Volume 15

2017

Publication date: 15.03.2018

Description

The publication of this volume was financed by the Marcell and Maria Roth Center for the Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jewry and Polish-Jewish Relations at the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Michał Galas

Secretary Anna Jakimyszyn-Gadocha

Issue content

The Oldest Hebrew Document in Poland (1485) and its Translations

Marcin Starzyński

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 9 - 23

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.001.8170

The following article presents the content and the context of issuing of the oldest Hebrew document preserved in Poland, written in Kraków in 1485. Having analysed the history of the Kraków Kahal in the second half of the 15th century and trade politics conducted by large town centres in the Kingdom of Poland, the author relates this document to the activities conducted by the royal burgesses. These activities were to lead to a restriction of the rights of merchants-guests (hospites), and consequently the rights of the Jewish merchants. The text of the document (with a Polish translation) and its translations into Latin and German made in 1492 are included in an appendix.

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Jews and Other Religious Confessions as Seen in the French Language Periodicals Published by the Huguenots in the United Provinces (1680-1715)

Michaël Green

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 25 - 46

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.002.8171

Huguenots and Jews were both minorities in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. When the majority of the Huguenots arrived to the country, Jews had already resided there and had become part of Dutch society. The French newcomers, contrary to the Dutch, had little contact with the Jews and it was probably their first encounter with them. The majority of the Huguenots arrived there after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Among the Huguenot refugees we find a certain number of intellectuals who established gazettes and journals. Those periodicals, published in French, open us a window in the perception that the Huguenots and the local Dutchmen had on the Jewish community and individual Jews, as well as on the Jewish nation as such. While journals refer to more scientific periodicals, the gazettes were collections of news and gossip both from the United Provinces and from other parts of Europe. The article focuses on the distinction between the different categories of Jews that appear in these periodicals and places them in the appropriate historical and scientific context.

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Women Protagonists in the Hebrew Morality CompositionTzemach Tzadiq by Leon Modena

Vered Tohar

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 47 - 61

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.003.8172

This article proposes a reading of three stories from the Hebrew morality book Tzemach Tzadiq [The Righteous Shoot], composed by Leon Modena (1571-1648) and based upon the 13th century Italian treatise Fiore di Virtu [The Flowers of the Virtues]. These stories, which present plots with female protagonists, demonstrate women’s mystique in this early Modern Hebrew compilation and reveal the attitude of Modena and his readership towards women who deviated from the norm. Although Tzemach Tzadiq is a hegemonic patriarchal text, it reveals an intra-gender relationship where these female protagonists protest against their social inferiority by means of self-violence.

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The Apostle by Sholem Asch as a Haggadic Midrash of The Book of Acts and the Pauline Epistles

Maja Sowińska

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 63 - 72

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.004.8173

This article proposes that the second part of Sholem Asch’s christological trilogy—the novel The Apostle—be considered as a form of haggadic midrash of The Book of Acts and Pauline epistles. By giving certain examples, the author explains why the ‘midrash key’ differs in this case from a simple fictionalisation of New Testament texts—and further discusses what this reveals about the attitudes, expectations and desires of Asch himself.

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Itzhak Katzenelson’s Dos lid fun oysgehargetn yidishn folk in Translation: The First Four Decades

Andrzej Pawelec, Magdalena Sitarz

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 73 - 81

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.005.8174

In this article we sketch the history of Katzenelson’s lament Dos lid fun oysgehargetn yidishn folk in translation, from the publication of the Yiddish original in 1945 to the fall of the Berlin Wall. We first present Katzenelson’s ‘testament’—a letter to his relatives Berl Katznelson and Yitzhak Tabenkin, important Labour politicians in Eretz Israel—which expresses the poet’s hopes concerning the publication and translation of the Lament after the war. Subsequently, we discuss the translations of the poem, highlighting the involvement of the Ghetto Fighters’ House.

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Down the Ladder of Despair: The Holocaust Legacy of Itzhak Katzenelson

Moshe Shner

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 83 - 98

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.006.8175

Holocaust historiography tries to offer a detailed and objective account of events, but it fails to grasp the inner world of its victims—those who perished and those who survived and carried its horrors in their souls. The hidden Holocaust is the dark abysses of the victims, their nightmares, and the despair they carry in their hearts to their last day, and in unclear ways pass it to the following generations.

The archives of the Ghetto Fighters’ House Holocaust Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot in Israel holds the writings of the poet and educator Itzhak Katzenelson wrote during the Holocaust. His texts open a ‘door’ into the inner reality of the Holocaust, the shattered world of its victims. It is not scholarly historiographical writings, but rather a personal account of a sensitive person, a testimony, and interpretation of the real meaning of the Holocaust.

