and is worth living. It is of German death camps and the country of the the life of here and now that is one of the most Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; from the country of beautiful gifts. -HZLVK JKHWWR ÀJKWHUV (PDQXHO 5LQJHOEOXP Mordechaj Anielewicz and Marek Edelman; as 7 A method used to limit the number of students from a well as Polish partisans Jan Karski, Jan Nowak- particular group or class who could study at a university. -H]LRUDĸVNLDQG:ãDG\VãDZ%DUWRV]HZVNL In Poland during the Interwar Period, it was particularly used in an anti-Semitic fashion to limit the number of Jews in desirable departments. For example, according 3 Fr om Hebrew, “righteous one.” to YIVO, in 1923–24 there were still 1,402 Jewish medical 4 Plural of gaon, a term for an eminent Jewish scholar; students, forming 30.2% of the total. In 1926–27 their from the original title for the directors of two prominent number dropped to 698 (18.6%), and in 1935–36 Jewish Talmudic academies in Babylonia from the 6th to the medical students formed only 13.8% of the total number. 11th centuries. In the faculty of law their percentage in 1923–24 was 5 Fr om Hebrew for “teacher.” In the Talmudic period, a 24.6%, while in 1935–36 it was only 12.5%. respected teacher of children. 8 Segr egated seating areas for Jews in university 6 A controversial Polish Catholic priest, founder and classrooms, begun in 1935. Failure to comply with the director of the ultraconservative Radio Maryja station. segregated seating meant expulsion.

52 Deep Roots, New Branches Only in Poland I was born in Poland. I am a Gentile, and for the last 26 years I have been the creator and director of probably the biggest festival of Jewish culture in the world. And this is possible only here — in Poland! Why do I do it? Because I have a sense of responsibility for the good and evil that has been present in our community in its almost thousand-year history. I am doing it because we were born here and Janusz Makuch on stage introducing a concert of the Jewish Culture Festival. 7OV[VI`>VQJPLJO2HYSPǉZRP we are the heirs to history, not just parts of it but all of it. And yet it does not mean that we are majority of the countless cultural initiatives un- the slaves of history. History can be confronted dertaken to commemorate the Jewish presence in and its absolute determinism can be questioned. Poland, but also to commemorate the Holocaust It just happened that history seems to be the ab- of the Jewish Nation, are non-Jewish initiatives. solute area of the devil’s work with whom we For me this is completely natural, logical, justi- may, indeed, be powerless but not necessarily ÀHGDQGQHFHVVDU\

For many Poles, including Catholics, the Jewish Culture Festival is a place and a source for learning about Jewish culture. What is more, it is also a place and a source for rediscovering a more profound cultural, historical and religious identity.

I have been organizing this festival because, of Polish — and more broadly European — cul- with all my powers, I am trying to prove that be- ture, as we admit that Jews have always been an ing a Pole in this country may also mean being a integral and organic part of Poland’s history and Jew, and being a Jew may mean in this country culture, then, after the Shoah, we are especially being a Pole. Just as it was centuries ago (and for obliged to take care of this Jewish heritage, and centuries), this country was inhabited by those to constantly commemorate it. whom we call “Polish Jews.” As someone who I do not do it to brood over death! Civiliza- has been living here for 52 years, I am a “Jewish tions blossom and civilizations fall. As Kohelet Pole” — and this completes this historical image. (also known as Ecclesiastes in the Old Testa- I know that there are more like me out there. For ment) says: “One generation passeth away, and me there is no contradiction here. In a sense my another generation cometh: but the earth abideth festival revives memory — a common memory. forever” (Kohelet 1.4); and further: “Cast thy And it blesses the future — a common future. EUHDGXSRQWKHZDWHUVIRUWKRXVKDOWÀQGLWDIWHU And in this sense, for me — a Pole — the heri- many days” (Kohelet 11.1). I know this and out tage of Jewish culture is my own heritage. of this knowledge comes my hope that life always ,WPD\EHZRUWKUHPHPEHULQJWKDWWKHÀUVW wins over death. Of course, I can see the most festival was organized in 1988, a year before the horrid uniqueness of the Holocaust. My heart is 10 collapse of Communism. It was organized by two embossed with Kaddish and El Malei Racha- 11 non-Jews9. It is worth bearing in mind that the mim , and I pray for all those who were gassed 10 Jewish prayer recited as a ritual of mourning. 9 Krzysztof Gierat and I. 11 Ashkenazi funeral prayer.

A Festival of Jewish Culture 53 The closing night concert of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków draws over 20,000 revelers to Szeroka Street in Kazimerz, the historical heart of Jewish Kraków. 7OV[VI`7H^Lé4Ha\Y

to death, killed and burned. I still carry with me and the world around it. I have been trying to cre- the roll of poems written by Paul Celan12, and ate, for Jews and non-Jews alike, an opportunity don’t believe that I will ever be able to rebuild for an intellectual, spiritual, emotional and histori- my faith in man’s goodness as I believe that man cal discovery; to build good every day. is inherently evil, and I avoid, like the plague, I have also been doing this because I love visits to Nazi death camps. I avoid kitschy nos- Israel. I love its air, soil, sky, water and the des- talgia, lamenting over the lost world, and confer- ert. And its people. I am a Polish Zionist. And out ences about killings, when every day, worldwide, of all the cities I have been to, the dearest one to thousands of people die. my heart is Jerusalem. I am constantly fascinated with the energy of I have been doing this because I still love Jewish life, the one before and after the Shoah. Kazimierz. Kazimierz has been changing; the I know that six years of the Shoah does not mean owners have changed and the ones who are here and cannot mean the demise of Jewish civiliza- WRGD\ WHQG WR EH PRUH IRFXVHG RQ GDLO\ SURÀW tion. Six terrible years cannot overshadow a than Jewish heritage — it is what it is. I have thousand years of life! stopped complaining; because in Kazimierz, his- I have been doing the festival because I be- WRU\VWLOOSURYRNHVDUHÁHFWLRQRIWKHSDVW,QGHHG OLHYHLWLVDUHODWLYHO\VPDUWZD\WRÀJKWDQWL6HP- it is an impressive past and worth preserving. itism. Its effectiveness may not be the greatest, but But much more is the future — one that I cannot nobody else has yet come up with anything spec- foresee. As nobody could foresee that Jewish life tacular in this area. Anti-Semitism is omnipresent, would be reborn in Kazimierz when prophecies regardless of the geographical longitude, as it is were once made that Kazimierz would remain a a state of mind that cannot cope with its own self symbol of Jewish absence, how can we foresee ZKDWZLOOKDSSHQLQWHQRUÀIW\\HDUV" 12 Jewish poet, 1920-1970, born in Bukovina in the I do it because I believe in God. I love, desire Kingdom of Romania (now Ukraine). His parents and pray that this will last until my breath and refused to leave the country at their son’s insistence and died in a forced labor camp in 1942; Celan was heart stops. I believe that it is worth it and that imprisoned in a different camp until 1944. His most this is the way it should be. $QLPD·DPLQ13 Q famous work of poetry is “Todesfuge” (“Death Fugue”), a depiction of concentration camp life. 13 Hebr ew, “I believe.”

54 Deep Roots, New Branches Mosaic by Eleonora Bergman

quarter-century after the fall of Commu- However, for both my parents, their family nism, I think that we are still in search of members who remained in Poland during the war A Jewish ways of life in Poland, but twenty- almost all perished except for my mother’s older ÀYH\HDUVLVQRWVRORQJDQGWKHUHKDYHEHHQVR sister’s two sons (one emigrated to Australia, the many changes. other to Israel) and my father’s cousin’s two sons The fall of Communism (which in fact start- (they also went to Israel; one is still alive). ed with the Solidarity movement in 1980–1981) My parents were intellectuals with strongly coincided with the time I became consciously, political identities. They studied and felt them- willingly and openly Jewish; and it marked the selves to be part of Jewish history but not its beginning of many gradual changes both for my customs or religion, and so as a child, I did not parents and for me – changes in our lives as Jews feel particularly Jewish. I always knew that I and in our perspectives on Jewish life. was Jewish, but it simply didn’t mean much and I was born in 1947 and was raised by parents had no religious foundation. When I was about who were Yiddish-speaking, atheist Communists. eight years old, a Catholic priest stopped a friend My father, a prewar Polish Communist, was con- of mine and me to ask, “Are you of the Mosaic victed by Soviet authorities of anti-Soviet activ- faith?” My friend answered yes, and the priest ity and sentenced to imprisonment in a gulag in went away. I hadn’t understood the question, Siberia in 1936. Accused of being a spy against and my friend explained that he’d asked if we the Soviet Union, he remained in the gulag un- were Jewish. Well, of course we were Jewish: my til 1940. Following his trial, my mother was mother was then an editor of the )RONV6KWLPH arrested and imprisoned in a gulag until 1945. (Yiddish weekly) and my friend’s father worked After my father’s release in 1940, he volunteered at the Jewish Historical Institute. But although for the Red Army but was not accepted because my friend knew the term “Mosaic faith,” neither he was Polish; he remained in the Soviet Union of us understood what it actually meant. until May 1945, where it was safer than Nazi- I still did not feel particularly Jewish in 1968, occupied Poland. He returned to Poland and or even later. It came as a surprise in the mid- succeeded in bringing my mother and my sister 1970s when my department at the Institute of in October 1945. Thus, he was far from Poland Architecture and Urban Planning was accused during the German occupation. He and many of being a “Catholic-Polish nationalist-Zionist like him returned to Poland looking for family, group.” The Polish nationalists were former mem- hoping for the future of Communism, and want- bers of AK (the Home Army),2 and the Zionist ing to piece together an understanding of what factor was just me. (The words -HZ and -HZLVK had happened during the war.1 ZHUHQRWXVHGRIÀFLDOO\LQ3RODQGDWWKDWWLPH 1 Her father passed away on October 14, 2000; he 2 The WWII underground loyal to the government-in-exile was 96 years old; her mother, on June 20, 2005; in London and persecuted by the Communist regime she was 99. after 1945.

Mosaic 55 The truth is ours was the only department in the institute with no connection to the Communist Party. In the 1980s I worked at the Workshops for Conservation of Historic Monuments (PKZ), which proved to be almost ideal for me, both in terms of work and the people I worked with. There were 15 branches of PKZ in Poland, some 1,200 people altogether. We had to make cost estimates, negotiate with regional conservators of historic monuments and coordinate various professionals (architects, art historians, historians, archaeologists, conservators, etc.) for every project undertaken. It wasn’t very different from the Western system and was good preparation for employment after 1989, when many Polish 1991: Eleonora Bergman with her father, Stefan, at home in Warsaw.7OV[VI`*OHPT2YVSPJRP institutions were restructured and westernized. Also, because the projects were for internal use Jews were “Zionists” and Jewish identity was for urban planning, there was no censorship, and not yet a concept. But as Solidarity formed and neither the employers nor the government inter- grew stronger throughout the 1980s, I began to vened in our archival research. This enabled me notice changes. My father’s own return to Jewish to feel uninhibited in my research and projects. causes may be illustrative. I think his path exem- Another reason I felt I had relatively easy access SOLÀHGFHUWDLQWUHQGVWKDWZHUHFRPPRQDPRQJ to information was that my home, like those -HZVZKRVHLGHQWLÀFDWLRQZDVPRUHSROLWLFDOWKDQ of my friends, was full of books from all over religious. Until he retired in 1975, and perhaps the world, brought legally or illegally, from the not until the time of the Solidarity movement, he West and from the Soviet Union. We never felt was not really involved in Jewish subjects. He completely cut off from the world, even though read and wrote Yiddish (letters, at least, but also traveling was not easy. )RONV6KWLPH), but only as a personal activity. I did not think that the fall of Communism But by 1981 he had become active in the struggle would bring a lot for me if I continued to work to name one of the Warsaw streets or squares at PKZ. Perhaps I would be less stressed, or the after the wartime Jewish politician Szmuel 3 reasons for my stress would be more understand- Zygielbojm, and then he grew deeply involved able, and my life would certainly be different. But in the monument project at the Umschlagplatz, this state-owned institution did not survive the po- which was completed in 1988. litical change-over and so I began to explore other My father was active during the 1980s in his positions. For me personally, everything seemed contacts with YIVO, the New York-based Yiddish to happen at once – the fall of Communism, the 6FLHQWLÀF,QVWLWXWH4 exchanging letters with Dina fact that I couldn’t stay at my job at PKZ, my 3 Zygielbojm (1895 –1943) was a Jewish-Polish socialist growing interest in things Jewish, and eventu- politician, leader of the Bund, and a member of the ally, the opportunity to be hired by the Jewish National Council of the Polish government in exile. He Historical Institute. This Institute is the largest committed suicide to protest the indifference of the Allied governments in the face of the Holocaust. repository of Jewish-related archival documents, @0=6^HZMV\UKLKHZ[OL@PKKPZO:JPLU[PÄJ0UZ[P[\[L books, journals and ritual and art objects dating (Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut) in 1925 by scholars in back ten centuries and the only one of its kind to Berlin and Vilna, Poland. The scholars, who envisioned be established after the Nazi occupation of Poland. an academic institution dedicated to the study of Yiddish and East European Jewish culture, chose Vilna, then an My professional life began and evolved in important center of Yiddish culture, as its site. The new Communist-dominated secular institutes where institute soon became known by its acronym, “YIVO.”

56 Deep Roots, New Branches Abramowicz, their famous librarian. He also all the relevant localities and their names within corresponded with editors of

My home was full of books from all over the world, brought legally or illegally, from the West and from the USSR. We never felt completely cut off from the world, even though traveling was not easy.

My father left the Communist Party in WLFOHLVDSLRQHHULQJSLHFHLQWKHÀHOGDQGVKRXOG December 1981, just after the introduction of be translated into English and published in a martial law, in protest against the massacre of more “visible” periodical. Her most important 7 miners by the ZOMO riot police. My mother, ERRNRQ%URQLVãDZ7DUDV]NLHZLF] was eventu- however, remained in the Party until it was dis- ally translated into Byelorussian, but when the solved in 1989. She remained because she was book appeared in 1996 she was already too sick afraid of losing access to the Soviet archives, in to understand that her dream had come true. which she conducted research for her work. Her In January 1988, between the fall of my membership in the Communist Party was re- favorite workplace and the formal fall of garded as “proof” that she could be trusted. Like &RPPXQLVP,ZHQWWR,VUDHOIRUWKHÀUVWWLPH8 my father, she had an intellectual’s approach This was a very important experience, in many to recent history and both of them did good ways – both for me, and by extension for my par- research. In the mid-1980s, for example, my ents, as the ideas and experiences I brought back mother was deeply involved in researching the to Poland became integrated into all our lives. It history of Belarus, and somehow she decided to was notable that we, a group of about 80 people write about Jewish writers and journalists whose IURP 3RODQG ZHUH JLYHQ RIÀFLDO SDVVSRUWV GH- roots were there. She found almost 350 of them spite the lack of diplomatic relations with Israel. in the famous Zalman Reisen’s /H[LNRQ. Because In Israel I was astonished that so many people I liked to work on maps, she asked me to help were interested in the history of Polish Jews, and her solve a problem for the project: how to show I experienced a most enjoyable new feeling of acceptance and belonging. I remember a conver- Today, YIVO is formally known as the YIVO Institute for sation with Professor Moshe Altbauer, formerly Jewish Research and has been based in New York since its collections were rushed out of Eastern Europe on the of the Jagiellonian University, during which he eve of WWII. 7 An interwar Communist Belorussian activist in Poland. 5 Y iddish review published in New York by the Yiddish 8 After Poland, together with the rest of the Soviet Bloc Culture Association since the 1940s. (except Romania) broke off relations with Israel in the 6 A Jewish physician in Vilna, he survived the ghetto and wake of the Six-Days’ War, legal travel to and from Israel published his memoirs in Yiddish in 1948 in Paris. became impossible.

Mosaic 57 called me a

from a different country. The three-plus months was invited to Oxford to speak about Yiddish in I spent in Israel, learning Hebrew, traveling and Poland after 1945. My father found, explained visiting my family in Haifa, were both enjoyable and translated articles for me: he suggested books and in a way depressing. For example, at a large to read, and we discussed several questions. He celebration with perhaps 200 guests, most of seemed to be very interested in putting all the them from the family, I found myself wondering material together, and he prepared much more what things would be like in Poland if more rela- than I was able to address in my short paper. It is tives from my parents’ families had survived the all still waiting to be used. Nazi occupation. I took Yiddish courses while I was at the I returned from Israel and not long after be- Institute, taught by teachers from YIVO. They gan my ongoing tenure at the Jewish Historical ZHUHEDIÁHGE\KRZHDVLO\ZH3ROHVFRXOGFRU- rectly translate some of the most complicated 9 After a power-sharing agreement between the phrases, not understanding that they were com- Communists and the Solidarity underground, partially posed following the rules of Polish grammar. I free elections were held in Poland on June 4, 1989. also must have absorbed something from my The opposition won all of the 35% Lower House seats allotted to it, and 99 of the 100 Upper House seats, parents’ secret conversations, my mother’s songs elections for which were completely free. This led, in and the sayings she used so often when she could very short order, to the peaceful dissolution of the QRWÀQGDQDSSURSULDWHH[SUHVVLRQLQ3ROLVK0\ Communist regime in Poland, followed by all other father helped me study and proposed that I read Central European countries. Mosaic

58 Deep Roots, New Branches some of Y.L. Peretz’s10 stories, which he helped me translate. This collaborative teaching lasted a very short time, unfortunately, and I never learned Yiddish well enough to speak though I read it from time to time. A few years ago, I took some text in Yiddish to read on the bus, and realized that it was a real sign of change that I was not afraid of doing so openly, and nobody paid attention to the language my book was written in. My father continued to expand the scope of his own interest in Jewish history while I worked at the Institute. Around 1990, he became interested in the Jewish Socialist Bund,11 which I found as shocking as his admission that one of his best teachers at school was a Bundist. What an evolution from a Communist focus on getting rid of ethnicity to research on a strongly Jewish 2014: Eleonora Bergman working at the Emanuel socialist organization! Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. Together with Jan Jagielski we organized world(s) at home, I was never taught even basic the department for documentation of Jewish things about Jewish customs or religion. I had VLWHV VWDUWHG WR FROOHFW ÀOHV IRU HYHU\ -HZLVK studied Jewish history, Hebrew and Yiddish, but community in prewar Poland, made a photo- this was an intellectual approach to Jewishness. graphic collection of the 1950s and 1960s, sur- Still, though I felt no less Jewish than my col- veyed synagogues and Jewish cemeteries (in leagues and friends who had started to learn cooperation with the World Monuments Fund about Judaism in the mid-1980s, it was not in New York), and established connections with until perhaps 1992 that, thanks to the Ronald S. conservators of monuments and with volun- /DXGHU)RXQGDWLRQ,ZHQWWRP\ÀUVWVHGHU,WLV teers. Working at the Jewish Historical Institute GHÀQLWHO\WKDQNVWRP\$PHULFDQ-HZLVKIULHQGV I have used my professional skills to document that I have learned and experienced more of a monuments, but at the same time, I have had -HZLVKOLIHZKLFKSDUDGR[LFDOO\,ÀQGLVPRUH opportunities to learn more about Judaism, and, natural than in Poland. moreover, to get involved in Jewish life. Despite $QGQRZPRUHWKDQWZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVDIWHU having had so much connection with the Jewish the fall of Communism, searching for ways of Jewish life in Poland, we are trying to refer to 10 Y iddish author Yitzhhak Leib Peretz (1852-1915), IVYUPUAHTVǋǅ7VSHUK^HZHMV\UKLYVMTVKLYU some prewar local traditions and at the same Yiddish literature. time to follow the Western patterns of communal 11 The Jewish Bund (Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund and social life. We have not yet found the proper in Lite, Poylin und Russland - General Jewish Workers way to deal with reclaimed properties, especially Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia), founded in synagogues. We have not yet found the proper October 1897 in Vilna by Alexander (Arkadi) Kremer, ways to preserve the memory of our former was a Jewish social and labor movement that sought to preserve Jewish culture and nationality in the Jewish life (we focus more on the memory of de- context of socialism through the speaking of Yiddish struction and death). We are still setting patterns and perpetuation of Yiddish culture. The Bund was for cooperation with local authorities, schools liquidated in the USSR soon after the 1917 revolution, and cultural institutions in order to preserve the but enjoyed a large following in Poland, where it set up memorials and monuments of Jewish culture. schools and social services and ran in elections. The Bund was anti-Zionist and advised Polish Jews against We have a lot of work ahead, much more than we leaving Poland to go to Palestine in 1937-1939. ever realized before the fall of Communism. Q

