Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
1
Spring 2020
A quarterly publication of
the American Association
for Polish-Jewish Studies
and Taube Foundation for
Jewish Life & Culture
Editorial & Design: Tressa Berman, Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Aleksandra Sajdak,
Adam Schorin, William Zeisel, LaserCom Design, and Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation.
CONTENTS
Message from Irene Pipes ................................................................................................ 1
Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn .................................................................... 2
SPECIAL REPORTS
Academia during the Pandemic
Edyta Gawron ......................................................................................................................... 3
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOOKS
Anti-Jewish Pogroms on Polish Lands in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries (Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku)
Antony Polonsky .............................................................................................................. 49
IN BRIEF
Newly Released on Amazon: Raise the Roof
by Filmmakers Yari and Cary Wolinsky ..................................................................... 68
Midrasz Closes Its Doors
Editorial Board of Midrasz ................................................................................................ 69
OBITUARIES
Krzysztof Penderecki
Antony Polonsky ................................................................................................................... 73
Mikhl Baran
Samuel Norich ...................................................................................................................... 77
Walentyna Janta-Połczyńska
Antony Polonsky .................................................................................................................. 78
Jerzy E. Główczewski
Julian Bussgang ................................................................................................................... 80
Dear Friends,
We hope you will find some comfort in the resources our editors and
contributors have collected for this special issue, and that the crisis will
soon be over so that we can resume normal activity.
Irene Pipes
President
By March, the faraway virus had reached our shores and was causing
alarm, from Washington state down the coast to the Bay Area and beyond.
Meanwhile, our Polish colleagues and Gazeta contributors began telling us
about the advent of the virus in their communities and the health measures
being taken in universities and other public institutions and places in
Warsaw, Krakόw, and elsewhere. Clearly, the pandemic’s momentous
events were demanding our attention.
Shana Penn This revised spring edition of Gazeta presents, as always, topics and
events of primary concern to you, our readers, while also recognizing
the global health and economic crises confronting us today. Like many
previous generations, we live in times that can be difficult, even deadly.
We are grateful to be in conversation with you as we move together into
an uncertain future.
J agiellonian University in
Kraków started its spring
semester on February 24,
2020. The first week of classes,
usually busy and exciting,
was already marked by some
uncertainty. We received
recommendations regarding
travel abroad (destinations
to avoid) and international
visitors (visits from COVID-19
affected countries had to be
cancelled or postponed). At
the Institute of Jewish Studies,
following the new restrictions,
the visit from a Japanese
delegation was cancelled
at the last minute. Soon
after, questions arose about
upcoming important public
events underway. For example,
what would happen to the
Polish-Israeli ambassadors’ Kraków, March 2020
debate, marking thirty years Photograph by Edyta Gawron. Used with permission.
of reestablishing diplomatic
relations between the two situation there, we asked her e-learning in response to the
countries? to self-isolate and refrain from coronavirus. The quarantined
attending classes for the next Italian student was offered
A few days later, one of two weeks. Our colleagues Skype access to Hebrew
the students enrolled in the in the institute were asked to classes, and a few days later,
international educational assist her with materials and with events moving so quickly
program Erasmus+ returned provide individual mentoring. and dramatically, this would be
from Italy. Knowing the This was when we introduced required for all of our classes.
I n a statement issued to
the press on February 14,
2020, the Polish Ministry
In response, the mayor of
Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski,
expressed his satisfaction
Professor Dariusz Stola that
he renounced his rights as
winner of the competition for
of Culture and National at the agreement while also the post of director of POLIN
Heritage announced that it expressing regret that it had Museum of the History of
had “reached agreement with not been reached earlier. Polish Jews, on condition
the co-organizers of POLIN Its conclusion was the that the parties running the
Museum—the mayor of result of the “responsible museum reached agreement
Warsaw and the executive of and exceptional gesture of on another candidate.” They
the Association of the Jewish Professor Stola, who for the nominated Zygmunt Stępiński
Historical Institute—on good of POLIN Museum has as the “common candidate
the position of director and renounced his legal right to of the Association of the
intends to appoint Zygmunt the position of director … We Jewish Historical Institute
Stępiński, who has held the are happy that the deadlock and the City of Warsaw.”
post of acting director since has been broken and such They reached this decision
February 2019, for a three- an important institution after consulting with “Jewish
year term.” It further stated will now finally have an circles, friends of the Museum
that “in accordance with the administration which will and donors.”
regulations laid down in the ensure the realization of its
The dispute over the position
law of October 25, 1991, programs and secure its future
of director began in February
on the organization and development.”
