In 63 BCE the army of the Roman General Pompey the Great invaded ancient Palestine, destroyed part of the Jerusalem temple, and ended the nearly eighty-year-old Hasmonean state. The Romans thereafter ruled ancient Palestine either directly or through a series of client kings. The great Jewish War against the Romans of 66–70 CE was largely an effort to restore independent Jewish rule. The Jewish historian Josephus, who served as a general in this conflict, tells us that a messianic oracle inspired many Jews to take up arms against the Romans.1 This nearly five-year conflict ended with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple. Sixty-two years later, Simeon bar Kochba – presumed by many Jews to be the messiah – led Jewish rebels in a second ill-fated revolt against Roman rule. After this failed war, the Jewish community abandoned nationalism and the active hope that a messiah would violently overthrow their oppressors.

The former Jewish quarter (16th to 20th century) of Nowy Wiśnicz (henceforth: Wiśnicz, Yid. ווישניצא Vischnitsa) has so far only been mentioned on a few occasions and with little precision, in the books by Stanisław Fischer (1927/28), Mieczysław Książek (1976, 1979, 1988, 1990), and Adam Bartosz (1992). The last decades saw a handful of publications regarding this subject. The first one to touch upon it was Iwona Zawidzka, who described the cemetery and gave a brief account of the town’s history. She was followed by Elżbieta Ostrowska, who focused on relations between Christian and Jewish inhabitants of the town from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Adam Bartosz, Stanisław Fischer, Mieczysław Książek and Iwona Zawidzka incorrectly ascribed the lack of any photographic record of both synagogues and the public buildings to having been demolished by Germans during the Nazi occupation. I. Zawidzka1 mentions an essay by Julia Goczałkowska2 in which the author describes what she refers to as the Wiśnicz “Jerusalem.”

The Jews and Armenians inhabiting the Poland of days gone by had much in common, despite their different beliefs. Previous research has, however, devoted little attention to this problem, and even when it has the discussion has not been entirely objective. In recent times, the problem was discussed by Krystyn Matwijowski and Nadzieżda Bańczyk and Karina Mkrtczian. While in the last twenty years studies on the history of Jews have been thorough, the history of Armenians has to a large extent been neglected by Polish historiography (with the exception of the works of M. Zakrzewska-Dubasowa and K. Stopka).

Über Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936) wird auf zweierlei Art und Weise berichtet, und selten gelingt es, ihre zwei Geschichten in ein Personenleben zusammenfließen zu lassen. Zunächst wird über ihre Jugend in Wien geschrieben, als sie eine hysterische, „indirekte“ Patientin von Sigmund Freud war. Freud sollte anhand der Berichte über ihren Fall und der von ihr selber entwickelten Heilmethode, die Psychoanalyse als Therapie entdeckt haben.

The origin of the concept of the American Dream is attributed to James Truslow Adams, whose The Epic of America (1931) was the publication that launched the popularity of the phrase. Adams referred to a dream of a better, happier, and richer life, which should be attainable for all people, and, in his view, America was the place which offers such an opportunity:

„That dream of the land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. [...] It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position (415).”

In diesem Artikel fasse ich Befunde zusammen, die ich in einem Projekt erarbeitete, das die Teilnahme der Juden an den Stadtparlamenten der oben genannten Städte analysierte. Diese Zusammenfassung erfolgt in vier Schritten.
Erstens: möchte ich erklären, warum das Thema so und nicht anders formuliert wurde. Zweitens: stelle ich die Voraussetzungen der jüdischen Aktivitäten in den kommunalen Stadtparlamenten vor. Drittens: gehe ich auf die Wahl von Krakau als eines der Untersuchungsobjekte näher ein, viertens: stelle ich Befunde bezüglich des Krakauer Stadtparlaments vor.
Da die Untersuchungsergebnisse in einer Monographie publiziert werden sollen, schränke ich mich an dieser Stelle bei den Literaturangaben auf ein Minimum ein. Dafür zitiere ich alle Beiträge, die im Umfeld der Projektarbeit entstanden sind.

Dans la période d’entre-deux guerres, la Communauté Juive de Cracovie comptait environ 39 000 membres. Un quart des habitants de la ville de Cracovie était juif. Dans la voïvodie de Cracovie, la moitié des résidents d’origine juive étaient de nationalité polonaise, 26% de Juifs considéraient le polonais comme langue maternelle (troisième place dans le pays en matière de nombre); 18% de Juifs déclaraient, que l’hébreu est leur langue la plus proche (premier résultat en Pologne, je cite après Samsonowska 2005). Ces données résultaient du panorama politique et social de la communauté juive de Cracovie, à l’intérieur de laquelle dominait le courant assimilatoire et où se développaient d’une manière systèmatique les organisations et les parties sionistes (Brzoza 1997). L’activité de toutes ces groupes avait une forte influence sur la vie culturelle des Juifs à Cracovie.

Being one of the leading cultural and literary periodicals, Wiadomości Literackie [“Literary News”] played an important role in shaping the literary tastes of members of the Polish intelligentsia, and was a peculiar institution in literary life itself. The primary goal assumed by the journal was to elevate the level of Polish culture and literature and to present the most recent phenomena of European culture to its readers. Starting from the first issue published on January 6, 1924, the weekly declared war on any phenomena that its editors considered parochial. It would have certain, significant consequences in the future, especially in relation to the Jewish issues presented by the periodical. The publisher’s brochure announcing the first issue of the periodical was published in December 1923, and contained an outline of Wiadomości Literackie. The weekly was addressed to a wide readership, which was meant to trigger free discussion on matters of Polish literary life, lead to its growth and stimulate the newborn movements in art. The periodical was meant to present reliable information and objective evaluation of various phenomena

In the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, many Jews belonging to high society and undertaking freelance occupations began to assimilate with their usually Christian environment. This was often a necessary prerequisite (also legally) for their social advancement. Nevertheless, their assimilation was rarely complete. In most cases, it was only partial and concerned clothes, everyday habits and education. The change in religion did not become a mass phenomenon in either Europe or America – quite the opposite. This limited assimilation was testament to the Jewish attachment to their religion, regardless of the centuries-long life in the Diaspora. Although numerous changes had occurred in the world, many of the rules respected by Jews throughout history remained valid. For instance, in their hierarchy of importance, education remained higher than wealth

On June 23, 2011, in Milan, Italy, The Holocaust Art Looting and Restitution symposium was presented by Christie’s, auction house, and Art Law Commission of the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA). This was a first, a conference focused on the Holocaust art restitution, to take place in Italy. The symposium convened leaders of the restitution community as well as government officials, scholars, and collectors

This paper describes S.Y. Agnon’s ironic, dual, modern attitude to the Song of Songs, as a traditionalist and as one who identifies himself with the doctor’s statements: “We are enlightened individuals, modern people, we seek freedom for ourselves and for all humanity, and in point of fact we are worse than the most die-hard reactionaries.” Agnon’s attitude to the world of love is the attitude of a young Jewish artist of the late 19th century who lives in a world of revolutionary changes that also affect the Jewish world. Agnon’s work stands as a tombstone of the gradually unraveling Jewish shtetl and its institutions and values, specifically, the declining status of love and its significance for the values of family, society, and the Jewish nation. The young Jewish man experiences the changing seasons of the late 19th century and early 20th century, reflected in the vacillation between the traditional conception of love by the traditional world, and the modern perception that views love as an element in individual self-realization. “They say that love exists in the world” – but what is love in Agnon’s world? What are the sources of the gap that many of Agnon’s protagonists experience – the gap between yearning, dreams, and heart’s desires, and the potential for their realization in practice?