Mosaic 59 Expats: Foreigners who came, stayed, and made Poland their home

An American in Poland: Helping to Build a Modern Jewish Identity by Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich

KHQ,FDPHWR3RODQGIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQ We must always keep in mind that from 1939 to DQRIÀFLDOFDSDFLW\LQWKHTXHV- 1989, when Poland suffered under Nazi occupa- Wtion was, “Why are you going there? tion and the authoritarian rule of the Communist There are no Jews.” Now people abroad ask, “Is Party, nothing gave a Jew the impression that it the community viable?” 7KLV FKDQJH UHÁHFWV WKH was a good idea – or even a safe one – to say that positive developments in the community, but my he or she was Jewish. answer must be, “Who knows?” There is nothing Poland has known democracy only since logical about how Jewish communities function 1989. Some people, even those who knew that and survive. As long as there is a community, I, as they were Jewish or had Jewish roots, have need- a rabbi, feel an obligation and honor to be there to ed a long period to conclude that perhaps the time help people connect to their Jewish identity. has come to “do something Jewish.” Fear often The Polish Jewish community I work with ev- dissipates slowly. A few months ago a man of ery day is a growing one, and the average age of about 60 approached me and said that his Jewish its members is declining. The median age of the mother had died. They had buried her next to his Warsaw Jewish community in the last three years non-Jewish father in a nonsectarian cemetery. He has declined from over 65 to about 45, and new told me that he had never done anything Jewish, members are all under the age of 40. The parents but now felt the need to say .DGGLVK. So, on a and grandparents had given up being Jewish, but Friday morning, I taught him this prayer for the some of their children are among the number of dead, then said, “Shabbat begins this evening. Jews discovering their Jewish origins and want- Why don’t you come to the synagogue?” He ing to “do something Jewish.” Membership in mentioned that his wife was also Jewish, and WKH1Rŧ\N6\QDJRJXHLQ:DUVDZLVQRZDERXW therefore also their 21-year-old daughter. I invit- 700, and a number of new rabbis have arrived in ed all three of them. They came and were moved. Poland from abroad in recent years. Another story: A young woman, in her early I could tell thousands of stories about men twenties, discovered that her mother’s mother and women of all ages and backgrounds who are was Jewish. She became observant, met a young only now returning to Judaism. This year more Jewish man from the United States, and they fell than a hundred people sought me out to discuss in love. Her mother wants the wedding to be in their Jewish roots, while many others went to oth- New York so that the neighbors won’t see that er rabbis. This phenomenon is likely to continue. they are having a Jewish wedding. This is more

60 Deep Roots, New Branches proof that fear doesn’t dissipate easily. This does still leave about 30,000 Jews in Poland. Many of not so much concern current anti-Semitism, but these people would now have children and grand- mainly what might happen again. This is based FKLOGUHQ:KHUHZHUHWKH\",ZDQWHGWRÀQGRXW rationally on what people have experienced dur- In 1976, accompanied by my American-born ing most of their life. As a rabbi I have a major father Z”L, I returned to Poland so I could check responsibility: I don’t feel I should say that one it out for myself. The following year, I became can be sure it won’t happen again. the assistant leader of the program I had taken in 1973. In 1979, after spending my third year of rab- People often ask me how I, an American rabbinical school in Israel, I decided to study Polish bi from New York’s Upper West Side, became at the Jagiellonian University for the summer. the Chief Rabbi of Poland? (I nicknamed it an XOSDQVNL.) That summer I met In 1973 just after graduating from high several young Jewish dissidents, such as Staszek VFKRRO , ZDV KRSLQJ WR PDNH P\ ÀUVW WULS WR and Monika Krajewski and Kostek Gebert, and ,VUDHO$IULHQGZDVMRLQLQJDSURJUDPWKDWÀUVW realized that there were indeed some young Jews went through Eastern Europe and the Soviet left, and they were asking for my help to gain Union and then on to Israel, and I jumped at the Jewish knowledge. chance to go along. In Poland, we were told that only a few thousand old Jews were left and that The Jewish friends I made in Poland and oth- very little remained of the Jewish past. It didn’t er Eastern European countries had done nothing make sense; the sums didn’t add up. If, as is com- to “deserve” to grow up with no Jewish educa- monly believed, about 10 percent of three and a tion or experience, just as nothing I had done had half million Polish Jews survived the war and 90 brought me the tremendous blessing of a Jewish percent of the survivors emigrated, that would day school education and a full, rich Jewish life.

*OPLM9HIIPVM7VSHUK4PJOHLS:JO\KYPJOJVUK\J[PUNZLY]PJLZH[[OL5VǏ`R:`UHNVN\LPU>HYZH^ 7OV[VI`,K^HYK:LYV[[H

An American in Poland: Helping to Build a Modern Jewish Identity 61 That gift was presented to me by decisions made together near the Holy Ark. Part of what keeps by my grandparents and parents. I felt that the the Jews in Poland united is that we don’t want time had come for me to give something back. Hitler to have won the war. Yes, this is ironic, because before World War I am aiming for the day when Poland’s Chief II, American rabbis would come to Warsaw to Rabbi will be Polish but, as of now, it doesn’t study Torah with the greatest Talmudic scholars seem likely that this will happen in the immedi- of their time. This city was the heart of Jewish ate future. Developing local leadership remains tradition. Now an American rabbi has to come a slow process, as local people often don’t want here to help the Polish Jews. to take leadership positions. More people are

Before World War II, American rabbis would come to Warsaw to study Torah with the greatest Talmudic scholars of their time. This city was the heart of Jewish tradition. Now an American rabbi has to come here to help the Jews of Poland.

Another sign of the Jewish community’s de- coming to synagogue and attending activities, velopment is that the number of rabbis in Poland but that’s where it ends. has increased greatly in the last few years. There As for the economic and social status of the are now thirteen rabbis: seven are traditional, Jews, there are no philanthropic Polish Jewish three are Reform, and three are Chabad emissar- billionaires such as the Jewish oligarchs in Russia ies. One of the traditional rabbis is Polish-born. or Ukraine. If that were the case it would have Rabbi Mati Pawlak discovered that he was Jewish PDGHWKHÀQDQFLQJRI-HZLVKDFWLYLWLHVLQ3RODQG at age 16. He later studied at Yeshiva University PXFKHDVLHU$WSUHVHQWZHUHPDLQVLJQLÀFDQWO\ and came back to Warsaw as the director of the dependent on Jewish foreign aid. The American Lauder Morasha Day School, which has over 240 Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is active in pupils from pre-kindergarten to ninth grade. He Poland, mainly in welfare but also in community has a challenging job, because it is problematic leadership training, as are the Jewish Agency, to teach Jewishness at a school where only half World Zionist Organization and Shavei Israel, the children have Jewish roots. an organization that reaches out worldwide to Rabbi Pinchas Zarcynski was born in people with Jewish roots. Among the private foundations active here are the Taube Foundation Warsaw in 1981 and went to Israel with his par- for Jewish Life & Culture, the Ronald S. Lauder ents in 1985. He has now returned to Warsaw as Foundation and Rothschild Foundation Europe. a rabbi. The traditional rabbis include new ones LQ.UDNyZ.DWRZLFHâyGťDQG:URFãDZRIWKH My main obligation is toward the living Reform rabbis, two are in Warsaw, and the other Jewish community: to help them with their iden- in Kraków. There also is a new Zionist NROOHO in tity and assist them in expressing their Judaism. :DUVDZZKHUHÀYH\RXQJ-HZLVKPHQVWXG\RXU Yet there is a profound Jewish past in Poland, tradition. whose memory must be preserved and material In such a small community we should make sites protected. This heritage raises many com- great efforts to avoid division among Jews as plex issues that call for resolution. For example, much as possible. On Israel’s Yom HaZikaron how many synagogues and cheders can we pos- (Memorial Day), I invited both the rabbi of Beit sibly afford to restore? Which ones will we res- Warszawa and the local Chabad rabbi to partici- cue, and why those over others? When teaching pate in the ceremony. When Israel’s President young and old, the question remains: how much Shimon Peres visited Poland in 2008, all of us sat does one focus on what will be and how much on

62 Deep Roots, New Branches what was? There has to be a balance; neglecting the cemetery, the town planner wanted to the future for the past is not reasonable. curve the road, and thus it would go over the What, for instance, is the Jewish community’s cemetery. I suggested an alternate route for attitude toward the 1,300 unattended Jewish the road. The mayor agreed. Why hadn’t he cemeteries? We cannot save all of them because come up with this idea earlier? He might not ZHFDQQRWUDLVHVXFKPDVVLYHIXQGLQJ0\ÀUVW have wanted to oppose his city planner, who priority is that we will not permit their further might have thought it better to have the road desecration. It is unacceptable, for example, curve rather than make a right angle. Or, per- for somebody to build a road over a Jewish KDSVGHFLVLRQVZHUHLQÁXHQFHGE\WKHIDFWWKDW

I have always believed that our work in Poland is to revive the Jewish identity of individuals. I want to give people the chance to decide to be Jewish. cemetery. In that case we will take action. In in Poland, Christian cemeteries are closed after Ostrów Mazowiecki, for example, one-third of decades of disuse and one can build over them. WKH0RQGD\ÁHDPDUNHWLVORFDWHGRQWKHROG As Poland develops, unused land becomes Jewish cemetery. The mayor told me that if I more valuable. If no one has paid attention to said this was wrong according to Jewish laws, D -HZLVK FHPHWHU\ IRU ÀIW\ \HDUV WKHUH LV DQ he would move the market. Another example: inclination to build over it. This now becomes a In Sierpc, in order to develop the land behind matter of public education for us. Over the last

2008: Rabbi Schudrich standing with other religious leaders as he speaks at the annual March of Prayer, organized by the Polish Council of Christian-Jewish Relations, and held at the Umschlagplatz Memorial in Warsaw.

An American in Poland: Helping to Build a Modern Jewish Identity 63 at a young age, not having been careful enough to run away. Those who now come forward are often traumatized by these memories, which WKH\KDYHNHSWWRWKHPVHOYHVIRUVL[W\ÀYH\HDUV We already have information on tens of sites of mass graves. We might, in the future, make a large effort to gather additional data. A very different issue is that of assisting Righteous Gentiles. We cannot do enough to help these precious people. There is a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous that assists some of them, and there are also some other organizations. The last few hundred remaining in Poland should be enabled to live out the rest of their lives in dignity and 2013: Rabbi Michael Schudrich celebrating Chanukah with children in Warsaw. some comfort. ten years, I have found increased sensitivity to our tradition among the authorities. We often do Now that there are hardly any Jews left, some not know why a mayor or town council is ready Poles miss them. Furthermore, it was taboo under to be helpful. I only encountered one substantial the Communists to talk about Jews, and as soon H[FHSWLRQLQ/HŧDĸVNZKHUHWKHJUHDW+DVLGLF as something that has been forbidden is again master, Rabbi Elimelech is buried. Thousands permitted, it becomes interesting in the public RI+DVLGLPDQGRWKHU-HZVYLVLW/HŧDĸVNHYHU\ domain. There are also those who work toward year, but despite that or perhaps because of a new Poland and are proud to be part of the it, the town has too often been insensitive to Jewish needs. In recent years we have learned that there are hundreds of unmarked Jewish mass graves all over Poland. They have various origins. The Germans, as they entered a town, would often take several tens of Jews out to the forest, shoot them, and bury them there. Also, during the de- portations to the death camps in 1942–1943, often several hundreds of Jews the Germans didn’t feel like bothering to send to the camps were just shot somewhere between the town and the cemetery. Furthermore, during the death marches from Auschwitz and other camps to the west, when !9HIIP:JO\KYPJOH[SLM[HUK:[HUPZéH^2YHQL^ZRP the Russian army advanced, many Jews died and at right speaking at the Lauder Morasha Day School in were buried on the sides of the roads. Warsaw. 7OV[VI`4VUPRH2YHQL^ZRH There is a Baptist fellow, a very unusual European Union. As a result of all this, small denomination in Poland, who now travels by groups of people want to “do something Jewish” bicycle through villages in eastern Poland ask- – save a synagogue, celebrate a Jewish festival, ing old people if they know where Jews are bur- teach about Jewish history, etc. A few dozen ied. Since he is a Pole, elderly witnesses speak young non-Jewish Poles, for example, work to to him more easily and often are relieved to preserve Jewish cemeteries around the country, talk. They may have seen some of the killings even though they often face local opposition.

64 Deep Roots, New Branches 2007: At the groundbreaking of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Left to right: Tad Taube, Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, Rabbi Michael Schudrich. 7OV[VI`>VQ[LR9HK^HǉZRP How do we nurture such a phenomenon? Jewish identity of individuals. I want to give $GHSWDWLGHQWLI\LQJDQGÀJKWLQJDQWL6HPLWLVP people the chance to decide to be Jewish. we are far weaker at identifying potential allies Until a few years ago the problems in Poland and friends. And yet, when we give them moral were predominantly post-Holocaust, post-Com- support, it gives them the sense that they are do- munist matters. As far as we can look ahead, the ing worthwhile work, and they want to do more. Jewish community will continue to live in the In recent years the number of Poles who ad- shadow of the Shoah. Yet most problems are be- vocate for the preservation of Jewish memory coming more “normal” and familiar – in the con- KDVJURZQVLJQLÀFDQWO\:HKDYHWRUHDOL]HWKDW text, say, of Israeli or American Jewry. A young woman says to me, “‘Rabbi, I am 23 years old. close to six million Poles, three million of whom I know all the boys in the community and don’t were Jewish, were murdered by the Germans like any of them. How am I going to get mar- during the Second World War. When dialoguing ried?” Or parents will say, “Our son is 15. He with Poles and wanting them to feel our pain, we has decided to become Orthodox, but he has no must feel their pain as well. Orthodox friends. What is he supposed to do?” As far as Jews are concerned, I have always These are the typical problems of a quite normal believed that our work in Poland is to revive the small community. Q

An American in Poland: Helping to Build a Modern Jewish Identity 65 Finding the Pintele Yid by Helise Lieberman

7OV[VI`7H\S4PSUL

V3RODQGFHOHEUDWHVWZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVRI grandchildren. Polish Jews emerged from the democracy, and my family and I mark our “desert” after Communism was dismantled in Atwentieth anniversary of living and work- 1989. Today’s leaders and community members ing in Warsaw, I marvel at what has been achieved are mostly the children, grandchildren and great- in just one generation. In 1994, my husband, our grandchildren of Polish Holocaust survivors; ÀYH\HDUROGGDXJKWHUDQG,FDPHWR:DUVDZIURP they grew up under Communist rule, and some New York City for a two-year work contract. We were at the forefront of the democratic opposition decided to stay, because we realized that we were in the 1970s and ’80s. These activists rejoiced at invested and committed to Jewish life in Poland. the news of the Round Table discussions in the Most of all, our Jewish family life was developing spring of 1989 that precipitated the June 4, 1989 in ways we could never have imagined. For each GHPRFUDWLF HOHFWLRQV WKH ÀUVW LQ 3RODQG VLQFH of us individually and as a family, our sensibilities EHIRUH:RUOG:DU,,DQGWKHÀUVWLQWKHHQWLUH as Jews were enriched beyond expectation. Soviet Bloc. Poland led the way for the subse- The Jewish people wandered in the desert quent fall of the Berlin Wall and the lifting of the for forty years after the exodus from Egypt, not Iron Curtain. because they were lost, but because the transition At that time I, like most of my American from slavery to freedom is never a straight and Jewish contemporaries who had been deeply in- clear path. In Poland, people overthrew an au- volved in the Soviet Jewry movement, was not thoritarian government and won freedom for the aware of the existence of Jewish life in Poland let entire nation, including Poland’s Jewish citizens. alone in the rest of the Soviet Bloc. It was as if a Suddenly Polish Jews, long intimidated and pro- no-man’s land lay between what was then West hibited from embracing their Jewishness, could Germany and the Soviet Union. And even though choose their cultural and religious identities, no my grandfather’s family came from what is now longer predetermined by a repressive regime. WKH3ROLVKFLW\RI%LHOVNR%LDãDDQGWKHRLOSDLQW- They could create community, unfettered, openly ings by my great uncle, who had perished in the celebrate their traditions, and transmit their heri- Shoah, were considered family treasures, I had WDJH WR WKHLU FKLOGUHQ 7KH ÀUVW ´SRVWVODYHU\µ grown up in a generation that described Poland generation was learning to lead a Jewish com- as the “old country” — a place where Jews came munity and forge a Jewish future. from but no longer lived in, the mythic source Looking back over my family’s twenty years of a mixture of accents, assorted recipes and in Poland, I have had the privilege to participate bittersweet stories, preserved by those who had in breathing new life into Poland’s Jewish com- packed and taken with them all of the best of munity alongside Polish Jews who had survived Eastern European Jewish heritage and left noth- the Holocaust, together with their children and ing behind.

66 Deep Roots, New Branches The impact that the political events of 1989 I often pinch myself. How privileged I have would have on Jewish life in Eastern Europe been to not only witness this extraordinary and could not have been foreseen at the time. The unanticipated transition, but to participate in newly reborn democratic Poland, after centuries LWÀUVWDVWKHSULQFLSDORIWKH/DXGHU0RUDVKD of thwarted attempts, wars and occupations, em- Day School, on behalf of the Ronald S. Lauder braced the revival of its Jewish communities and )RXQGDWLRQDVWKHÀUVWGLUHFWRURIWKH(GXFDWLRQ a return to its multicultural roots. The country’s Center of the Museum of the History of Polish

I am often asked, “What has changed the most since you arrived in 1994?” I answer that it is I who have changed the most.

commitment to democratic values and civil soci- Jews; as a consultant to the Rothschild Foundation ety made it possible for Jews to reassert their own Europe, the Westbury Group and the American identities and create communities. After years of Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; and cur- living in the shadows of the Shoah and decades of rently as the director of the Taube Center for the Communism, after the Jewish world had all but Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation. given up on Polish Jewry, Jews in Poland began There is no doubt that extraordinary things — to take their rightful place at the global Jewish miraculous things — have been achieved in roundtable. They did not allow themselves to Poland through the efforts of many passionate EHGHÀQHGE\RWKHUV7KH\GLGQRWGHÀQHWKHP- and dedicated individuals and with the support selves by the past or by who they were not, but of committed sponsors, foundations and agencies rather by who they were and continue to be, with from around the world. Each position I have held respect for the past informing their present and has been much more than a professional post. KHOSLQJWKHPSODQIRUWKHIXWXUH7KH\LGHQWLÀHG Although very different from one another, each naturally with NODO\LVUDHO and fully engaged in has given me entree into the past, keys to the Jewish life in Poland. present, glimpses into the future.