2019, when the Minister of
management of cultural affairs,
This followed an earlier Culture, Piotr Gliński, refused
the minister will seek to obtain
statement by the mayor and to renew Stola’s five-year
from trade unions active in
the executive of the Jewish appointment, which held
the museum and professional
Historical Institute. Acting “in the option of extension. The
and cultural associations their
accordance with the interests minister never made clear the
opinion of the candidate for the
of the institution and of grounds for his action, but
post of director to the Museum
Polish-Jewish relations,” they he seems to have objected to
of the History of Polish Jews.
said, “as well as the image the fact that Stola protested
The new director of POLIN
of Poland in the world, after against the amendment of
Museum should be appointed
the difficult but exceptionally the 2018 law on the Institute
by the end of February 2020.”
responsible statement by of National Remembrance
O ver the past year POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been
going through the worst crisis since its inception. The crisis was caused by
the conflict between the museum’s co-founders regarding nomination for the
post of director. As you all know, a competition for the post was held in May
2019. It was won convincingly by Professor Dariusz Stola—my mentor, my Zygmunt Stępiński, the new
superior, and a dear colleague. Director of the POLIN Museum
of the History of Polish Jews.
It would be inappropriate to comment here on the process of nominating, Photograph by M. Starowieyska.
or rather on the failure to nominate, Professor Dariusz Stola for a new term Courtesy of POLIN Museum of
the History of Polish Jews.
as POLIN Museum director. I myself was put in a rather difficult position,
serving as acting director. I was striving to fulfill my role to the best of my abilities, yet with full
awareness of its interim nature. POLIN Museum was molded by Professor Stola, who was about to
return and occupy again his empty office in the museum building.
Alas, that never happened. According to the common intention of the Association of the Jewish
Historical Institute and the City of Warsaw, and with the approval of the Ministry of Culture and
National Heritage, I received the nomination for a three-year term as POLIN Museum director. I have
decided to accept it. I am sure you are all aware how awkward the position I was put in has been,
notwithstanding the fact that my candidature was supported by all three museum co-founders, many
different milieus and authority figures, including those that the museum holds in the highest regard—
first and foremost the donors, but also the Nationwide Workers’ Initiative Trade Union in operation at
the museum, as well as POLIN Museum staff council.
Above all else, my nomination was supported by Professor Dariusz Stola.
Darek, I would like to address these words to you directly. They say no one is irreplaceable. Perhaps
it is true. What is also true, however, is that there are people among us who are truly unique and
extraordinarily clever; people who change the course of events and thus shape our history. We have had
a great honor and privilege to work with such a person. POLIN Museum is one of the most important
institutions of culture in Poland and it will follow the course that you have mapped out for us. I am sure
that our paths will cross along this course, and more than once at that.
Today I have entered the building as the Museum Director, overwhelmed by most ambivalent feelings.
Nonetheless, I wish to pass on this message to you all: I will make every effort to further develop the
potential of POLIN museum—the institution which Professor Stola held dear and where he left a piece
of his heart. The museum will continue to fulfil its mission of preserving the memory of Polish Jews,
of retelling their history in an engaging, captivating, and authentic way. It will continue to teach about
the tradition, culture, religion, and patriotism of the Jews who have always been and will always remain
an inseparable part of the multinational and multiethnic Republic of Poland—the home of people of
various denominations, viewpoints, traditions, and customs.
