The article introduces key concepts related to research into the historical notions of privacy, provides a brief historiographical overview, and discusses methodological tools that allow the researcher to examine privacy in primary sources. The second part discusses examples of the Jewish lived experience in the early modern period that were not only shaped by Jewish legal discourses but by the specific living conditions of an ethno-religious minority. The article offers some suggestions as to how privacy could have been understood in early modern Jewish communities and how individuals may have negotiated it in regards to the concepts of home, intimacy, gender, and notions of secrecy.

* This article has been written within the framework of IDUB – Initiative for Excellence – Research University at the University of Łódź.

This article is a study of how the Amsterdam Sephardi congregation organized its educational system starting in the early 1600s. On 25 May 1616, the two existing congregations at the time, Bet Jacob [House of Jacob] and Neve Salom [Dwellings of Peace], founded the “Hebra Kedosa Talmud Torah” [Holy Confraternity Talmud Torah], an institution that was to fund the education of male children and youth. On that day, the lay congregational leaders elected two interim officers to organize the festivities two days later on Shavuot, the Jewish festival traditionally associated with the initiation of children in the study of the Torah. The newly formed school educated male children as young as five years old and consisted of six grades, starting with the teaching of the Hebrew alphabet, and ending with the Talmud. In 1637, the congregation founded the “Ets Haim” [Tree of Life] confraternity to provide stipends to older, deserving, and talented students, so that they remained in school. A third stage took place in 1639 when the three congregations united into one under the name “Kahal Kadosh Talmud Torah,” and the merged school consisted of seven grades. The author argues that this educational system was a blending of attributes from the Jewish medieval tradition and the Iberian Jesuit system which emphasized the character formation of its students that the lay founders of the Sephardi congregation had experienced while they were living as conversos in Spain or Portugal.

Public and Private in Jewish Egodocuments of Amsterdam (ca. 1680–1830)

The present article deals with egodocuments, written by Jews in Amsterdam, in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It traces the development in this type of sources and assesses how the authors depicted various notions and aspects of privacy in them. The privacy aspects did not only pertain to the individuals, but also to the Jewish community as a whole and its relationship with the local population in Amsterdam as well as the state authorities. These findings have been placed in the historical and political context.

This article challenges the assumptions about what spaces were actually private in the late early modern colonial world. Centered on a case of adultery amongst the Sephardic Jewish community of Curaçao in the late eighteenth century, this piece looks at the entangled lives of enslaved people, Dutch colonial officials, free people of color, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Gossip, private information transition, and the architecture and town planning of Willemstad, Curaçao, are integral to this story of community norms, legal systems, and colonial spaces.

How private were Jewish letters in the early modern period? This article discusses Jewish epistolary culture and notions of privacy by examining an extraordinary cache of Jewish letters that were mostly written on a single day— 22 November 1619—in a single city, Prague, and sent to a single destination, Vienna. The letters never arrived and ended up in the archives where they were preserved for posterity. These letters allow us a glimpse into the lives of ordinary Jews in politically tumultuous times in which privacy and confidentiality could never be taken for granted. This article pays particular attention to gendered communication and privacy. It has been argued that in epistolary culture women are afforded a voice and speak for themselves. The evidence suggests that collaborative forms of writing that involved more than one writer were still common in early seventeenth-century Jewish correspondence, indicating zones of “privileged confidentiality” within larger family networks.

Sociotopography of the Jewish Settlement in Warsaw in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

In the second half of the eighteenth century, there was a rapid influx of Jews to Warsaw, even though at that time the de non tolerandis Iudaeis law was still in force. In 1778, there were over 3,500 Jews in Warsaw, and by 1792 the number increased to 7,000. At that time, they constituted over seven percent of the entire population of the city. Jews lived in different parts of Warsaw, but they began to form enclaves that were centers of both economic and religious life. The activity of the Warsaw Jews was dominated by two fields: trade and crafts. In the 1790s, they accounted for thirty percent of commercial operations. Responding to the needs of the Warsaw market, Jews started producing clothes. About thirty percent of the tailors working in Warsaw were Jewish. Despite numerous restrictions and bans, Jewish self-government institutions began to emerge in Warsaw, and religious life developed. These changes were conducive, if not to legalization, then to the slow acceptance of the Jewish presence in Warsaw. In this way, at the end of the eighteenth century, not only the largest Jewish community in Europe began to emerge in Warsaw, but also an important center of Jewish social, cultural, and religious life.

Reprezentacje Zagłady w kulturze polskiej (1939–2019), red. Sławomir Buryła, Dorota Krawczyńska, Jacek Leociak, t. 1: Problematyka Zagłady w filmie i teatrze, ss. 795; t. 2: Problematyka Zagłady w sztukach wizualnych i popkulturze, ss. 672, Wydawnictwo IBL PAN, Warszawa 2021.

Ewa Koźmińska-Frejlak, Po Zagładzie. Praktyki asymilacyjne ocalałych jako strategie zadomawiania się w Polsce (1944/45–1950), Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warszawa 2022, ss. 565.

Agnieszka Witkowska-Krych, Dziecko wobec Zagłady. Instytucjonalna opieka nad sierotami w getcie warszawskim, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warszawa 2022, ss. 528, il.

Tomasz M. Jankowski, Demography of a Shtetl: The Case of Piotrków Trybunalski, Brill, Leiden–Boston 2022, ss. 238 („Studia Judaeoslavica”, Vol. 14).

Booklists from Notarial Records as a Valuable Source for Researching the Religious Life of Jews in Chełm during the First Quarter of the Nineteenth Century

The article presents an edition of booklists extracted from notarial records focusing on two collections of Jewish religious books belonging to Dawid Wajnberg (ca. 1757–1824) and Nute Mojsze Rubinsztein (ca. 1783–1824), two merchants from Chełm. The records have been identified through historical transcriptions of the local Ashkenazi Hebrew, and the article examines the patterns found within these documents. One such pattern is the consistent placement of Talmud treatises at the beginning of the booklists, following the order of the Mishnah. The author stresses the fact that alongside essential Midrashic, Halakhic, and ethical works, there are also unusual books present, such as the Hebrew-Latin Liber Cosri by Yehuda Halevi (1075–1141), published in Basel in 1660. As a result, the article confirms the popularity of certain religious works in Eastern Europe at that time, and explores the significance of these unique items within the collections, considering their connection to the activities of Halakhic and Maskilic centers in the area.

Christian Framework, Jewish Content? Jewish School Sermons in Galicia

The article is devoted to so-called “exhortations,” school sermons delivered to Jewish school youth in Galicia since the 1880s by Jewish teachers of religion. The author traces the roots of these sermons by analyzing the legal framework and the realms of Galician school that since the late 1860s became non-confessional. Sermons were part of religious education which in theory should have been provided to all children. The article shows that the Jewish exhortations, while retaining Jewish content, resembled Christian sermons in various ways (sources, length, language, typical features such as brevity, chronology of publication, even frequency of the words). Those affinities and relationship between both traditions are analyzed in the article.

This article presents preliminary research on literature translated into Hebrew and published in the early Hebrew press for children. The periodicals under study are Olam Katon (Jerusalem, 1893), Gan Sha’ashu’im (Lyck, 1899–1900) and Olam Katan (Vienna/Cracow, 1901–1904). The article discusses not only what was translated in these periodicals, but also how and why certain pieces were translated. As the majority of the translated children’s literature was written by non-Jewish authors, the author is especially interested in the translators’ strategies of dealing with the sometimes obviously Christian content and how they negotiated the extent of “otherness” to which they exposed Jewish children. In addition to identifying some general tendencies, the author offers a close reading of three translations of stories by Mark Twain, Agnes Giberne and Edmondo de Amicis which serve as illustrations of the discussed problems.

“And She Stretched Him on a Pin Like a Butterfly...”: Revolutionary Jewish Women in Polish Antisemitic Prose of the First Half of the Twentieth Century 

After the revolution of 1905, revolutionary Jewish women began to appear among the heroines typical of the antisemitic novels of the nineteenth century. This type of female protagonist can be found in the novels written by Józef Weyssenhoff (Hetmani [The Hetmans]), Rev. Jan Gnatowski (Zły czar [Bad Spell]), and then in the 1930s in the novels by Roman Dmowski (Dziedzictwo [The Heritage]) and Jędrzej Giertych (Zamach [The Coup]). In these narratives, Poland is presented as a victim of manipulation by Jews, Germans, and in the case of the Bad Spell by Jewish Bolsheviks. In these stories, female Jewish revolutionaries implement their secret policies using their strong erotic influence to seduce Polish activists. Demonism and evil, as well as the misogynistic attitude of the fin de siècle era were employed to create their portraits. In these female protagonists, one can detect echoes of features associated with such Jewish heroines as Salome, Judith, and Herodias whose portraits were typical of the art and literature of the epoch.

Kamiński Theater in Warsaw: The First Years (1911–1914) 

The article focuses on the artistic activity of the Kamiński Theater in Warsaw (1/3 Oboźna Street) prior to World War I. First, it reviews publications related to the topic which present varying facts and dates. Then the author confronts these scholarly works with Yiddish dailies. Based on the Warsaw Yiddish daily Der Moment, she determines that Yiddish performances of the troupe run by Avrom-Yitskhok Kamiński started as early as June 1911, not 1913 or 1909 as previously thought. The Kamiński Theater building was used not only by Jewish but also by Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian theater troupes.

Animal Protection and Antisemitism in German Professional Press in the Years 1919–1939  

The article discusses the entanglement of antisemitism and animal protection movement on the basis of the professional press of German veterinarians, animal protectionists, and meat producers from 1919 until 1939. The focal point is the question of shehitah. The article shows to what extent this question was a part of a general debate on the slaughter reform and the development of new stunning methods. Not surprisingly, most of the articles in the analyzed press were in favor of the introduction of the stunning obligation before the slaughter, which was from the Jewish perspective equal to the ban of shehitah. The article differentiates between the arguments of the majority of proponents of the obligation and those of their radical antisemitic colleagues. It argues that the animal protection movement in its majority cannot be described as racist or as a natural partner of national socialists, for only some representatives of it, such as Max Müller or Rudolf Einhauser from Munich, displayed a clear antisemitic rhetoric.

A Visit to Eretz Israel: Reports by Four Journalists from Poland from their Visit to Palestine in Spring 1925 

In spring 1925 four journalists representing four different newspapers printed in Poland (in Polish) travelled to Eretz Israel to report on the ceremonies of opening the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Jakub Appenszlak (Nasz Przegląd), Bernard Zimmermann (Nowy Dziennik), and Leon Weinstock (Chwila) were Polish Jews and supporters of Zionism. Janusz Makarczyk (Kurier Warszawski) was a Pole working for a right-wing Polish daily. As reporters they witnessed the opening of the University and also visited other places like Tel Aviv and some agricultural settlements. They sent their reports to Poland. The reports represent a unique view on the development of Jewish Palestine in the mid-1920s.

The Image of Jews in Cartoons from the “Mucha” Magazine (1935–1939) 

The article discusses the visual images of Jews presented in cartoons from the satirical journal Mucha between 1935 and 1939. Mucha was a major satirical magazine in Poland and the only one published during the whole interwar period. The aim of the study is to analyze the visual discourse about Jews emerging from cartoons using digital tools (MAXQDA). Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to check which elements of the picture create a specific type of stereotype. The findings suggest that the overall image of Jews is contradictory, albeit dominated by categories related to money and trade. There are also images that do not fit into the dominant antisemitic discourse.