2007: Jewish educator Helise Lieberman leads a community discussion at the Klezmer Hois in Kraków. 7OV[VI`>VQ[LR9HK^HǉZRP

Finding the Pintele Yid 67 2013: Helise Lieberman leading a tour of Jewish Warsaw as part of the Taube Jewish Heritage Tours program. I am often asked, “What has changed the most Through the Taube Center, I have had the hon- since you arrived in 1994?” I answer that it is I or of leading and learning simultaneously as we who have changed the most. My experiences in craft programs and initiatives to support, broaden Poland over the last two decades have reshaped and share Poland’s Jewish renaissance with fel- my Jewish sensibility and daily life, as well as low Polish citizens of all ages and backgrounds my understanding and appreciation for Jewish and with Jews from around the world. Through history, tradition and culture. As the director of the Taube Jewish Heritage Tour Program, which the Taube Center, I have a unique vantage point. we launched in 2008, my colleagues and I meet I am immersed in experiential learning, encoun- guests from around the world, inviting them to tering Polish Jewish heritage daily, exploring the explore Jewish Poland, sharing complex narra- complex thousand-year Polish Jewish narrative tives and engaging both native Poles and visitors and participating in current Polish Jewish life. in meaningful, often thought-provoking, conver- These opportunities, combined with my profes- sations. In discovering their own family roots or sional and personal interactions with Jews from meeting with Polish Jews of different genera- around the world, leave me more strongly com- tions, visitors are often inspired to examine their mitted than ever to a Polish Jewish future. own Jewish lives and identities. For if here in Perhaps it was fortunate that I was not well- Poland, in spite of the Holocaust and decades of versed in the historical timeline when we arrived. Communism, one elects to identify and express Believing that everything was possible, I focused oneself as a Jew — then why not anywhere else on the future rather than the past. After all, Jewish in the Jewish world? communities throughout the centuries have re- In reclaiming their Polish Jewish heritage and emerged in seemingly inhospitable lands. And, engaging in the diversity of Jewish life offered more importantly, my mentors and partners here today, Poles with Jewish roots are crafting mul- in Poland, even with their doubts and concerns, tiple identities as citizens of Poland, of Europe have had complete faith that a Jewish community and of Israel. There is no doubt that the SLQWHOH could grow again in Polish soil. \LG — the spark of Jewish life that endures in

68 Deep Roots, New Branches spite of overwhelming odds — is in full display learning about Polish Jewish history and heritage as Polish Jews establish Jewish homes, create and contemporary Polish Jewish life, while also new genres of Jewish food, art and music, au- exploring how to transmit their knowledge and WKRUERRNVDQGGLUHFWWKHDWHUDQGÀOPVKDYLQJ experience to their own students, community become the teachers of their own children and members and visitors from other countries. The grandchildren as well as their peers, both Jewish participants passionately debate the challenges and non-Jewish. And increasingly as Jews from of Jewish heritage preservation and explore new America, Israel, Australia, England and other expressions of Polish Jewish culture. They are countries take the opportunity to visit the New committed to uncovering the past and to creating Poland, Polish Jews are experiencing a growing a multicultural future in Poland in which Jewish connection to the global Jewish community and life can thrive. becoming true partners in Jewish peoplehood. Mi Dor Le Dor is among the fruits of the Not long ago, the Taube Center was ap- many seeds planted in 1989. I am an eternal proached by young adults in their twenties, those optimist, yet I could not have imagined in 1994 for whom the repression of Communism is only a that today 240 children would be enrolled in fading childhood memory, who asked us to help Warsaw’s Jewish day school, that Limmud

Like most of my American Jewish contemporaries who had been deeply involved in the Soviet Jewry movement, I was not aware of the existence of Jewish life in Poland, let alone in the rest of the Soviet Bloc. It was as if a no- man’s land lay between what was then West Germany and the Soviet Union. them connect meaningfully with their Polish Poland would attract 1,000 participants annually Jewish heritage. For various understandable rea- from all around Poland, that different streams of sons, their family stories had not been handed Jewish religious practices would take root, that down, the QLJJXQLP (Yiddish, “melodies”) had thriving JCCs operate in Kraków and in Warsaw, not been sung, and there was no family NLGGLVK that more than 650 young people have partici- cup stored in paper at the back of the closet. If pated in Taglit-Poland’s Birthright trip to Israel, Jewish heritage — that which we inherit and pass that Moishe House would choose to host its inter- on — was not available to these young Polish national conference in Warsaw (where it has an Jews, how could they transmit a living heritage active house), or that the Museum of the History to their children and grandchildren, how could of Polish Jews, which presents the thousand-year they connect to their own Ashkenazi roots in the history of Polish Jews, will open this year on the wider Jewish world? site of the Warsaw ghetto. In response, we at the Taube Center cre- Who would have been able to predict that ated a unique initiative, the Mi Dor Le Dor every summer more than 20,000 people from Jewish Heritage Educators’ Leadership and 3RODQG DQG DURXQG WKH ZRUOG ÀOO .UDNyZ·V Training Program. Launched in 2012 with Szeroka Square to enjoy the closing night con- seven participants, the program is now in its cert of the Jewish Culture Festival, that Jewish third year of providing a ten-month program and Holocaust Studies departments have opened in “engaged Jewish learning” most akin to the in major Polish universities, that books about Wexner Heritage Program. With the support of Polish Jewish history and tradition abound, or the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, that thousands of volunteers around the coun- the Koret Foundation and the Taube Foundation try — both Jews and non-Jews — serve as the for Jewish Life & Culture, participants from dedicated caretakers of Polish Jewish heritage /XEOLQâyGť.UDNyZ6]F]HFLQDQG:DUVDZDUH and culture?

Finding the Pintele Yid 69 Through my personal and professional expe- of nakhes (Yiddish: “deep satisfaction, pride and riences in Poland, I am constantly challenged to pleasure”) comes from knowing that the new take a closer look, and I feel obligated to encour- generation, the result of an extraordinary collec- age others to do the same: to rethink and reex- tive endeavor, is poised to meet these challenges amine how they view and understand Jewish life and ensure that Jewish life in Poland will evolve in Poland, past and present, to connect with their as Polish Jewry continues to reclaim its heritage own family heritage, and to include Polish Jews and its place in the Jewish world. They will suc- Poland was a place where Jews came from but no longer lived in, the mythic source of a mixture of accents, assorted recipes and bittersweet stories, preserved by those who had packed and taken with them all of the best of Eastern European Jewish heritage and left nothing behind.

as integral participants in Jewish peoplehood. I ceed in confronting the prevalent stereotype that have come to expect and accept contradictions, Poland is the place of “dead Jews, Auschwitz and LQFOXGLQJFRQÁLFWLQJQDUUDWLYHVDQGSHUFHSWLRQV the Shoah” and will break through old barriers sometimes built on myths and generalizations, and worn-out prejudices. and have learned that understanding and reso- I am convinced that if you give Jews who lution is often to be found reading between the have never been to Poland a box of crayons and lines while observing what is right in front of ask them to draw a picture of it, many will use us. Yes, it’s complicated, but a profound sense black, gray and red, or perhaps the sepia tones

2005: Students gather around then-School Principal Helise Lieberman at the Lauder Morasha Day School in Warsaw. 7OV[VI`,K^HYK:LYV[[H

70 Deep Roots, New Branches of old, fading photographs. I, too, would probably have chosen those colors back in 1988. But I have learned since that Jewish life in Poland is multifaceted and multicolored. I have learned that life is not always lived in the extremes of black and white. Grappling with the issues that lie in the gray zones provokes us to think and to challenge misperceptions and preconceptions, but also directs us toward self-discovery and the opportunity to reconnect with the Jewish world through the Polish Jewish prism. In my own journey, it is living and working in the midst of Poland’s Jewish past and its revival that has opened me up not only to the many shades of gray but also to the vibrant colors of new possibilities and connections that now characterize Jewish life in the New Poland.

As I was writing this essay, I was asked how 2013: Helise Lieberman at the Irena Sendler Memorial my Jewish life might have been different had we Award Ceremony held in the auditorium of the Museum of not moved to Poland. I am sure that we would the History of Polish Jews. have enjoyed a very vibrant Jewish life, but I experience the Jewish world from an array of ex- don’t think I would have come to appreciate the periences and perspectives. I have learned many complexity of the Jewish world, nor the diversity valuable lessons during Poland’s transition to

In reclaiming their Polish Jewish heritage and engaging in the diversity of Jewish life offered today, Poles with Jewish roots are crafting multiple identities as citizens of Poland, of Europe and of Israel. There is no doubt that the pintele yid – the spark of Jewish life that endures in spite of overwhelming odds — is in full display. of Jewish identities. I carry two tangible pass- democracy, chief among them that we all have a ports with pride: one issued in the United States SLQWHOH\LGin us. I now proudly wear multifocal and one in the Republic of Poland. On June 4 Jewish lenses, and while there are transitional RIWKLV\HDUZKHQ3RODQGFHOHEUDWHGWZHQW\ÀYH areas that are blurred or blended, I have no years of democracy, I was extremely proud to intention of altering the prescription. If anything, belong to and represent both countries. I also I am more curious than ever about the Jewish carry a third passport: my Jewish one. It allows lives that require a closer look, more attention, me to cross communal borders, travel through and the opportunity to share my vision and time zones — historical and geographical — and perceptions. Q

Finding the Pintele Yid 71 The Third Generation: Those raised in the shadow of the Iron Curtain as Communism fell

The Polish Phenomenon by Magdalena Matuszewska

s I am writing these words in the year the 1970-80s was still trapped under the regime 2014, it is almost the tenth anniversary WKDW ZDV GHYHORSLQJ DQ RIÀFLDO IDOVH QDUUDWLYH A of when I started working for the Taube of history while imprisoning and harassing its Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland citizens — from the organized underground of Foundation. Before that, I was an assistant at the the 6ROLGDUQRŋþ Solidarity movement) to the Center for Jewish Studies of the Maria Curie- Catholic Church, in which the anti-Communist 6NãRGRZVND 8QLYHUVLW\ LQ /XEOLQ DQG DW WKH opposition found shelter, to ordinary Polish citi- Hebrew Studies Department at the University zens who would not accept the system. The reality of Warsaw I taught Hebrew. I hope to obtain my of the 1980s reached into the lives of children like doctoral degree in Jewish Studies soon. None myself, with propaganda at school, newspeak, a of these possibilities are anything I could have shortage of basic items, ration cards, curfews. As imagined in the 1980s when I was growing up in my father was a “private initiative” (a term in the Warsaw — gray and distressed by Communism. Socialist lexicon that meant “businessman” — not

The reality of the 1980s reached into the lives of children like myself, with propaganda at school, newspeak, a shortage of basic items, ration cards, curfews.

On September 1, 1939 Germany attacked perceived favorably by the authorities), my par- Poland, and on September 17th the country was HQWVKDGGLIÀFXOWLHVHQUROOLQJPHLQNLQGHUJDUWHQ invaded by the Soviet Union. Poland, after its Political realities were holding down people’s as- GHHSLQYROYHPHQWLQ:RUOG:DU,,DQGÀJKWLQJLQ pirations and enthusiasm. YDULRXVEDWWOHÀHOGVLQ(XURSHDQGWKH0LGGOH(DVW Jewish issues were rarely part of the public was left behind the Iron Curtain by its Western discourse; there was very little opportunity for allies, England and France, with which it had a -HZLVK DIÀOLDWLRQ DQG YHU\ IHZ VRXUFHV QRW military alliance in case of war. This new status to mention places) for Jewish education. The ZDVQRWDFFHSWHGE\PDQ\3ROHV7KRVHÀJKWLQJ &RPPXQLVWV KDG SUHVVXUHG D VLJQLÀFDQW SHU- against the newly imposed Communist system centage of Poles with Jewish roots to emigrate showed enormous courage and paid a very high in the purges of March ’68. All this in a country price, especially in the 1940s and ’50s. Poland of that, before World War II, had some 3.5 million

72 Deep Roots, New Branches Jewish citizens with a history that stretched back to the Middle Ages. While Jews had suffered pogroms in other countries and were expelled from England and Spain, Polish rulers had histori- cally welcomed Jews and granted them special SULYLOHJHV7KH&RPPXQLVWVWKRXJKGLGQRWÀQG this tradition a subject of their interest, though paradoxically there were Jews in the Polish Communist structure. Looking back, I can say that neither the trag- edies of World War II nor the Jewish issues of my childhood were abstract to me as a girl. Spending time with my grandfather with a number tattooed on his arm and listening to my grandmother’s stories from Ravensbruck and Buchenwald, I absorbed their reality as part of my family heritage. Unlike many in the 1980s, my father continued to be attracted by Jewish culture and intrigued by situations like a visit of a group of Chassidim to Góra Kalwaria (Yiddish: Ger). That must have been quite a sight to see in Poland Magdalena Matuszewska delivering a paper during the of the 1980s! He was excited to get a copy of European Association for Israeli Studies Conference, /LWHUDWXUDQDŊZLHFLH(Literature in the World) Munich 2012. in 1987 that was devoted entirely to the Talmud RIIHUHGULFKQHZSHUVSHFWLYHVLQHYHU\ÀHOGIURP (an exceptional publication for those times). In daily life to academia, religion, the economy, his- the mid ’80s I was shown a Jewish cemetery in tory and modern technology. For me, as a teenager Kazimierz Dolny (Yiddish: Kuzmir) not far from in 1989, the fall of Communism meant I would Lublin, which looked like a scrap of a mysteri- no longer be obliged to study abroad as planned. ous world. I didn’t know then that in later years Suddenly there was the possibility of attending the that cemetery would become a major focus of my ÀUVWSULYDWHKLJKVFKRROLQ:DUVDZZLWKVRPHRI M.A. dissertation. the classes actually held in English. Only later did Poles have always been known for their resis- I learn that changes should have been conducted tance and struggles for independence and freedom. differently — the Communist system had not been Pope John Paul II breathed a spirit of freedom into entirely eradicated and its remnants were still, in peoples’ hearts during his pilgrimage to Poland in various ways, in power. A disastrous economic 1979. One outcome of that historic visit was the VLWXDWLRQDQGGLIÀFXOWUHIRUPVEHJDQWRHYLVFHUDWH founding of Solidarity, a mass social movement Poles’ enthusiasm. The Communist leaders, priva- ÀJKWLQJIRUHPSOR\HHV·ULJKWVWKHRQO\RQHRILWV WL]LQJQDWLRQDOÀUPVTXLFNO\DGDSWHGWKHPVHOYHV kind in the Soviet Bloc of European countries. The to the new reality, creating a new post-Communist number of members reached some 10 million — business class. a quarter of all the country’s citizens! Eventually However complicated the question of post- it led to the world-shaking fall of Communism. 1989 transformations and their impact on both Poland’s semi-free elections in June 1989 evoked government and society has been, changes in tremendous enthusiasm in the nation and offered VRPH ÀHOGV DUH DSSDUHQW 3RODQG·V GHPRFUDWLF hope for a better life. Opening the country to the transition has had a profoundly deep and multi- world, linking Poland with its pre-Communist IDFHWHGLQÁXHQFHRQ3ROLVK-HZLVKUHODWLRQV,Q heritage and allowing people to have free choice terms of political changes, the most important

The Polish Phenomenon 73 4HNKHSLUH4H[\ZaL^ZRHH[[OLVMÄJLVM[OL;H\IL*LU[LYMVY[OL9LUL^HSVM1L^PZO3PMLPU7VSHUK-V\UKH[PVU

was the restoration of full diplomatic ties between When I began my courses in the Hebrew Poland and Israel in February 1990 after a 23-year Studies Department of the University of Warsaw KLDWXV$IWHUQXPHURXVYLVLWVE\RIÀFLDOVLQERWK in the mid 1990s, even though it was a few countries, a decision was made by the Prime years after the fall of Communism, the rebirth of Ministers to conduct annual inter-governmental Jewish life and culture, although visible, had not FRQVXOWDWLRQV³WKHÀUVWWRRNSODFHLQ-HUXVDOHP \HWEHJXQWRÁRXULVK$OWKRXJKWKHÀUVW-HZLVK in 2011. For the last few years, Poland has been or Hebrew studies were created in Poland before called the strongest ally of Israel in Europe, World War II, most perished in the Holocaust to- since the involvement of the late President of gether with their creators and others were closed 3RODQG /HFK .DF]\ĸVNL 3UHYLRXVO\ ZKHQ KH throughout the Communist period with the excep- ZDV0D\RURI:DUVDZ.DF]\ĸVNLGRQDWHGODQG tion of the Jewish Historical Institute (operating in the center of the city for the construction of since 1947) and the Cathedral of Semitic Studies the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. An at the University of Warsaw (since 1950). The important department of the Israeli Embassy is latter was the forerunner of the Hebrew Studies the Righteous Department, which coordinates Department from which I graduated in 2002. In issues connected to the honorary title “Righteous 1986 Jagiellonian University in Kraków estab- Among the Nations.” Poland has the largest lished its Center for Jewish Studies, and after number of awardees — almost 6,400 — each one 1989 several Jewish Studies departments opened represented by a tree planted at the Yad Vashem ³LQ:URFãDZ3R]QDĸDQG/XEOLQWRQDPHDIHZ Institute. The heroism is even more astonishing I started my Hebrew studies with deep interest, when we understand that Poland and Ukraine encouraged by my father, even though I was out of were the only countries in German-occupied step with my peers who were choosing the obvious Europe in which any support to a Jew meant a ÀHOGV FRQQHFWHG ZLWK WKH QHZ V\VWHP HFRQRP- death sentence not only to the one helping but ics, marketing or European studies. In my chosen also to his/her entire family. ÀHOG WKHUH ZHUH IHZ SURVSHFWV IRU RFFXSDWLRQDO

74 Deep Roots, New Branches development and very little possibility for schol- arships, research fellowships or student exchange programs. But after Poland joined the European Union in 2004, new educational opportunities arose. With the support of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was selected to participate in a Hebrew language course XOSDQ at Haifa University. After that, supported by the Taube Foundation, I conducted a research project at Hebrew University in Jerusalem for my Ph.D. thesis: the study of an unpublished manuscript (housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw) that is a collection of Hebrew poetry from the Ottoman Empire. As a young girl I had been interested in poetry, so I was pleased to revive my early enthusiasm. 2013: Magdalena Matuszewska, left, and Shana Penn, Executive Director of the Taube Foundation for Jewish During my academic teaching post at the Life & Culture, at a Shabbat dinner in Warsaw held at the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maria National Opera House, celebrating the soft opening of &XULH6NãRGRZVNDLQ/XEOLQWKHUHZDVDQRUJD- the Museum of the History of Polish Jews on the 70th nized effort to reintroduce Hebrew to academia in anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. this region of Poland. The language, which was are growing in both Orthodox congregations and familiar to some 40 percent of Lublin inhabitants Reform ones such as Etz Chaim, Beit Warszawa, before the war, had been almost totally erased in or Beit Kraków. Many young people now feel the decades after the Holocaust. When Hebrew comfortable with — and proud of — their iden- courses were announced — open to anyone in- tities as Polish Jews. Dynamic organizations WHUHVWHG³P\ÀUVWFODVVZDVOLWHUDOO\EXUVWLQJ like the Jewish Community Centers in Kraków at the seams. As I began speaking to the class I and Warsaw have transformed Poland into a saw more and more people arriving and suddenly place of inspiring Jewish continuity. Cultural realized that I was talking through the open door organizations, including the Taube Center for to students gathering in the corridor! One of the the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland and the students (non-Jewish as most of them were) told Galicia Jewish Museum, have been celebrat- me later that she came to the course because she ing Polish Jewish heritage by offering lectures, wanted to be able to read the inscriptions in the educational programs and materials, Jewish neglected Jewish cemetery in her little town (a heritage tours, and meetings between Polish and former shtetl) in Eastern Poland. She was not an Israeli youth. And the Museum of the History of exception. I met many enthusiasts like her dur- Polish Jews, opening to the world in 2014 on the ing my post. Poland had only needed the spark former site of the Warsaw ghetto, tells the his- of democracy to give people a chance to discover tory of a thousand years of Jewish presence on their identity, personal or social, in a new way: Polish lands. As expressed by Professor Barbara whether in relation to the neglected heritage of Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Director of the Museum’s DQWL&RPPXQLVWÀJKWHUVRUWKHSUHZDUOHJDF\RI Core Exhibition Team, the narrative is based on the Polish Republic; whether in relation to one’s mapping the past, recognizing the present, and own Jewish roots — often newly uncovered — building a future, all based on the understanding or in relation to Jewish neighbors past or present. that we honor those who died by remembering how they lived. From my perspective, the gradual revival of Jewish life and culture in Poland has de- Thousands of people — non-Jews, Polish veloped on a scale that was not anticipated. Jews and the Jewish diaspora from around the Today’s Jewish communities not only exist but world — participate in festivals in Poland that