Zygmunt Stępiński
Director of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Ober un vider – bulbes Here and there potatoes אָבער און ווידער – בולבעס
איינמאָל אין אַ נאָווענע
Ober eynmol in a novine But now and then, a novelty !אַ בולבע קוגעלע
Ober shabes nokhn tsholnt But on Shabbes after the chulent .און זונטיק ווייטער – בולבעס
https://musicalexplorers.savannahmusicfestival.org/2019-19-curriculum/unit-
5-klezmer-music/lesson-1-learning-bulbes/
O
Editor’s Note:
nce many of us realized we
would be sheltering at home
for a month if not longer, we made our
shopping lists for durable groceries
and household supplies, applied
research zeal to culinary creation, and
transferred commute hours to cooking
hours. Gazeta readers reported to us
that after teaching their classes on
Zoom and reading students’ exams,
after researching and sharing online
reputable sources about the pandemic,
they were passionately reading
cookbooks, exchanging recipes,
and creating feasts for their mostly
modest-sized households. It seems
many of us are now thoroughly
occupied with cooking—and wherever
there is cooking, eating is sure to
follow. Here are some personal
culinary stories, helpful tips and
recipes for cooking in containment.
GAZETA SPRING 2020 n 11
Jewish Food Is Grounding, Jeffrey Yoskowitz
Especially Now
Pickles and gefilte don’t always was building a value-added place to start since it’s
get the same level of attention products business and pickles often the butt of jokes—
by scholars and cultural were at the heart of it (the and yet, when it’s made
activists as, say, literary works farm’s slogan: “Young Jewish right, with fresh ingredients,
of Sholem Aleichem or the farmers changing the world one an eye to freshness and
revival of the Yiddish language. pickle at a time”). I learned to with deference to tradition,
In recent years, however, that’s make the old-fashioned method it can be transcendent.
been changing. Food is “in”––at of saltwater pickles, which, I launched a venture called
least as an entry point into the it turns out, are actually good The Gefilteria to spread
folk history of Jews in Eastern for you. The Jewish/Slavic gefilte fish appreciation.
Europe. As a matter of fact, pickling method is a live- We manufacture an artisanal
in the age of coronavirus, as cultured process of fermentation (read: gourmet) gefilte fish
restaurants remain shuttered and that doesn’t just preserve a and produce culinary events
much of the world is sheltering- cucumber but improves it: it and workshops that explore
in-place, cooking has become sours it and makes it pro-biotic the breadth and history of
a survival skill as well as a such that it aids in digestion and Eastern European Jewish
deserved object of study. More strengthens immune systems. cooking. Gefilte fish, for
than ever, we can learn from better or worse, became the
I see much of Jewish history
Jewish cooks who navigated venture’s symbol. To this day,
and culture like a sour pickle.
scarcity and short growing we travel the world, cooking
Rather than just preserving
seasons with artistry and skill. and teaching, and continue
it, I think culture needs to
to manufacture our signature
For over a decade I’ve ferment––to transform itself
gefilte fish for major holidays.
straddled both the culinary and from within.
scholarly worlds, as a writer, a My work in the world of
I left the farm and moved
researcher, culinary revivalist, Ashkenazi cooking converged
gefilte fish manufacturer, and to New York City where I
with my work as a writer and
an entrepreneur. began working in the food
researcher. Soon, my focus
world. I turned my attention
turned to the lost and distorted
I began my journey into to the negative perceptions
histories of Jewish cooking
Jewish food when I moved of Ashkenazi cuisine among
and eating. When writing
onto an organic Jewish farm my peers in the food world.
my cookbook, The Gefilte
called Adamah in northwest Gefilte fish was the natural
Manifesto: New Recipes for
Connecticut. That year, the farm
A s a culmination of much of my Ashkenazi food research, I’ve spent the past year co-producing
with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research an online course of Ashkenazi culinary history
called “A Seat at the Table: A Journey into Jewish Food,” which launched May 1. The course
features a trove of archival objects that illuminate Yiddish-Jewish history in the kitchen, a collection
of cookbooks that trace the Jewish recipe’s evolution over time, lectures by leading scholars
(including Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on bagels, and more), and plenty of cooking demos
by Joan Nathan and other cookbook writers and chefs. I serve as the guide for the course, so
you can find me cooking and kibitzing throughout. The course is free for a limited time.
Register before August 31 for free tuition; take the class at any time, at your own pace.