The Earliest Maskilic Treatise on Hasidism: Josef Rosensohn’s Tractatus de Kabała 

The article presents an unknown treatise written by a Vilna-based maskil and medical doctor, Josef Rosensohn (ca. 1774–1849). The newly discovered text, commissioned by a Polish aristocrat and Enlightenment activist Tadeusz Czacki (1765–1813), is the oldest maskilic treatise on Hasidism, written in either late 1804 or 1805, important not only for the history of the Haskalah, but also a significant source on the history of Hasidism and Jewish-Polish cultural relations. The article consists of two parts: (1) extensive introduction presenting the author, circumstances of the treatise creation, and significance of the source; (2) a thoroughly annotated treatise itself.

On the Occasion of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Journal Studia Judaica. Semi-annual (Numbers 1–50/1998–2022)

The article discusses twenty-five years of the existence of the academic journal Studia Judaica. Semi-annual which is an organ of the Polish Association for Jewish Studies. First, it is presented how the association itself was created, and then the periodical was founded. Next, it describes where the subsequent offices of the journal’s editorial office were located, who published the journal, and the composition of its editorial staff. Moreover, general information on the authors of the texts appearing in this periodical, their subject matter, and their reviewers are summarized. Finally, the focus is placed on the financial situation of Studia Judaica as well as its general condition and plans for the future.

A Medieval (?) Hebrew Epigraph from Chełm 

In 2019 after removing an abundance of weeds from the Jewish cemetery in Chełm (Poland, Lublin voivodeship), an inventory of tombstones was carried out. A tombstone (matsevah) with medieval characteristics and an incomplete date (only the row of tens and ones being preserved: 'ד'ע…) was discovered. The author of the article examined the artifact thoroughly, taking into consideration the historical and archeological context, the features of the epigraph as a whole, as well as its philological and paleographic aspects. The features of the Chełm matsevah were compared with Jewish tombstones from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century of the Ashkenazi territory, especially from the historical lands of the Polish Commonwealth. The author estimated its origin to the year ד''רע (274, i.e. 1513/1514 according to the Gregorian calendar), although the date ד''קע (174, i.e. 1413/1414) is not excluded. Such a large time range is plausible beause of the long duration of a number of features of medieval tombstones. The matsevah from Chełm is an important historical and epigraphic landmark. In the framework of the historical borders of the Kingdom of Poland (excluding Silesia from the Piast period) it is the oldest preserved Jewish tombstone and confirms the existence and location of the cemetery in the town since at least the early sixteenth century. Indirectly this also confirms a typical placement of Jewish cemeteries in royal cities and towns at a significant distance from the center. As an epigraphic artifact, the finding is a rare example of the medieval matsevah as a whole and regarding such aspects as its content, configuration of inscription, technology of production and features of script.

Jewish Rural Settlements in the Light of the Peasant Survey of 1814: The Perception of Jews and the Socio-Economic Reality at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

In 1814 the government launched the Peasant Survey, aimed at collecting local elites’ opinions on the best ways of improving the living conditions of peasants. The 140 responses, almost all of them containing comments on Jews, are a rich source of knowledge about the rural Jews of that period. This paper analyzes the Jewish theme in the survey: the predominant critical perception of Jews and various accusations against them as well as proposed reforms. The comparison with the results of the 1819 census of rural Jews in the Kraków voivodeship, including their occupational structure, demonstrates the gap between the elites’ judgement and the reality.

From Al Khet (For the Sins) to On a Heym (Without a Home): Aleksander Marten (1898–1942?), a Filmmaker of Jewish and Polish Sound Cinematography

Mordka Matys Tenenbaum (1898–1942?), also known as Aleksander Marten, is one of the least known Yiddish filmmakers. After ending his theatrical career in Germany and Austria, he went on to direct a Yiddish film Al khet (For the Sins) in Warsaw (1936). It was a melodramatic family story which brought him success and recognition both in Poland and in the diaspora, thus becoming the starting point of the so-called “golden age of Jewish cinema.” It was then that, among others, the following films were made: Yiddle with His Fiddle (Yidl mit’n fidl, dir. Joseph Green and Jan Nowina-Przybylski, 1936), The Handshake (Tkies kaf, dir. Henryk Szaro, 1937), The Dybbuk (Der Dibuk, dir. Michał Waszyński, 1937), and A Little Letter to Mother (A brivele der mamen, dir. Green and Leon Trystan, 1938). Marten, however, chose a different path. Following the example of filmmakers who worked both in Polish and Yiddish cinema, i.e., Szaro, Konrad Tom, Trystan, and Waszyński, the next year he decided to try his hand at Polish film, directing a sensational drama What Women Dream Of (O czym marzą kobiety). It bore a close resemblance, almost shot by shot, to the German film Was Frauen träumen (1933). In 1939, his other film Without a Home (On a heym) had its premiere. It was a drama about Jewish immigrants who struggled to adapt to new living conditions in America. It was also the last Yiddish film made in inter-war Poland.

Operation Leaving Poland: Katriel Katz and His Diplomatic Mission to Poland (1956–1958)

The article describes the diplomatic mission to Poland of the Israeli represent tive Katriel Katz in 1956–1958. Special attention is given to the results of the political activity of this diplomat in Warsaw, in particular to the issue concerning the aliyah of Polish Jews to Israel in this period. A very important part of the article focuses on the case of Yaakov Barmore, who was regarded by Polish authorities as persona non grata and was expelled from Poland in 1958.

A Polish Translation of an Excerpt from the Twentieth-Century Adaptation of Bovo-Bukh by Moshe Knapheys: From Venetian Buovo d’Antona to Bovo-Bukh in the Musterwerk Series

The paper has a double purpose. It contains a short excerpt from a Polish t anslation of the latest known adaptation of Bovo-Bukh authored by Moshe Knapheys and published by YIVO in Buenos Aires in 1962. It also contains a basic exegesis of the chivalry poem, starting with its earliest incunables in a vernacular with strong Venetian traits, printed in the 1480s, through its first adaptation in Yiddish-Taytsh by Elia Levita, originally written in Padua in 1507, but published in Isny only in 1541. The Polish translation from modern Yiddish according to the 1962 version also contains a critical apparatus in which the early Venetian text (a 1487 incunable), and Levita’s Yiddish-Taytsh adaptation of the latter, according to both the 1 07 manuscript and the 1541 print, are taken into consideration for comparison.

From the Jewish Cemetery to Wawel: Activities of the Hochstims, a Family of Jewish Stonemasons from Kraków

The article is devoted to the activities of the Hochstim family: Jewish stonemasons active in the second half of the nineteenth century, mainly in Kraków, but also in other Galician towns and in Warsaw (Kingdom of Poland). Four generations of this family were active in the field of stonemasonry. The highest position was achieved by Fabian Hochstim (1825–1906) who completed prestigious commissions such as the renovation of royal tombstones on Wawel Hill. His enterprise, which for many years was located in Kraków’s main square, specialized in the production of tombstones for both Jewish and Christian cemeteries. Fabian’s son, Adolf, pursued his father’s business and also sold building materials. The Hochstim family employed modern business strategies to establish the corporate identity of their enterprise, such as participation in public exhibitions and marketing campaigns in the press. With success and despite obstacles they achieved a strong market position in an environment that was dominated by traditional guilds. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the family remained faithful to the Jewish tradition.

FINANSOWANIE

Opening Jewish Houses of Prayer: Legal and Administrative Arrangements and Clerical Pragmatics in the Piotrków Governorate between the End of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries

The article shows a revision of the religious policy of the administrative authorities of the Piotrków Governorate Government regarding the initiative of opening new Jewish prayer houses. This change of attitude is best illustrated by archival materials, mainly of the Administrative Department of the Piotrków Governorate Government, stored in the State Archive in Łódź. A detailed analysis of historical documents revealed the actual attitude of the tsarist civil authorities to Jews residing in this area. While a relatively tolerant approach to the needs of Jewish communities was observed at the end of the nineteenth century, governorate clerks rigorously blocked their progression at the beginning of the next century. The ways used to legally restrict the opening of new prayer houses and the Jewish administrative struggle with the official interpretation of the Russian Empire law are discussed in the article.

The article focuses on three poems authored by Aron Lyuboshitsky (1874–1942?), a Hebrew teacher, author, poet, editor, and translator, who lived and worked in Warsaw and Łódź, and his contribution to building a Jewish national identity through his literary works for children and youth. The prism through which the article views Lyuboshitsky’s activities is that of ethno-symbolism, a concept drawn from the field of cultural studies. For an ethno-symbolic analysis of his works, three key criteria were considered: (1) linking the present to the past; (2) using cultural symbols; and (3) actively promoting the formation of a shared ethnocultural identity. Lyuboshitsky’s literary-cultural and didactic oeuvre was devoted to reawakening the Jewish nation by appealing to the younger generation. He interconnected the Hebrew language, Hebrew literature, the Jewish people, and the Holy Land.

Ershte Yudishe Shakh-Tsaytung and Ershte Yudishe Sport-Tsaytung: The First Yiddish Sports Magazines Published in Łódź and Their Contents

The main purpose of the article is to broaden the state of knowledge about Yiddish press published in Łódź. The author focuses on two periodicals dedicated to sport: Ershte Yudishe Shakh-Tsaytung and Ershte Yudishe Sport- Tsaytung that were issued in 1913 and 1914. They were considered as missing and ephemeral with no important contribution to the history of Polish Jews. The analysis of two inconspicuous magazines leads to the conclusion that expands research in the field of press or biography studies, revealing interesting information especially about the milieu of people gathered around the widely defined cultural life in Łódź, adding some unknown facts about Arthur Szyk, Moshe Broderzon or David Frishman, and enriching knowledge about the formative processes in the Jewish cultural life in the city.

Badania nad żydowską prasą sportową w Łodzi i kształtowaniem się łódzkiego środowiska dziennikarskiego zostały przeprowadzone w ramach grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki nr 2016/21/N/HS3/00873 pt. Prasa żydowska w Łodzi: „(Lodzer/Najer) Folksblat” 1915–1939.

“From Air, Hunger, and the Monument by Kuna Protect Us, Lord”: The Antisemitic Dispute over the Adam Mickiewicz Monument for Vilnius

After Poland regained independence in 1918, a considerable group of Polish Jews wanted to co-create Polish culture, which did not find approval in the eyes of nationalists, defenders of the purity of national culture. Writers and artists of Jewish origin, especially those assimilated, became the main target of attacks and victims of social ostracism. The story of the monument of Adam Mickiewicz proposed to the city of Vilnius by Henryk Kuna, a sculptor with Jewish roots, may serve as a case study, perfectly illustrating both the power of resentment among the broad masses of society at the time and the influence of journalists. Kuna’s project was the third (after Zbigniew Pronaszko’s avant-garde monument and Stanisław Szukalski’s symbolist one) project of a Mickiewicz monument for Vilnius, selected in a competition in 1932. Unlike the previous ones, it did not seem to be controversial either in terms of form (it represented modernized classicism) or symbolism (it showed the poet in a pilgrim’s cloak with a book in one hand, the other hand covering his eyes). Despite this, nationalist circles unleashed an antisemitic campaign, striking at both the artistic and iconographic value of the statue. A rich variety of rhetorical means, from wit to virulent mockery, prove that it was not aesthetic preferences that played a dominant role here, but Henryk Kuna’s background, which influenced the evaluation and interpretation of his work.