The Polish Phenomenon 75 promote Jewish culture, a phenomenon initiated has voiced his appreciation of the breadth of pop- LQZLWKWKHÀUVW-HZLVK&XOWXUH)HVWLYDOLQ ularity of Jewish culture among the Polish people .UDNyZ 7KLV JUHDW -HZLVK ÀHVWD WKDW ODVWV IRU and the enthusiasm with which it is embraced. ten days at the turn of June and July annually is one of the biggest in the world and has inspired It seems to me that today the challenge is to -HZLVK IHVWLYDOV LQ :URFãDZ %LDã\VWRN âyGť strengthen the message by educating the world :DUVDZ &KPLHOQLN *GDĸVN « WKH OLVW VHHPV in some truths about Poland: that $UPLD.UDMRZD HQGOHVV ,Q :DUVDZ WKHUH DUH WZR -HZLVK ÀOP (Polish Home Army), of which my great grandfa- festivals, both attracting a wide audience. The ther was a member, had strong anti-VKPDOW]RYQLN 3ROLVKERRNPDUNHWDOVRUHÁHFWVWKLVÁRZHULQJRI regulations (executing those who were betray- Jewish culture, with probably one of the highest ing Jews to Germans during World War II); that When Hebrew courses were announced — open to anyone interested — my ﬁrst class was literally bursting at the seams. As I began speaking to the class I saw more and more people arriving and suddenly realized that I was talking through the open door to students gathering in the corridor!

percentages of publications on Jewish themes in there were no Polish concentration camps, only the world: from Holocaust studies to Judaism to German camps in occupied Poland; and that translations of contemporary Israeli writers. The Poles and Jews share a thousand-year-long com- transformations of the last decades in Poland mon legacy. have uncovered something quite surprising to In 2005, I had the privilege of joining Shana American Jews: the extensive involvement 3HQQ LQ EXLOGLQJ WKH7DXEH )RXQGDWLRQ RIÀFH LQ of non-Jews — Catholics and others — as co- Warsaw to carry out the goals of the Jewish Heritage creators of the rebirth of Jewish life and culture. ,QLWLDWLYHLQ3RODQG,QWKHEHJLQQLQJWKHRIÀFHZDV Even the Catholic Church in Poland shows its in my apartment. Today, with an enlarged team in support by organizing an annual Day of Judaism, a modern section of the Jewish Historical Institute an initiative that takes place in only two coun- Gallery, we run educational programs, make tries in the world: Poland and Italy. grants, provide customized heritage tours for in- What the international community has dif- dividuals, families and groups, do networking and ÀFXOW\XQGHUVWDQGLQJLVWKDW3RODQGLVGLIIHUHQW offer consultations. In collaboration with our U.S. from the stereotypes people carry in their heads colleagues we share a common vision of Poland regarding both the past and the present. Yes there as a powerful place to discuss Jewish memory, were black chapters in Polish Jewish relations. identity, loss and continuity as well as a common Yet contemporary Poland has done much to in- mission to build bridges in Polish Jewish relations. FUHDVH SXEOLF DZDUHQHVV DQG UHÁHFWLRQ DERXW After meeting with many American visitors I also these. Jonathan Ornstein, director of the JCC understand and appreciate how important it is to Kraków, says that there is no country in Europe build connections between American Jews and where citizens are more knowledgeable about the living heritage of Ashkenazi Jewry, so much Jewish culture or more welcoming to Jews; no of which is rooted in Poland. I feel honored to be European city where it is more comfortable to involved and contributing to this inspirational and be a Jew in public than Kraków. Similarly, the unique Jewish revival in Poland, a historic phe- Israeli Ambassador to Poland, Hon. Zvi Rav-Ner, nomenon not to be missed. Q

76 Deep Roots, New Branches From Stalin and Hitler to the Remuh by Daniela Malec

he end of Communism was the end of P\ FKLOGKRRG ERWK OLWHUDOO\ DQG ÀJX- Tratively. In 1989 I turned 11, woke up from my childhood reverie, opened my eyes and went out into the street with a revolutionary’s shout. I wanted to witness the Great Transfor- mation, which I understood none too well, but I felt in my youthful bones that the world around me would change beyond recognition. My parents equipped me with a basic knowledge about the bestiality of the collapsing system, though it disquieted them to see I was getting political- ly involved. During my Russian lessons (1989 Daniela Malec in Tel Aviv. 7OV[VI`1\SPH4HYPH2VZaL^ZRH

I wandered through Kazimierz’s cafes and bars, saying to people, whether I knew them or not, “I’m looking for Jews, maybe you know somebody? Maybe you’ve got some Jewish roots yourself?” Faith and determination can work miracles. was the last year for which it was compulsory to of course, but they worked hard and didn’t start studying this language), I drew the Solidar- have time for conversation with the eldest of ity logo on the wall, to the fury of my despised their four daughters. Russian teacher (who seemed to me practically My peers generally did not share my revo- the incarnation of Stalin). In retaliation, the lutionary enthusiasm. I supposed that the ma- teacher compelled me to learn by heart a poem jority of them were the children of Communist entitled “Lenin Is Luminosity,” to be recited in parents entangled in the system I despised, and front of a school assembly. Fortunately, the po- so I lost interest in them. I began attending open litical system changed, and the assembly was ir- meetings to hear candidates for the Sejm (Polish revocably called off. 3DUOLDPHQW EHIRUHWKHÀUVWIUHHHOHFWLRQVLQSRVW- When the first free press of the new war Poland. I was disappointed when the other Republic began to be printed, I took some attendees looked at me with the kind of pity money from Mama and ran to buy the first reserved for orphaned children. issue of *D]HWD :\ERUF]D. Since then I have A few years passed before I found out that read it every day, educating myself according my own family had had its share of Communists, to the paper’s line, and seeking out people with both on my mother’s and my father’s side. In the whom I could share a bond of revolutionary 1930s they had worked in the Polish Communist ideas. I also shared this bond with my family, Party in Radom. They perished in Auschwitz.

From Stalin and Hitler to the Remuh 77 In addition, I had a great-grandfather who was DQRIÀFHULQWKH6RYLHW5HG$UP\$IWHUWKHZDU the part of the family that came to Poland from Belarus after 1946 had worked in the lower bu- UHDXFUDWLFOHYHOVRIWKH8% 2IÀFHRI6HFXULW\ At eleven years old I knew nothing about this, nor was I yet aware of my mother’s Jewish roots. I was brought up in the ’80s in what I was certain was a world without Jews. I had heard cruel jokes about Jews at school, and I associated them with a mysterious group that the Germans had wiped IURPWKHIDFHRIWKHHDUWK&KLHÁ\KRZHYHU,VDZ Daniela Malec connecting with her newly discovered roots Hitler as a cruel fellow and as someone who had at a Jewish cemetery in Kraków. caused a lot of destruction to my city – Warsaw. was learning languages, Mama assigned me the mission of searching out the missing members of In 1988 local rabbis were set up in Warsaw, her family.) but my family was not associated with the com- PXQLW\,QWKH·VWKHRIÀFLDOVWUXFWXUHRIWKH On that day in the 1990s, which was just as rev- Jewish Community was slowly reborn in Poland. olutionary a breakthrough as the day Communism I found out about my Jewish heritage one June fell, I found out that there were still descendants evening when my mother decided that, as a teen- of the Jews who had survived the Holocaust and ager, I was now mature enough to hear the truth. were living in Poland. Moreover, Mama told me

It is hard to construct a creative Jewish vision and identity in such close proximity to reminders of the Holocaust. In my case, I was helped by education and discovering the rich intellectual heritage of Polish Jewry.

I received the news with the excitement of a that some of my parents’ friends, whom I had young person searching for the shape of her iden- known since Solidarity times, were Jews as well. tity. In one night I learned a great deal of family My family wasn’t the only one. I then realized that history that I had previously had no clue about. one could be both a Jew and a Pole; Jews were no ,QDQLQVWDQW0LHV]NR,²WKHÀUVWNLQJRI3RODQG different in their speech, their appearance or their ²FHDVHGWREHWKHRQHZKRÀUVWVHWLQPRWLRQWKH way of life, except that in some cases they might history of my world, and a measureless, mysteri- be less than enthusiastic about the Church, or even ous space opened up before me, in which the past atheists. You wouldn’t know someone was a Jew DQGWKHIXWXUHZHUHUHGHÀQHG if he or she didn’t tell you. I later found out that not everyone in my gen- A few years later, when I founded the Czulent eration took revelations of their family’s Jewish Jewish student organization in Kraków, this con- history with comparable openness and positive viction led me to wander through Kazimierz’s LGHQWLÀFDWLRQ)RUVRPHRIWKHPWKHSUHGRPLQDQW cafes and bars, saying to people, whether I reaction was fear and a conspiracy to hide this fact, knew them or not, “I’m looking for Jews, maybe which had been passed down from generation to you know somebody? Maybe you’ve got some generation after the war. As for me, the way my Jewish roots yourself?” Faith and determination mother declared the truth was decisive. It came can work miracles – this was how I found some late, suddenly, from out of nowhere, but in a way of the active members of our organization. that sparked not only interest but commitment as , PHW P\ ÀUVW -HZLVK IULHQG ZKHQ , ZDV D well. (As the eldest daughter, and the one who high school student. We got along at once, but

78 Deep Roots, New Branches our friendship took on a whole new dimension when we skipped class together one day. Walking WKURXJK WKH 3RZć]NRZVNL &HPHWHU\ QHDU RXU school, we found ourselves near a neighboring cemetery, a Jewish one. That was when my friend told me he was a Jew. I remember as if it were yesterday the feeling of incredible bonding and closeness that was suddenly formed between us. The earth stopped spinning for a moment, though I myself wasn’t sure why. The two of us were bound by a secret, a mystery, a treasure of which our surrounding Warsaw had no concept. I learned a bit about the Holocaust from my parents, but mainly from history books and Polish wartime literature. The naturalistic short stories of Daniela Malec and other members of Kraków’s young adult Tadeusz Borowski were the most unsettling. But organization, Czulent, examining historic Jewish documents the emotions I felt from my contact with literature VUVULVM[OLPYÄLSK[YPWZ[V[OLZP[LZVMWYL^HY1L^PZO communities in Poland. are hard to compare with the emotions aroused by ÀOPV,Q,VDZDÀOPDERXWWKH6KRDKIRUWKH ZLWK-HZLVKRUJDQL]DWLRQVDQGÀUVWYLVLWHGD-HZLVK ÀUVWWLPHLWZDV6FKLQGOHU·V/LVW. The images of religious neighborhood and saw practicing Jews, groups of Jews murdered in Kraków city streets who seemed plucked straight from the canvases that I knew myself, under billboards in a language of artist Maurycy Gottlieb. I kept my ears open I spoke, and the moving, fact-based story made ZKLOHYLVLWLQJ-XGDLFDVKRSVDQG,ERXJKWP\ÀUVW a crushing impression on me. The most power- Hebrew alphabet, a set of blocks for children. ful image was the face of a boy hiding in a cellar I also met a woman who informed me that in the ghetto. I saw my high school friend in his in Kraków (where I intended to study), in the face and was shaken by the awareness that he, too, Izaak Synagogue at 18 Kupa Street, there was a could have been in that situation. I left the cinema Jewish foundation I had to visit when I returned to a changed person who would forever powerfully Poland. When I began studies at the Jagiellonian link her Jewish identity with the Holocaust. University, the Kupa Street address was one of the )RUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQVL[W\\HDUVLQWKHV ÀUVW , ZHQW WR EXW P\ ÀUVW FRQWDFW ZLWK WKH OR- Jewish summer camps for children and young peo- cal community was not inspiring. I knocked, and ple were organized, and the Polish Organization of the young man who opened the door informed me Jewish Students (PUSŦ) was also formed. Neither that in Poland, in Kraków, things weren’t like in I, nor my friend, nor my parents had any contact the States, they didn’t have many attractions for with these, however. The word-of-mouth infor- young people. He said that if I wanted to I could mation did not reach us, the Internet was not yet come for the Sabbath dinner, but the truth was, I popular, and perhaps no one from my little Jewish- didn’t even know what Sabbath dinner was. I left, linked community was interested in this chance to and it took me three and a half years to return. see an organized Jewish community reborn. I only During my studies I met my second Jewish found out after I left the country that there was, in friend, Tadeusz Wolenski, and together we de- Poland, a communal kind of Jewish life beyond cided to knock once more (at least for my part) the world of lone Jews. on the door of the Izaak Synagogue in Kraków’s After I graduated from high school I left the Kazimierz, which we had only known for its blos- FRXQWU\IRUD\HDUÀUVWVSHQGLQJDIHZPRQWKVLQ soming nightlife. Tadeusz had already made his Ireland then going to the United States in search of ÀUVWMRXUQH\WR,VUDHOZKHUHKHPHW\RXQJ3ROLVK IDPLO\PHPEHUV7KHUH,PDGHP\ÀUVWFRQWDFWV Jews, and came back home with the exciting

From Stalin and Hitler to the Remuh 79 information that there was a Jewish student or- JDQL]DWLRQLQ3RODQGDQGKHNQHZKRZWRÀQGLW It was the second time that I had found out from abroad that Jewish life was going on in Poland. After forging contact with the Polish Union of Jewish Students (PUSŦ) and the organization’s branch in Kraków, things went very quickly. I was introduced to the community, met its oldest mem- EHUVFHOHEUDWHGP\ÀUVW&KDQXNDKPDGHP\ÀUVW YLVLWWRWKH5HPXK6\QDJRJXHGUDQNP\ÀUVWYRG- ka at Purim. I quickly learned the local rules and that, compared to Warsaw, there was almost noth-

ing going on for a young person who was eager to Rabbi Boaz Pash and Daniela Malec leading Chanukah learn. In Warsaw there was already a Jewish school celebrations for the Jewish community in Kraków. and adults had the opportunity for regular Jewish 7OV[VI`4HYP\Za-YLQ education. In Kraków, the beautiful old city by the belly-dancing and yoga. Czulent still runs meetings Vistula and under the wings of the Wawel dragon, for young people, and carries out a few education- on the other hand, the local community ensured al and cultural projects. There has been a perma- some much-needed assistance for its elderly mem- nent rabbi in Kraków for years, as well as a kosher bers, most of whom were Holocaust survivors. The shop and restaurant. Life in Kraków’s Kazimierz few young people were left out – they had nowhere in no way resembles what it was before the war or to meet, no outside support, no resources, ideas a neighborhood in New York, but a young person or knowledge. There were no leaders in the older whose parents suddenly decide to tell her the truth community to inspire or guide them, no teachers or about her Jewish roots now has an address where rabbis. Nothing. I recall a meeting in a pub, where she can get information. If she wants to learn we sucked back our drinks and planned our next she has a wide selection of choices, and, if she boring meeting over more beer. wants to meet others like her, she can get invited The situation changed a few months later, how- to a meeting. ever, again due to inspiration born in another coun- For some time I thought that our group was try. In 2003, during a Birthright Taglit trip to Israel, unique in Poland, at least since the events of we met a young Krakovian community in the Holy 1968, when many Jews emigrated from Poland. Land. After returning to Poland I called together the Or if not unique in the whole country, then at people I met on the Taglit trip and a few others for least in Kraków. Over time I discovered that this DÀUVWPHHWLQJDQGWKDW·VKRZ&]XOHQWZDVERUQ wasn’t the case and like-minded groups had ex- $IWHUJRLQJRXWLQWRWKHVWUHHWVWRÀQGQHZPHP- isted at various times before us. In Kraków, a bers, we grew quickly to 30 people, and soon man- similar young group had met in the early ’90s, aged to create a dynamic youth environment, the and although they were perhaps fewer in number, appearance of which initiated important processes they were just as creative and full of enthusiasm. and transformations for the Jewish community in In the early ’80s another group of young people Kraków – and beyond. The young community drew had also formed to search for a Jewish commu- in foreign funders and many well-wishers and con- nity. These groups fell apart fairly quickly, how- vinced them that the development of Jewish life in ever, and did not leave much of a lasting trace Kraków was worth investing in. on their environment. Communism isolated, im- Now, as a result of all of these activities, we peded and cut down dreams and the early ’90s have a Jewish Community Center in Kraków, were too fresh a soil to thrive in. Only our group which has a Sunday school for children, various IRXQGVRPHÀUPJURXQGRSSRUWXQLWLHVERUQIURP educational courses, lectures, meetings and also historical necessity, and the blessing of the times.

80 Deep Roots, New Branches Building Jewish life in Poland is not easy. It is work with young people of different faiths. I help hard to construct a creative vision and identity in organize international projects aimed at multi- such close proximity to reminders of the Holocaust. religious dialogue, actions for peace, protecting I was helped by education and by discovering the the Earth, opposing violence toward women, and ULFKLQWHOOHFWXDOKHULWDJHRI3ROLVK-HZU\YLDÀHOG many other topics. I love the interfaith spirit of my trips with Czulent through the shtetls of Galicia, work. I love visiting temples of other religions. and by reading the books and learning the thoughts I love hearing the PXH]]LQ on Fridays when Tel of the great rabbis. I now live in Jerusalem and Aviv becomes so quiet before the start of Shabbat study the commentaries of the Remuh, in whose and the Muslim call for prayer drifts up to my Kraków synagogue I prayed for a few years. I have window from the nearby neighborhood of Jaffa. I learned that Jewish life is where Jewish knowledge am patiently awaiting religious and political peace and books are loved. .ROKDNDYRG to all who share in the Middle East, as I am awaiting the Messiah. this love in modern-day Poland. -XQH I visit Poland often and am thrilled to see that the Jewish community there is growing, Jewish To d a y, J u n e 4 , 2 0 1 4 Community Centers being built, Jewish books Five years since I wrote the above essay, I’m being published in Polish, Jewish weddings tak- sitting in my home in the hip Florentin neighboring place, Jewish children being born. The Jewish hood of Tel Aviv. After graduating from Pardes presence must survive in Poland and its presence Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem in 2008, must be strong, as this is truly the best answer to

Discovering my Jewishness will always be an experience akin to retrieving a sunken ship full of gold, reclaiming a lost treasure, treasure that had been taken from my family by force.

I decided to apply for Israeli citizenship (“make Hitler’s atrocities. I also delight in the fact that aliyah”), based on the Right of Return and follow- more and more non-Jewish Poles express their ing similar decisions made by some family mem- feelings that the Jewish heritage of Poland is part bers in 1958. So here I am, Israeli, Tel Avivian, of their Polish heritage — they are proud of it and living a few minutes’ walk from a Mediterranean want to preserve it, want to include it in building beach, surrounded not just by countless coffee their Polish identity. The work on Jewish revival shops, restaurants and nightclubs but also by a in Poland is work that builds bridges, heals his- good choice of synagogues of different prayer torical wounds. I am proud and happy that I was style and denominations. True, most of the syn- actively involved in this revival. agogues in Florentin do not operate every day, $VPXFKDV,QRZGHÀQHP\VHOIDVDQ,VUDHOL most restaurants are not strictly kosher — this I will always be, even more, an Eastern European city is liberal, mostly secular, progressive and Jew, a Polish Jew. Marked by the Holocaust and cosmopolitan — but when it comes to a choice E\&RPPXQLVP³ZKHQ-HZVÀUVWORVWWKHLUHQ- of kosher foods, the options for Jewish learning, tire world and then hid their identity out of fear the choice of a synagogue community, Tel Aviv — discovering my Jewishness will always be an is heaven on earth in comparison with any city in experience akin to retrieving a sunken ship full of gold, reclaiming a lost treasure, treasure that Poland. And if I look back on why I made DOL\DK, had been taken from my family by force. I am this was my main motivation — to have more op- an Eastern European Jew suspended between tions, more learning, more choices — to have it cultures, countries, languages. Between belong- “easier” and richer when it comes to being a Jew. ing and being an outsider. A wandering Jew, for I have been employed here by an international whom my true house, my true land, in some interfaith organization (Religions for Peace) to sense, is only the Torah. Q

From Stalin and Hitler to the Remuh 81 Genuine Czulent by Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz

was born in 1981, the year that martial law literally set apart. Our teacher sat me with âukasz was imposed in Poland. The years of my Somerfeld, who also had black hair like me. All I adolescence were an era of political insta- the other girls sat with girls, and boys with boys. bility: Solidarity, the deliberations of the Round Only we two, the “Spanish,” sat together. 1 Table, the collapse of Communism, the opening After school I always went to visit my sick up of borders, all kinds of change, the coming grandmother. I brought her lunch every day. My of democracy. grandmother always taught me prayers – “Aniu, But what did this mean for a little girl? In it is useful! You have to pray very nicely! When practice, nothing. Only that my mother brought they [the Germans] return, and they ask you to me a Barbie doll from the West. I still went to pray then you will pray.” So I prayed and waited, school with my backpack, passing through and no one came. Each year we went to Grandma’s the whole city with all the local attractions. I less and less, because how much can one pray? knew that once, between the Evangelical and On Saturday and Sunday, I traveled with my dad the Catholic churches, had been the synagogue. and his parents to their village. It was a lot of Already at a young age I knew a lot about the suffering. Grandfather still spoke about hiding history of the Jews. In my house we still talked in the forest. Grandmother never allowed us to about the history of Poles, Jews, Polish Jews and waste any food during the meal. I told Dad about the Poles against the Jews. it. He told me that people of a certain age can Most of the inhabitants of the town did not speak nonsense so not to listen to the grandpar- differ from each other; we all looked the same, ents’ stories. How he had stopped listening too. had the same problems, went to church. I, like I talked less and less with my grandparents, and them, did not differ much. However, from time we no longer visited the village; we only went on to time, while walking with my mother, some la- foot to the park. dies might remark to us. They admired my, as it I started high school. As a rebellious young was said, “Gypsy” beauty — As pretty as a small girl, I chose “general studies” and expected the Gypsy! What nice black eyes and hair! She looks economic consequences to anger my mom. The like a little Spanish girl! ÀUVW\HDU,PHWVRPHQHZSHRSOHZKROLNHPH At that time I was proud to be unique and were also rebelling. We liked to have fun, laugh, different from all my colleagues in class. But just play around being teenagers. One day one of I did notice that unlike any of the others I was the boys began to tell jokes about Jews. When I reacted, one of my colleagues said, “My grand- 1 Refer ence to negotiations between the Communist parents hid Jews during the war, and when they authorities and the Solidarity opposition in 1989, which left Poland after the war and went to America, led to semi-free elections and the peaceful dismantling of they didn’t send my family any packages!” the regime that same year.

