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 First, while in theory old city privileges were no longer in force— and this was clearly stated by ministers—the latter decided to refrain from announcing this to the public.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.