If you are not going out to the pleasure. No need to stock beans, chickpeas, and more),
shop or cannot find what you the fridge, freezer, and pantry pasta (white, whole wheat,
want locally, you can order with prepared food. gluten free), oatmeal (rolled
most everything online and and steel cut), and grains of
Principle #2: Water expands
have it delivered. all kinds: millet, buckwheat,
everything. Dried goods are
quinoa, barley, cornmeal,
Principle #1: Cook from much better than tins, more
polenta. And, flour, about
scratch. Healthier, tastier, compact for storage, cheaper,
which more below. In addition
more economical. Great and healthier (less fat and
to all the ways you already
activity to share with salt). This is the time for rice
cook these grains, you can
homebound family. Chance (brown, jasmine, basmati,
also sprout them for highly
to up your game, experiment, black, and more), beans (split
nutritious fresh greens.
and share the experience and peas, brown lentils, black
Horseradish:
Kasia Leonardi teaches a cooking workshop.
One horseradish root (finely
Photograph by Sebastian Rudol. Courtesy of JCC Kraków.
grated by hand or in a food
processor) JCC Krakόw’s annual summer and I like to write out the
Cook 1 beet until soft and Erev Shabbat dinner, which recipes by hand and illustrate
and then finely grate it. is held on the last Friday them. My students appreciate
evening of Krakόw’s Jewish the personal touch and a few
2 tablespoons apple cider
Culture Festival, following even collect them! Cymes,
vinegar
the day’s revelatory Ride for a classic Ashkenazi Jewish
1 tablespoon sugar the Living bicycle trek from food from old Galicia, is a
the gates of Auschwitz to diced-carrot stew that includes
Add the sugar and vinegar to
Kazimierz, where the JCC dried fruits, is flavored with
the grated horseradish root.
is located. Each year this honey and cinnamon, and has
Mix well. Then add the grated
Shabbat dinner hosts up a beautiful orange-gold color,
beet. Add a little kosher salt.
to 700 guests from around
Let it sit for a day or two always sweet and aromatic.
the world in a beautiful,
before using. The flavors need Cymes is from the Yiddish,
spacious hall, walking
to blend together. and when it became part of
distance from the JCC. After
the Polish language, it became
bicycling the 55km Ride for
From Kasia Leonardi’s a word for something good,
the Living, Kasia welcomes
Kitchen special, a delicacy, a miracle,
all to the dining hall, in her
a treasure. In this difficult
Kasia Leonardi is director characteristically warm
and relaxed manner, as if time of COVID-19, we need
of catering and events at the
supervising a 700-person something optimistic, a
JCC Krakόw. Many of us
glatt-kosher buffet is everyday miracle, a tasty golden dish
are familiar with her Erev
fare. Thank you, Kasia! that will remind us of a better
Shabbat dinners served in
tomorrow! I hope everyone
the JCC with the help of
Cymes—A Vegetarian enjoyed a peaceful and healthy
the JCC volunteers, known
Tzimmes Passover and a lot of optimism
as the Meshugoyim. Others
of us have marveled at her I often give cooking for a better tomorrow!
impressive supervision of the workshops at JCC Krakόw
10.5g salt
25g sugar fine. Main thing is not to put Lightly flour the work surface
the salt directly on top of the (I use a silicone mat), then tip
10g instant yeast yeast, which can kill it. Add the dough onto it and begin to
45g fat—olive oil or the fat, 2 beaten eggs, the milk knead. Hold the dough in place
margarine—the original recipe or milk substitute, then half the with one hand and stretch it
calls for butter. water. Turn the mixture with away from you with the other,
2 eggs plus 1 for glazing the your fingers. It will be super then fold over, turn 1/8 circle,
bread. The original recipe sticky. Go with it. Continue and repeat. Keep kneading for
calls for medium eggs, but I to add water, a little at a time, 5-10 minutes, at least. Work
only buy large eggs, so just until you’ve picked up all the through the initial wet stage
keep an eye on the liquids. flour from the sides of the until the dough starts to form a
bowl. You may not need to soft, smooth skin. Add a little
50 ml warm milk or milk
add all the water, or you may flour if you really, really need
substitute. I use almond milk;
need to add a little more—you to, but don’t overdo it.
something richer is possibly
want dough that is soft but not
better, but I like the neutral- When your dough feels
soggy. This is the hard part,
ish flavor of almond milk. smooth and silky, put it into
getting the dough to an “ideal”
180 ml cool water a lightly oiled large bowl.
wetness. It needs to be a lot
Cover with a tea towel or any
Put flour, salt, sugar, and yeast wetter than you think it should
cloth available and leave to
in a large mixing bowl. The be. Basically, go for as wet
rise until at least doubled in
original says to put the salt and as is still semi-manageable.
size, at least 1 hour, but it’s
sugar on one side of the bowl, Use the mixture to clean the
fine to leave it for 2 or even 3
and the yeast on the other, but inside of the bowl and keep
hours. I put it in my oven on
the first time I neglected to going until the mixture forms a
the “proof” setting for 1 hour.
do that and it turned out just rough dough.
