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Gazeta Volume 26, No. 1
Spring 2019
Roman Vishniac (1897-1990) Albert Einstein in his office,
Princeton University, New Jersey, 1942. Gelatin Silver print.
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California,
Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.10.
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, Adam Schorin, Maayan Stanton,
Agnieszka Ilwicka, William Zeisel, LaserCom Design.
CONTENTS
Message from Irene Pipes ................................................................................................ 2
Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn .................................................................... 3
FEATURES
The Road to September 1939
Jehuda Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit ......................................................................................... 4
Honoring the Memory of Paweł Adamowicz
Antony Polonsky ..................................................................................................................... 8
Roman Vishniac Archive Gifted to Magnes Collection of
Jewish Art and Life
Francesco Spagnolo ............................................................................................................. 11
Keeping Jewish Memory Alive in Poland
Leora Tec ............................................................................................................................. 15
The Untorn Life of Yaakov Weksler
Michael Schudrich ................................................................................................................ 17
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOOKS
Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy
Reported by Tressa Berman ............................................................................................. 19
Józef Czapski: Three New Books
Reported by Adam Schorin .............................................................................................. 20
Recent Polish Jewish Studies Books of Note
Compiled by Agnieszka Ilwicka ........................................................................................ 22
Auschwitz Jewish Center Publishes Guidebook ...................................................... 23
CONFERENCES
Art and the Holocaust ................................................................................................ 24
Reported by Antony Polonsky
November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland ............................... 25
Poland and Hungary: Jewish Realities Compared .............................................. 27
EXHIBITIONS
The Free Bird. Der Frayer Foygl at Jewish Historical Institute ................................ 29
Terribly Close Awarded Best Cultural Event ............................................................. 30
AWARDS
Marcin Wodziński Wins 2019 U.S. National Jewish Book Award ........................... 32
Yiddish Glory Nominated for Grammy Award .......................................................... 33
GENERAL
Auschwitz Jewish Center Releases New App ......................................................... 34
Helping Jews and Poles to Discover their Roots ..................................................... 35
New Director Appointed to FODŻ ............................................................................. 38
New Leader of Union of Jewish Communities in Poland ........................................ 39
GEOP and POLIN Announcements and Opportunities .......................................... 41
IN BRIEF
Reported by Fay and Julian Bussgang
Jews in the Military Conference .............................................................................. 43
“I Love Poland” Blogger .......................................................................................... 43
Nevzlin Book Prize Announced .............................................................................. 44
OBITUARIES
Mara Vishniac Kohn ......................................................................................................... 45
Amos Oz ........................................................................................................................... 46
Simcha Rotem .................................................................................................................. 48
Leopold Kozłowski ........................................................................................................... 50
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 1
President, American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta Dear Members and Friends, This Spring 2019 issue of Gazeta welcomes a diverse set of voices. I am pleased to see a discussion of Volume 32 of POLIN, titled “Jewish Realities Compared,” on the theme of Poland and Hungary. This volume is dedicated to my late husband, Richard Pipes, who died last May. It is a hard time for me. The outstanding activity this past year was a performance in Lexington of Remembrance of Things Past: Keeping the Stories of Jewish Poland Irene Pipes Alive. It consisted of a performance by Witek Dabrowski of the Lublin Brama Grodzka Theater in Polish [also known as the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre] in Polish, and David Liebers and Leora Tec reading the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer. In the latter, the Jew did not feel any connection to Poland; in the former, a non-Jewish Pole did not know what had befallen the Jews during the war. Unwittingly, walking these parallel paths, they do the same work of preserving the Jewish memory in Poland. Finally, we organized a film showing of A Town called Brzostek, from where Jonathan Weber’s grandfather emigrated, and where Jonathan restored the cemetery. The film shows how, after many years of hatred, suspicion and fear, neighbors finally united. Looking ahead to a pleasant Passover. Irene Pipes President 2 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1
Message from
Chairman and Executive Director,
Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life
& Culture
Shana Penn
Elie Wiesel once remarked that a single person of integrity can make a
difference. The stories in this issue of Gazeta bear him out. Among our
feature articles, for example, the first describes the strenuous efforts of
Jewish leaders in Palestine and Europe during the 1930s to find a refuge
for Polish Jews on the eve of a seemingly inevitable disaster. They met
only partial success, but not for lack of commitment. The second article is
the obituary of a modern-day Polish political leader, Paweł Adamowicz,
who paid the ultimate price for publicly exercising his moral integrity,
including strong support for Poland’s Jews. Another article describes the
Tad Taube astonishment of an American Jew who visited the town of her mother’s
childhood in Poland, to find that non-Jewish Poles were carefully
preserving the history of the long-gone Jewish community because they
regarded it as part of their own history.