Jewish Issues in the Daily Newspaper Słowo Pomorskie in the Years 1938–1939

The article deals with Jewish issues appearing in the daily newspaper Słowo Pomorskie in the years 1938–1939. The newspaper was published in Toruń in the years 1920–1939 and covered the Pomerania Province (Pomorskie Province) at that time. In the article, the political character of Słowo Pomorskie and its importance for local structures of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) are discussed. The newspaper usually presented a negative image of the Jewish population, which was connected with the antisemitic attitude of the nationalist groups. The author also describes the role of the Catholic clergy in propagating the anti-Jewish attitudes. The antisemitic contents is divided into thematic categories—foreign and domestic issues are separated. The analysis of the newspaper texts shows, among other things, the affinity of the antisemitic views of the National Party with other movements of this kind in Europe. In the Polish context, the hatred toward Jews did not diminish on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, but rather became radicalized.

Charitable Activities of Women in Jewish Communities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Charity was an important form of social activity of women in Jewish communities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was also a manifestation of female piety. Charity is also an area—despite a clear distinction between  gender and related social roles—where cooperation between men and women can be observed. Women were involved in charities as community officials, associates or members of charity brotherhoods, as well as acting individually. However, their activities were always largely subordinated and overshadowed by activities of men, and acting within the framework of community structures, they were subject to the regulations and control of men. It is also noticeable that women’s charitable work was less formalized than that of men, which was probably due to the fact that women were less mobile and relied on family and neighborly contacts in their activities.

Jewish Women as Teachers of Religion in Galicia Before 1914

The article describes the activities of Jewish women teaching religion in Galician public schools. The first women performed this profession in the 1870s, in the 1890s they were listed for the first time in the schematisms (the official lists of civil servants), in the next decade the first woman received a permanent teaching position, and in 1913 they were for the first time directly addressed in the job announcement for teachers of religion. Therefore, their position became more established toward the end of the autonomous period, although they still constituted an absolute minority in this professional group. The emergence of female teachers of religion raised protests among the male members of this professional group. They voiced three main arguments against granting women teaching positions: their alleged insufficient qualifications, the tradition of Judaism, and what they understood to be the “social justice” (according to which men deserved permanent teaching contracts more than women). The article discusses the chronology of granting women the positions of teachers of religion, describes the public debate on the subject, and addresses the issue of women’s professional qualifications. It is based on both printed and archival sources and on historical press.

* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu Narodowego Centrum Nauki pt. „Religia mojżeszowa” jako przedmiot szkolny w Galicji: programy nauczania, podręczniki, nauczyciele, konkurs „Sonata” (2018/31/D/HS3/03604). Wszystkie autorki są członkiniami zespołu projektowego. Nazwiska autorek podano w kolejności alfabetycznej.

Jewish Actresses from Poland in Shakespearean Roles in the Yiddish Theater 

The article aims at analyzing the role played by Jewish actresses in the development of the Shakespearean Yiddish theater. The paper includes the profiles of artists coming from Poland and/or working in the Polish lands: Bertha Kalisch, Miriam Orleska, and Ester Goldenberg, who contributed to popularization of Shakespeare’s works among the Jewish community. Moreover, the article illustrates their contribution to the changes in the perception of Jewish theater from the “jargon drama” enterprise to an ambitious cultural institution with a Shakespearean repertoire. Among those discussed are the characters of Hamlet performed by Kalisch, Portia (The Merchant of Venice) played by Orleska, Jessica (The Merchant of Venice), and Ariel (The Tempest) interpreted by Goldenberg, and their assessment. The reception of these stage creations of Shakespearean heroes is analyzed on the basis of press materials published in daily newspapers and weeklies in Yiddish, Polish, and English. Some academic studies on the premieres of Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest with participation of Jewish female artists have already been conducted, but their authors did not analyze the roles performed by those actresses and did not refer to the sources in Yiddish at all. The article discusses not only the artistic activities of Kalisch, Orleska, and Goldenberg, but also attempts to analyze the reception of the characters created by the latter two artists from the perspective of the social and political relations in the Second Polish Republic. Moreover, efforts were made to show that Jewish actresses, by impersonating heroines and heroes of Shakespeare’s plays, proved with their style of acting, professional preparation, and understanding of the nuances of the performed characters that Yiddish theater definitely deserved to be called a temple of art. Their creations became an inherent part of the history of Jewish, and thus the world’s Shakespearean theater.

Between the Pillars of Welfare, Cultural Work, Politicization, and Feminism: The Zionist “Circle of Jewish Women” in Lviv, 1908–1939

The Circle of Jewish Women (“Koło Kobiet Żydowskich”), founded in Lemberg/Lviv in 1908 and active until 1939, played a vital role in the organization of Zionist women in the city and other places in Eastern Galicia. It was founded, among others, by Róża Pomeranc Melcer, one of the pioneers of Zionist women’s associations in Galicia and the first and only Jewish woman parliamentarian in the Second Polish Republic. Nevertheless, the history of the Circle, as well as the work of its many active members—many of whom perished in the Holocaust—has been almost forgotten and is rarely explored. The author of the article argues that this organization not only represents social welfare, but it also embodies elements of social support, cultural work, politicization, and feminism. Therefore, the author emphasizes the role the Circle played in the process of organizing Zionist women in Lviv and Galicia before World War I and especially during the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic, and how it contributed to women’s emancipation. Thus, the history of one of the most important Zionist women’s organizations is reconstructed and its versatile work facets explored in more detail.

* Niniejszy artykuł stanowi poprawionąi skróconą wersję dwóch rozdziałów na temat organizacji syjonistycznej, które zostaną opublikowane w antologii Women Zionists Worldwide, 1897–1945 Miry Yungman (w przygotowaniu). Częściowo powstał także na podstawie prezentacji przedstawionej na konferencji Kobieta żydowska – nowe badania i perspektywy badawcze (Kraków, 26–28 kwietnia 2021).

** Tłumaczenie z języka angielskiego: Anna Nienartowicz

Women Painters, Sculptors and Graphic Artists from the Kraków Association of Jewish Artists, 1931–1939

Eleven women belonged to the Kraków Association of Jewish Artists, active in the 1930s. They dealt with painting, graphic art and sculpture. Unfortunately, not much has survived from their achievements. One of the most interesting artistic personalities in this group was Henryka Kernerówna, educated in Vienna. From 1918 on, female artists younger than her could benefit from studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. In the reviews of the exhibitions of the Association, the gender of artists was rarely mentioned, except in some cases. The artists also belonged to other non-Jewish art groups. Most of them survived the war, but none of them remained in Kraków. Three of them were killed.

The Holocaust and Rebirth in the Works of Sara Gliksman-Fajtlowicz, a Painter From Łódź, 1909–2005

Sara Gliksman-Fajtlowicz, a painter, came from a well-off family of Majerowiczs, the owners of opticians’ shops in Łódź. She studied at private painting and drawing schools in Łódźand Warsaw. Before the outbreak of World War II, she was active in the Polish art milieu. In 1933, she became a member of the Trade Union of Polish Artists (Związek Zawodowy Polskich Artystów  Plastyków, ZZPAP) and participated in its exhibitions in Łódź, Warsaw, Kraków,and Lviv. She painted mainly landscapes, still lifes, and—less frequently—portraits. She published her works in the union magazine Forma. In 1940, she was  displaced to the Łódźghetto where she worked as a graphic artist at the Statistics Department. Thanks to this she could obtain art materials. Her clandestine activity was documenting life in the ghetto in paintings and drawings. She survived the liquidation of the ghetto and then was forced to work on cleaning that area. Liberated on 19 January 1945, she returned to her house where some of her prewar works had survived. After 1945 she continued her artistic career and exhibited with the ZZPAP, as well as with the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. In 1957, she emigrated to Israel. Gliksman died in Tel Aviv in 2005. The aim of this article is to verify and describe Sara Gliksman’s biography, to present her activities in the Polish-Jewish artistic community of postwar Poland, as well as to place her works in the context of issues concerning survivors’ memory and artistic attitudes toward the Holocaust, and art as a manifestation of hope for the rebirth of Jewish life and culture in postwar Poland in the second half of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s.

“Parliaments of Mothers and Sisters”: Jewish Women’s Social Service in the Warsaw Ghetto

The article explores a broad range of social and aid activities of Jewish women in the Warsaw Ghetto under the aegis of the Jewish Organization for Social Care, known as Jewish Social Self-Help (JSS). Due to hard living conditions, those women were forced into increased outside activities, as well as taking protective actions in aid of strangers, individuals, and families alike. They founded women’s clubs in every house, alongside with many public soup kitchens, common rooms, day care centers and so-called children’s corners, the staff of which would consist mainly of women. All these facilities together formed the largest chain of self-help centers, next to the numerous ghetto House Committees.

Double Portraits, 1939–1956: Memoirs of Polish Jewish Women from Soviet Russia

During the first months following Germany’s attack on Poland, some members of the Jewish community managed to sneak away to the eastern frontiers of the country which had been invaded and annexed by the Red Army in the second half of September 1939. The tragic experiences of these refugees, heretofore somehow neglected by Holocaust scholars, have recently become the subject of profound academic reflection. One of the sources of knowledge about the fate of Jewish refugees from Poland are their memoirs. In this article the author reflects on three autobiographical texts written by Polish Jewish women, female refugees who survived the Holocaust thanks to their stay in Soviet Russia, namely Ola Watowa, Ruth Turkow Kaminska, and Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon. Each of them experienced not only the atrocities of war, but also, most of all, the cruelty of the Communist regime. All three of them suffered persecution by the oppressive Soviet authorities in different ways and at different times. While Ola Watowa experienced (in person, as well as through the fate of her family and friends) the bitter taste of persecution and deportation during WWII, Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon lived a relatively peaceful life in that period (1939–1945), and Ruth Turkow Kaminska even enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle reserved for the privileged members of the establishment, and it was not until the years immediately after the war that the latter two women would face the true image of Communism as its victims. The Wats managed to leave the USSR shortly after the war, whereas for the Broderzons and the Turkows the war would not end until the death of Stalin and their subsequent return to Poland in 1956. According to Mary G. Mason, the immanent feature of women’s autobiographical writings is the self-discovery of one’s own identity through the simultaneous identification of some ‘other.’ It is thanks to the rootedness of one’s own identity through the connection with a certain chosen ‘other’ that women authors can openly write about themselves. The aim of the article is to attempt to determine to what extent this statement remains true for the memoirs of the three Polish Jewish women who, besides sharing the aforementioned historical circumstances, are also linked by the fact that all of them stayed in romantic relationships with outstanding men (i.e. writers Aleksander Wat and Moyshe Broderzon, and jazzman Adi Rosner), which had an enormous impact not only on their lives in general, but also specifically on the creation and style of their autobiographical narratives, giving them the character of a sui generis double portrait.