Aleksandra’s
Recommendations
Warsaw’s Museum of
Modern Art
https://artmuseum.pl/en/
wydarzenia/kontemplacja-w- A still from Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Amator (Camera Buff ), available with English
subtitles on Studio Filmowe TOR’s YouTube channel.
czasach-pandemii
Take a Tour of Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw
Classic Polish Movies
Warsaw (ŻIH). https://cbj.jhi.pl
(with English subtitles)
http://warsze.polin.pl/en/
https://www.youtube.com/ Adam’s Recommendations
user/StudioFilmoweTOR CBJ (CJL) Ninateka.pl has films, theatre,
A large collection of classic Centralna Biblioteka and concerts online for free.
Polish movies on YouTube. For Judaistyczna (Central Jewish I think their collection of
example, in 2013, the renowned Library) is one of the major theatre might be most exciting:
Polish film studio TOR—which world repositories of digitized https://ninateka.pl/filmy/teatr.
produced more than a hundred Judaica, available for free via Many of them are available
feature films between the years the Internet. The CJL presents with English subs, but you
books, works of art, old prints, might have to click on them to
1967 and 2019—decided to
manuscripts, archival check. We’d recommend
share some of its pictures on the
materials, ephemera, and Tadeusz Kantor’s Dead Class
website. The uploaded films can
newspapers housed by the (https://ninateka.pl/film/
be streamed free of charge and
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish umarla-klasa-tadeusz-kantor—
have English subtitles.
only available if you’re in Nowy Teatr has shared some War, there’s something here
Poland), Krzysztof work online, usually adding for everyone. If you’re
Warlikowski’s (A)Pollonia shows to the website on Sunday looking for films specifically
(https://ninateka.pl/film/ and making them available for about Polish Jewry, we
apollonia-krzysztof- thirty-six hours. They also have recommend starting with
warlikowski), and Anna shows for children in Polish: Austeria, The Hourglass
Smolar’s Jewish Actors https://nowyteatr.org/en. Sanitorium, and Ida. For a fee
(https://ninateka.pl/film/ of $30, you get access to the
Eastern European movies—
aktorzy-zydowscy-anna- entire site for one month, and
Poland. Unlike the other
smolar—only in Polish). in that time you can download
options on this list, this one is
as many films as you like. You
Teatr Powszechny has made not free. But it is such an
can also browse and download
several of their plays available impressive collection of Polish
a vast collection of films from
online: https://www. films with English subtitles
Russia, Bulgaria, Czechia, and
powszechny.com/aktualnosci/ that we felt we had to include
the rest of Eastern Europe.
powszechny-online-teatr- it. From classics like Ashes
Check it out here: https://
minimum.html. They’re and Diamonds, The Saragossa
easterneuropeanmovies.com/
available to watch on specific Manuscript, and Blind
country/poland. n
days, and they’re regularly Chance, to contemporary
adding more. gems like The Lure and Cold
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the
installation, An Archive of Born into a middle-class
Ronald S. Lauder Chief
Archives: Roman Vishniac’s Polish Jewish family, Arthur
Curator of the Core Exhibition
Exhibition History, featuring Szyk (Łódź, Russian Empire,
at POLIN Museum of the
the recent gift of the Roman 1894 – New Canaan,
History of Polish Jews,
Vishniac Archive to The Connecticut, 1951) lived a life
in Warsaw, followed by
Magnes. With the Szyk and framed by two world wars, the
exhibition tours guided by
Vishniac collections, The collapse of European
UC Berkeley students.
Magnes has now received two democracies, and the rise of
On Monday, April 13, the of the four largest gifts of art totalitarianism. A refugee, he
exhibition on Arthur Szyk in the history of the University ultimately settled in the
was presented alongside a new of California, Berkeley. United States in 1940.