Many such persons of commitment and honor adorn the life and history
of the Jews of the Polish lands. Some of them are household names, some
obscure, but as Elie Wiesel would surely have agreed, they all matter. We
are honored to tell you their stories.
Tad Taube and Shana Penn
Shana Penn
Chairman and Executive Director
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 3
FEATURES Jehuda Reinharz and
Yaacov Shavit
The Road to September 1939
We are pleased to present in this issue of Gazeta an essay adapted
from the introduction of The Road to September 1939: Polish Jews,
Zionists, and the Yishuv on the Eve of World War II by Jehuda Reinharz
and Yaacov Shavit. Originally published in Hebrew by Am Oved
Publishers in 2013, this translation, published by Brandeis University
Press in the Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry,
introduces English-speaking audiences to the important scholarship of
Professors Reinharz and Shavit. The Road to September 1939 shows,
through letters and memoirs, that contrary to popular belief, Zionists
in the Yishuv worked tirelessly to attempt to save European Jews from
Hitler in the years before World War II. As we approach the eightieth
anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, this book offers an
opportunity for critical reflection on what was, and was not, possible Jacket image for The Road to
before the storm clouds of the war fell on Europe. September 1939: Polish Jews,
Zionists, and the Yishuv on the
Eve of World War II by Jehuda
— Gazeta Editorial Team Reinharz and Yaacov Shavit.
T his book serves as a sort
of collective diary of
statesmen, social and political
We do not intend to
describe the events
everyday life, rather than on
the big questions of the hour,
they bring to life this crucial
activists, and ordinary people moment in Jewish history and
whose first-person eyewitness
by reading history illuminate more effectively
accounts were recorded in backward. We have tried than some traditional histories
personal diary entries, letters, the events that led up to World
and memoirs, along with not to read the story from War II and the Holocaust.
daily newspaper accounts.
its endpoint but rather We do not intend to describe
These accounts are a record
the events by reading history
of what they knew, thought, as much as possible in backward. We have tried not to
and felt in “real time.” In their
read the story from its endpoint
focus on the vicissitudes of the “present.”
4 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1
but rather as much as possible The countries of the free If in 1929 Palestine took in
in the “present.” Before August less than a tenth of Jewish
1939, as well as during that world had no interest emigration from Poland, then
month, no one really knew in resolving Poland’s in the years prior to the Second
what was in store. It is only World War it became the
a retrospective reading that internal problems by principal destination for that
determines that the events emigration. In 1935, Palestine
opening their gates
moved inexorably toward an absorbed around 80.6 percent
unequalled calamity and that to a large Jewish of the emigrants, and in 1937,
it was impossible to halt their 32.2 percent. Between 1919
course. A fog of uncertainty immigration. and 1939, around 140,000
and lack of knowledge people emigrated from Poland
shrouded that month. And in The reader of this book will find to Palestine—around 35
any case, even if everyone almost no German Jews in it. percent of the mandate’s total
had known where history was Likewise, it will not discuss the Jewish population. During
heading, they would have fate of the Jews of Romania, the mandate period, Poland
been helpless to divert the Hungary, or France, for was thus the largest source
ship toward a safe haven. The example. The choice to focus of immigration to Palestine
processes that preceded the on Polish Jews seems obvious and the main source of the
breakout of the Second World to us. Poland was home to the Yishuv’s demographic growth.