“One would have to listen with another ear, as if hearing another meaning, always in the process of weaving itself...”: A Female Trail in Polish Jewish Studies

This publication is the opening lecture to the conference The Jewish Woman: New Research and Research Perspectives that took place in Kraków in April 2021. The author attempts to answer the questions how the female perspective contributes to Jewish studies in Poland and why it requires a specific research approach. Looking for answers to these questions, the author refers, among other matters, to her personal experience while researching women’s poetry in Yiddish.

Women’s Mitzvot: The Role and Position of Women in the Light of the Jewish Religious Law

Word and Image: Texts and Related Iconic Motifs on Women’s Gravestones in Jewish Cemeteries in the Historical Areas of The Republic of Poland

The research material in the article covers the period from the earliest gravestones from the fourteenth century to contemporary ones of the twenty-first century. Among iconic motifs taken into account are those which are specific for women’s gravestones, and from texts in inscriptions—those corresponding to artistic motifs.

The aims of this study are the following: to distinguish thematic groups, determine the range of iconic motifs used and the chronology and frequency of their occurrence, as well as to juxtapose them with normative content from religious writings of Judaism and with rites and customs.

The following conclusions emerge from the research: In the early period (until the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century), there was no differentiation on tombstones between separate motifs ascribed to men (except for the Kohanim and Levites) and separate motifs ascribed to women. Among the common motifs, the bird motif dominated on women’s gravestones, while the crown motif acquired its specific character. In the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century, the  motif of a candlestick appeared on women’s gravestones; it spread very quickly and became a visual identification feature. In the nineteenth century, with the introduction of vanitas motifs on gravestones, they began to be used on women’s gravestones. The connection of motifs with the names of the deceased is also noticeable (e.g. Feigl–bird, Rachel–fairy, Royza–rose, or scenes related to biblical namesakes). The contents of women’s epitaphs presented as praise or description of virtues largely concern traditional female duties toward the home, husband, and children. Women’s gravestones contain no attributes or references to the study of Torah and scholarship, or else to activities in the public sphere—to professions, both religious and later secular—which obviously results from the position and role of women in the patriarchal community. Such information does not appear until the interwar period on the tombstones of women from families assimilated into the surrounding culture which is also evidenced by non-traditional tombstone forms and inscriptions in non-Jewish languages.

Prayer Books for Jewish Women in Polish, Their Authors and Users: The Case of Jews in Warsaw in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

In the nineteenth century, only two prayer books for Jewish women and girls were published in the Polish language: one written by Jakub Elsenberg (Warsaw 1855) and the other by Rozalia Saulson (Warsaw 1861). This small numer contrasts with the numerous editions of tkhines in Yiddish and Andachts- and Gebetbücher in German. The aim of the paper is to discuss the circumstances of the creation of both books and specificity of these editions. The origins of the users of the Warsaw’s prayer books according to the list of subscribers (and using the data of genealogical sources) are also considered.

The Gender Dimension of Yiddish Popular Literature in Shomer’s Writings

The article explores a model of construing gender in Yiddish shund (trash) literature. The author focuses on three aspects—womanhood, manhood, and relationships—comparing both cultural ideals and historical reality of Ashkenazic Jewry at the end of the nineteenth century with the gender roles constructed in the novels. The focus is placed on the stories of Nokhem Meir Shaykevitch (Shomer), the most popular shund writer of that time. The author of the article emphasizes the gender ideals in Shomer’s novels and investigates possible ideological inspirations that led the writer to bring the ideals to a textual level.

Between Camouflage and Stereotype: The Portrayal of a Jewish Woman in Gabriela Zapolska’s Drama “Nerwowa awantura” [The Nervous Row]

The article is an attempt to analyze Gabriela Zapolska’s drama entitled Nerwowa awantura [The Nervous Row], first published in 2012. The aim of the study is to answer the question whether Zapolska, while adding Peruwianka to other figures of Jewish women in her literary output, succumbed to popular opinions and provided her with stereotypical features. Or, on the contrary, perhaps she created her protagonist in an innovative, unprecedented way? The author is trying to answer the question whether the ideas of emancipation and feminist movements, so close to the writer, an attempt to fight the existing patriarchal order and Victorian bourgeois customs, also resonate in Nerwowa awantura. The analysis shows that there are no figures of Jewish women in Zapolska’s oeuvre who are clearly burdened with stereotypical traits or are completely free of them. However, none of the Jewish female characters created by the playwright is so independent, liberated and able to achieve her goals as Peruwianka, and as a result she can be perceived as a new figure on the literary and theatrical map.

Artists and Art Lovers: Women in the Jewish Artistic Life of Interwar Warsaw. In the Circle of The Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts

Research on Jewish artistic life in interwar Warsaw, especially in the context of the activities of the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts  (Żydowskie Towarzystwo Krzewienia Sztuk Pięknych), reveals active and numerousparticipation of women, both artists and art lovers (by and large a group of professionals, bourgeois, political and social activists, Jewish art collectors). In the article, special attention is paid to Tea Arciszewska and Diana Eigerowa, a collector and philanthropist, the founder of the Samuel Hirszenberg scholarship for students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The author, using selected examples, discusses the role of artists in the artistic community, their individual exhibitions in the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (Stanisława Centnerszwerowa, Regina Mundlak), a group of young artists living in Paris (Alicja Hohermann, Zofia Bornstein, Pola Lindenfeld, Estera Karp), as well as a circle of art lovers and patrons, some of whom—such as Tea Arciszewska and Paulina Apenszlak—also dealt with art criticism.

Between the Ideal Model and Reality: Socialization of Jewish Girls in Polish-Language Magazines for Children, 1925–1930

This article compares the patterns passed on in the years 1925–1930 by children’s magazines to Jewish girls with how they actually assessed themselves, what they considered important, what plans they had for the future. The author conducted an analysis of three Polish-language magazines for children: Chwilka, Dzienniczek, and Mały Przegląd. The first two contained texts by adult authors who showed children the accepted models of behavior and expectations from them. However, the patterns were divergent. On the one hand, girls were taught to be obedient and polite, and on the other hand as future inhabitants of Palestine they were supposed to be rebellious and courageous. These contrasting demands could not be reconciled. In Mały Przegląd, which published texts written by children, we find information about how young girls assessed themselves and what they were striving for. It seems that the contradictory requirements that could not be met led to far-reaching emancipation, perception of discrimination against women, and the choice of one’s own way of life.

The Image of Jewish Women on the Eastern Front of World War II in Contemporary Russian-Language Jewish Media: The Example of the Online Edition of the American Newspaper Yevreiski Mir

Marian Turski, XI Nie bądź obojętny. XI Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Stowarzyszenie Żydowski Instytut Historyczny w Polsce, Wołowiec–Warszawa 2021, ss. 253.

Vital records are one of the main sources providing insight into the demographic past. For most of the nineteenth century, however, the degree of under-registration of vital events among Jews was much higher than among non-Jews. These omissions undermine the credibility of demographic data on fertility and mortality published in contemporary statistical yearbooks. The analysis shows that the male-to-female ratio at birth aggregated on a regional level reveals the highest under-registration among Jews in the Russian Empire, including Congress Poland, until World War I. On the other hand, Prussian registration covers the Jewish population most completely and already in the 1820s shows no signs of under-registration. Despite the general low quality of registration systems, records from selected individual towns still pass quality tests. Top-down imposition of the registration duties, corporatism, defective legal regulations, bureaucratic inefficiency and personal characteristics of civil registrars were the main reasons for under-registration.

Residents of Jewish Homes for the Aged in the Polish Lands (until 1939)

Jewish homes for the aged (moshav zkenim) began to be established in Eastern Europe in the 1840s. In the interwar period, probably over sixty Jewish institutions of this kind operated in Poland, providing care for several thousand people. We know relatively much about the figures of their founders, benefactors, social activists, and senior employees. However, gaining information about residents themselves requires much more intensive queries. The article is based primarily on articles, reports, and announcements appearing in Jewish press, supplemented by accounts published in memorial books and other sources, to recreate a general portrait of people who lived under the care of such institutions in Warsaw, Lemberg (Lviv), Vilnius, and other places.

The New Jewish Cemetery in Lublin as a Palimpsest of Memory

The article seeks to understand the current condition of the new Jewish cemetery in Lublin, Poland. While it briefly presents the prewar history of the cemetery, the focus of the paper is on the afterwar period 1944–1992. The cemetery becomes a palimpsest of memory researched through activities, documents, media reports, and transformations of the area. The activities of Jewish organizations both in Poland and abroad, as well as activities of the local municipality create an image of both neglect and celebration. The specific situation of the cemetery as a functioning burial area is also explained in the context of politics and memory, as well as the general condition of the Jewish community in communist Poland.

The main aim of the article is to present a picture of contemporary celebrations of the Victory Day in Israel from the perspective of reports from Russian-language Israeli web portals. Although the tradition of celebrations dates back to 1950, the Victory Day did not become an official public holiday until 2017. Established on 9 May as the day of remembrance for the veterans of World War II, it resulted from the actions of the Russian-speaking population in Israel on two levels. The first was the political sphere and the activity of immigrant parties, especially Yisrael Beiteinu, in the work of the Knesset. The other was the social activity of local activists. However, both of these factors would not have been so effective if it were not for the reports of Russian-language Israeli media, in particular web portals. Although the arguments of the journalists associated with the portals were not always fully justified, their work contributed to the increased interest in the issue of veterans in Israel and Victory Day celebrations.

The project “Canon of the Memoir Literature of Polish Jews”is currently being prepared at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław in cooperation with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Polish Scientific Publishers PWN in Warsaw. Its purpose is to introduce 27 volumes of Jewish memoirs that make up the Jews. Poland. Autobiography series into Polish academic and literary circulation, and to integrate this corpus into the current scholarly discourse on Polish history and culture. This section presents excerpts from the autobiographies of two Jewish writers translated from Yiddish: Rachel (Rokhl) Feygenberg (1885–1972) and Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975). Rachel Feygenberg depicts her childhood in the shtetl of Lubańin Minsk province, reminiscing about her education, her family’s religiosity, her work in a shop, and the first signs of her writing talent. Molodowsky describes her work teaching homeless children during World War I and the beginnings of her poetic career. She also portrays the Jewish literary milieu in Kiev centered around the Eygns almanac, and her meeting with the patron of Yiddish literature and publisher Boris Kletskin that resulted in the publication of her first volume of poetry Kheshvendike nekht [Nights of Cheshvan].

* Tekst został przygotowany w ramach projektu finansowanego przez Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego w ramach Narodowego Programu Rozwoju Humanistyki.

** Rachela Fajgenberg. Dziewczęce lata. Młodość w poleskim sztetlu (fragment) - Z jidysz przełożyła Inka Stempin. Opracowanie i przypisy Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov

The project “Canon of the Memoir Literature of Polish Jews”is currently being prepared at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław in cooperation with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Polish Scientific Publishers PWN in Warsaw. Its purpose is to introduce 27 volumes of Jewish memoirs that make up the Jews. Poland. Autobiography series into Polish academic and literary circulation, and to integrate this corpus into the current scholarly discourse on Polish history and culture. This section presents excerpts from the autobiographies of two Jewish writers translated from Yiddish: Rachel (Rokhl) Feygenberg (1885–1972) and Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975). Rachel Feygenberg depicts her childhood in the shtetl of Lubańin Minsk province, reminiscing about her education, her family’s religiosity, her work in a shop, and the first signs of her writing talent. Molodowsky describes her work teaching homeless children during World War I and the beginnings of her poetic career. She also portrays the Jewish literary milieu in Kiev centered around the Eygns almanac, and her meeting with the patron of Yiddish literature and publisher Boris Kletskin that resulted in the publication of her first volume of poetry Kheshvendike nekht [Nights of Cheshvan].