Collapse is an introduction
caricaturist, he used motifs modernist depictions of
to Szyk’s world with a
drawn from religion, history, technology recur in his works.
timeline showing his life
politics, and culture, pairing These themes are often paired
in the context of the
extraordinary craftsmanship with enticing decorative
progressive failure of
with searing commentary on a themes that have made his
European democracies and
diverse range of subjects body of work both popular
the human rights and
including Judaism, the and successful during, and
national rights movements,
American Revolution, World well after, the span of the
beginning with the
War II, the Holocaust, and the artist’s life.
American Revolution. Here,
founding of the State of Israel.
Broad concerns for human a selection of Syzk’s works
Szyk’s modular aesthetics are rights are woven into Szyk’s begins to show his lifelong
deeply connected with the entire oeuvre. In paintings and focus on freedom and the
political scope of his art. political cartoons, the artist dangers of tyranny and
Medieval and Renaissance exposed the Nazi genocide, totalitarianism, culminating
techniques, multilingual supported the Polish in the artist’s depictions of
internationally acclaimed
illustration of “The Statute citizenship, featuring which depicted the crimes
of Kalisz.” The statute, designs he created for of Axis leaders and Nazis
which granted Jews legal countries and organizations. during the Holocaust. This
rights and liberties in These detailed illustrations portion of the exhibition
Poland in medieval times, became letterheads and also explores an interesting
was displayed in London in stamps and often found parallel to Charlie Chaplin’s
1933 to denounce anti- their way into his political characters in his 1940
Semitism in Nazi Germany. cartoons. movie, The Great Dictator.
From Home to Home. the war. A series of her pastel The Galicia Jewish Museum
A Tale of the Wartime drawings and her memoirs, has, for many years, been
Exile and Survival of the handwritten in Polish, gave cooperating with Witnesses to
Pisek Family rise to this exhibition. History: Holocaust Survivors,
Online exhibition tour with former camp prisoners,
We would like to invite you to
Curator Paulina Banasik and the Righteous Among
an online exhibition tour with
T
the Nations. Thanks to this
oday, if we decided to its curator, Paulina Banasik.
The tour will be in English. cooperation, visitors to the
go on a 12,000-plus
museum have had the chance
kilometer journey, we would
A special invitation comes to meet Witnesses, listen to
either take a 15-hour flight
from Irena Pisek’s grandson, their stories and, we truly
or drive a car for 153 hours. Mr. Amichai Pardo, believe, learn something new
If we chose to cover this https://www.facebook.com/ that may shape their own
distance by foot, it would take watch/?v=657476468361605, future in some small way.
2,300 hours, an approximately and Tomasz Strug, deputy These meetings have great
100-day march, non-stop. director and chief curator of educational value, allowing
Such a journey was made by the Galicia Jewish Museum: us to focus on the history
the Pisek family and took over https://www.facebook.com/
of individuals. As a result,
three years, from August 1939 watch/?v=160366895158985.
we can better understand
to December 1942. They left
Click here to view the first the tragic events of the past
home and they arrived home.
episode of the online tour: and how they influenced
They were only supposed
https://www.youtube.com/ the experiences of these
to leave for a short time and
watch?v=ukAmERQW8TY&- individuals. We do not want
travel not too far away, but the
feature=youtu.be this important voice to be
turmoil of war drove them into
silent, especially in such a
the unknown, across Europe, Subsequent episodes will be
difficult time for all of us.
Asia, and the Middle East. published on the Facebook
page and YouTube channel of For now we cannot meet at
It was not an easy journey.
the Galicia Jewish Museum. the museum in person, but
And it wasn’t easy to talk
we can continue learning
about. Irena Pisek did so — in #StayHome and join us for the
online tour! from the witnesses by reading
pictures and in words — only
their biographies, including
a few decades after the end of
Polish soil
materials from the first series
n anti-Polish attitudes in of discussions, which are
Israel available on our website:
Synagogues of Historic
During the period that POLIN four thematic paths—“Jewish
Poland can be viewed
Museum was forced to Religious Life,” “Jewish
in its entirety online
close, the museum team has Women,” “Yiddish: Fourteen
thanks to the support of
been working from home. Highlights,” and “One
George S. Blumenthal
POLIN Museum began as a Hour, Eight Highlights”—in
and Patricia Kenner.