War have been reconstructed largest Jewish population in the In addition, a large part of
and analyzed in numerous world—around 3.5 million Jews the private capital that was
books, some of them recording in 1939—and after 1924, it imported to Palestine belonged
and reconstructing the behind- was the main source of Jewish to Polish Jews, who made a
the-scenes occurrences that emigration across the Atlantic considerable contribution to
were unknown to people at the and to Palestine. From 1929 the national funds.
time. The history of the Jewish to 1938, more than 400,000
Jews left Poland. Initially, most In the middle of the 1930s, as
people, the Zionist movement,
of them went to the United the pressure to leave Poland
and the Yishuv, the Jewish
States, but from 1924 onward grew and Palestine became the
community in Palestine prior
the rate of those immigrating to almost exclusive destination,
to the establishment of the
Palestine increased. Between the British government
State of Israel in 1948, in the
1929 and 1935, Palestine imposed new restrictions
1930s have been the subjects
absorbed around 43.7 percent on Jewish immigration. As
of an extensive body of
of the total Jewish emigration, a result, the country’s gates
literature. This book could
whereas the United States were shut to many who
not have been written without
absorbed 10.9 percent. wanted to immigrate to it.
consulting it.
The Zionist movement and
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 5
its institutions had to lay the Polish Jews had a This led to the conclusion that
bridge on which at least some it would be possible to spur the
Polish Jews would cross over
rich and multifaceted governments and the world’s
to Palestine. The Yishuv’s existence as an integral conscience to see finding a
political future and its power solution for the Jews’ plight
were now intertwined with part of Polish life and as a lofty conscientious duty.
the fate of Polish Jews. The under its influence. The This was also accompanied
fate of Polish Jews, however, by a belief that the power
as opposed to the fate of shadow of a possible war of the Jewish world could
German Jews and later that not be reduced to its plight.
weighed on them without
of Jews under the Third Weizmann, however, did
Reich, was not on the public being necessarily tied to not mean that putting the
and international agenda. It subject of Jewish emigration
the future of the Jewish
did not occupy any place in on the international agenda
British or international policy Yishuv in Palestine, and would include alternatives to
considerations, because Polish Palestine. He—and others—
Jews had not been expelled even in isolation from it. believed that when it would
and therefore did not become become clear that there
wrote to Moshe Shertok
asylum-seeking refugees. The were no such alternatives,
(Sharett), director of the Jewish
countries of the free world Palestine’s status as the
Agency’s political department,
had no interest in resolving only destination would be
that Poland had put the
Poland’s internal problems by reinforced.
question of Jewish emigration
opening their gates to a large
from Eastern Europe on the However, it would be a
Jewish immigration.
international agenda: “The mistake to describe the history
The Zionist movement found recent pronouncements of of Polish Jews between the two
itself in a difficult dilemma. the Poles have made a very world wars only from a Zionist
On the one hand, putting great impression. The Polish or a Palestinian perspective.
the need for Jewish problem transcends the Most of the Jews in Poland
emigration from Poland on ordinary boundaries and makes were not Zionists, and many of
the international agenda was it patent to everybody that our them opposed Zionism or were
welcomed. On the other hand, misfortunes will soon grow indifferent to it. Nor did many
directing this emigration to to a first-rate international Zionists show an urgency or
different countries in Africa calamity for which we cannot eagerness to immigrate to
or South America meant take responsibility and which Palestine. Polish Jews had a
that Zionism would become may affect vitally the state of rich and multifaceted existence
irrelevant. In October 1936, affairs in the East and South as an integral part of Polish
for example, Chaim Weizmann East Europe.” life and under its influence.