* Tekst został przygotowany w ramach projektu finansowanego przez Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego w ramach Narodowego Programu Rozwoju Humanistyki.

A Few Words on the Margin of the Diary Written in the Djurin Ghetto by Miriam Korber-Bercovici

The purpose of the article is to present fragments of the diary of Miriam Korber-Bercovici, a young Jewish woman deported with her whole family from Southern Bukovina to the Transnistria Governorate under the Antonescu regime. The excerpts translated from the original Romanian into Polish mainly concern the author’s experiences of deportation and everyday life in the Djurin ghetto. They were selected in order to acquaint Polish readers with the situation of the Jews of Bukovina and Bessarabia displaced to the Transnistria Governorate during World War II. The diary was first published in Romania in 1995 as Jurnal de ghetou. The presented translation is based on the second edition of the diary published in 2017 by Curtea Veche Publishing House and Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania.

Research on Jewish Conversion: New Trends, Methods, and Challenges

This review article addresses the recent popularity of studies on Jewish conversion. In particular, it examines the volume Bastards and Believers: Jewish Converts and Conversion from the Bible to the Present edited by Theodor Dunkelgrün and Paweł Maciejko (Philadelphia, 2020). The author of the article suggests looking at this volume as at a representative example of recent trends, themes, methods, and challenges present in studying Jewish conversion.

Seventeenth-century matzevot from Chęciny: Historical and cultural aspects

The article focuses on the seventeenth-century Jewish tombstones made of a decorative limestone (the so-called Chęciny marble) in stonecutters’ workshops operating from the early seventeenth century in Chęciny. It discusses matzevot produced in this town both for clients from other localities (including Lublin and Kraków) and for local population (matzevot preserved at the local Jewish cemetery). It analyzes their artistic and technical values as well as the situation of producers and clients in a broader historical context (such as wars and epidemics in the mid-century). It also explores the tombstones preserved in Chęciny itself as historical sources for the study of the local Jewish community and the cemetery as such. The last part of the article includes a catalogue of eleven best preserved matzevot from the Jewish cemetery at Chęciny.

Among the most important aspects of government policy aimed at Jews in the nineteenth-century Polish lands was the issue of where Jews could reside. Medieval in its roots, the conviction that some form of separation was needed was vested in contemporary arguments. Pertinent in this context was the stance taken by the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw. The article discusses the question whether old city privileges imposing restrictions on Jews were in force at that time. The author claims—contrary to previous historiography—that this question cannot be reduced to a simple “yes”or “no”answer. Referring to the concepts of sociology of law, the double dimension of law (law in books and law in action) can be identified. The issue may serve as an interesting example of legal pluralism and the power of law-convictions. Based on ministerial and local correspondence, the analysis leads to two major conclusions. First, while in theory old city privileges were no longer in force— and this was clearly stated by ministers—the latter decided to refrain from announcing this to the public. Moreover, they agreed to develop an unofficial policy of resolving some cases “as if the old privileges were still binding.”Second, the officially introduced concept of district (rewir) was designed to replace the old privileges, as it offered a variety of new justifications. These were linked to the modernization policy, with claims regarding the integration of acculturated individuals, order, sanitation, and safety.

Moses and Gitla Ritter were accused of murdering the charwoman Franciszka Mnichówna. The accusation and trials which followed revoked the blood libel. In three circumstantial trials (1882–1886), despite the lack of evidence, the Ritters were found guilty and sentenced to death. Owing to the “ritual” nature attributed to the presumed murder, the trials became media events, followed by an international audience. The author discusses the course of the trials, considering whether and how the municipalities in which they took place exploited their unexpected popularity for promotional purposes. What importance did the urban elites attach to the trials? How can we interpret the three guilty verdicts, and what symbolic significance can be assigned to them?

* This article was written for project no. 2015/19/P/HS3/04054 in programme Polonez 1 organized by National Science Center which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 665778.

Homoerotics and self-censorship: New views on the early poetry of shmuel yankev imber

This article explores queer traits in the early poetry of Shmuel Yankev Imber. The paper identifies those spaces, where the sexual identity of the lyrical “I”was fluid and defied the sexual, social and literary norms of the poet’s time. The article emphasizes acts of self-censorship that occurred within Imber’s oeuvre in the short period between 1909 and 1914 when the poet published his second book. The article also discusses the social and literary context in which Imber lived and worked.

Asterblumowa’s case: some reflections on Polish-Jewish divisions and disappointments of the late 1930s

Cywja Asterblumowa was a first-year law student at the University of Warsaw when during one of many antisemitic riots in 1936 she was beaten and accused of insulting the Polish nation. In the trial, the judge and the prosecutor, taking into consideration her religious faith, refused her the right to feel Polish. The author of the article presents not only Asterblumowa’s case—from her enrolling in the university to being imprisoned—but above all, concentrates on the reactions of the public opinion in which the discussion centered on the Polishness and Jewishness as well as the truth and the usurpation. In Asterblumowa’s case and the discussion surrounding it, all the divisions, prejudices, stereotypes, fierceness, disappointment and resignation, which the late 1930s brought upon the Polish-Jewish relations, are clearly visible.

Jewish crafts in Lublin and their institutions in the 1930s

The paper attempts to reconstruct the condition of Jewish crafts in Lublin in the 1930s after the new legal regulations for industry were introduced in 1927 (“The act on industry law”). Crafts in Lublin in this period were ethnically strongly polarized between the two groups. Jews owned 60 percent of all the workshops in the city, while Poles held the rest of the crafts and services. Jewish craftsmen dominated mainly in textile (tailoring) and leather (shoemaking) industries and services like hairdressing or photography. The article focuses primarily on quantitative and statistic aspects of the discussed topic. Jewish craft organizations (craft guilds), supporting institutions (credit institutions for craftsmen) and Jewish personnel of the Lublin Chamber of Crafts are also presented.

THE CONCEPT OF NOAHIDE LAWS IN SEFER HA-CHINUCH

Sefer ha-chinuch is one of the earliest and most interesting works created after Maimonides which deal more broadly with the issue of Noahide laws (laws given according to the Judaic tradition to all humanity). The purpose of the article is to present the original views of the author of this book on the issue of seven Noahide laws, and in particular on their relations to the 613 commandments of Israel. Discussion on the Noahide laws in Sefer ha-chinuch is not organized in a systematic way. The originality and value of this work lies, firstly, in the very approach to this topic in a general way (the inspiration was certainly Maimonides); secondly, in the concept of Noahide laws as categories, the details of which are comparable, although not identical, to the Israeli commandments. This concept resulted in an innovative construction involving the incorporation of the Noahide commandments into a discussion on individual Israeli commandments. Thirdly, the originality of the work is manifested also in certain halachic concepts concerning aspects of specific Noahide laws, often departing from Maimonides’ solutions.

“HOW ENORMOUS IS SEMITIC POWER”: POETRY IN JAN JELEŃSKI’S ROLA

Rola was the first antisemitic weekly in Poland published in Warsaw between 1883 and 1912. According to the nineteenth-century custom, not only journalism, but also novels published in weekly installments, as well as poems were included in the magazine. In poetry, lofty or religious topics were raised at the time of Christmas or Easter, or virulent antisemitic satire was published on various occasions. The antisemitic satire corresponded to the themes taken up in prose and journalism. The themes were dominated by the myth of Judeopolonia, issues of assimilation and social advancement of Jews, attacks on mixed marriages and mockery of Zionism, or the colonies established by Baron Hirsch in Argentina. It can be said that both prose and poetry were servile to journalism and strengthened the antisemitic content dominant in the weekly.

THE REFORM OF JEWISH LITURGICAL MUSIC IN GALICIA AT THE TURN OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES

The article presents the issue of the reform of Jewish liturgical music in Galicia at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its main question concerns the essence of the reform, the novelty of which relied rather on the introduction of a modern way of performance of traditional music than replacing it with a new repertoire. The text discusses the role of new music performers such as cantors, choirs and organists in Galician Temples. It draws attention to the aesthetic changes of synagogue music and its ideological foundations. It also presents the attitude of progressive Galician Jews toward the repertoire of West European synagogues as well as to the music composed by local orthodox cantors, such as Baruch Schorr, Baruch Kinstler or Eliezer Goldberg. As the analysis of the historical material shows, their musical tastes and strong attachment to tradition tied them more closely to the Galician orthodoxy than to the German reform.

THE MAN IN THE GRIP OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM: ON JULIUS MARGOLIN’S WORK JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE ZE-KA

The article focuses on Julius Margolin’s life and memoirs. Margolin was born in Pinsk, survived the Sovietization of Poland, and then spent five years in Soviet gulags. He witnessed the cruel history and functioning of the Soviet regime. The analysis is made on the basis of Margolin’s work Journey to the Land of the Ze-Ka, in which he wanted to show to the world the truth about the Soviet totalitarian system. In that way he intended to fight for freedom of millions of people and for human rights.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE POST-SHOAH LURIANISM: THE IRON TRACKS BY AHARON APPELFELD

The article reinterprets The Iron Tracks by Aharon Appelfeld as a work of Lurianic Kabbalah adapted to the world after the Shoah. It is a reality of collapsed transcendence in which no divinity or ethics hold universal validity. As in Lurianism, this world contains entrapped sparks of former transcendence: dispersed Jewish survivors, artefacts of Jewish life and a Jewish Communist organization. Appelfeld portrays a post-survival world based on permanent repetition and unrepented guilt. The gist of his novel, however, lies in the slim possibility of redemption which the main protagonist, Erwin Siegelbaum, opens up with an act of vengeance on a war criminal.

MARCH 1968 AND THE SHOAH: THE COMMON GROUNDS

This article is a synthetic study on major issues related to the events of 1968 in Poland and their similarity to the atmosphere at the time of the Holocaust. The author presents analogies and differences between the antisemitic campaign of 1968 and the Shoah, analyzing: (1) the rhetoric of journalistic texts and political speeches; (2) works of art; (3) literary representations; and (4) memories of the victims. The main material for the analysis consists of prose texts—novels and short stories—written both in the late 1960s and after the political transformation of 1989.

Mordechaj Canin, Przez ruiny i zgliszcza. Podróżpo stu zgładzonych gminach żydowskich w Polsce, tłum. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Wydawnictwo Nisza, Warszawa 2018, ss. 526.

* Materiały wykorzystane w tym tekście zebrano w wyniku projektu badawczego „Inclusion of Jewish Citizens in Postwar Czechoslovak and Polish Societies” (project nr 16–01775Y) finansowanego przez Czeską Fundację Naukową (Czech Science Foundation).

This article discusses the spread of the Polish language among the Jewish population in the 1930s. Its source is the daily press, which was one of the most important institutions of interwar Jewish culture in the Polish language and one of the key institutions in which Polish served as a means of written communication in Jewish life.