museum without walls and response to visitor interests.
has always had a lively online We intended them to be used n lood: Uniting and Dividing
B
presence. As a result, it was in the exhibition as self- is a virtual walkthrough of
well-positioned for “home guided thematic tours and an exhibition that explores
delivery” of its rich content to provided them as printed the role of blood in Judaism
all those sheltering-at-home. handouts at the entrance to the and Christianity and in
There is much from which to Core Exhibition, and also as Polish-Jewish relations.
select. Our task is to curate downloadable PDFs. http://krew.polin.pl/en/
from our archive of online http://virtualtour.polin.pl/ 186-2/
content, while continuing
to create interesting new
Commemorating
Thirty Years of the
Jewish Culture Festival Janusz Makuch,
Director, Jewish
Culture Festival.
Used with permission.
I hope that you emerge from the shadows stronger than ever before.
I hope that all of us meet soon, face-to-face; and I persist in my
unshakeable conviction that we are the ones who are capable of
building our good, common, Polish-Jewish world.
Janusz Makuch
Director, Jewish Culture Festival
“W e didn’t have a
sewage system
... but we had a very active
cultural life.” Reflections such
as this one from Holocaust
survivor Jack Lewin represent
the personal perspectives
documented as part of the
Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler
Oral History Project, now in
its tenth year. The growing
collection of interviews offers
a rich and complex chronicle
of Ashkenazi Jewish life Christa P. Whitney, Director of the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History
through examination of the Project, at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
legacy and changing nature of Photograph by Agnieszka Ilwicka. Used with permission.
Yiddish language and culture. The growing collection translated into Polish,
To date, interviews on five accompanied him to
of interviews offers a rich
continents have been video- Auschwitz. Many interviews
recorded in English, Yiddish, and complex chronicle like this reach back into the
Polish, and other languages. of Ashkenazi Jewish life inter-war memories of
survivors now in their 90s.
Of the more than 1,000 through examination of
interviews now in the Other interviews document
the legacy and changing
collection, many document the the rebuilding of post-war
lives of Jews born in the nature of Yiddish Jewish culture in Poland and
region of the former Polish- language and culture. in displaced persons’ camps.
Lithuanian Commonwealth For instance, Lea Szlanger
and their descendants, Lewin explained how reading describes how she and
including Jack Lewin, who books distracted him from others were recruited by
was born in Łódź in 1927 and hunger during the ghetto Ida Kamińska, then artistic
interviewed in Los Angeles in period, and how a beloved director of the Jewish State
2013. In his native Yiddish, copy of David Copperfield, Theater in Warsaw.
The Polish editions of Marcin Wodziński’s Hasidism trilogy, published by Austeria Press in 2019.
W e are pleased to
announce the arrival of
Chasydyzm. Źródła, Metody,
that first appeared in English
in 2018.
resource. We trust that it will
introduce new students to the
secrets of using sources on the
Perspektywy, the Polish- The Introduction opens with
history of Hasidism, and that
language version of Studying the Latin title Ad Fontes,
indicating that the contents it will illuminate for
Hasidism. Sources, Methods,
will take readers to the origins experienced scholars new
Perspectives, edited by Marcin
Wodziński and published by of Hasidism: “We hope that ways of expanding their
Austeria Press. It is the third … the book we are offering source base and of bringing in
volume in a new three-volume the reader will be a valuable new sources, methods, and
research series on Hasidism teaching and academic research perspectives.” n
Robert Alter in his home office Deborah Lipstadt Naomi Seidman in Warsaw, 2013
Photograph by David A.M. Wilensky. Author’s collection. Used with Graduate Theological Union. Used with
Used with permission. permission. permission.
Congratulations to Archipelago
Books translator Bill Johnston! n
The award—presented in
conjunciton with an award
to the Auschwitz Jewish
Center—was bestowed at a gala
ceremony at the museum on
December 3, 2019. It was the Natalia Bartczak.
fifth edition of the award, which Photograph by M. Starowieyska. Courtesy of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
K rzysztof Penderecki, a
composer of international
reputation, died on March
29, 2020. According to
the Ludwig van Beethoven
Association in Kraków,
with which he was closely
associated, Penderecki
was “an eminent artist
and humanist, one of the
world’s best known and most
acclaimed Polish composers…
[whose music] with its unique
dramatic structure and a
deeply humanistic message…
transcended the avant-garde
and became popular with a Krzysztof Penderecki. Photograph by Mirosław Pietruszyński.
wide audience.” Wikimedia Commons.
