From the Jewish Cemetery to Wawel: Activities of the Hochstims, a Family of Jewish Stonemasons from Kraków

The article is devoted to the activities of the Hochstim family: Jewish stonemasons active in the second half of the nineteenth century, mainly in Kraków, but also in other Galician towns and in Warsaw (Kingdom of Poland). Four generations of this family were active in the field of stonemasonry. The highest position was achieved by Fabian Hochstim (1825–1906) who completed prestigious commissions such as the renovation of royal tombstones on Wawel Hill. His enterprise, which for many years was located in Kraków’s main square, specialized in the production of tombstones for both Jewish and Christian cemeteries. Fabian’s son, Adolf, pursued his father’s business and also sold building materials. The Hochstim family employed modern business strategies to establish the corporate identity of their enterprise, such as participation in public exhibitions and marketing campaigns in the press. With success and despite obstacles they achieved a strong market position in an environment that was dominated by traditional guilds. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the family remained faithful to the Jewish tradition.

FINANSOWANIE

The article shows a revision of the religious policy of the administrative authorities of the Piotrków Governorate Government regarding the initiative of opening new Jewish prayer houses. This change of attitude is best illustrated by archival materials, mainly of the Administrative Department of the Piotrków Governorate Government, stored in the State Archive in Łódź. A detailed analysis of historical documents revealed the actual attitude of the tsarist civil authorities to Jews residing in this area. While a relatively tolerant approach to the needs of Jewish communities was observed at the end of the nineteenth century, governorate clerks rigorously blocked their progression at the beginning of the next century. The ways used to legally restrict the opening of new prayer houses and the Jewish administrative struggle with the official interpretation of the Russian Empire law are discussed in the article.

The article focuses on three poems authored by Aron Lyuboshitsky (1874–1942?), a Hebrew teacher, author, poet, editor, and translator, who lived and worked in Warsaw and Łódź, and his contribution to building a Jewish national identity through his literary works for children and youth. The prism through which the article views Lyuboshitsky’s activities is that of ethno-symbolism, a concept drawn from the field of cultural studies. For an ethno-symbolic analysis of his works, three key criteria were considered: (1) linking the present to the past; (2) using cultural symbols; and (3) actively promoting the formation of a shared ethnocultural identity. Lyuboshitsky’s literary-cultural and didactic oeuvre was devoted to reawakening the Jewish nation by appealing to the younger generation. He interconnected the Hebrew language, Hebrew literature, the Jewish people, and the Holy Land.

The main purpose of the article is to broaden the state of knowledge about Yiddish press published in Łódź. The author focuses on two periodicals dedicated to sport: Ershte Yudishe Shakh-Tsaytung and Ershte Yudishe Sport- Tsaytung that were issued in 1913 and 1914. They were considered as missing and ephemeral with no important contribution to the history of Polish Jews. The analysis of two inconspicuous magazines leads to the conclusion that expands research in the field of press or biography studies, revealing interesting information especially about the milieu of people gathered around the widely defined cultural life in Łódź, adding some unknown facts about Arthur Szyk, Moshe Broderzon or David Frishman, and enriching knowledge about the formative processes in the Jewish cultural life in the city.

FUNDING

After Poland regained independence in 1918, a considerable group of Polish Jews wanted to co-create Polish culture, which did not find approval in the eyes of nationalists, defenders of the purity of national culture. Writers and artists of Jewish origin, especially those assimilated, became the main target of attacks and victims of social ostracism. The story of the monument of Adam Mickiewicz proposed to the city of Vilnius by Henryk Kuna, a sculptor with Jewish roots, may serve as a case study, perfectly illustrating both the power of resentment among the broad masses of society at the time and the influence of journalists. Kuna’s project was the third (after Zbigniew Pronaszko’s avant-garde monument and Stanisław Szukalski’s symbolist one) project of a Mickiewicz monument for Vilnius, selected in a competition in 1932. Unlike the previous ones, it did not seem to be controversial either in terms of form (it represented modernized classicism) or symbolism (it showed the poet in a pilgrim’s cloak with a book in one hand, the other hand covering his eyes). Despite this, nationalist circles unleashed an antisemitic campaign, striking at both the artistic and iconographic value of the statue. A rich variety of rhetorical means, from wit to virulent mockery, prove that it was not aesthetic preferences that played a dominant role here, but Henryk Kuna’s background, which influenced the evaluation and interpretation of his work.

The article deals with Jewish issues appearing in the daily newspaper Słowo Pomorskie in the years 1938–1939. The newspaper was published in Toruń in the years 1920–1939 and covered the Pomerania Province (Pomorskie Province) at that time. In the article, the political character of Słowo Pomorskie and its importance for local structures of the National Party (Stronnictwo Narodowe) are discussed. The newspaper usually presented a negative image of the Jewish population, which was connected with the antisemitic attitude of the nationalist groups. The author also describes the role of the Catholic clergy in propagating the anti-Jewish attitudes. The antisemitic contents is divided into thematic categories—foreign and domestic issues are separated. The analysis of the newspaper texts shows, among other things, the affinity of the antisemitic views of the National Party with other movements of this kind in Europe. In the Polish context, the hatred toward Jews did not diminish on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, but rather became radicalized.