Before World War II, Katzenelson was a gifted teacher, part of his family Hebrew education system in Łódź, a prolific writer, poet, and dramatist. Many of Katzenelson’s Hebrew poems became folk songs all over the Jewish Diaspora and in Palestine. His pre-war poetry was light, joyful, and childish in its character. His writings drew a bright picture of future Jewish life in the Land of Israel. His wartime writings were different, dominated by growing pain, rage, and finally despair.

Before the war, Katzenelson mainly wrote in Hebrew, the revived language of the Jewish people. Then, as part of the Jewish population, struggling for life under the iron yoke of the German occupation, he wrote in Yiddish, identifying himself with the fate of his brethren.

Katzenelson reached Warsaw in November 1939. In May 1940, he was ‘adopted’ by the ‘Dror’ (freedom) movement, becoming part of its underground educational and cultural work, offering words of consolation and hope to the ghetto people. However, as he witnessed the growing horrors of the Holocaust, including the loss of his own family, he could no longer give meaning to the terrible events and his life ended in total despair.

On April 1943, Katzenelson and his remaining son Zvi moved to the Arian side of Warsaw, imprisoned by the Gestapo and sent to the Vittel camp in France. Vittel was the last stage of his writings before his deportation in April 1944 to Drancy and then to Auschwitz to his death.

As we Follow Katzenelson’s writings in Warsaw and Vittel, we descend a spiritual ladder from words of hope, through spiritual resistance to the bottom of the abysses of despair. Gradually, the joyful prophet of life became the prophet of darkness and a total loss of meaning. In his last writings, Katzenelson is bitter, poison to the soul, and yet with a sensitive pen and open heart, Katzenelson takes his readers down into the deepest chasms of history, showing them the reality of the Holocaust and its true meaning.

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Support Your Own, on Your Own: Local Government Subsidies for Jewish Institutions during the Period of Galician Autonomy, 1866-1914

Hanna Kozińska-Witt

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 99 - 114

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.007.8176

This article presents and analyses legal acts that influenced the situation of Jews in Galicia and shaped the local co-existence of Jewish communities and municipalities. It concentrates on subsidies provided to Jewish charities and welfare institutions by municipal funds. The subsidizing policy of Krakow is compared with that of Lwów.

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Between Haskalah and Zionism. The Example of the Jewish Community of Brody

Dominika Rank

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 115 - 125

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.008.8177

In Galicia the propagation of Jewish diaspora nationalism in the early phase of this movement was welcomed by liberal Jewish organizations as just another step towards the ideals of Enlightenment. However, while Zionism gradually emerged as a separate political movement in Galicia, in Brody remained just a part of the cultural Enlightenment process of the Haskalah. In Lviv and other Galician towns, the same period was characterized by the intense development of Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish national ideologies—a markedly different situation compared to the pro-Austrian, centrist Brody, with its established Jewish economic elite with Austrian liberal supra-national identity. Owing to the dominant role of Jews in the economic, cultural and to some degree political life of the city, the local population did not encounter significant levels of anti-Semitism. This absence of a group that would symbolize the “alien, hostile other”—the absence of anti-Semitism—meant that the Zionism could not establish itself as a saviour and defender of the Jews in 19th century Brody. As such, Zionism was not regarded as a serious alternative to the Austrian liberal ideology espoused by the local population.

The situation was changed with the establishment of universal suffrage in the Austrian Empire and the accompanying development of mass election campaigns contributed to the population’s politicization and the formation of a national identity in both Brody and throughout Galicia. Together with the use of modern political campaign methods and the activities of some members of the Jewish community, Zionism in Brody began to attract more active and conscious supporters.

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Nachman Krochmal and the Argument from Design

Robert Elliott Allinson

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 127 - 139

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.009.8178

For the nineteenth century Jewish Galician philosopher, Nachman Krochmal (1785-1840), the argument from design is the most powerful argument in Jewish literature. This paper is separated into seven parts, each of which aims to give the reader a better understanding of the argument from design. In each part, the argument is compared and contrasted with other arguments for and against the existence of G-d from classical Western philosophers up until current writers. Historical and contemporary objections to the argument from design are shown to be based upon philosophical misunderstandings. The thesis of this article is that the argument from design remains the most powerful argument for the existence of G-d. In addition, in contrast to other arguments for the existence of G-d, such as the ontological arguments, it is the metaphysical argument that is closest to the nature of the G-d of worship of the Jewish religion.