6 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1
The shadow of a possible war The research literature, publicly and behind closed
weighed on them without being doors, stirring up the debate
and even more so the
necessarily tied to the future of and creating polarization. Plans
the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine, political and public can testify to the sense of time
and even in isolation from it. and to a will to act. But they
debate, have been do not indicate that those who
At the end of a dinner held
suffused for over fifty thought up the plans had the
on February 22, 1938, at the
power and the means to carry
house of Leopold Amery, years with a bitter them out. As will become
the Secretary of State for
disagreement around the apparent in the narrative
Dominion Affairs from 1924
that follows, individuals
to 1929, Ben-Gurion told Sir question to what extent and organizations within the
Harold MacMichael, who was
Zionist movement feared for
appointed High Commissioner Jews in general, and the
the fate of the Jews of Europe
for Palestine in 1938 (and held
political leadership of and did what they could within
the position until 1944), that
the fog of uncertainty and with
the Zionist movement wanted the Zionist movement in
limited resources. Once the
“to save the young generation
particular, were aware war broke out, however, the
of Eastern and Central
fate of European Jewry was
European Jewry—and it’s that time was pressing. virtually sealed. n
possible. It’s a question of two
million Jews.” MacMichael bitter disagreement around the Jehuda Reinharz is Richard
replied that the Jews were question to what extent Jews Koret Professor of Modern
“rushing things.” Ben-Gurion in general, and the political Jewish History, director of the
wrote in his diary: “And again leadership of the Zionist Tauber Institute for the Study
I saw that we are hitting a wall. movement in particular, were of European Jewry at Brandeis
The Englishman doesn’t know aware that time was pressing. University, and president of
what time means for us.” Did the “awareness of time” the Jack, Joseph, and Morton
change between 1935 and Mandel Foundation.
What was the Zionist
1939? What was done under
“dimension of time” in the Yaacov Shavit is Professor
the pressure of time in order
1930s? Can we distinguish Emeritus at Tel Aviv University.
to break through the “wall,”
between rhetoric and plans of
and did the Jews of Poland and
action, wishes and means? The
of the Yishuv share the same
research literature, and even
“concept of time”?
more so the political and public
debate, have been suffused Various plans and solutions
for over fifty years with a were mooted and discussed
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 7
Honoring the Memory of Pawel/
Adamowicz: November 2, 1965 – Antony Polonsky
January 14, 2019
T he tragic death of Paweł
Adamowicz, murdered
on January 13, 2019, while
According to Adamowicz,
civil society “is not about
speaking on the stage at the enlightened absolutism
concert of the Great Orchestra
imposed from the top.
of the Christmas Charity
Foundation, has robbed Poland It takes place through
of one of its most able and
the activism of different
progressive leaders. As mayor
of Gdansk since 1998, he was entrepreneurs and people
responsible for numerous
of different professions
civic innovations, including
Poland’s first “civic panel,” and ideas, as well as
to develop policies on flood
through public disputes
prevention, with residents
drawn at random to “raise the and conflicts. That is how
level of civic engagement in the Paweł Adamowicz in July 2018.
Photograph by Rudolf H. Boettcher. civil society is created.”
areas most challenging to the Wikimedia Commons.
city.” According to Adamowicz,
in politics as head of the and member of Civic Platform
civil society “is not about committee that organized the (Platforma Obywatelska—PO).
enlightened absolutism imposed strikes in Gdańsk in 1988,
from the top. It takes place and that contributed to the He made his reputation as a
through the activism of different convening of the roundtable progressive, supporting the
entrepreneurs and people of talks culminating in the settlement of immigrants
different professions and ideas, negotiated end of communism in Gdańsk, sex education
as well as through public in Poland. He was elected to in schools, gay and lesbian
disputes and conflicts. That is the Gdańsk city council in rights—in 2018 he was an
how civil society is created.” 1990 and in 1998 became its honorary patron of the fourth
mayor, a post to which he was Gdańsk Gay Pride Parade, in
Born of parents who re-elected several times. In which he also participated—
emigrated after the war 2018, he was re-elected as an and the national rights of the
from Vilnius to Gdańsk, Independent, although he had Kashubes. As a symbol of his
Adamowicz became active previously been a co-founder support for women’s rights,
8 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1he granted the keys of the city “The death of Mayor created by PiS had led the
to the women of Gdańsk to assassin to commit his
commemorate the hundredth Paweł Adamowicz is yet heinous act.
anniversary of women’s another tragic warning Adamowicz had previously
suffrage in Poland. As he told
signal that in our society, been verbally attacked
The Guardian in 2016, “I am a
by right-wing politicians.