82 Deep Roots, New Branches Amazingly, none of the group stood on my side. She told me about the After returning home I told my mom one of these Jewish community in jokes. Mom attacked and turned on me. She be- Kraków, as well as about gan to shout. After the storm of her anger had a new Jewish association passed she said to me: “Anna, your father is a of young people named Jew! And you’re part Jewish!” Czulent.2 My reaction to It was amazing. At the beginning I was so this news was immediate. shocked that I did not know what to say. After I decided to begin Jewish DZKLOHDOOWKHVHPHPRULHVVWDUWHGWRÀOOLQWKH studies and engage in the whole picture. That same day I went to visit activities of the Jewish all my grandparents and my father. I went to Association in Kraków. my grandmother. Finally, I understood why my In 2005, as a second- grandfather had to hide in the forest, why my year student of Jewish grandmother did not waste any food. I realized studies, I was invited to why I needed to know the whole catechism by a meeting organized by Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz heart, I understood why my grandmother cried the March of the Living. was four years old in 1985. when she spoke about her friends. I understood, I was asked to speak to

The ﬁrst Friday dinner was very moving. My colleagues showed me how to light candles and pray before the Sabbath. Women young and old did the same thing with dignity and emotion, learning from each other. too, that when my grandparents wanted to say young Israelis and Americans about why I de- something that I could not understand, it had not cided to pursue Jewish studies. One of the mem- been German they were speaking, but Yiddish. bers of the audience was Daniela Malec, who, What has changed in my life? That revelatory it later turned out, was the Chair of the Jewish news convinced me that my family and I were Association Czulent. We started to talk, and see- among the last Jews who lived in Poland. I deciding my enthusiasm and desire to join Czulent, ed that I would devote the rest of my life to the Daniela told me about the organization and in- history of the Jews by analyzing the origins of vited me to the Thursday meeting. anti-Semitism, which had been used to commit ,ZHQWWRWKHÀUVWPHHWLQJIXOORIFRQFHUQV the murder of the Jewish people. I decided that but within a few moments all were dispelled. my work would serve to construct an objective It turned out that the association had been run- and true history of the Holocaust, which would ning for years, in the beginning as an informal close the mouths of those who denied it, and con- group of friends who met in Taglit. They then sequently make people realize that they cannot decided to establish a network of organizations allow this past to repeat itself. As a result I began IRU\RXQJ-HZVLQ.UDNyZ7KHÀUVWPHHWLQJV to study history. were held in an apartment rented by Daniela. At university I studied Hebrew and Yiddish. After some time, Czulent received a small I devoted a lot of time to research in the state room with a bathroom from the President of archives. One day in the stacks in the archives in WKH-HZLVK&RPPXQLW\LQ.UDNyZ0U&]HVãDZ Bydgoszcz, I noticed a girl wearing a necklace Jakubowicz. This small studio on Dietla Street with Hebrew letters suspended on her neck. I was (an omen, as the building had once been an or- surprised and happy at the same time to meet a phanage for Jewish children) turned into the as- Jew my own age. It turned out that this girl was sociation. With help from the Taube Foundation a Polish student of Jewish studies in Kraków. 2 Polish transliteration of JO\SLU[ (a stew).

Genuine Czulent 83 for Jewish Life & Culture, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the World Jewish Relief, the room was furnished. This environment nurtured me, as everyone brought a friend or an acquaintance who had Jewish origins. This group from the very beginning acted as a support group for people who had any inquiry into their Jewish origins and ZKRZDQWHGWRGHÀQHWKHLU-HZLVKLGHQWLW\:H could talk honestly amongst ourselves about our traumas, plans and concerns. And, most impor- WDQWO\ZLWKLQWKLVVSHFLÀFJURXSZHZHUHGHHSO\ 2014: Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz with daughter, Nina, understood. It was awesome sitting with a hand- receiving the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. ful of diverse individuals from all over Poland: students from Kraków universities, feminists, the aid of the American Jewish Joint Distribution anarchists, atheists, religious people, who, de- Committee. We met on Friday mornings, we went spite their personal differences, found the same shopping, and within a couple of hours we were association and decided to create a framework cooking. In fact, none of the girls could cook so for people to connect via their Jewish origins. we all learned cooking from the cookbooks of Genuine Czulent. Jewish cuisine. After a few dinners we reached

Not so long ago it seemed to me that I was the last Jewish girl in Poland. Now I live in Kraków with my husband and our daughter, and we are creating a Jewish home and family.

At the beginning our meetings were limited a point where we could cook without the books. to talk and play. But, meeting by meeting, the A characteristic sign of my cooking was to over- conversation transformed into plans on how to salt everything and Daniela added a huge amount make up for lost time and what we could do in of pepper. However, this did not prevent anybody some way to regenerate Jewish life in Poland. We from enjoying the meal. This communal atmo- started to organize meetings of people interested sphere was an important part of our Sabbath. in religion and in studying Torah. Others pre- We started to organize around the Jewish pared papers for meetings about Jewish culture, holidays, bringing together a lot of people. All art and history. We started to come every Friday the organization and preparations were tiring for Sabbath dinner, organized by the municipal- and time-consuming. Sometimes the prepara- ity and prepared by Mrs. Zosia Radzikowska.3 tion for the celebration of the holidays could 7KHÀUVW)ULGD\GLQQHUZDVYHU\PRYLQJIRUPH take several days. However, we were aware My colleagues showed me how to light candles that many people who would attend had not and pray before the Sabbath. Women young and celebrated Purim for many years, if ever. The old did the same thing with dignity and emotion, excitement and emotion were complete com- learning from each other. pensation for us all. Every year the association After a few months, Mrs. Zosia asked us developed and began to implement major proj- for help in preparing dinner, and from then on, ects, including the Remuh Library, the Jewish Friday dinners were prepared by Czulent with Film Club, 0LIJDVKLPEH3ROLQ, “Polish women, Jews – Kraków suffragists. The history and the 3 Holocaust survivor and Solidarity activist, she had been a member of the Kraków City Council from 1994 to 2002. present for equality and diversity.”

84 Deep Roots, New Branches Since 2007 I have been involved in organiz- I believe that we have shown the older people ing and conducting the Jewish Literary Salon. from the community that we are wholeheartedly My main objective as the coordinator of this working together to create a Jewish community project is to educate people that there are still and regenerate Jewish life in Kraków. Over time, Jews in Poland and that they are people who we have established cooperation and friendship. contribute to Polish culture. I wanted to bring Now the JCC also organizes a Shabbat dinner and the great heritage of Jewish culture to light by holiday celebrations. All the Jewish associations inviting distinguished guests and moving them continue to cooperate and remain friendly. The toward different and sometimes controversial Jewish community in Kraków is growing. Young topics. More and more people are coming to the members have children. The granddaughters and meetings. I have ongoing participants who ask grandsons are starting to take part in Jewish life. about future months’ programs. But most important for me is that I met the love Czulent, from a group of friends, turned into a RI P\ OLIH 3LRWU DW WKH ÀUVW PHHWLQJRI &]XOHQW well-organized and active association. However, after I decided to become a member and attend some members of the Jewish community in meetings. The second meeting was an event orga- Kraków regarded Czulent as non-Jews who could nized in honor of Piotr on the day that he returned not be trusted. This situation hurt me very much, from Israel. We had similar histories, similar pas- because I most wanted to unite and integrate the sions. Piotr is also a Jewish activist and, above community. At the end of 2006, to the joy of both all, we both wanted to create a Jewish home with religious and nonreligious people, Rabbi Boaz a Jewish partner. First we got engaged, and two Pash came to Kraków. Since then I have worked years later decided to get married. It’s important for the rabbi, and we have devoted a lot of time to us to create a Jewish home, a house in which to building a more integrated environment. we cultivate Jewish traditions. We decided that

2013: Czulent project

Genuine Czulent 85 our children would be raised in awareness of their origins and the history of their nation. In 2007 the National Organization of Jewish Youth – ZOOM from Warsaw – along with Czulent, organized a trip to the mountains for their members. We felt it would be an ideal place for a wedding. We visited three cities trying to persuade the clerks to marry us on Sunday; we ZHUH GHQLHG HYHU\ WLPH :H GURYH WR %LDãND 7DWU]DĸVNDDQGZHSOHDGHGRQRXUNQHHVZLWK the clerk to come on his day off from work to the 5HJLVWU\2IÀFHDQGJLYHXVDZHGGLQJ´7KH5HDO Wedding” was held the night before the marriage 2014: Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz’s husband, Piotr, with their daughter, Nina. in a mountain inn. The next day we drove to the RIÀFH,VXVSHFWWKDWWKLVFOHUNZLOOUHPHPEHUIRU to go, but most importantly they need to know the rest of her life our large group of friends sing- that there are people who live not only in the ing in Hebrew. pages of history books. -XQH A year later our daughter, Nina, was born. To d a y, J u n e 4 , 2 0 1 4 The birth of our child and being parents radically On the third day of Chanukah last year Nina changed our lives. It changed our expectations came home from kindergarten and announced and objectives relating to the Jewish community that we had to invite her friend for our next can- in Kraków. Now I spend Shabbat at our home with dle lighting because the friend wanted to become Piotr and our wonderful daughter. Now we are Jewish. Why? Nina explained that other children busy addressing the question of what to do, so that want to receive gifts every day for eight days as our daughter can grow up to be a woman involved she does. It was her own way to mitigate the lack in the life of Jews in Poland. Therefore, we want of Christmas. Another time she informed us that to establish a Jewish nursery in which Nina can her kindergarten teacher wanted to taste the chal- know her Jewish peers. We want our daughter to lah that she bakes with her father every Friday. be able to attend a Jewish kindergarten and school, Our daughter talks openly about being Jewish; where she will have the opportunity to learn about even more, she boasts about it. the history, tradition and the language of our nation and be able to have Jewish friends. When Piotr and I began our relationship, I believe that this is possible. I believe be- we knew that Jewish identity was and would cause not so long ago it seemed to me that I was always be a crucial part of our lives together. the last Jewish girl in Poland. Then, I wanted When Nina was born, the most important ques- to devote my life to the history of a nation that tion became how to provide her with a Jewish seemed to me as only existing outside of Poland. education, Jewish culture and opportunities to Now I live in Kraków with my husband and our meet Jewish peers. Would it be possible in a daughter. We are creating a Jewish home and city where there are a handful of Jewish chil- family. We meet on walks with the other Jewish dren, where the kindergartens are dominated by moms, talking about our common concerns and the religion of the majority and the curriculum the future. I have a Jewish Literary Salon, in is based mainly on the Catholic holidays? We which we have heated discussions about litera- have found that it is indeed challenging, but ture. I believe also that more and more people as an old proverb says, “A person in need will will come to our association, or to the JCC, be- ÀQGDZD\µ:HFRQWLQXHWRVWD\DFWLYHLQRXU cause those who wish to create Jewish life and association, Czulent, which arose as a support- strengthen their Jewish identity must have places ive group, a space for young people rebuilding

86 Deep Roots, New Branches their Jewish identity. Our changing needs have The public awards held great meaning for us: had an impact on the evolution of the associa- a Polish book in the Jewish language winning tion: today we offer educational projects for our such acclaim. We realize that we are no longer children. Within the framework of one of them, simply people who are creating an identity — we 8Q]HUH .LQGHU (Our Children), we teach chil- are Jews who are proud of our heritage and are dren, through art workshops, about their culture forging ahead with our culture here in Poland. It and history. But most important, we create an is a culture being created by Jews, not related to opportunity for the children to spend time to- klezmer festivals or stereotypical images of the gether and socialize. Their innocent games have community presented by non-Jews. increased the involvement of their parents for As an association, Czulent is also developing whom the lack of Jewish education in their own and facing challenges related to discrimination, youth was a huge problem. all kinds of racism or anti-Semitism. We cooper- In order to expand the outreach of our activi- ate with other ethnic and national minorities in ties, Piotr and I came up with the project 0DMVHV, Poland. We are trying to be active wherever we a book series for Jewish children comprised of can and support those who expect and need it. fairy tales in Polish and Yiddish. Do children Our aim is not to save the world, but isn’t 7LNNXQ in Poland know Yiddish? Not really. However, Olam an inherent part of our tradition? We realize that we are no longer simply people who are creating an identity — we are Jews who are proud of our heritage and are forging ahead with our culture here in Poland. some of their grandparents or great-grandparents Through our activities we want to show our GR$FKLOGFDQVHHYHU\RIWHQIRUWKHÀUVWWLPH daughter that everyone can have an impact on a Hebrew letter and open a beautifully illustrated the reality they live in. We have the ability to book from the right-hand side. To increase access change it for the better. If there is no Jewish to the books, we distributed them free of charge school, we organize workshops. If access to across Poland through Sunday schools, the JDC Jewish books is impeded, we open a library. If and other Jewish institutions. we need support and respect, we have to show LWWRRWKHUVÀUVW Did it help? At the beginning people were skeptical of the idea. Now we are receiving Our pro-social activity gives us a sense of many requests from parents, not just Jewish, for PHDQLQJ DQG IXOÀOOPHQW 2QH GD\ ZKHQ 1LQD the book. Not only were these books praised in was just a few months old, I was talking to a the Jewish community, but one of the books in Jewish mother, much older than I, about the issue the series, 0DMQ$OHI%HMVwas nominated for its of bringing up children as Jews in Poland. She illustrations as a Poland Book of the Year 2013. was deeply concerned that her child was going to The illustrator received an award in the Ilustrarte harbor a grudge against her for being brought up 2014 contest in Portugal. And Czulent, as the in a Jewish home. Knowing of my determination publisher, received the prestigious Bologna and plans, she asked me, “Do you think that Nina 5DJD]]L$ZDUGIRUÀUVWSUL]HLQQRQÀFWLRQDWWKH will be happy about it?” Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2014, one of the How did I answer? I told her the truth at that most important international events dedicated to time, “I don’t know.” Today, I’m happy to say, children’s publishing. my answer would be a resounding “Yes!” Q

Genuine Czulent 87 Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014

“ Tad Taube’s philanthropy is strengthening democracy in Poland.” ·/VU(SLRZHUKLY2^HǋUPL^ZRP7YLZPKLU[ of the Republic of Poland 1995-2005

Reconstructed bimah and painted ceiling of 18th-century .^VǍKaPLJZ`UHNVN\L4\ZL\TVM[OL/PZ[VY`VM7VSPZO Jews. 7OV[VI`9PJRHUK3H\YH)YV^U/HUKZOV\ZL:[\KPV

Jewish Culture Festival Poster, 1992. Examining a model of medieval Kraków.

From the exhibition 7VSHUKHUK7HSLZ[PUL¶;^V3HUKZHUK Taube Jewish Heritage Tours. ;^V:RPLZ*YHJV]PHU1L^Z[OYV\NO[OL3LUZVMAL»L](SLR- ZHUKYV^PJa at the Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków, Poland.

88 Deep Roots, New Branches Deputy Chairman of the Association of the Jewish Jewish Genealogy & Family Heritage Center, Historical Institute of Poland Marian Turski, left, and Warsaw. *OHPYTHU7PV[Y>PǋSPJRP7OV[VI`(UKYaLQ+HUPS\R (ZZVJPH[PVUVM[OL1L^PZO/PZ[VYPJHS0UZ[P[\[LVM7VSHUK

Jewish Community Center, Warsaw. ZOOM, Polish Jewish Youth Organization, Warsaw.

Jewish Culture Festival, Kraków. Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage PU7VSHUK!YLUV]H[PVUVMAHTVǋǅZ`UHNVN\L

Centropa teacher training in Poland. Mi Dor Le Dor educational initiative.

Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland Celebrating Ten Years: 2004-2014 89 The Millennials: Young people effecting change in today’s free and democratic Poland

I Don’t Remember Communism by Jan Śpiewak

don’t remember Communism. I can’t – Being a Jew from the because I was born in the year 1987 – two beginning of my life was I \HDUV EHIRUH WKH 5RXQG7DEOH DQG WKH ÀUVW connected with some- partially free election in Poland. The time of my thing special, in a very childhood was also a time of great transformation positive way. It was a of the governmental system and of lightning-like taste of the West, because !1HUǊWPL^HRPU:HU-YHUJPZJV where he served as a Humanity changes in our surroundings. all Jewish aid was arriv- in Action intern with the Taube ing from the rich United It is a fact that the shelves in the stores Foundation for Jewish Life States or exotic Israel. & Culture. were full, and that on television you could see Sometimes it would be American series or politicians arguing various a rabbi from New York speaking funny Polish, subjects. On the streets of Warsaw, people were or summer camps in the south of Poland with a driving expensive Western cars. All of it was pack of Jewish kids from friendly Warsaw house- obviously familiar to me – as familiar as attend- holds. Those were the days when Jewish society ing a Jewish preschool every Monday morning. in Warsaw was developing quickly. My earliest memories are of this school. It was WKH ÀUVW -HZLVK SUHVFKRRO LQ 3RODQG LQ PDQ\ As I grew older and changed public schools years. Then I remember when my parents moved again, my connection with the Jewish world me to a new public regional preschool located stopped being so immediate and daily. But I went near my house. I remember my tears and upset back to this world after a couple of years and got involved in creating the Jewish Youth Society. being in these new surroundings. It was very near Well, by this time, from our pack of kids, barely my home, but I did not want to accept the change. half were still interested — the rest were far away A few years later I found myself in another from Judaism. They were still Jewish, but their Jewish school – this time an elementary school arguments were: “Other people are Catholics or run by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. It was Germans and they do not advertise this, so why located in a small villa in a well-to-do part of should I?” It is hard to beat this argument. I think Warsaw. Every day a school bus would pick up RI LW RIWHQ P\VHOI

90 Deep Roots, New Branches memory separates us from the rest of the Polish new family. Grandfather became a historian, people — the consciousness that we belong to a researching the murderous history of the German very special group of people and the understand- Wehrmacht Army in Poland. The Communism of ing that this belonging was once a barrier to edu- my grandmother and the Zionism of my grandfa- cation, professions and even our survival.” ther are two different answers to the prewar anti- And this leads my story to the life of my Semitism and xenophobia. grandparents. Regardless of this rich family tradition and In my room I have hundreds of my grand- history, I always had a feeling that a bomb fell on father’s books. They were there as long as I can us and shattered everything. I asked myself what remember. Some of them I couldn’t even read. kind of family is this — just the four of us? No They were in all different languages: German, grandparents, no aunties, no uncles, no cousins. Russian, Hebrew. This library of my grandfa- 7KH6HFRQG:RUOG:DUWRRNWKHÀUVWZLIHDQGFKLO- ther (who died when I was two years old) is still dren of my grandfather. Later, when my mother intact to this day. Every time my grandfather read ZDVERUQKHUSDUHQWVZHUHDOPRVWÀIW\\HDUVROG. Free Poland has given us the freedom of self-description. Today we can place accents on our identity as we choose. All the options are possible: you can be a Pole who follows Moses’ teachings, a Polish Jew, or a Jewish citizen of the Polish Republic. a book, he would put his signature and date on She was the only child. On my father’s side, the the margin. He spoke several languages, was an family situation is not much better. I miss having a avid historian, alpinist, Doctor of Philosophy, large family with its likes, dislikes and arguments Zionist, partisan and physical education teacher. — only to put them aside once or twice a year to During the war he lost his wife and two daugh- sit together at the table, to be a family. ters. Against all odds he stayed in Poland and to In my home, as in the houses of my friends, the end of his life was very active in the life of we openly discuss — without problem — the so- his Jewish Community (Gmina). He is alive in called “Jewish question.” Never in my life have me through my mother and through his books. I felt a victim of anti-Semitism (except when I My grandmother deeply believed in the provoked it by going to right-wing demonstra- “Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” She was a tions!). Living in the biggest city in the country, Communist, a leader of the Women’s Chapter and having friends from similar “intelligen- of the Polish Workers Party, a delegate to the tsia” families, the subject of prejudice is not a Polish Parliament and a member of the Polish problem. Moreover, probably one-third of my Communist Party since the year 1918. She also Warsaw friends have some Jewish roots. In my chose a way of social engagement, like my house, we freely talk at the dinner table about the grandfather’s. Recently I read the memoirs she Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Poland before the put together in the 1970s. What strikes me in war. We try to talk about these matters – if it’s them is her total belief in the socialist system. SRVVLEOH²LQDVFLHQWLÀFVRFLRORJLFDORUKLVWRUL- The history of my grandmother and grandfather cal manner. We can keep an emotional distance is an interesting metaphor for the destiny of from the subjects. But it is easier for me than for Polish Jews. After the war, my grandmother came my parents. back to Poland from the Soviet Union to start I never was forced to answer the question work to rebuild – in principle – a better Poland. “Who are you – Pole or Jew?” Destroying Grandfather went to Israel, but returned after a this dichotomy – regarded by most Jews as a brief stay of two years. Together they started a falsehood – is in my opinion one of the most

I Don’t Remember Communism 91 important differences between Communist say that after the change of the system, lots of Poland (PRL) and the present Third Republic. people were looking for new identities. In situa- When somebody asks me “Who are you — tions when all of the values and authorities fail, Jew or Pole?” I always have a problem. Being people look for places that can offer them a new Polish for me is to have my imagination and my way of living. Those were the ones who came to language, which helps me understand reality. I *PLQD7LPHTXLFNO\YHULÀHGWKHLUHQJDJHPHQW would say that being a Jew is a specific kind Some of them went to search further and of sensibility. Both of these criteria constantly realized that in Poland they would lack the possi- intertwine. I do not like these types of ques- bilities and means to realize their dreams. Those tions, and when I try to answer them I always people emigrated to Israel and to the United have the feeling that I should have answered dif- States. ferently. Free Poland has given us the freedom of self-description. Today we can place accents Today the time of transformation of the on our identity as we wish. All the options are Polish system is nearly complete. The market possible: you can be a Pole who follows Moses’ for new ideas is much more peaceful. Most teachings, a Polish Jew, or a Jewish citizen of Poles – no matter who – are preoccupied with the Polish Republic. rushing after the “Western Dream.” Sadly, it is PRVWO\DERXWLWVVXSHUÀFLDOIRUP²FRQVXPSWLRQ We have a large infrastructure with means and sympathy from the local government and from the West. We have to come up with fresh new propositions for the young people – open new groups focused on education and culture.

The fall of Communism and success of and lifestyle. After the time of transformation, democracy has resulted in providing a space for we were left with only a small number of gmi- Jews in Poland. The idea that Poland has to be nas that function well as institutions and have homogenous – that a Pole has to be a Catholic – VRPHÀQDQFLDOLQGHSHQGHQFH7KHPDLQTXHVWLRQ GRHVQ·WÀWZLWKDGHPRFUDWLFVRFLHW\6SDFHZDV is how to rebuild society and the Jewish family created for the Jewish community. The question in Poland? There are a lot of questions for us to is now: can we cultivate and keep this space? face and we can’t run away from any of them. The fall of Communism also resulted in One question is how much the success of Jewish freedom of expression in conversations about society in Poland depends on us, and how does Jewishness – not only in people’s homes, but also LWUHÁHFWWKHVLWXDWLRQRXWVLGHRI3RODQG0D\EH in public spaces. My mother was very deeply their function should only be “cleaning up” the engaged in organizing the rebirth of Jewish life in society’s mess to leave a clean card behind it. 3RODQG6KHZDVWKHÀUVWZRPDQLQWKH8QLRQRI Cleaning up cemeteries and remodeling old syn- Jewish Religious Congregations in the Republic agogues will not revive life. We have to attract of Poland. Later, in the years 1997–2000, she young people who have life. was vice-president and then the president of Unfortunately, it might not work because there Warsaw’s Gmina. But quick disappointment fol- are too few Jews left in Poland. It is a simple ques- ORZHG DIWHU WKH ÀUVW ZDYH RI HQWKXVLDVP

92 Deep Roots, New Branches Europe, except, maybe, for Hungary. It ORRNVOLNHWKHÀJKWDJDLQVWDVVLPLODWLRQ is the biggest threat for Jewish life in the whole world. Even the biggest diaspora, in $PHULFD KDV WR ÀJKW WKLV SUREOHP Religion, which is most important LQ WKH -HZLVK WUDGLWLRQ LV GHÀQLWHO\ declining among the rich and well- educated Jews. They grow more indi- vidualistic and go about their lives by themselves. Some people say that the problem is in mixed marriages, which do not provide traditional upbringing for Jewish children and don’t guar- antee their identity as Jews. But we have to understand that in Poland, 1HUǊWPL^HRHUKV[OLYTLTILYZVMA664[OL7VSPZO1L^PZO@V\[O Organization, attend a world music festival in the harbor town of Gdynia, practically all of the Jews are from ULHY.KHǉZR7OV[VI`1\K`[H5LRHUKH;YLWRH mixed marriages. If somebody has a mother and father who are both Jews, people with Jewish backgrounds were thrown the family has very strong tradition. Talking out of work. The ones who emigrated were those about Polish Jews in the context of religious law without emotional connection to the Jewish doesn’t make any sense in Poland. movement or too much love for the country The last full Jewish families were those and its people. It is hard to say that Judaism formed after the Holocaust by the people who went underground – it simply evaporated. Some survived it. Anti-Semitism had existed before people lasted in this mess. None of them talked the war as part of the government’s ideology and much about it and tried not to relive it. policy – for example, the law that created “bench After Communism fell we regained our ghettos” and “numerus clausus” at the universi- citizenship. The authorities became neutral ties. After the war, in the 1940s and 1950s, there and sometimes friendly. Soon after the struc- was hope for a chance of rebuilding Jewish fami- ture of the country changed, many Western and lies in Poland. In those days there were plenty American organizations started to support Polish of schools, newspapers, cooperatives, etc. With a Jewish life with money and know-how. What’s lot of grief, we have to admit that the chance was next, then? destroyed by the Polish government and Polish The Gmina is like an orphan who lost its society. A horrible example of this was the 1946 parents very early on, but can read about them massacre in Kielce – when some 46 Jews who LQ ERRNV DQG VFLHQWLÀF SDSHUV 7KH RQHV ZKR had returned home after surviving the concentra- could teach us how to bless the bread and keep tion camps, exile or hiding were massacred by an eye on us, to go to the synagogue on Yom the hateful mob – when the Polish government Kippur or make a Shabbat supper are gone. They was two-faced and the Polish Church didn’t act.1 are all dead or they don’t remember how to do That was a warning sign for the Jews who tried it. We could say that in Poland there are quite to start a new life in Poland. In the mid-1950s, a few individual Jews, but there are none from multi-generational families. How do we rebuild 1 Most of the victims of the pogrom, which raged in Kielce this life? The best way to do it is through educa- and the surrounding area July 4-6, 1946, were in fact killed by pogrom mobs or individual murderers. Units of the police, tion. The Lauder Foundation did just that. They secret police and army also participated in the killings. RSHQHG WKH ÀUVW -HZLVK HOHPHQWDU\ VFKRRO DQG

I Don’t Remember Communism 93 WKHQWKHÀUVWKLJKVFKRRO7KH\VWDUWHGVHPLQDUV success of the Jewish spirit, which tells us to sur- for adults, lectures about culture and history, and vive in tradition and belief – even if everything had classes of conversation in Yiddish. is against us. -XQH $IWHU WKH ÀUVW ZDYH RI H[FLWHPHQW IURP the 1990s, it’s time to reassess what we have To d a y, J u n e 4 , 2 0 1 4 achieved. First of all, in our gminas there are not Since I wrote the above essay, there have enough children and marriages. We achieved a been some surprising changes to the Warsaw certain stabilization and stable participation in Jewish Community leadership (the Gmina) that our movement. But demography is against us. I regard as very positive. In April 2014, elections We have a large infrastructure with means and to the Gmina Board were won predominantly by sympathy from the local government and from young people. In fact, the new president of the the West. We have to come up with fresh new *PLQD$QQD&KLSF]\ĸVNDLVRQO\\HDUVROG propositions for the young people – open new 0\IULHQG$QQD%DNXãDZKRZDVSUHVLGHQWRI groups focused on education and culture. Gminas the Polish Jewish Youth Organization (ZOOM) have to become centers of innovative culture that for four years, became the new treasurer. Only will attract different participants. We would like two people from the former board got re-elected. to be attractive to the Polish public. 7RPHWKLVVLJQLÀHVWKHDVFHQGDQFHRIDQHZJHQ- If we could revive this quickly aging Gmina, eration of Jewish leaders in Warsaw. Change is our success could be symbolic and important for coming, youth participation is increasing, and the whole Jewish diaspora. That would be the hope is thriving again. Q

1HUǊWPL^HRPUMVYLNYV\UKH[YPNO[^P[OMYPLUKZH[H:OHIIH[KPUULY

94 Deep Roots, New Branches My Mother, My Art, My Jewish Life by Helena Czernek

7OV[VI`(SLRZHUKLY7Y\NHY \ ÀUVW PHPRULHV RI P\ -HZLVKQHVV my mother was searching for her way in life and come from a time at the beginning of her identity, there was nobody of Jewish origin MWKH V , ZDV SHUKDSV ÀYH \HDUV around us. There was no group to study together, old. I remember we were having a Passover Seder there was no synagogue or any store with kosher with some Israeli guests. As the youngest child, products. It was all being done, as she said, “in I was asking the questions, gently prompted by our own way.” In spite of these limitations, our my mother, “How is this night different from all KRXVHKDVEHHQDOZD\VÀOOHGZLWK-HZLVKDWPR- other nights?” Even though I did not fully un- sphere and symbolism. derstand what this meant, it had a great impact My mother very often brought up the topic on my future. Ever since I can remember, I was of her Jewishness in her artistic work. As long aware of my Jewish ancestry. as I can remember, there was a mezuzah hanging This Seder was, for my mother, both an ef- on the doorframe and a menorah standing next fort and a research project to connect with her to some worn-out prewar scrolls of the Book of roots, which she had been carrying out for some Esther and fragments of the Torah, which by a WLPH,WZDVDSDUWLFXODUO\GLIÀFXOWPDWWHULQKHU miracle were saved from being milled into scrap case. Due to the extent of assimilation of her in a paper factory in Jeziorna1. There was a family, just about everything had to be learned panorama of Jerusalem hanging above my bed, from scratch. She was diligently putting together which my mother had brought from her trip to snippets of information, snatches of memory and Israel. Many times, as a child, I would look at heard stories. There was hardly anyone to learn this picture and search for places by their num- from. An additional burden, in our case, was that bers listed in a description. My favorite part of we lived outside of Warsaw, in the countryside, the photo was a barely visible little building LQWKHVPDOOYLOODJHRI-ĕGU]HMyZ1RZ\ described as the Tomb of Absalom in the Cedron $OWKRXJKEHIRUHWKHZDUDVLJQLÀFDQWSDUWRI Valley. It was my dream to see it with my own the town’s population had been Jewish, almost no eyes one day. I actually did just that, standing on trace remained afterward. There are two houses the Mount of Olives in 2009. left, one used to be a house of prayer. Some of the When I was 20 years old, I started my elder neighbors still recall the prewar times, and own research into what it means to be Jewish. occasionally stories of the local Jews are brought Compared to my mother when she was my age, I up. Not long ago, during a random conversation was in a far more auspicious situation. I already with one of these townspeople, I found out that had some basics, which I had acquired at home, DVD\HDUROGER\KHXVHGWROLJKWWKHÀUHRQ and even though my childhood experiences Shabbat for a Jewish family named Gewis. had been relatively disordered, they formed a All that, however, relates to the increas- 1 Curr ently called Konstancin-Jeziorna, a town about 12 ingly distant past. When I was growing up and miles south of Warsaw.

My Mother, My Art, My Jewish Life 95 Polish branch of the international Moishe House organization. Together with three other room- mates, we set an important goal — to create a Jewish home that could stand in as a substitute for a real Jewish home for those who were lack- ing such a place. I felt strongly the importance of the activities conducted within the framework of Moishe +RXVH³WRÀOOLQWKHJDSVDQGFROOHFWLYHO\OHDUQ Jewish traditions from the beginning, surrounded by a domestic, intimate atmosphere; to observe Shabbat and Jewish holidays with friends and, Helena Czernek at a Passover Seder in her childhood home in the course of time, to begin celebrating these with artist Shalom Sechvi who was visiting from Israel. traditions in our own homes. There are lots of substantial starting point. As a member of the SHRSOHOLNHXVLQZKRDUHÀOOLQJLQWKHVHJDSVLQ third generation after the Holocaust, I was not fact it seems that we are in the majority. I think as burdened with the trauma of the past, which it is something quite distinctive about the Jewish probably has made me much less anxious on my community in Poland. MRXUQH\WRÀQGP\SODFHLQWKH-HZLVKZRUOG, After the war, many of the Jews who sur- also have many more possibilities and opportu- vived tried to erase history from memory, to cut nities. Numerous new Jewish organizations and themselves off from the war experience. For fear institutions have emerged in recent years. of subsequent anti-Semitism, they preferred to The offerings are very broad and tailored recede from their identity. This is why my fam- to various needs, levels of religiousness and ily never came back to their prewar surname. different ranges of age. For quite a long time, Jewish tradition was not passed down from

In amazement my grandfather has remarked many times, “In the past, people around had to be convinced that one is not a Jew, even when one was. I did not suspect that I would live to the moment where people would want to prove their Jewish roots.”

I have been participating in programs like Taglit generation to generation, quite often the origin Birthright Israel and the events organized by was concealed. There seems to be no continuity the Polish Jewish Youth Organization (ZOOM). between the Judaism of the prewar Jews and the Thanks to ZOOM I met people like myself who FRQWHPSRUDU\SUDFWLFH:HRIWHQÀQGRXUVHOYHV were searching for their identity and place in wondering whether what we are participating in the world. today is a reconstruction — or are we building from scratch? These organizations and contacts allowed me to spread my roots across the community. In the After all, we are so different from our an- course of time, I myself became an organizer of cestors. The years of Communism did not favor events addressed to young people. I wanted to WKRVHZKRZHUHGHWHUPLQHGWRÀQGDQGUHEXLOG share what I had learned. After spending a year their Jewishness. This lack of continuity differ- in Israel, studying in the department of indus- entiates us from Jews in other countries, who trial design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and usually have clarity about their origins. The Design, I settled in Moishe House in Warsaw, the searchings that Polish Jews are undertaking can

96 Deep Roots, New Branches go on for years or even their entire lives. Most of and want to participate in its renewal. More and the histories are complex, entangled. This lack of more is happening all around me. A few years clarity often creates misunderstandings between DJR,ZDVRQDWULSWRâRVLFHDQROG-HZLVKWRZQ Polish Jews and Jews from abroad. RQ3RGODVLH,ZDVWU\LQJWRÀQGD-HZLVKFHP- In Poland, standard halakhic2 indicators do not HWHU\EXWDOO,FRXOGÀQGLQWKDWSODFHZDVDSDUN necessarily apply. Having a Jewish mother does Alleys and benches, walking couples – there was not mean being a Jew. It is far more complex here. nothing that could indicate the existence of a A Jew is someone who has one Jewish grandparent Jewish cemetery. Undoubtedly, local inhabitants or just someone who feels Jewish. Due to the fact had never even heard of it. But today, in place of that most of my peers come from mixed families, the park, there is once again a Jewish cemetery. 3 there is no distance noticeable between these two It was reconstructed from the PDW]HYRW found in backgrounds. Many of our friends who participate the area. in Jewish events are not even of Jewish origin. It could be said that the course of history in Despite the difference between Polish and foreign Poland has been changed. Gradually, the rem- Jews, it is thanks to the latter that we can experi- nants of old synagogues and cemeteries are being ence the revival of Jewish activity and awareness. renewed and renovated. Twenty years ago such They showed us Judaism’s basics. changes were almost impossible to implement. In recent years, there has been an unusual Today, both the descendants of prewar Jews and revitalization of Jewish activity in Poland. More non-Jews are actively involved in this effort. and more people are owning up to their origins Jewish topics have become popular — we can even say attractive — for both sides. Here again, history has unexpectedly reversed. In amazement 2 Related to Jewish religious law governing practices of everyday life. 3 Jewish tombstones.

Passover Seder at Moishe House in Warsaw.

My Mother, My Art, My Jewish Life 97 my grandfather has remarked many times, “In the past, people around had to be convinced that one is not a Jew, even when one was. I did not suspect that I would live to the moment where people would want to SURYH their Jewish roots.” Polish Jews, however, don’t want to be perceived exclusively through the perspective of the Holocaust. Jewish revival in Poland is not about looking at the past and history only, but an attempt to create something new. My explorations in the areas of Judaism and art came together for me Helena Czernek’s “Menokiah.” in my designing of modern Judaica. Drawing mezuzahs. Even if they aren’t religious, it gives on tradition, I shape a modern form to convey them a sense of Jewish identity and links them V\PEROLFPHDQLQJ7KHYHU\ÀUVW-HZLVKLWHP to their ancestors. The brand I’ve been creating I designed nests together three ceramic oil is called “Mi Polin,” which in Hebrew means, lamps to create what I call a “Menokiah.” When “From Poland.” Through my work I try to show, the pieces are all together, it is a nine-branch especially to Jews in foreign countries, that FKDQXNL\DK. When disassembled, it can serve Jewish life is blossoming here again. Many per- as Sabbath candlesticks or as a seven-branched ceive Poland as a place where there are no Jews menorah. This project resulted from a direct I feel that my artwork supports this renaissance: using a chanukiyah or mezuzah that was created here — by one of us — has a deep meaning.