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Of Love and War: Poles and Jews in Rutu Modan’s The Property

Brygida Gasztold

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 141 - 152

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.010.8179

Stereotypes may be reductive and emotionally charged but, as shared inter-group perceptions, they are an integral part of any social interaction, especially in the history of neighboring groups such as Jews and Poles. Rutu Modan’s graphic novel The Property (2013) offers a broad range of stereotypical behaviors, characterizations, and attitudes which have informed the relationship between the two groups. The aim of this paper is to explore the nature of Polish-Jewish relations through the trope of the stereotype, revealing its persistence and ubiquity in both nations’ cultural milieus. The focus of the discussion will be on humor and irony as key discursive tools which, it will be argued, challenge the validity of stereotypes by breaking their polarity and opening up new avenues of communication. A stereotype-driven narrative, which challenges the past and invites re-readings of Holocaust discourse, facilitates cross-cultural awareness since stereotypes work both ways, revealing not only one’s prejudiced perspective of other groups, but also the perceiver’s character.

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30 Years of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Poland, 1987-2017

Marcin Pawlak

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 155 - 167

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.011.8180

This article presents the history of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Poland from when it was founded 30 years ago. The Foundation was established by Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, businessman, diplomat and philanthropist. It was the first organization to initiate Jewish educational activities during the period of political changes in Poland. The Foundation’s activities focused mainly on education, both formal and informal. During early ’90’s people in Poland started to discovered their Jewish roots and thanks to the RLSF it was possible to learn and understand Jewish history, religion and culture. The author describes projects organised by the Foundation as well as its development and significance in the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland. Among the Foundation’s most important projects are the Lauder-Morasha School Complex in Warsaw, the summer educational camps for families and youths, a genealogical project, and the Lauder e-School. The Foundation has also made a huge contribution and provided support to many organizations, institutions and Jewish Communities throughout Poland.

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Professor Jan Marian Małecki (1926-2017): In Memoriam

Stefan Gąsiorowski

Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Volume 15, 2017, pp. 169 - 173

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843925SJ.17.012.8181

Jan Małecki was a historian and rector of the the Kraków Academy of Economics. While his most important research was devoted to economic history, his achievements also included works related to the grand synthesis of Polish history, methodology, source studies, bibliography, and biography. In the 1985/1986 academic year, together with two other scholars, he began an open series of lectures in the Institute of History at the Jagiellonian University entitled ‘Jews in Polish History’. He was the author of a number of academic papers on the history of the Jewish community in Poland in both Polish and English. Of particular importance are his extensive source entries from Kraków customs registers concerning Jewish trade at the end of the 16th century and start of the 17th century, published by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Małecki also popularized Jewish issues by including them in his numerous publications on the economic history of Poland and the history of Kraków. For many years, he also promoted Jewish studies outside of the Jagiellonian University and the Kraków University of Economics and reviewed numerous works of other scholars for degrees and publishing houses. In 2016, he was granted the Father Stanisław Musiał Award for his work on the history and culture of the Jewish community in Poland.

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Strony tytułowe i redakcyjne UNKOWN Editorial PDF Spis treści PDF

Słowa kluczowe: medieval Kraków, Jews in medieval Poland, medieval trade, Hebrew diplomatics, early modern, Dutch Republic, Amsterdam, criminal, Huguenots, periodicals, Leon Modena, The Hebrew story, morality literature, Jewish literature, Jewish folklore, gender studies, Sholem Asch, midrash, Apostle, New Testament, Pauline epistles, Itzhak Katzenelson, Dos lid fun oysgehargetn yidishn folk, Ghetto Fighters’ House, Miriam Novitch, Hermann Adler, Jerzy Ficowski, Itzhak Katzenelson, Warsaw Ghetto, Theodicy, Despair, Holocaust Literature, Spiritual Resistance, Galicia, Krakow, Lwów, Jewish poor, municipal self-government, poor law, Jewish welfare, charity, subsidies, Brody, Haskalah, Zionism, Galicia, 19th century, Argument from Design, Spinoza, Deism, Kant, internal final causes, Darwinian evolution, Aristotle, Bertrand Russell, the Hebrew Bible, Krochmal, ontological argument, causal ontological argument, cultural stereotypes, irony, Polish-Jewish relations, The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, Jewish education, rebirth of the Jewish life in Poland, Lauder-Morasha Schools, Kraków, Jan Marian Małecki, Kraków Academy of Economics, Jagiellonian University, Father Stanisław Musiał Award

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