The press can be regarded as one of the principle sources indicating the main modern areas of Jewish communication in Polish and documenting the expansion of this communication from the public to the private sphere, from the exchange of opinions on social, political, and artistic problems to the discussion of everyday issues, family life, or even the most intimate subjects. The Polish-Jewish popular daily press created opportunities for speaking about everyday life through journalistic and literary genres dealing with topics related to family, marriage, sex, health, fashion, cooking, housekeeping, raising children, schools and universities, sport, entertainment, etiquette. The  appearance of Polish-Jewish sensationalist newspapers at the beginning of the 1930s signaled the emergence of new audiences using the Polish language. The interwar vernacularization of the Polish language manifests itself in its growing instrumental value and change in its symbolic signification. The increasingly widespread use of Polish was accompanied by the weakening of its role as a symbol of integration with Polishness and Polish culture.

THE JEW IS LOOKING AT THE PEASANT… RURAL SPACES AND PEASANT HEROES: SOME EXAMPLES FROM YIDDISH LITERATURE

The article is an analysis of several texts from Jewish literature. The main purpose is to see how the characters of villagers were construed and how the rural space functioned in texts created by Yiddish writers. Rural space is the sphere of professional and sociocultural contacts within which heroes are placed and by which their fate is influenced. Jewish–peasant relations are the most interesting aspects of the narratives.

Historic copper repoussé was advanced and rejuvenated by the work of Jewish artists in Poland in the period between the two world wars. Numerous metaloplastics exhibitions were held in Warsaw and Łódź, engendering interest in artistic circles and among critics. Through works from the Jewish metaloplastic art scene, copper reliefs by Marek Szwarc, Chaim Hanft, Józef Śliwniak, and Arieh Merzer, the author attempts to shed new light on these very significant modern expressions of Jewish-Polish interactions created with copper. In the context of Polish culture and the art scene, copper was also making its comment on the fragile and complicated contacts between Poles and Jews with its inner spiritual essence of unity and within its depths.

The article examines subjective memories of two writers, Stanisław Vincenz and Aharon Appelfeld, who both omit central historical aspects while describing their Holocaust experiences. The works of the Polish writer Stanisław Vincenz and an excerpt from a work by the Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld are interpreted while considering the role of historiographic metafiction in modern literature. Though the experiences of both authors are fairly different, their silence may be treated as an act of conscious forgetting, or as a mindful choice of Holocaust recollection. It is suggested that this silence actually offers a valuable perspective for both literary and historical research. While Appelfeld’s experience of the Holocaust was different from that of Vincenz, the silence of the authors carries profound meanings. Reading Vincenz and Appelfeld as historiographic metafiction is to read their silence.

The article reconstructs the model of discourse present in Polish culture since the 1940s. Border Street (1949) is one of the first implementations of this model. An antisemite who becomes a righteous gentile is a pars pro toto of the Polish community. Violence is invoked, but its range is limited: Polish antisemitism stops when it comes to harming Jews. Violence that was, according to historical research, the dominant behavior toward Jews during the Nazi occupation is presented as an exteriorized exception. Two other Polish films of the same type are discussed in the article: Just beyond this Forest (1991) and In Darkness (2011).

Praca naukowa finansowana w ramach Narodowego Programu Rozwoju Humanistyki w roku 2016–2017, złożona do druku we wrześniu 2017.

Recenzja: Agnieszka Jagodzińska, „Duszozbawcy”? Misje i literatura Londyńskiego Towarzystwa Krzewienia Chrześcijaństwa wśród Żydów w latach 1809–1939, Austeria, Kraków–Budapeszt 2017, ss. 520.

Recenzja: Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Mówić we własnym imieniu. Prasa jidyszowa a tworzenie żydowskiej tożsamości narodowej (do 1918 roku), Instytut Historii PAN, wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa 2016, ss. 353.

Recenzja: Prasa Żydów polskich. Od przeszłości do teraźniejszości, red. Agnieszka Karczewska, Sławomir Jacek Żurek, Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Lublin 2016, ss. 278.

Recenzja: Eddy Portnoy, Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press, Stanford University Press, Stanford 2017, ss. 265.

Recenzja: Anda Eker. Miłość stracona, red. Maria Antosik-Piela, Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2017, ss. 309.

Recenzja: Shaul Magid, Hasidism Incarnate: Hasidism, Christianity, and the Construction of Modern Judaism, Stanford University Press, Stanford 2015, 271 pp.

JEWISH THEMES IN JÓZEF PANKIEWICZ’S ART IN THE SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT

The paper examines Jewish motifs in Józef Pankiewicz’s works. The artist created them in the 1880s in Warsaw, occupied then by the Russian Empire and inhabited mostly by Poles and Jews. Most of these pictures were published as woodcuts and autotypes in newspapers disseminating positivist ideology and social program. Until now, the researchers have focused on analyzing only the style of these pictures, treating them as a short phase on the way to later symbolist, truly modern Pankiewicz’s art. A close scrutiny of his works from the Warsaw period reveals a specific visual representation of Jewish figures. They are depicted as isolated from other people, covered by shadows, placed in the oppositional relation to the traditional symbols of Warsaw, such as the King Sigismund’s Column and the Mermaid Statue, as well as to Christian architecture. The author of the paper draws the conclusion that the tensions in Polish-Jewish relationships which increased in the 1880s, being rooted in the political and economic history of Warsaw and shaped by contemporary persecution of Jews in the Russian Empire, are visualized in Pankiewicz’s works.   

“THE PUREBRED ACES,” OR SAMUEL JAKUB IMBER’S LOOK AT POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889–1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be regarded as the spiritual father of modern Yiddish poetry in Galicia. He wrote also for Polish- ewish press, trying to improve the image of Jews in the eyes of their Polish fellow citizens. This matter was a major concern already in his long poem Esterke (1911), one of the high points of Imber’s oeuvre in which he called for a harmonious coexistence of Jews and Poles. In the 1930s, when antisemitism was on the rise in Poland, Imber published two collections of articles in Polish: Asy czystej rasy [The Purebred Aces; 1934] and Kąkol na roli [The Weed in the Fields; 1938], in which he sought to counteract the ways in which Jews had been portrayed by the Polish nationalist press. The article discusses the significance of the poem Esterke and of selected texts from both collections of articles.  

The Zionist ideology proclaimed the equality of men and women, according to which everyone, regardless of gender, should prepare oneself to go to Eretz Israel and work hard to create a future state. However, reality did not always correspond to ideology. In the Polish-language Zionist press, one can find texts from which it transpires that theoretical ideological assumptions were not always implemented in practice. Despite the officially proclaimed gender equality, women were typically assigned to feminine activities, while being removed from more responsible ones. Neither did they themselves always wish to change the traditional division of roles. In the 1930s, this problem began to be noticed and inspired reflections on the possibility of changes. 

MOSHE MERIN: SAVIOR, COLLABORATOR OR AN ASTRAY MAN?

In January 1940, Moshe Merin became the Head of the Jewish Council of Elders of Eastern Upper Silesia. At this point, the community of Jews amounted to almost 100,000 members. Merin actively promoted his major concept of “survival by work.” He believed that only working for the Third Reich combined with obedience and subordination toward the aggressor can guarantee Jewish survival. This policy arose objections, especially among Jewish youth involved in the resistance movement. Until mid-1942 Merin was an influential figure. His wide contacts with the Nazis and relatively good living conditions of Jews in Eastern Upper Silesia dismissed alleged reasons for mutiny. Therefore, during the first two years of the war, the Jewish Council of Elders of Eastern Upper Silesia enjoyed a lot of success. The situation changed in 1943 when the Nazis created ghettos and started forced deportations to KL Auschwitz. The Jewish Council stopped functioning when Moshe Merin and his main associates were deported to the death camp.   

“SO THEY BEAT YOU REALLY HARD HERE? NO, NOT US, ONLY THE JEWS”: JEWISH VICTIMHOOD INSIDE THE MAJDANEK CAMP IN POLISH PRISONERS’ TESTIMONIES

The article draws on a source material from The State Museum Majdanek Archives, a collection of video testimonies recorded in 1987–1989, to develop a fuller picture of social relations among prisoners of different ethnic backgrounds at the Majdanek Concentration Camp. From the fall of 1941 through July 1944, Majdanek functioned as a killing center and a concentration camp for about 150,000 prisoners from different European countries. Drawing on video testimonies as a type of oral history, the article traces the perception of Jews in the camp by Polish prisoners, their social interactions, and the interethnic social boundaries shaped by camp life.  

YIDDISH BROADCASTING ON THE POLISH RADIO AFTER WORLD WAR II

The initiator of the establishment of Yiddish broadcasts in postwar Poland was Jonas Turkow. The first program in Yiddish was broadcasted by the Polish Radio (Polskie Radio) from the city of Lublin on January 6, 1945. For the first time in Poland’s history Yiddish could be heard on the airwaves. It was also the first attempt to revive Yiddish and, most importantly, it came from a state institution before any Jewish organizations and institutions came to existence after World War II. After Jonas Turkow had left Poland, this activity was taken over by the Department of Culture and Propaganda in the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (CKŻP) in Warsaw. Between 1950 and 1958 the broadcasts were aired by the Jewish Section of the Polish Radio External Service and they could be heard only abroad. In January 1958, the Jewish Section of the Polish Radio was closed down by the decision of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. 

“STRIVE FOR A GOOD NAME AND PEACE OF CONSCIENCE”: THE TESTAMENT OF TEKLA KRONENBERG

The main goal of publishing this source is to make available a document of the type that remains unexplored and unrecognized, especially within the field of Jewish studies. The nineteenth-century testament of Tekla Kronenberg deepens our knowledge about the Kronenberg family in general and its female members in particular. In notary deeds we find primarily male testaments. It is therefore relevant to publicize a female testament which may prove helpful in historical research on women. It is possible to examine this document from various perspectives, such as the value of charity, the attitude toward converts, the extent of social bonds (what things were left and to whom? were inheritors mainly male, or female?). In addition, an analysis of the means of expressing emotions regarding particular persons mentioned in the testament enables us to make a quality assessment of family bonds. As a result, it sheds new light on a Jewish family’s life.  

Recenzja : Dobrochna Gorlińska, Żydzi w administracji skarbowej polskich władców czasu rozbicia dzielnicowego, Wydawnictwo Towarzystwa Naukowego „Societas Vistulana”, Kraków 2015, ss. 372.

Recenzja: Paweł Fijałkowski, Warszawska społeczność żydowska w okresie stanisławowskim 1764–1795. Rozwój w dobie wielkich zmian, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma, Warszawa 2016, ss. 529.

Recenzja: Vassili Schedrin, Jewish Souls, Bureaucratic Minds: Jewish Bureaucracy and Policymaking in Late Imperial Russia, 1850–1917, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2016, ss. 288.

Recenzja: Barbara Kalinowska-Wójcik, Między Wschodem i Zachodem. Ezechiel Zivier (1868–1925). Historyk i archiwista, Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach, Katowice 2015, ss. 328.

Monastery chronicles from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth provide valuable insight not only into the history of individual orders and the Polish clergy in general, but also into the history of mentality, daily life and religious and ethnic minorities. Although references to Jews are rather sporadic in such chronicles, they are nevertheless quite diverse and concern almost all aspects of Jewish activity in Poland and abroad. Therefore, they can serve as an excellent complement to other sources in the field, including Jewish ones, and those of various secular institutions and offices. It should be noted, however, that the credibility of the information contained in monastery chronicles is always  dependent on the distance in time and space between the chronicler and the described events and should—if possible—be verified against other documentary sources from the same period.