European, so my nature is
ideological differences, In 2017, the Młodzież
to be open. Gdańsk is a port
Wszechpolska (All-Polish
and must always be a refuge and differences of
Youth), whose president,
from the sea.”
worldview, can lead – in Adam Andruszkiewicz, was
He spoke out strongly when recently appointed Deputy
the windows of the Gdańsk extreme cases – to acts of Minister for Digitalization,
synagogue were broken physical violence.” published a series of ten
last year, denouncing the “political death certificates”
—Joint statement issued by
vandalism. In the aftermath of of pro-European politicians.
Adamowicz’s assassination, Polish Jewish organizations Adamowicz’s certificate
all the main Jewish described his “cause of
organizations in Poland issued he was treated for paranoid death” as “liberalism,
a joint statement. It asserted: schizophrenia while in multiculturalism, stupidity.”
“Sadly, hatred is becoming prison but stopped taking his The prosecutor’s office
more and more visible and medication before his release. decided that these tacit threats
more widely accepted in After stabbing Adamowicz, did not constitute a breach
Polish political and social life. the assassin seized the of the law, but were rather a
The death of Mayor Paweł microphone and claimed form of legitimate criticism
Adamowicz is yet another that he had been falsely of the politicians involved. In
tragic warning signal that imprisoned and tortured at an interview with a right-wing
in our society, ideological the hands of the previous media outlet broadcast on the
differences, and differences PO government. One of the day that Adamowicz’s death
of worldview, can lead—in main claims of the present was announced, the far-right
extreme cases—to acts of Polish government, headed politician Grzegorz Braun
physical violence.” by the Law and Justice Party described him as a “traitor to
(Prawo i Sprawiedliwość— the nation.”
The mayor’s assassin, a PiS), is that the courts were
27-year-old resident of dominated by a PO-created According to Rafał Pankowski,
Gdańsk, had a criminal mafia, and that this had head of the Nigdy Więcej
history that included bank necessitated the large-scale (Never Again) association, an
robberies and an attack on a purge of the judiciary—a anti-racist campaign group,
police officer. According to claim that led many to assert Adamowicz became a symbol
reports in the Polish press, that the hate-filled atmosphere of something bigger than the
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 9attack itself. “He died during It is vital to “put an end
a charity event that tries to
to the wave of hatred,
bring Poles together. As a
result, he became a symbol respect the dignity
of the death of unity in this
of man, and engage
society.” In Pankowski’s view,
Adamowicz “started to become in a reckoning of
more and more outspoken on conscience.”
issues of diversity and minority
rights and tolerance, just as —Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz,
society was moving in the Archbishop of Warsaw
opposite direction. It was very
impressive. He was a very It is to be hoped that this
brave man—and he paid for it.” tragic event will lead to a
diminution of the divisive
The government claimed
and abusive character of
there was no evidence that
Polish political life. Cardinal
the attack was politically
Kazimierz Nycz, Archbishop
motivated, and that the
of Warsaw, at the mass
assassin had also threatened
celebrated in the presence of
the president. President Duda
members of the government
condemned the murder as a
on the Sunday after the
“hard to imagine evil.” The
murder, argued that it is vital
stabbing was also condemned
to “put an end to the wave
by other members of the
of hatred, respect the dignity
PiS. Less than ten days after
of man, and engage in a
the murder, however, one of
reckoning of conscience.” n
President Duda’s advisers,
on state television, talking Antony Polonsky, PhD, is
about Lech Wałęsa, Jerzy Chief Historian at POLIN
Owsiak (the founder of the Museum of the History of
foundation that sponsored
Polish Jews.
the charity event), and Paweł
Adamowicz, claimed that the
public scene was affected by
a form of “mystification” that
“makes angels of individuals
whose behavior raises many
questions.”