W alentyna Janta-
Połczyńska, who died
at the beginning of April at
and Commander-in-
Chief Władysław
Sikorski. She acted
the age of 107, was one of as translator in his
the last of those who served meetings with allied
in the Polish government-in- statesmen, including
exile in London during World Winston Churchill,
War II. She was frequently and was responsible
interviewed by scholars for translating and
working on this period, and editing the reports
most recently by Andrew brought to London in
Nagorski for his book 1941: November 1942 by
The Year Germany Lost Jan Karski regarding
the War (2019). Her father, the conditions of
Ludwik (William) Stocker, Nazi-occupied
was an English engineer Poland, including
working in the Galician oil the mass murder
industry and her mother, of the local Jewish
Karolina Kochanowska, was population. She
Polish. In 1938, Walentyna admired Sikorski
Walentyna Janta Połczyńska in the uniform of
moved from Lwόw to London enormously, but as
the Polish Armed Forces in the West, American
to further her education, and she told Andrew Zone of Occupation, Germany 1945
when the war broke out was Nagorski in 2016, Photo from the Karolina Rostafiński Merk collection.
Used with permission.
hired by the Polish embassy, she felt he lacked
where her knowledge of “the temperament center at Bletchley Park. At
English was clearly useful. that you needed to deal with the end of the war she was
When in June of 1940 the the Russians.” After Sikorski assigned as a translator with
Polish government-in-exile, was killed in a plane crash at the rank of second lieutenant
established in France in Gibraltar in July 1943, she in the Polish army to the
September 1939, moved worked for the radio station U.S. forces in Frankfurt. She
to London, she became Świt (Dawn), broadcasting to was principally responsible
secretary to Prime Minister Poland from the intelligence for interviewing Poles
D r. Łucja Pawlicka-
Nowak, for decades a
key figure in research on the
with Yad Vashem in Israel,
and with American Jewish
communities. In a letter read
Holocaust and Jewish heritage out at her funeral, the Jewish
in Poland, died February 27 Community in Poznań recalled
at the age of eighty-two. her as “an extraordinary
figure, deserving of great
Pawlicka-Nowak was the
respect and gratitude.” Her
director of the District
life was devoted to a noble
Museum in Konin, in
and sacred mission, namely
central Poland, from 1975
Łucja Pawlicka-Nowak (1938-2020). to commemorate Jewish
to 2006 and was founder Photograph courtesy of the District Museum
cities, towns, and villages
of the Museum of the in Konin. Used with permission.
murdered by the German
Former German Kulmhof and her team also rescued occupier. Jewish martyrs
Death Camp in Chełmno- several hundred matzevot were not buried, prayers over
nad-Nerem, which was or fragments which had their bodies were not said,
established in 1990. She been removed from Jewish they were not escorted in a
carried out extensive research cemeteries. funeral procession to a place
and commemoration work
Her obituary on the Konin where they would wait for
regarding Jewish cemeteries
Culture Foundation website the coming of the Messiah.
and heritage in the Konin
noted: “Dr. Łucja Pawlicka- Mrs. Łucja, through her many
region and was an early
Nowak was particularly works, mourned for those who
recipient of the Preserving
involved in documenting the did not have to mourn.” n
Memory award, a recognition
established in 1998 to honor lives of Jews in Konin and
Reprinted with permission
non-Jewish Poles preserving the Konin region. She did it
from Jewish Heritage Europe
Jewish heritage. Under her with tireless energy, saving
www.jewish-heritage-europe-eu.
direction, the Konin Museum matzevot and numerous
organized research, recovery, Jewish cemeteries. In order
and commemorative efforts at to be able to work more
approximately twenty Jewish effectively, she learned
cemeteries, marking them Yiddish, established contacts
with signage, commemorative with the Institute of Martyrs
plaques, and memorials. She and Holocaust Remembrance,
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