— and even if there are, that they should leave Poland as soon as possible. They are surprised that there are Jews who want to live here and are creating new art and culture and values here. These new creations are directed toward the future; they carry hope. This hope is essential to the reconstruction of the Jewish community. I feel that my artwork supports this renaissance; using a FKDQXNL\DK or mezuzah that was created here — by one of us — has a deep meaning. Helena Czernek’s daffodil pin design was selected by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews for the 70th and Often I try to imagine what Warsaw and 71st anniversaries of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 2013 and 2014. In 2013 alone, over 50,000 daffodils Poland would be like if there had been no war, no were handed out throughout Poland. The daffodil honors Holocaust, no events of March 1968. Who would Ghetto Fighter Marek Edelman, who regularly placed be today’s Jews? Will we achieve the moment daffodils at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes on the anniversary of the Uprising. 7OV[VI`(SPJQH:a\SJ when Polish rabbis lead Jewish communities? The road that I have traveled has brought me to need of my family. We celebrated Jewish holi- the point where I feel a part of the new commu- days together but didn’t have the proper can- nity of Polish Jews. I know that it is impossible dle holder for Chanukah. It seems this need to bring back what disappeared, as if there was IRU-XGDLFDLVFRPPRQWRDVLJQLÀFDQWSDUWRI no breach. However, I feel obligated to partici- the Polish Jewish community. More and more pate in the creation of a new Jewish life. Because people need Sabbath candlesticks, kippahs, if not I, not we, then who? Q

98 Deep Roots, New Branches Not My Grandfather’s Poland Anymore by Magda Dorosz

he year 1989 was one of the most im- EX\HYHU\GD\SURGXFWV7U\DV,PLJKW,ÀQGLWGLI- portant and crucial years in the postwar ÀFXOWWRLPDJLQHHPSW\VKHOYHVLQWKHVWRUH2UD Thistory of Poland: the year of the Polish time when oranges were a rare delicacy. 5RXQG 7DEOH WDONV UHVXOWLQJ LQ WKH ÀUVW SDU- My childhood, in spite of coinciding with tially free elections to the Polish Parliament in the last years of Communism, was joyful, color- June, after Solidarity gradually started assum- IXODQGÀOOHGZLWKODXJKWHU,WZDVWKHWLPHWKDW ing power; the time of great political transfor- I happily spent in primary school, playing with mations related to the fall of Communism; and my peers, going on vacation or skiing with my the time of great changes in society —suddenly parents. What else could one ask for? ration coupons to buy gas, coal or meat were no longer needed. 'LG &RPPXQLVP LQÁXHQFH P\ FKLOGKRRG" I was fortunate not to feel it. Did Communism Yes, I lived through all these intense events LQÁXHQFH P\ IDPLO\" 8QIRUWXQDWHO\ \HV FRP- but had little or no awareness of them — in 1989 pletely changing its history. ,ZDVMXVWÀYH\HDUVROG,WZDVQ·WXQWLO,KDGKLV- tory classes in school that I became fully aware As a child I wondered why my mother’s family of the revolution in Polish society through which was so numerous. There were always many uncles I had lived. and aunts, close and distant, many cousins, and my grandparents had numerous siblings. So on the one In 1989 my life was focused on completely hand, I grew up in a big family. But on the other different things. My sister was born in May, hand, I could not help but notice that the family and it was she who was the center of the chang- RIP\IDWKHUZDVVLJQLÀFDQWO\VPDOOHU7KHUHZDV es in my world. The house was full of noise, only grandfather and grandmother, her sister with a and we had many guests coming to see and ad- family, and one aunt. There were no other uncles or mire the new baby. I don’t recall any discus- aunts, either close or distant. There were no cous- sions on topics like elections, the Round Table ins. There was no family on my father’s side living or Solidarity. But then again, I wouldn’t have on the other side of Poland to visit from time to understood them. time on vacation, the way most children did. Several times I have been asked how I remem- I never met my grandfather on my father’s side. ber the time of Communism in Poland. But my Well, he did meet me but unfortunately I don’t re- memories of those days come exclusively from member him. He died when I was ten months old. the stories told by my parents or grandparents. As I found out many years later, my grandfather I don’t remember standing for hours in lines, as took a great family secret to the grave. He had my parents and grandparents were forced to do, shared it with maybe two people in our family, but regardless of the time of the day or season. I don’t because of fear and disturbing memories of war- remember problems with my family being able to time, they did not want to reveal anything.

Not My Grandfather’s Poland Anymore 99 another name and surname of strange origin — Erwin Hirschhorn — one I had never before encountered. My curiosity did not allow me to pass this by without checking inside the folder. There I found documents related to some real estate located in the far east of Poland and various letters addressed to people whom I had never heard of or known about. And there were other folders, all with similar puzzling contents. On that summer day — which, frankly speaking, I remember only as if in a dream — I did not Magda Dorosz with her newborn sister, summer 1989. understand what I had encountered. But the discovery produced in me a burning feeling of cu- The family secret, which was so strongly riosity. I didn’t ask anyone about the papers, but protected and hidden by my paternal grandfa- whenever my parents were out, I would take the ther, was eventually broken many years later, at folders, sit down, and read over the documents, the beginning of the new century. If Communism WU\LQJWRÀJXUHRXWZKDWWKH\PHDQW(YHU\WLPH had not gripped and isolated postwar Poland, I I studied them I discovered new details, which would have been told sooner about my family’s on the one hand allowed me to speculate on our history. I would have understood, even as a child, past, but on the other hand prompted many new It wasn’t until I had history classes in school that I became fully aware of the revolution in Polish society through which I had lived.

that in addition to my grandmother, grandfather questions, questions I couldn’t answer but was and aunt on my father’s side, there was a much reluctant to ask. larger family, scattered all over the world. If I After reading all materials over many times had known, then certainly my childhood, as well I started to comprehend the mystery behind it: as my early adult life, would have been com- my grandfather was Jewish, but did not want the pletely different. world to know.

I remember one summer day, at the end of After some time, I brought the papers and WKHV,ZDVÀIWHHQPD\EHVL[WHHQ\HDUVROG TXHVWLRQVWRP\SDUHQWVWU\LQJWRÀQGRXWPRUH My mother had asked me to help her with house- They began to reveal to me the little information cleaning. Nothing unusual, something I have al- they had. Working together, we started adding ways done with her. I thought it would be the new elements to our family’s history puzzle. But same that day. But this particular time, the day to make it complete, we still had many mysteries turned out to be the beginning of a new chapter to solve. in my life, and I wouldn’t really understand its Among Granddad’s documents I found his meaning until years later. memoir, which turned out to be very helpful. He Everything began when I came across a described the family’s history, to the best of his IROGHURIGRFXPHQWV$WÀUVWLWVHHPHGOLNHQRWK- knowledge, going back to the end of the 19th cen- ing special. It had my grandfather’s surname — tury. These were the stories that had been passed Roman Dorosz — on the cover, the surname that on in his house, some of which he had witnessed. I knew so well and that I bear today. But there :KLOH UHDGLQJ RYHU WKRVH SDJHV ÀOOHG ZLWK WKH was something else that caught my attention. past, I discovered many new facts about that side Next to my grandfather’s last name, there was of my family, including how numerous it had been. I Was Neither a Jew Nor a Catholic

100 Deep Roots, New Branches I read about my great grandparents Sara and Osias and my great grandmother’s sisters and brothers: Mina, Lusia and Chaja, Filip, Dolek and Marcel. I learned that my grandfather grew up in a large and respected family from Lvov. His cousins, DXQWVDQGXQFOHVOLYHGLQ6WDQLVãDZyZ'URKRE\FK and Kolomea. Part of the family was able to escape from Poland before the outbreak of the war. The other part did not escape until after it had started. My grandfather wasn’t in touch with them EHFDXVH KH KDG VXUYLYHG WKH ZDU ÀJKWLQJ LQ WKH Red Army, taking part in the battles from Odessa to Stalingrad, ending the war in Dresden. Perhaps in that way he had managed to survive? !7YLZPKLU[VM7VSHUK3LJO>HéǇZHOVSKPUN4HNKH Dorosz at the ceremony nominating her mother as a judge. Every letter that I found in the folders, signed with the “double” name of my grandfather, was a him from ever seeing his family members again. copy. Fortunately, he had the habit of composing ,IÀIW\\HDUVDJRKHKDGKDGWKHVDPHWUDYHOLQJ all his letters on a typewriter using carbon paper. freedoms I have today, would his life have been The original he would send, the copy he would different? Undoubtedly.

And in my own world I am witness to the remarkable truth that more and more people are discovering their Jewish ancestry, proudly coming back to the roots that their grandparents had to recant. leave for himself. These precious copies were a After the war my granddad remained in testament to how determined my granddad had Poland, together with his cousin – the only other been in searching for his relatives who, as a re- family member who stayed in the country — and sult of the war and extermination of the Jewish settled in Lower Silesia. He started a family and nation, were dispersed all over the world. had two children. Unfortunately, his cousin passed Besides searching for them through letters, he away a few years after the war so my grandfather tried many times to get out of postwar Poland to was the only one to take care of both families. meet with his cousins who had worked in Europe. And the only one who knew the family secret. ,W LV LPSRVVLEOH WR FRPSDUH WKH GLIÀFXOWLHV RI The exploration of my family history entered traveling to Europe or indeed anywhere outside a new dimension in 2006. In January of that year, Poland in the 1960s or ’70s with what we have when I came home after a year abroad, my father now. Today it is just a matter of deciding when and announced that in a few months we were going to where we want to go. Ticket purchase for a train Paris to visit our uncle — my grandfather’s cous- or plane does not pose problems. Not to mention in, with whom he had established contact. It was the ease of getting a passport, which each of us a wonderful and welcome surprise — I hoped to has at home, in a drawer. Such possibilities were get answers to hundreds of unanswered questions completely out of reach for my grandfather. He running through my mind. KDGWRÀOHDSHWLWLRQWRJHWSHUPLVVLRQWROHDYHWKH FRXQWU\3HWLWLRQVKDGWREHZHOOMXVWLÀHGDQGGRF- The visit was a great success. Indeed, I found umented, providing the reason and length for each answers to many of my questions. We learned so trip. Every single departure and return was strictly much about my grandfather’s childhood, and the controlled. Such rigorous restrictions prevented JDSVLQRXUIDPLO\·VKLVWRU\EHJDQWREHÀOOHG

Not My Grandfather’s Poland Anymore 101 Since then, it is as if my life has become a Every year we can choose between vibrant rollercoaster. We discovered many new details Jewish culture festivals in Kraków, Warsaw, of our heritage; we found out about family in :URFãDZ:HDUHRIIHUHGDZLGHYDULHW\RI-HZLVK the United States, then visited them two years ÀOPIHVWLYDOV(YHU\\HDUGR]HQVRI\RXQJSHR- later. We initiated contact with family in Israel. ple travel to Israel as a part of the Taglit Birthright Our world expanded far beyond Polish or even program. When they return, they become active European borders. We achieved things that my members of a rich and expanding Jewish life. grandfather had been trying to realize for almost Contemporary Poland is not the country that 40 years. But for many reasons, mainly political, people remember on the basis of the terrible events he was prevented from accomplishing them. RIWKHZDU,QWKHODVWWZHQW\ÀYH\HDUVWKHLPDJH On the one hand, I regret that my grandfather of my country has been dramatically changed by was unable to share in this amazing series of events, the efforts of both state and international institu- which he himself had set in motion with his letters. tions. And in my own world I am witness to the On the other hand, I am glad all this has happened remarkable truth that more and more people are to me, starting with that auspicious year, 1989. Not discovering their Jewish ancestry, proudly coming only did I become an older sister, but also, what back to the roots that their grandparents had to re- is more important for society as a whole, we all cant. My history, of uncovering my own Jewish

Neither the atrocity of the war nor the terror of Communism can ever destroy who we really are. It is our legacy and our great success.

became free. Because of this historic change I can roots, is just one of many similar stories that are now — without fear — write this essay about the being told by my peers. And there will continue to renaissance of Jewish life in Poland and the discov- be more of them. ery of my roots. I am not afraid that somebody will Discovering my Jewish roots was quite a big PDNHDQLVVXHRILWRUZLOOÀUHPHIURPP\MRE2U surprise. Even now, almost 15 years later, I am even worse, force me to leave the country. still not sure I fully understand what it means. I feel so lucky that most of my life has been But I am happy to continue to search for the lived during the time of a new, reborn and free answers to questions that arose when I was a Poland, where everybody can choose his or her teenager. identity or become a member of any group, regardless of its nature. I proudly belong to a few Recently I was asked if I am not ashamed Jewish organizations and I work for another to speak about my Jewish origin and identity so two. I don’t have to be afraid to speak about it. openly, when my grandfather had to work so hard Neither I nor anyone else has to hide his or her to keep it a secret, both during the war and the identity. I have these amazing opportunities, time of Communism. Until I was asked this ques- which my grandfather and his family never had. tion, I never thought about it in that way. And Since 1989, Polish society has been able to cel- even though I had to hesitate a moment before ebrate the resurgence not only of a rich religious my reply, the answer rose up in me clearly: all life in many Jewish communities in Poland, but the more reason we should now speak about and also rich cultural programs. These allow a deeper VKRZRXULGHQWLW\ÀUPO\DQGORXGO\1HLWKHUWKH exploration and appreciation of a Polish Jewish atrocity of the war nor the terror of Communism heritage that has been part of our country for can ever destroy who we really are. It is our leg- more than a thousand years. acy and our great success. Q

102 Deep Roots, New Branches Generation Unexpected by Maciej Kirschenbaum

ecently, a seminary colleague asked me: ´+RZGRHVLWIHHOWREHSRVVLEO\WKHÀUVW RPolish Jew to enter a Reform rabbinical seminary since the Holocaust?” I was taken completely off guard by this question — I realized that I didn’t feel that special about my choice of studies. I had simply treated my decision to enter Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Berlin, Germany, as a continuation of my commitment to Jewish life in Poland. But his question made me suddenly aware that my personal story is perceived by out- siders in the wider context of the Polish Jewish revival after the fall of Communism — as a truly I was 11, perhaps 12. I had just come home from unexpected, amazing occurence. school, where we had learned that Polish sur- I guess I have to acknowledge that when I names ending with “-ski” denoted a noble lin- become one of the very few Polish-born rabbis, eage. I was brimming with questions: Did I come I will be asked to explain to foreigners the col- from nobility? Did my family own a manor house lective experience of the Polish Jewish revival. in what is now Ukraine or Belarus? I couldn’t For those of us in this situation, our Jewish iden- wait to ask my parents. When they came back I resolved to get involved in the Jewish life of Warsaw to help transform it into an inclusive, safe space for all individuals, regardless of their background, personal circumstances or knowledge. tity is the culmination of our personal evolution from work and we settled down to dinner in the that was made possible by the democratization kitchen, I asked them about our “noble” lineage. of Poland. But for each Polish Jew of my genera- My father sighed, then asked me and my brother tion, the course of this identity formation was, to come with him into the living room. There and still is, quite distinct and individual, making he loudly exhaled then quietly spoke: “It’s high LWGLIÀFXOWWRPDNHJHQHUDOVWDWHPHQWV+RZHYHU time for you to know something: our surname, the social and political milieu of newly demo- .UDŋQLHZVNL LV QRW RXU RULJLQDO RQH 2XU UHDO cratic Poland was common to all Polish Jews and surname is Kirschenbaum. Your grandfather lost had a dramatic impact on our lives. I had to ask his entire family during the war. I am telling you myself: How did it impact the development of this, sons, but please don’t share this informa- my Jewish identity? tion with your school colleagues. One is never My Jewish adventure began one winter eve- sure whether a Jewish background could get you QLQJLQWKHODWHVLQP\KRPHFLW\:URFãDZ into trouble again. After all, the Nuremberg laws

Generation Unexpected 103 my dad proposed to get me involved in synagogue life at age 13, I refused. I had other reasons for my reluctance besides fear. The main synagogue RI:URFãDZZDVLQUXLQVVRWKHSUD\HUVHVVLRQV (of mostly the elderly) took place in a small room next to it and there was no rabbi. Additionally, at that time (2000), almost all young people who were involved in the Jewish revival had either OHIW:URFãDZRUORVWWKHLULQWHUHVWLQ-HZLVKOLIH 0\ H[SHULHQFH RI ÀQGLQJ RXW DERXW P\ Jewish ancestry in my teens might not be univer- sal — certainly there were Polish Jews who grew up with full knowledge of their heritage — but I would argue that many committed Jewish activists I know started to explore the meaning of their Jewish identity in their late teens. Another aspect of my family history that seems typical for the Polish Jewish experience was the reluctance of the second generation (our parents) to embrace their Jewish roots. After all, they grew up in the shadow of the anti-Semitic campaign of 1968 and 1997: Maciej Kirschenbaum (right) and his brother, Jan, had few possibilities to acquire Jewish education feeding the pigeons in the main market square of Kraków. DQG WR GHYHORS SRVLWLYH -HZLVK LGHQWLÀFDWLRQ ,Q targeted everyone who had a Jewish grandparent, some cases, particularly in Warsaw, the process of their identity building started as early as the late regardless of their beliefs. I didn’t tell you before, 1970s. On a larger scale, however, it only gained because I wanted to protect you from prejudice.” momentum with the fall of Communism, which Without further comment, he got up and went allowed for the expression of minority identi- into the kitchen to make tea for all of us. ties. While many got involved in Jewish life in In this way, just as I was about to enter my the early 1990s, some needed more time before teens, I found out that I have Jewish roots and they became secure enough about being openly that out of our family of 70 members residing in Jewish to get engaged in communal activities. In the Chelm region, only four survived the war. every case, this process of a Jewish “coming out” Looking back, I should have guessed earlier involved many steps, and lasted many years. And that I had Jewish roots. First, there was always that’s the way it was for me. matzah on our table around the Easter break. :KHQ , ZDV D WHHQDJHU LQ:URFãDZ LQ WKH Second, my dad used strange words like PHVKXJ- early 2000s, there were very few activities avail- JDK or FKXW]SDK that none of my school friends able for Jewish youngsters. In order to com- knew. Third, when my parents took me to Kraków pensate for the lack of a Jewish peer network, when I was 10, we spent much more time in the I connected to Jewish culture in the only way old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, than in the Old available — by reading books on any Jewish Town. But all these pieces of the puzzle came WRSLF,FRXOGÀQG/XFNLO\IRUPHWKHODWHV together only when my dad disclosed the truth and early 2000s saw a rapid growth of Polish about our ancestry. Unfortunately, he revealed publishing devoted to Jewish themes. In this way the secret about our roots in a way that instilled a I had a chance to get an understanding of Jewish fear of discrimination and effectively prevented history and culture, most of which was autodi- me from being open about being Jewish. So when dactic. Even though I was reading a lot about

104 Deep Roots, New Branches Judaism, practicing it was not appealing to me for several reasons. The primary reason was that neither my dad (secular even though he regularly went to the synagogue with my granddad) nor my mum (baptized as Catholic but not practicing) were interested in any form of organized spirituality. ,Q RUGHU WR ÀQG P\VHOI D FRPPXQLW\ , started to look, during my high school years, for Jews in my generation. Gradually, in spite of my dad’s warning, I became open about my Jewish roots with my friends and colleagues. To my surprise, some of my classmates turned out to be Jewish as well! It seemed to us that certain topics, like Jewish roots, could now be openly 1998: Maciej Kirschenbaum, at bottom right, with his discussed. This openness might have been Jewish grandfather, grandmother and brother. connected with the accession of Poland to the LQ'HFHPEHU,IRXQGRXWWKDWWKHÀUVWHYHU European Union, as it exposed Polish society public lighting of a FKDQXNL\DK1 was going to to the idea of multiculturalism. In fact, having take place in the center of Warsaw. I went there a minority background was considered cool in on my own and found myself standing in the sec- some circles. The growing integration of Poland tion for the general public, while I could see the with the international community also resulted members of the Jewish Community of Warsaw in the revitalization of the Jewish community of in their own section. I stood there feeling that I

In my opinion, Etz Chaim’s inception proved that the Polish Jewish community had ﬁnally abandoned the post-Communist tradition of passive dependence on institutions in favor of grassroots organizing.