10 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1Roman Vishniac Archive Gifted to
the Magnes Collection of Jewish Francesco Spagnolo
Art and Life (University of
California, Berkeley)
R oman Vishniac (1897 –
1990) was a Russian-
born modernist photographer
of photographic prints, but
also negatives, contact sheets,
slides, and personal and
Professor of Jewish History
at UC Berkeley, which took
place at The Magnes last
who is best known for his professional records. The November, days after the
poignant images of traditional Magnes will exhaustively collection was moved to
East European Jewish life, catalogue, document, and Berkeley.
especially Polish Jewish street organize all of these materials
Francesco Spagnolo: The
life, in the years immediately so that they will be accessible
photograph, An Elder of the
preceding the Holocaust. His for teaching, research, and,
Village, Vysni Apsa, is one
photographs of this era also ultimately, public display. The
of the most iconic and well-
capture the plight of Jewish collection likewise promises
known images by Roman
and other displaced persons to be of inestimable value to
Vishniac. It went on the cover
across Europe before and the UC Berkeley community
of his book, A Vanished World
after World War II. Once in of research into 20th-century
(1983). What does the image
the United States, Vishniac East European Jewry.
mean, and what does the book
photographed minorities and We are especially grateful to mean? They have a global
immigrants in New York Roman Vishniac’s daughter, significance, but they’re also
City and elsewhere. He was Mara Vishniac Kohn, and very particular.
also a passionate science her children, Naomi and
photographer and a pioneer in John Efron: Yes. [This
Ben Schiff, who gifted the
microscopic photography. man] is from Vysni Apsa, in
collection to UC Berkeley.
Carpathian Ruthenia, which is
The Magnes Collection of [Please see obituary for Mara
sort of Ukraine today and was
Jewish Art and Life at the Vishniac Kohn in this issue of
divided up between various
University of California, Gazeta, [page 45].
new countries after World
Berkeley, is now the grateful War I. And it’s iconic because
Roman Vishniac:
repository of Vishniac’s the portraiture is just perfect,
A Conversation
complete archive, representing the way he’s both leaning the
one of the museum’s most Following is an edited version hand on the cane, and his head
important acquisitions since of a conversation between in his hands, so he’s in this
its founding in 1962. The Frances Spagnolo, curator deep thoughtful pose, and he’s
Roman Vishniac Collection of The Magnes Collection, an elder of his community.
includes not only thousands and Dr. John Efron, Koret And so for Vishniac, it
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 11Roman Vishniac (1897-1990), [Woman walking on crutches Image 1: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990), Albert Einstein in His
through ruins], [Berlin (Germany)], 1947. Black-and-white Office, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1942. Gelatin silver print.
inkjet print (from original negative). The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley,
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.10.
Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac Kohn, 2016.6.15.
signifies the community itself. clearly, but both learned in to materials in the Vishniac
Vishniac represented this part their own way, and they’re archives—things he wrote—
of the community as deeply both deep in thought. You we see that there is not only
religious and deeply pious. wouldn’t expect this small a poetry in how he describes
town elder from the shtetl a living animal, but there
FS: Once Roman Vishniac
and Einstein to have much in is really a humanist gaze
arrived in the United States,
common, but the way Vishniac on science that we also see
he set up to do studio
has portrayed them, I think I reflected in a more scientific,
photography, and traveled
can say that they actually do taxonomic gaze on human
to Princeton to take portraits
have something in common, beings. So he’s a man of
of Albert Einstein (Image 1),
and of course we know that the two cultures combined,
who apparently stated that
both of their worlds came to science and humanities. He
his portraits by Vishniac
an end. writes about the stork, “the
were among his favorites.
wings of the planing bird are
It’s a different type of both FS: I remember that when I
the prototype of our airplane
Jewish American and global exhibited these images I put
wings. Gliding and sailing
iconography here, right? them one next to the other for
birds were the models for
the very same reason.
JE: Right, but there are two inventors,” and he talks about
things: [the village elder and Roman Vishniac took many, the struggle of the flight of the
Einstein] were both, at this many photographs of storks stork in detail in his notes. And
particular point, relatively (e.g., Stork in Flight). It’s these notes in his archives were
elderly Jewish men from something that could be typewritten at the same time
different parts of Europe, very surprising, but if we relate this as his reflections on the city of
12 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1Paris (from the point of view
of a gargoyle on Notre Dame),
as well as on the toils of the
European Jews. He writes
about Jews in the same way
that he writes about storks, and
their struggle in flight: “Four
million human beings driven
to despair by humiliation,
suffering, and destitution,
hope to be saved if not for
themselves, then for their
children that they may grow
up to live and work in a better
world.”