The purpose of this article is to show the Jewish involvement in the tolln collection in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The following aspects are explored: the legal position, the financial involvement, and conditions of the everyday work of the Jewish toll collectors, as well as the conflicts connected with this profession. The author based her research upon mostly unknown primary sources, including Lithuanian Treasury documents and different court acts. Upon examination of those sources it becomes clear that the Jews played a significant role in the tax collection in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in that period. What is more, not only members of the economic elite were involved in the cooperation with the state treasury.

Benedykt Chmielowski (1700–1763), a Catholic priest, the author of the New Athens encyclopedia (extended edition: Lwów, 1754–1756) included in his polyhistorical work plenty of information on issues related to Jews. The article discusses these issues and connects their specificity with the character of different parts of the work in which Chmielowski placed them as well as with the detected and secret sources of his knowledge about Jews (especially books by early modern scholars) and the ways he dealt with those sources. The author of the article also shows Chmielowski’s writing strategies, placing New Athens in the tradition of baroque encyclopedism—a literary production typical of the previous epoch.

An unprecedented event took place in the Russian Empire in the second half of 1738. On the main square of St. Petersburg, a Jewish merchant, Boroch Leibov, and a Russian navy captain-lieutenant, Aleksander Voznitsyn, were burned alive at the stake. Voznitsyn had met Leibov while staying in Moscow. Impressed by the teachings of his new acquaintance, he decided to convert to Judaism. The reason for this decision was probably the mental illness of the captain or his unconfirmed family ties with the fifteenth-century Heresy of the Judaizers. Based on the Sobornoye Ulozheniye decree, both of them were sentenced to public burning for withdrawal from the Orthodox faith and blasphemy, in the case of Voznitsyn, and for persuading an Orthodox man to withdraw from his faith, in the case of Leibov. The trial of Boroch and Voznitsyn was widely reported in the whole Russian Empire and became the cause of rapid changes in the policy toward the Jews. Both Empress Anna Ivanovna and, after 1740, her successor, Elizabeth Petrovna, signed a number of decrees ordering the Jews to leave the borders of the Russian Empire.

The paper analyses a specific form of revolutionary collectivity referred to as akhdes by Jewish militants of 1905. This peculiar political subjectivity, which emerged independently of mass political parties, could hardly be recognized and apprehended by historians. However, it was perceived by some Yiddish writers who instantaneously fictionalized revolutionary events of 1905. The way the revolted crowd (oylem) was rendered both in historical and literary works is reconsidered with reference to the concepts coined by recent political philosophy (particularly, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Paolo Virno). The paper is composed of three parts. The first part reviews briefly some of the attempts at writing the history of crowds. The second part is devoted to revolutionary events of 1905 in a specific place, the shtetl of Krynki, which—due to the intensity of the revolt there—attracted particular attention of historians. The third part focuses on Isaac Meir Weissenberg’s novella, A Shtetl, published in 1907, to suggest a political reading that could inform historical narrations insofar as they try to apprehend the dynamics of the revolution itself.

Focusing on the period surrounding the revolution of 1905 in Warsaw, this article examines the relationship between four different types of violence—urban, revolutionary, governmental, and interethnic—that repeatedly influenced the lives of many of the city’s 775,000 residents. As part of this contextual approach to studying and understanding  intergroup violence in an urban setting, the author maintains that while the causal relationship between social, political, and interethnic violence in Warsaw was never linear, its influence was very often reciprocal and incremental, if not, at times, exponential. This synchronic analysis of the different types of violence is critical for understanding the rising tensions between Poles and Jews in turn-of-the-century Warsaw as well as Jewish interpretations of these developments. In addition to shedding much light on key social and political developments during this period, this contextual analysis of various types of intergroup conflict in one city also challenges the two predominant scholarly paradigms for studying moments of anti-Jewish violence: the longue durée school of antisemitism and the theme of Polish-Jewish coexistence.

This article addresses meanings of localized political violence among working-class youth in the Pale of Settlement and the Kingdom of Poland during the late period of the 1905 Revolution. The author claims, using contemporary debates and personal documents, that localized political violence became at that time an important expression of working-class militant identity, though its meanings varied with location and ethnicity. Localized violence became a statement of the militants’ newly acquired dignity as revolutionaries within their local communities as well as a statement of their higher revolutionary commitment vis-à-vis the established revolutionary parties and the better-educated revolutionaries. While the article addresses violence of militants of all stripes, it particularly focuses on the meaning of localized violence among anarchists, since their uncompromising rejection of all social hierarchies combined with anti-intellectualism pushed them into perceiving violent confrontations with the authorities as the ultimate
expression of their political and personal identities, more so than for other militants. The anarchists perceived themselves at war against the authorities and saw their war as an apocalyptic struggle of the good against the evil. The emphasis of the article is on working-class Jewish militants from the Pale of Settlement and from the Kingdom of Poland, who constituted a substantial minority within anarchist groups and who had to struggle against a combination of class and ethnicity- based discrimination which, as the author claims, affected their identity as militants and the meaning of localized violence for them.

This study of Vladimir Jabotinsky in the years 1905–1907 reveals a developmental leap in his evolution as a politician, thinker, and Zionist leader. In this context one should view his political activities and his writings as two elements of a united system that had the goal of advancing Zionism in Russia. Although this observation might seem self-evident, it has epistemological significance because it warns us against exaggerating Jabotinsky’s importance exclusively as a thinker. At that time Jabotinsky was an inexperienced political strategist and politician of middling, but growing, importance. However, he learned quickly and advanced in the leadership during this short period. The author examines how he succeeded satisfying his ambitions through practical affairs and literary polemics

The revolution of 1905 had a significant impact on the social and political life of the Kingdom of Poland. Not only did it lead to the emergence of the foundations of civil society, but it also contributed to the emergence of a new political scene. Jan Jeleński, the publisher of the antisemitic Rola weekly, was also an active participant in those transformations. He got involved in many activities, including organizing the Polish Catholic Association, an election campaign to the Duma, or publishing a new newspaper. According to him, similarly to the opinion of other conservative and Catholic milieus, the revolution had a clearly negative influence on Polish society. He perceived it as a result of behind-the-scenes machinations of Germans and, above all, of Jews who supposedly drew profit from the chaos in the Kingdom. According to Rola, Jews were also responsible for the emergence of socialist parties which, while focusing on Jewish interests, brought harm to Polish workers. And thus, in Jeleński’s weekly, at the threshold of the twentieth century, antisemitism became a convenient tool of political strategy. It served as a means of deprecating political adversaries, strengthened the stereotype of the Jew as an enemy, and the rhetoric shaped at that time became deeply rooted in the Polish public discourse for many years to come.

ANTI-POGROM LOYALISTS, MODERNISATORS OR DEFENDERS OF THE PEOPLE?
AN ANONYMOUS LETTER TO THE GENERAL-GOVERNOR OF VILNA FROM 1903

An anonymous letter to the general-governor of Vilna was sent in 1903. It concerns the permission to establish Jewish self-defense groups regardless of the political intentions of the Bund or Poale Zion. The author represents a loyalist attitude and shows ideological nuances within the Jewish community prior to 1905

During March–April 1905 and from October 1905 until February 1906, Nahum Sokolow (1859–1936), a renowned journalist, editor, Zionist and public figure who lived and was active in Warsaw, stayed in St. Petersburg. During that time he wrote almost every day in his diary about the political meetings he attended and the existence of the city during those crucial moments. Most of the diary is written in Polish, and some parts are written in Hebrew and Yiddish. His notes indicate that he was fully aware of being a witness to significant historical events and saw them as an opportunity to gain some advantages for the Jewish residents of the Russian Empire and for himself. As a result we can learn about the daily life of the city and get a sense of how the political life was conducted in the shadow of the revolution. Although Sokolow was fully aware of the significance of the 1905 events for the entire Russian Empire, he was not aware of the transition that was taking place in the Jewish public sphere. He believed that the old political methods were still relevant and did not realize that a new era in the Jewish political life in the Russian Empire had begun. Sokolow’s diary provides an opportunity to learn of the events that took place in St. Petersburg from the perspective of a journalist and political activist who knew the city quite well, but nevertheless remained an outsider.

The kabbalistic doctrine of cosmic cycles (shemittot and yovel) or worlds periodically created and returning into the state of chaos has been fully developed in the treatise entitled Sefer ha-Temunah, composed by an anonymous author probably in the mid-fourteenth century within the areas of the Byzantine Empire. The allusive style of the text is balanced by its clear structure, which constitutes the framework for the doctrine of cosmic cycles. This paper investigates the cluster of motifs exposed in the introduction to Sefer ha-Temunah and further developed in the treatise: (a) sefirah Binah and its symbolism, (b) ascension of the vital soul (nefesh) to Binah as a place of its origin, and (c) the concept of primordial Torah (Torah elionah) as a tool by which Binah affects each of the following worlds. The article reveals the relation between these motifs as organized around the notion of sefirah Binah, which is the crucial concept in the process of creation and destruction of worlds presented by the anonymous author of Sefer ha-Temunah.

Mordekhai David Brandstetter (1844−1928) was one of the prominent creators of Hebrew Haskalah literature in its latest phase. His most celebrated contribution is connected with HaShahar, the leading periodical of late Haskalah literature, edited by Peretz Smolenskin between 1869−1884.
Most of the readings of Brandstetter’s writings have focused so far on the dozen short stories and novellas he published in HaShahar. Much less attention has been devoted to the later stage of his literary work that outstretched far beyond that era. This study focuses on those late works, some twelve stories that were written after the publication of Brandstetter’s collected writings in 1891. These stories are still rooted in Galician Jewish life, but they reflect the ambition to adhere to new materials and poetics, following the radical changes in Hebrew literature from the 1880’s onward towards realism, modernism and Zionism.
 

This paper discusses R.A. Braudes’ short stories that were published in the second half of the 1870s, during his three-and-a-half-year residency in Lviv. This was a period of dramatic changes in Haskalah literature, and also a significant period in Braudes’ work when he first attained his status as a novelist. In light of this success, I will explore why Braudes persisted in using the short-story genre, one that was considered trivial and did not earn him the recognition he received for his longer works, and discuss what literary and conceptual possibilities the short story gave him that his novels failed to give.
 

The interface between politics and theology in the discourse of Zionism and Jewish nationalism has occupied writers, historians and literary critics since the end of the nineteenth century, and has received renewed attention recently. This paper analyzes David Frishman’s critique of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s literary work, highlighting Frishman’s anti-Zionist and anti-messianic stance. It then uses Frishman’s critique as a basis for critically examining the contemporary debate over the secularization of modern Hebrew literature.
 

This paper presents the tasks and aims that Nahum Sokolow believed Hebrew literature should have in Jewish life and in the Jewish national movement. Before his official joining the Zionist movement, Sokolow believed that the contribution of Hebrew literature to the formation of Jewish nationalism was more significant than the return of the Jews to their historical territory. This position did not change significantly after his joining the Zionist movement in 1897. In addition the paper evaluates Sokolow’s significant input to the development of the Jewish literary center in Warsaw and a new Hebrew literary style.
 