:URFãDZ,WZDVDEOHWRVHFXUH(XURSHDQIXQG- UHDOO\EHORQJHGLQWKH´RIÀFLDOO\-HZLVKµDUHD ing for the restoration of the synagogue, and At the same time, I could not help but look at the with the help of American sponsors, it was able faces of the people standing in my area and won- to employ a rabbi and offer organized youth der how many had Jewish roots and were also activities. These events fostered my active seeking a reconnection to their Jewish heritage involvement in Jewish life, both social and reli- WKDW VRPHKRZ ZDV QRW VDWLVÀHG E\ WKH RIÀFLDO JLRXV6RRQDIWHUZDUGV,ÀQLVKHGKLJKVFKRRO community. That evening I promised myself to and moved to Warsaw to go to university. grow as a Jew in order to be able to help others who were willing to explore their Jewishness. I Once I settled in Warsaw, I started looking for also resolved to get involved in the Jewish life a way to get involved in Jewish religious life. My of Warsaw to help transform it into an inclusive, ÀUVW DWWHPSW ZDV WKURXJK WKH 2UWKRGR[ 1Rŧ\N safe space for all individuals, regardless of their Synagogue, the only operating shul of the Jewish background, personal circumstances or knowl- Community of Warsaw, which is a sister com- edge. Not long afterward, in December 2006, I PXQLW\RIWKH-HZLVK&RPPXQLW\RI:URFãDZ,Q ZHQWWR,VUDHOIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHWRWDNHSDUWLQWKH DVKRUWWLPH,IRXQGWKH1Rŧ\NDELWGLVFRXUDJ- Taglit Birthright program. ing for a young person with a liberal approach to Judaism. Still, I had a strong need to participate in Jewish religious life and kept looking. Then, (UPULIYHUJOLKJHUKSLZ[PJRZWLJPÄJHSS`\ZLKMVY Chanukah candles.

Generation Unexpected 105 My participation in Taglit Birthright was I became one of the members of ZOOM (Polish transformative in countless ways. Not only could Jewish Youth Organization). Its aim was to inte- I pray at the Kotel2EXWDOVR,ZDVÀQDOO\DEOHWR grate young Polish Jews by organizing social and get to know a large and diverse group of young educational events. ZOOM’s activities integrated Poles of Jewish descent. We were similar — often young Warsaw Jews and motivated us to voice brought up without any particular religion, usual- our needs in the Jewish community. A group of ly with no structured Jewish education. Most of us ZOOM members and our older friends decided were eager to explore what being Jewish meant. to meet weekly for a Friday-night dinner with Some of the Warsaw participants of Taglit were NLGGXVK3 KDPRW]L4 and discussions on Jewish involved in Warsaw Jewish life. One of them co- topics. We called ourselves Chawurah5, and ordinated the Jewish Sunday School. I asked him presented ourselves as an open, non-Orthodox

whether I could volunteer there. Soon afterwards, 3 A ceremony of prayer and rituals carried out on the eve I became one of the Sunday School supporting of the Sabbath. educators. Also at Taglit, I met a group of young 4 Blessing recited over the bread on Shabbat. Warsaw Jews who were planning to establish 5 From JOH]\YHO (Hebrew: “fellowship”), a small group of a Jewish students’ organization. In April 2007, like-minded Jews who assemble for Shabbat and holiday prayer services or to share communal experiences such 2 Wailing Wall of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. as lifecycle events, or Jewish learning.

2012: The Mi Dor Le Dor group on the steps of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Maciej Kirschenbaum (blue-striped shirt) is standing next to Helise Lieberman (olive shirt), Director of the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation.

106 Deep Roots, New Branches alternative to the Orthodox branch of the Jewish The scope of our potential became evi- Community of Warsaw. Chawurah meetings dent to me when I started working at the Taube started in late 2007 and soon gained visibility Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland within the Jewish Community of Warsaw. As Foundation, as a coordinator of its educational an active member of Chawurah since its incep- program Mi Dor Le Dor (MDLD)6. Mi Dor Le tion, I lead seders for the progressive partici- Dor is a leadership program for young Poles, pants of the communal Passover celebration of predominantly with Jewish roots, who want to the Jewish community of Warsaw. Typically in become experts in Polish Jewish heritage. As Polish Jewish life, many seder leaders are young moderator of MDLD discussions, I got to know people who did not attend them as children, and the new generation of Polish Jewish leaders, who ZKR ZHUH DVNHG WKHLU ÀUVW VHGHU TXHVWLRQV E\ were Jewishly literate, committed to the con- their peers rather than by their own parents. This tinuation of Jewish life in Poland, and ready to SHHU LQÁXHQFH EHFDPH QRWLFHDEOH DW &KDZXUDK develop innovative projects to secure the future as well. As time went by, Chawurah’s religious of the Polish Jewish community. Conversations

Polish Jews brought up after the fall of Communism share one common characteristic: namely, the ability to construct a strong Jewish identity in spite of the unprecedented gap in cultural transmission. needs (including mine) grew, so we decided to with Mi Dor Le Dor participants made me real- include a full prayer prior to the Friday night ize that Polish Jews brought up after the fall of dinner. The minyan that gathered every Shabbat Communism share one common characteristic: gradually blossomed into a progressive com- namely, the ability to construct a strong Jewish munity. Soon, we realized that we needed our identity in spite of the unprecedented gap in cul- own rabbi to establish a true congregation. We tural transmission. I believe our generation is formed an Initiating Committee that was tasked not afraid to reclaim and to reinterpret the mil- with persuading the members and the board of lennium-long span of Polish Jewish heritage. I the Jewish Community of Warsaw to hire a non- feel we are so committed that one might say our Orthodox rabbi. After a year of concerted effort, projects aimed at restoring, renewing, repairing in March 2010 we managed to gain enough com- and, importantly, remembering make up the air munal support so that at the General Assembly we breathe. We’ve actually gotten used to the of the Community we passed a motion obliging fact that many of the activities we organize are the board to hire a progressive rabbi. We found KDSSHQLQJIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHVLQFHWKH+RORFDXVW a suitable candidate, Stas Wojciechowicz, who This may explain why I don’t feel special as a became our rabbi in autumn 2010. Under his ´ÀUVWµ3ROLVKUHIRUPUDEELQLFDOVWXGHQW:KDWLV leadership, we transformed Chavurah into a pro- special about my position is the weight of Polish gressive congregation, Etz Chaim. Jewish traditions that need to be continued by a In my opinion, Etz Chaim’s inception proved relatively small community. Passing them on is WKDW WKH 3ROLVK -HZLVK FRPPXQLW\ KDG ÀQDOO\ an enormous task. However, I am positive that abandoned the post-Communist tradition of pas- my generation, young Jews who grew up in free sive dependence on institutions in favor of grass- Poland, will rise to this challenge. After all, some roots organizing. This shift was informed by the scholars have called us “Generation Unexpected.” development of Polish civic society, in which I believe we earned this moniker because of our many of us took part. Our involvement in civic amazing potential — much greater than anyone society gave us the mindset and skills that enabled 25 years ago could have imagined. Q us to bring changes to Polish Jewish institutions. 6 Hebrew: “From generation to generation.”

Generation Unexpected 107 Global Education Outreach Program Extending the Resources and Impact of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

he exhibits and programs of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews tell the epic story of a millennium of Jewish history in Greater Poland that contin- Tues to illuminate the world. Cutting-edge multimedia exhibits in the Museum’s eight Core Exhibition galleries and an array of public programs offer visitors unique insights and experiences about the many fascinating aspects of Jewish life, culture and politics in the lands of Greater Poland — for centuries the heartland of the Jewish diaspora and the birthplace of much of modern Judaism. Many of the Museum’s scholarly endeavors exist in collaboration with the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the world’s largest repository of Polish Jewish history. The Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) aims to transmit the Museum’s educational message and unique resources worldwide, and to provide access to the Institute’s archives. The GEOP offers scholarly exchanges and international group visits, as well as globally accessible educational resources via the Internet. The Global Education Outreach Program will: Q Create Global Academic Partnerships with major universities, offering seminars, research grants, summer school programs, and conferences in Polish Jewish studies. Q Develop Educational Exchanges with top-tier collaborators, such as YIVO; Facing History and Ourselves; USC Shoah Foundation; Yad Vashem; Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco; March of the Living; and Birthright Israel. Q Train Museum-Based Educators to engage with visitors from North America, Israel, Europe, Russia, Australia and elsewhere. Q Launch Internet Programs to extend the Museum’s educational impact beyond the walls of the classroom and the academy. Q Publish Educational Materials including the Core Exhibition catalogue and scholarly publications. Q Offer Genealogy Services for visitors to access on-site and on-line. Q Provide a Jewish Heritage Tourism Program to serve visitors interested in exploring Poland and their family roots. Q Showcase the Contributions of Polish Jewry in Judeo-Christian Western culture.

108 Deep Roots, New Branches ;VWMV\YWOV[VZJV\Y[LZ`4\ZL\TVM[OL/PZ[VY`VM7VSPZO1L^Z)V[[VTWOV[VI`9PJRHUK3H\YH)YV^U /HUKZOV\ZL:[\KPV

Global Education Outreach Program 109 Contributors

Eleonora Bergman is the Coordinator of the Konstanty Gebert is a former Solidarity dissi- Ringelblum Archive publications of the Emanuel dent and a Jewish activist, who helped rebuild the Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Warsaw Jewish community after 1989. Mr. Gebert the world’s most comprehensive archive of Polish is the founder of 0LGUDV], a Polish-Jewish monthly Jewish history. She served as the Institute’s magazine, and publishes a weekly political col- Director from 2007-2011. She holds a Ph.D. from umn in *D]HWD:\ERUF]D. He is also the author of the Warsaw University Institute of Art and has an array of publications, including an essay col- worked extensively to help document and restore lection on the Jewish cultural revival in Poland, Jewish cemeteries, sites and monuments in Poland. /LYLQJLQWKH/DQGRI$VKHVWKHÀUVWVHWRI3ROLVK Dr. Bergman is an architect and a historian of ar- language commentaries on the Torah; a history of FKLWHFWXUHLQWKHVSHFLDOÀHOGRI3ROLVKV\QDJRJXHV Israel’s wars since 1967; and a panorama of the particularly of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2012 European 20th century. He is an associate fellow she was awarded the medal of the French Legion on the European Council on Foreign Relations, and of Honor, France’s highest decoration, for her con- has served as visiting professor at U.C. Berkeley, tribution to the preservation and rediscovery of the Grinnell College and Hebrew University. Jewish cultural heritage of Poland. Maciej Kirschenbaum LV D ÀUVW\HDU UDEELQLFDO Helena Czernek graduated in Product Design at student at Abraham Geiger Kolleg, a Reform the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and studied at Rabbinical Seminary located in Berlin, and a Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. member of Hillel Berlin-Brandenburg. Previ- 6KHLVDFRIRXQGHURI´0L3ROLQµWKHÀUVWEUDQG ously he studied economics and management at that designs and produces contemporary Judaica the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also a in Poland. Ms. Czernek is a member of the Polish Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action, an inter- Jewish Youth Organization (ZOOM) and a resident national network of human and minority rights of Moishe House Warsaw. In 2012-13 she coordi- activists. Mr. Kirschenbaum coordinated the nated the Mi Dor Le Dor educators program for the inaugural Mi Dor Le Dor educators program of Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation. Poland Foundation.

Magda Dorosz is Taglit Birthright Israel Coor- 6WDQLVãDZ.UDMHZVNLreceived his Ph.D. in math- dinator for Poland and the Executive Director of ematics and teaches logic and religion on the WKH-HZLVK&RPPXQLW\LQ:URFãDZ7KURXJKERWK faculty of the Department of Philosophy of the positions she is reaching out to Polish Jewish University of Warsaw. Dr. Krajewski is the author young adults to create opportunities for strengthen- of books on the philosophy of mathematics and on LQJWKHLULGHQWLW\6KHOLYHVLQ:URFãDZZKHUHVKH the Jewish experience in Poland. Following the po- received her M.A. in Public Administration from litical changes of 1989, he helped found the Polish WKH8QLYHUVLW\RI:URFãDZ Council of Christians and Jews and the Polish- Israeli Friendship Society. For many years he was the Poland consultant to the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Most recently he served on the curatorial team creating the post-World War II gallery of the Core Exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

110 Deep Roots, New Branches Helise Lieberman directs the Taube Center for Daniela Malec was born in Warsaw. She was a the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation founder of the Jewish young adult association and Taube Jewish Heritage Tours. A former Czulent in Kraków, and participated as a Jewish Hillel Director, Ms. Lieberman was the Founding student leader for different NGOs supporting Principal of the Lauder Morasha Day School Jewish renewal in Kraków and across Poland. in Warsaw and has served as a consultant to the Currently Ms. Malec lives in Tel Aviv, where she Rothschild Foundation Europe, the Westbury is a consultant for Religions for Peace, an interna- Group and the Museum of the History of Polish tional interfaith peace organization. She also works Jews. She currently serves as an educational con- as a translator. sultant to the JDC-Baltics. In 2007, Ms. Lieberman participated in the Senior Educators Program of Magdalena Matuszewska has worked for the the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew Taube Foundation since 2005 and currently is University. Born in the U.S., Ms. Lieberman has the Program Manager of the Taube Center for the lived in Warsaw with her family since 1994. Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation. A Ph.D. candidate in Hebrew Studies and a re- Anna Makówka-Kwapisiewicz serves as Chair- searcher at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ms. woman of the Board of Czulent, a Jewish young adult Matuszewska has been teaching at the Marie association in Kraków, which recently won the Bo- &XULH6NãRGRZVND 8QLYHUVLW\ LQ /XEOLQ DQG logna Ragazzi Award for its Yiddish children’s book, at the University of Warsaw. A member of the the main prize at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Association of Jewish Studies and author of sev- one of the most important international events dedi- eral scholarly publications, she has followed her cated to the children’s publishing and multimedia interests in the prewar heritage of Poland and industry worldwide. Ms. Makówka-Kwapisiewicz Hebrew poetry. was born in 1981 in a small town near Bydgoszcz, Poland. She majored in Jewish Studies and His- Shana Penn is the Executive Director of the tory and has worked as a researcher, a tour guide Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and and an assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Kraków. As a scholar-in-residence at the Graduate Theological an activist she works on anti-discrimination projects Union’s Center for Jewish Studies, in Berkeley. through her membership in Czulent, ZOOM and the Her book, 6ROLGDULW\·V 6HFUHW 7KH :RPHQ :KR Association of Crisis Intervention (for women). She 'HIHDWHG &RPPXQLVP LQ 3RODQG (University of coordinates the Jewish Literary Salon for Czulent. Michigan Press, 2005) was awarded Best Book in Ms. Makówka-Kwapisiewicz lives in Kraków with Slavic and East European Women’s Studies by the her husband, Piotr, and their daughter, Nina. American Association of Women in Slavic Studies. It is newly published as 6HNUHW 6ROLGDUQRŋþL by Janusz Makuch is the Executive Director and co- W.A.B. publisher in Warsaw. Ms. Penn’s research founder of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, in Polish Jewish and gender studies has been pub- now the largest Jewish festival in Europe. In 2008 lished widely, including in 1HZ (DVWHUQ (XURSH the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech and .U\W\ND3ROLW\F]QD. In 2013 she was awarded .DF]\ĸVNLDZDUGHGKLPWKHKLJKHVW3ROLVKFLYLOGLV- the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of WLQFWLRQWKH2IÀFHU·V&URVVRIWKH2UGHURI3RORQLD the Republic of Poland. Restituta medal, for his efforts to preserve the memory of Polish Jews. In the same year he received the Sigmund RolatERUQLQ&]ĕVWRFKRZD3RODQGLV inaugural Irena Sendlerowa Memorial Award from President of Oxford International Corporation and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture co-chair of the North American Council of the for his work in fostering Jewish cultural renewal Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. in Poland. Mr. Makuch served on an international He holds an M.A. in International Relations panel of experts in 2012 and 2013, selecting artists from New York University. In 2013, President to perform at the International Showcase for Israeli %URQLVãDZ.RPRURZVNLSUHVHQWHG0U5RODWZLWK World and Jazz Music in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his work in facilitating Polish- Jewish dialogue.

Contributors 111 Rabbi Michael Schudrich is the Chief Rabbi of Marian Turski was born in 1926 in Druskienniki Poland. Born in New York, he served as Rabbi of DQGJUHZXSLQâyGť6LQFHWKHHQGRI:RUOG:DU the Jewish Community of Japan from 1983 to 1989. II, he has had a distinguished career in Poland as a He began working in Poland in 1990 on behalf of journalist and Jewish activist. He is involved in nu- the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. Rabbi Schudrich merous Jewish organizations, as Deputy Chairman EHFDPH5DEELRI:DUVDZDQGâyGťLQDQG of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute since 2004 has served as Chief Rabbi of Poland. in Warsaw, Deputy Chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee, and Chairman of the Council -DQ ŊSLHZDN LV D FRIRXQGHU DQG ZDV WKH ÀUVW of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Chairman of ZOOM, the Polish Jewish Youth Mr. Turski is the author and co-author of over a Organization in Warsaw, which is focused on dozen books and the recipient of the Commander’s strengthening Jewish identity among young people. Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta He was a Humanity in Action intern with the (1997), the Cross of Merit, First Class, of the Order Taube Foundation’s Jewish Heritage Initiative in of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2007) Poland in 2008. Currently he is a Ph.D. student at and the medal of the French Legion of Honor (2012). Warsaw University, specializing in urban sociology. As a professional historian and journalist, he has 0U ŊSLHZDN LV DOVR D IRXQGHU DQG GLUHFWRU RI headed the historical section of the 3ROLW\ND weekly 0LDVWR-HVW1DV]H (“The City Is Ours”) — a grass- magazine since 1958. roots association of young people that monitors and advises the Warsaw city government on cul- Feliks Tych, born in 1929 in Radomsko, Poland, tural, political and social affairs. is a Polish-Jewish historian and a professor of history. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Tad Taube is Chairman of the Taube Foundation Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute for Jewish Life & Culture, President of the (1995-2007) and is a member of the Council of Koret Foundation, and Honorary Consul for the Science of the Polish Academy of Science, and Republic of Poland in the San Francisco Bay Area. member of the editorial committee of the Polish He is also Chairman and Founder of Woodmont Biographical Dictionary. Professor Tych is the au- &RPSDQLHV D GLYHUVLÀHG UHDO HVWDWH LQYHVWPHQW thor of several books and more than 300 academic and management organization. Consul Taube has DUWLFOHVSXEOLVKHGLQVFLHQWLÀFSHULRGLFDOVDQGFRQ- dedicated his life to strengthening civic and cul- ference materials in Poland and abroad. tural life and Jewish communities in both the San Francisco Bay Area and his native Poland, from 3LRWU:LŋOLFNL is the Chairman of the Association which he emigrated with his parents in 1939 just of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, the before the Nazi invasion. In 2004, President of QRQSURÀW RUJDQL]DWLRQ WKDW IRXQGHG WKH 0XVHXP WKH5HSXEOLFRI3RODQG$OHNVDQGHU.ZDŋQLHZVNL of the History of Polish Jews project in 1993 and honored him with the Commander’s Cross of the continued it as a civic initiative until 2005, when Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2007, the Association established a public-private part- after his appointment as Honorary Consul, he es- nership with the Polish Ministry of Culture and tablished a Sister Cities relationship between San National Heritage and the City of Warsaw. As the Francisco and Kraków, the city of his birth. As SULYDWHSDUWQHUWKH$VVRFLDWLRQXQGHUWRRNWRÀQDQFH the lead patron of the Museum of the History of and produce the Core Exhibition of the museum. 3ROLVK-HZVKHKDVVSHDUKHDGHGWKHPRVWVLJQLÀ- 0U :LŋOLFNL LV D IRXQGLQJ PHPEHU RI WKH 3ROLVK cant fundraising campaign — responsible for rais- branch of B’nai B’rith and helped establish the ing fully one-third of the entire cost of the Core Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage Exhibition. LQ 3RODQG +LV JUDQGIDWKHU :DFãDZ:LŋOLFNL ZDV a Deputy in the Sejm during the Second Polish Republic, a member of the Jewish Club and President of the Central Headquarters of the Union of Jewish Merchants. In supporting the Museum of the History RI3ROLVK-HZV3LRWU:LŋOLFNLFRQWLQXHVKLVJUDQGID- ther’s legacy. Professionally, he is the co-owner and Deputy Chairman of a real estate company.

112 Deep Roots, New Branches GRANTEES OF THE JEWISH HERITAGE INITIATIVE IN POLAND