Image 2: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990), Amino Acid (00 000), ca. 1970.
JE: He doesn’t express any Chromogenic print.
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac
knowledge of the systematic Kohn, 2018.15.
extermination of European
Jewry, but needless to say,
negatives and other materials, JE: There almost is
[including images like a disproportionate
he’s fully aware of the
systematic persecution of
Amino Acid (Image 2), of representation of Jews
Europe’s Jewry. So we’re at a microscopic objects which reading, both children and
point where for him personally are photographed—in stark adults, and even in the
that knowledge is not there, contrast to his black-and- picture of Einstein, he is
and then there’s still sort of a white photos—in color], reading. So, Jews as a sort
glimmer of hope, perhaps tied that we hope will unleash of a reading civilization
to ... the picture of the stork, numerous paths of research on is the way he wished to
that the stork will still be able the UC Berkeley campus. portray them, irrespective of
to make its ascent and remain what country they’re in, or
Many of his photographs
in the air, so he still sees a where they’re from: whether
depict children—he
possibility at this particular they’re from Germany, like
devoted a whole book to
point ... and doesn’t realize Einstein, or whether they’re
Jewish children—but he
that there is none. from Carpathian Ruthenia,
photographed children in
or whether they’re now in
FS: Roman Vishniac was many communities, in many
America, reading what looks
a pioneer in microscopic ways, and especially children
like an English-language
photography. The Vishniac who were also readers (Boy
book. They’re nonetheless
collection now at The Reading), like his photographs
reading.
Magnes includes around of East European and Jewish
1,500 scientific prints, plus children in the cheder, a FS: Roman Vishniac traveled
religious elementary school. to Israel several times, and
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 13black-and-white photos, and
the [slides] are in color. So
it sort of represents a dawn,
as it were, a brightness of a
possible future, as opposed
to a visual recording of
photographs of a civilization
that’s on the brink. This is a
civilization on the brink of
a new future; so these are in
color, and they’re also very
striking. But these are very
intimate portraits, again, of
both Jews and non-Jews.
FS: And self-portraits, as
well! We see him in action,
roaming the roads of Israel.
What’s interesting, and very
important, about these images,
is that there is no real public
documentation of Vishniac in
Israel. This gives us a sense of
the potential of this archive,
and how many more roads
we need to take in order to
document the extraordinary
Image 3: Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) [Israel], October 1967. Diapositives (slides). work of this photographer. n
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, gift of Mara Vishniac
Kohn, 2018.15. Frances Spagnolo is Curator
of The Magnes Collection
[his slide series] Israel (Image acquired for access to Jews.
of Jewish Art and Life at
3) depicts a trip in October- And also there is again the
UC Berkeley, and Affiliated
November of 1967, shortly topic of elderly Jewish, or
Faculty with the Berkeley
after the Six Day War. We in this case even Samaritan,
Center for the Study of
have no prints in the archive, men with ritual texts, and of
Religion.
but we have many, many bearded elderly men.
slides. He gives a wide- John Efron, PhD is Koret
JE: Also, one of the things
ranging portrait of Israel, and Professor of Jewish History at
that’s most noticeable is that
especially Jerusalem, the Old UC Berkeley.
he’s known, of course, for
City, which had just been re-
these stunning and striking
14 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1Keeping Jewish Memory Alive in Poland Leora Tec
W e trudged through
the snow up a steep
hill. I had to pull myself up
When we reached the
site, Inga asked if I
encountered them in 2005,
when visiting Poland with
my mother, Nechama Tec.
