Gazeta Volume 26, No. 1 Spring 2019
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Volume 26, No. 1 Gazeta Spring 2019 Roman Vishniac (1897-1990) Albert Einstein in his office, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1942. Gelatin Silver print. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.10. A quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture Editorial & Design: Tressa Berman, Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Adam Schorin, Maayan Stanton, Agnieszka Ilwicka, William Zeisel, LaserCom Design. CONTENTS Message from Irene Pipes ............................................................................................... 2 Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn ................................................................... 3 FEATURES The Road to September 1939 Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit ........................................................................................ 4 Honoring the Memory of Paweł Adamowicz Antony Polonsky .................................................................................................................... 8 Roman Vishniac Archive Gifted to Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Francesco Spagnolo ............................................................................................................ 11 Keeping Jewish Memory Alive in Poland Leora Tec ............................................................................................................................ 15 The Untorn Life of Yaakov Weksler Michael Schudrich ............................................................................................................... 17 ANNOUNCEMENTS BOOKS Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy Reported by Tressa Berman ............................................................................................ 19 Józef Czapski: Three New Books Reported by Adam Schorin ............................................................................................. 20 Recent Polish Jewish Studies Books of Note Compiled by Agnieszka Ilwicka ....................................................................................... 22 Auschwitz Jewish Center Publishes Guidebook ..................................................... 23 CONFERENCES Art and the Holocaust ............................................................................................... 24 Reported by Antony Polonsky November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland .............................. 25 Poland and Hungary: Jewish Realities Compared ............................................. 27 EXHIBITIONS The Free Bird. Der Frayer Foygl at Jewish Historical Institute ............................... 29 Terribly Close Awarded Best Cultural Event ............................................................ 30 AWARDS Marcin Wodziński Wins 2019 U.S. National Jewish Book Award .......................... 32 Yiddish Glory Nominated for Grammy Award ......................................................... 33 GENERAL Auschwitz Jewish Center Releases New App ........................................................ 34 Helping Jews and Poles to Discover their Roots .................................................... 35 New Director Appointed to FODŻ ............................................................................ 38 New Leader of Union of Jewish Communities in Poland ....................................... 39 GEOP and POLIN Museum Announcements and Opportunities ......................... 41 IN BRIEF Reported by Fay and Julian Bussgang Jews in the Military Conference ............................................................................. 43 “I Love Poland” Blogger ......................................................................................... 43 Nevzlin Book Prize Announced ............................................................................. 44 OBITUARIES Mara Vishniac Kohn ........................................................................................................ 45 Amos Oz .......................................................................................................................... 46 Simcha Rotem ................................................................................................................. 48 Leopold Kozłowski .......................................................................................................... 50 GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 1 President, American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta Dear Members and Friends, This Spring 2019 issue of Gazeta welcomes a diverse set of voices. I am pleased to see a discussion of Volume 32 of POLIN, titled “Jewish Realities Compared,” on the theme of Poland and Hungary. This volume is dedicated to my late husband, Richard Pipes, who died last May. It is a hard time for me. The outstanding activity this past year was a performance in Lexington of Remembrance of Things Past: Keeping the Stories of Jewish Poland Irene Pipes Alive. It consisted of a performance by Witek Dabrowski of the Lublin Brama Grodzka Theater in Polish [also known as the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre] in Polish, and David Liebers and Leora Tec reading the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer. In the latter, the Jew did not feel any connection to Poland; in the former, a non-Jewish Pole did not know what had befallen the Jews during the war. Unwittingly, walking these parallel paths, they do the same work of preserving the Jewish memory in Poland. Finally, we organized a film showing of A Town called Brzostek, from where Jonathan Weber’s grandfather emigrated, and where Jonathan restored the cemetery. The film shows how, after many years of hatred, suspicion and fear, neighbors finally united. Looking ahead to a pleasant Passover. Irene Pipes President 2 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 Message from Chairman and Executive Director, Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life Shana Penn & Culture Elie Wiesel once remarked that a single person of integrity can make a difference. The stories in this issue of Gazeta bear him out. Among our feature articles, for example, the first describes the strenuous efforts of Jewish leaders in Palestine and Europe during the 1930s to find a refuge for Polish Jews on the eve of a seemingly inevitable disaster. They met only partial success, but not for lack of commitment. The second article is the obituary of a modern-day Polish political leader, Paweł Adamowicz, who paid the ultimate price for publicly exercising his moral integrity, including strong support for Poland’s Jews. Another article describes the Tad Taube astonishment of an American Jew who visited the town of her mother’s childhood in Poland, to find that non-Jewish Poles were carefully preserving the history of the long-gone Jewish community because they regarded it as part of their own history. Many such persons of commitment and honor adorn the life and history of the Jews of the Polish lands. Some of them are household names, some obscure, but as Elie Wiesel would surely have agreed, they all matter. We are honored to tell you their stories. Shana Penn Tad Taube and Shana Penn Chairman and Executive Director GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 3 FEATURES Jehuda Reinharz and The Road to September 1939 Yaacov Shavit We are pleased to present in this issue of Gazeta an essay adapted from the introduction of The Road to September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II by Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit. Originally published in Hebrew by Am Oved Publishers in 2013, this translation, published by Brandeis University Press in the Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry, introduces English-speaking audiences to the important scholarship of Professors Reinharz and Shavit. The Road to September 1939 shows, through letters and memoirs, that contrary to popular belief, Zionists in the Yishuv worked tirelessly to attempt to save European Jews from Hitler in the years before World War II. As we approach the eightieth anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, this book offers an opportunity for critical reflection on what was, and was not, possible Jacket image for The Road to before the storm clouds of the war fell on Europe. September 1939: Polish Jews, Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II by Jehuda —Gazeta Editorial Team Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit. his book serves as a sort We do not intend to everyday life, rather than on of collective diary of the big questions of the hour, Tstatesmen, social and political describe the events they bring to life this crucial activists, and ordinary people moment in Jewish history and by reading history whose first-person eyewitness illuminate more effectively accounts were recorded in backward. We have tried than some traditional histories personal diary entries, letters, the events that led up to World and memoirs, along with not to read the story from War II and the Holocaust. daily newspaper accounts. its endpoint but rather We do not intend to describe These accounts are a record the events by reading history of what they knew, thought, as much as possible in backward. We have tried not to and felt in “real time.” In their read the story from its endpoint focus on the vicissitudes of the “present.” 4 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1 but rather as much as possible The countries of the free If in 1929 Palestine took in in the “present.” Before August less than a tenth of Jewish world had no interest 1939, as well as during that