The article gives a general overview of Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, and provides new perspectives on Hebrew fiction written in and about the city in the period of 1880−1920. The study results from the need to understand Hebrew literature within the inherently multilingual, transnational nature of the Jewish literary activity in the city and is based on a large corpus of Hebrew fictional texts that scholars did not consider earlier. It describes Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, as well as the different ways in which Warsaw’s cityscape and the urban experience are represented in Hebrew stories and novels written between 1880 and 1920.
 

HEBREW LITERARY CENTERS IN INTERWAR POLAND

The article scrutinises various aspects of cultural activities in Hebrew literary centers in interwar Poland (1919–1939). The research is based on Hebrew literary periodicals published in the cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Vilnius and Lviv.
Taking into consideration the common practice of scholars to neglect or ignore both the historical importance and the literary value of the output of diasporic centers, the main goal of the study was to show the internal dynamic of the Polish center. By describing literary initiatives undertaken in various cities, the author demonstrated the spectrum of cultural and literary activities, along with diffe­rences between the centers and mutual relations of their representatives.
 

The image of Poland in the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg and Avot Yeshurun

 The article discusses the image of Poland in the works of two Hebrew poets, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Avot Yeshurun, whose biographies are closely connected with Poland. Both of them expressed their complex and often contradictory feelings towards their European past but each of them did it in his own way. Greenberg in his main works created a national and political narrative. Even when he referred to personal memories, they were usually combined with a social diagnosis. In contrast, Yeshurun in his poetry expressed, above all, personal feelings of devotion to the abandoned town and family as well as longing and sense of guilt.

 

HEBRAICA VERITAS IN BREST BIBLE

Abstract: According to a 450-year-old tradition, the Brest Bible is regarded as the first translation of the whole Holy Scripture from the original languages into Polish. The present article deals mainly with the relation between the Brest Bible and Hebrew and Aramaic versions. Even a cursory analysis reveals that the Brest translators generally followed hebraica veritas. Yet, they took advantage of Stephanus’s Bible (Geneva 1556/57), which besides the Vulgate contained a literal translation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin, accomplished by Santes Pagnini. This version made it possible to convey hebraica veritas without resorting to the Hebrew text. In places where there are significant differences between the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible of the 16th century and Pagnini’s version (e.g. Ruth 2:23; 3:15; 4:1), the Brest Bible follows Pagnini. The Brest translators followed Pagnini’s text in Stephanus’s edition verse by verse, adapting the division into chapters and verses to the Polish text. The analysis of onomastics and the system of transcription in the Brest Bible leads to the conclusion that the translators followed the previously accepted principles of proper names translation as well as left some Hebrew and Aramaic terms untranslated. The influence of the Vulgate might have been the result of mistakes which emerged as a result of taking advantage of two Latin versions simultaneously, printed alongside by Stephanus (see 1 Chr 4:2). There are reasons to doubt if the Brest translators were translating directly from the original version. Chances are they translated directly from Pagnini’s version printed by Robert Stephanus. In order to confirm this with all certainty and without a shadow of a doubt, strenuous and tedious research, comprising larger parts of the text, conducted verse by verse, is absolutely crucial.
 

The Hampels. Love in the shadow of Nazism

Abstract: Dorothea Schalit, a Jewish girl, and Heinz Hampel, a Protestant, met in Sopot (Zoppot), then a town incorporated into the Free City of Gdańsk (Danzig), in the 1920s. They got married and were active in the leftist and democratic circles. After 1933, when the municipal authorities became dominated by the Nazis, the Hampels did not leave the Free City. Despite the increasing pressures and insults from the NSDAP members, Heinz Hampel refused to divorce Dorothea. Owing to their courage and the aid from few friends, the couple managed to survive in Sopot and in March 1945 saw the Red Army enter the town. They lived there until 1950 when they decided to emigrate to Israel. Till their death they stayed in Jerusalem. The presented text consists of a historical introduction written by Grzegorz Berendt and the report of the Hampels on their life in Sopot prior to the entry of the Russian army into the city. The said report was incorporated into the collections of Yad Vashem Institute, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority.
 

In spite of the large number of literary works that were written and printed in Yiddish throughout the centuries, it was not considered as a valid language up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Due to a pioneering group of a few Jewish scholars, for whom Yiddish and Yiddishism became an ideological mission, new academic approaches were implemented into the study of Yiddish language, literature and culture. In the second half of the twentieth century a new generation of scholars broadened the range of research while developing new methods of work and training the next generation of experts. At the present time Yiddish studies are a respected academic field in various countries, including Poland, and cannot be overlooked anymore in the context of Jewish studies.

Moshe Sertels was a son of Issachar and Sarah. He was born circa mid-16th century in Prague. He was a teacher and worked as a translator and exegete. Sertels wrote several texts that attracted wide interest. One of them was a work titled Sefer Beer Moshe, a bilingual commentary on the Torah and five megillot. The construction of the text, its clarity and intelligibility, made it an excellent tool for teaching the Torah in cheders (e.g. such usage of this text was noted in the books of the Cracovian brotherhood Talmud Torah). The article presents the figure of the author and his literary oeuvre with particular focus on the Sefer Beer Moshe as a work that served generations of Ashkenazi Jews to enhance their knowledge of the Torah. The author discusses characteristics of the text and underlines several issues in regard to the Yiddish language in the form that was used in Prague at the turn of the 17th century.

The paper focuses on a few topics crucial for the study of medical beliefs and practices among the traditional Ashkenazi population of Eastern Europe. Primarily based on Yiddish memoirs and Jewish memorial books (yizker bikher), published since the last decades of the nineteenth century, it is supported with references to other ethnographic sources in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish and other languages. A closer examination of this material leads to the conclusion that popular beliefs and practices were not haphazard, but constituted a rich heterogeneous medical system. The analysis casts a new light on help-seeking behaviors and enables better comprehension of their natural and mythological meaning.

Next to an informative function an important element of the contents of the largest and most popular Yiddish newspapers published in Lublin between two world wars, such as Lubliner Tugblat, or Lubliner Unzer Express, was providing sensational news. This included reports and descriptions of the criminal underworld, both Jewish and Christian. Among the most frequently discussed topics of the demimonde were: Polish-Jewish cooperation in criminal acts, depiction of the milieu of thieves, swindlers, pimps, prostitutes, or traffickers in women, as well as vivid portraits of the best known local criminals and reports on their most important “achievements.” Most articles and notes concerned current affairs but historical pieces were published as well, mainly Jakub Waksman’s texts devoted to the history of the Jewish underworld in Lublin at the end of the nineteenth century. The main function of these texts was to offer readers simple entertainment and satisfy their desire to experience the exciting atmosphere of horror and the uncanny. Descriptions of the underworld also served as a warning, as they contained information about common methods of theft, fraud and tricks practised by professional criminals. Such texts also had a didactic dimension as they usually assured that each crime would be discovered and the perpetrators duly punished.

The article explores the dominant representations and images of Argentina present in Warsaw’s interwar Yiddish dailies. Examining articles, reports and advertisements published in Haynt, Der Moment and Hayntige Nayes, the author reconstructs patterns, forms and contexts in which Argentina appeared in the analyzed Yiddish press. By critically looking at the Argentina-themed contents consumed, absorbed and reflected by Polish Jewish readers, the author discusses their knowledge, visions and attitudes towards Argentina formed on the basis of newspapers they read. Various issues of Polish-Jewish Argentinian reality mirrored in the media discourse, reopening already broadly discussed problems of migration, prostitution and crime are discussed. The presence of Argentina in Poland’s Yiddish press is portrayed as an example of wider transnational ties linking Polish Jews in Argentina with their coreligionists in the home country. Focusing on Argentina, a relatively less significant emigration country, the author contributes to the research on Jewish minority discourses.

The article presents various strategies of using the Yiddish language in contemporary Polish “retro” crime fiction, i.e. detective novels that take place before WWII. By analyzing different examples of stylized language used by Jewish characters, the author presents general tendencies of depicting Jews and Yiddish culture in the popular fiction of today’s Poland. The analysis is conducted in the context of Polish literary history in order to trace the development of this literary strategy over time and reflect on the general image of Jewish culture created by the authors of “retro” crime stories.

This article, of mostly compilatory character, is based on selected Czech dictionaries and articles, which explain the presence of Yiddish loanwords in colloquial Czech (including argot, Czech Jewish ethnolect, dialects etc.). The author stresses the specific position of low style Yiddish loanwords (etymological process: /Hebrew/ – Yiddish – German argot – Czech argot – colloquial Czech) in comparison with very formal biblical loanwords of Hebrew origin (etymological process: Hebrew – Old Church Slavonic/Old Greek/Latin – high style Czech). Questionable etymology of some loanwords is also discussed. Apart from the stylistic and etymological analysis, the author presents a semantic view based on ethnolinguistics. The appendix to the article contains a selection of Yiddish loanwords in Czech presented in form of a glossary, in which stylistic differences, etymology, and in some cases equivalents in Polish or German, are mentioned.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira (1889–1943), Rebbe of the Polish Hasidic group of Piaseczno, was one of the outstanding Jewish mystics of the
twentieth century. In an undated entry in his personal spiritual diary Tsav ve-ziruz, he describes an occasion when he somersaulted at a Torah Scroll dedication ceremony. This remarkable passage, which has gone largely unnoticed in research on the Piaseczno Rebbe, offers a unique insight into R. Shapira’s mystical practices and aspirations. This paper provides a brief survey of literature on Hasidic somersaults and attempts to clarify R. Shapira’s description of his own experience. The nature of this mystical technique is interpreted in the context of other Jewish mystical practices in order to explain on the basis of the theory of syncope, how a somersault can serve as a mystical technique.

This article analyzes the political ideology of the “Young Hebrews” movement which was active in mid-twentieth century Palestine and Israel. This ideology was based on a strict dichotomy between Hebrew national identity and Jewish ethno-denomination, being simultaneously anti-Zionist and nationalist, liberal and determinist. Using typologies of nationalism as its methodological framework, this article argues that the above paradoxes can be understood only in the light of the “Young Hebrews” historiographic foundation myth, and that it was above all a political movement and not an artistic avant-garde, as it is portrayed by standard Israeli scholarship.

From the first days of WWI, Russian commanders pointed to the alleged evident disloyalty of Russia’s Jewish population, its direct complicity with the enemy and involvement in espionage. The Russian army began to solve the “problem” of Jewish disloyalty by the expulsions of the Jewish population from various localities. The General Headquarters (Stavka) officially adopted these measures in January 1915. No distinction was made between the Jews who were Russian citizens and the Jews in occupied Galicia. As a direct result of the January 1915 declaration, the Russian command made several attempts to carry out a mass deportation of the Jewish population from the frontal zone (in particular, from the Warsaw and Plotsk gubernia and from Galicia). These attempts were unsuccessful as a policy of mass deportations required precise coordination between the military and civil authorities, which the Russian military command was unable to attain. In May 1915, however, about 200,000 Jews were expelled from Kovno and Kurliand gubernias. Gubernias was the sole deportation on such a scale, but for the various ranks of the military command, local expulsions remained a convenient and widely used means of clearing the battle area of the undesirable presence of the Jewish population. The Russian military authorities’ attitude toward the deportations of Jews can be seen as a reflection of the systemic crisis of the Russian empire in its last years of existence.