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).