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.