by the bannister that our wanted to light candles Her memoir Dry Tears, about
host, Inga Marczyńska, had her experience passing as
in memory of the dead. a Catholic girl during the
installed to make access
easier. We were headed to She reached into her tote Holocaust, had just been
the mass grave where 260 translated into Polish, and
bag and pulled out two Lublin was one of the stops on
Jews from Kołaczyce and
Brzostek are buried. They candles. She never goes her book tour. I had no inkling
were marched there on August that there were people in my
anywhere without them. mother’s hometown honoring
12, 1942—mothers carrying
their babies and toddlers, with Rescuers of Memory, Inga is the memory of Jews of that
no bannister to steady them. trying to save Jewish memory place. I now must admit that
Inga, who is tireless in her “from oblivion,” to quote I had barely thought about
efforts to commemorate the Rafał Kowalski, Deputy my ancestors in Lublin—
Jews of Kołaczyce, seemed Director of the Museum of barely thought beyond my
unbothered by her high heels Mazowian Jews in Płock. My mother’s immediate family.
or the fact that her skirt was recorded conversations with But the non-Jewish Poles
covered in snow. When we Inga and Rafał will join other that I encountered there were
reached the site, Inga asked conversations to be archived remembering for me. They
if I wanted to light candles on the Grodzka Gate – NN were gathering facts, photos,
in memory of the dead. She Theatre website. sounds, testimonies, and
lovingly placing them in what
reached into her tote bag
It is appropriate that Grodzka they call an Ark of Memory.
and pulled out two candles.
Gate – NN Theatre should
She never goes anywhere I was so moved by their
house them. Brama is an
without them. reverence and dedication
amazing organization of more
than fifty non-Jewish Poles that I felt called to highlight
Like so many extraordinary
who, for almost three decades, them and those that do similar
non-Jewish Poles whom I
have dedicated themselves work—not only people doing
have had the honor to meet
to Jewish remembrance grassroots projects such as
in the course of my work
in Lublin, Poland. I first cleaning up cemeteries, but
to create a video archive of
also teachers, those working
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 15Inga Marczyńska at the mass grave where 260 Jews from Kołaczyce and Brzostek were murdered. Courtesy of Leora Tec. in institutions, and academics. Rafał Kowalski from Płock Leora Tec is the founder and What moves them to do this says it was almost as if he director of Bridge to Poland precious work? After my were possessed by a dybbuk and an AAPJS board member. friend Robert Kuwalek (an when he set out to find the She is currently in Poland as expert on the Bełżec and survivors from Płock all over a Stevens Traveling Fellow Majdanek death camps and the world and interview them. from Wellesley College. the Jews of Lublin) died Perhaps I am not possessed by unexpectedly at the age a dybbuk but I am determined of forty-seven, I became to shout from the rooftops in even more convinced of the my own way—through video, importance of recording writing and talks—to tell the the voices and stories of world about these amazing people like him. He counted people who wake up every survivors among his friends. morning looking for new In a hundred years, who will ways to fill the hole left in carry on this memory work? Poland after the Holocaust. n 16 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1
Michael
The Untorn Life of Yaakov Weksler Schudrich
I first met Yaakov Weksler
more than twenty years
ago when he was Father
Romuald Waszkinel, a priest
and a professor of theology
in Lublin. Only a few years
earlier he had discovered that
he had been born a Jewish
baby near Vilna, around the
year 1941, and had been given
away by his Jewish mother
in order to save him from Former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Israel Meir Lau, Yaakov Weksler, and
the Shoah. While Yaakov’s Shaya Ben Yehuda, who is reading from the Torah.
adoptive Polish parents Courtesy of Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich.
risked their lives to save him, that he was born to Jewish roots of Christianity as well
they never wanted to tell parents who gave him to them as his own family’s roots.
him that, in fact, he was not in order to save his life. A few The journey was deep and
their biological child. More years later, Yaakov met his therefore took time. Indeed, it
than fifty years ago, Yaakov biological uncle, the brother was the journey of a lifetime.
decided to enter the priesthood of his Jewish father, and then
About ten years ago, Yaakov
and asked his parents if he traveled several times to Israel
decided that he wanted to live
was really theirs since he did to meet him.
on a religious kibbutz in order
not look like them. They
And so began Yaakov’s Jewish to taste in some way the way
responded by saying “Don’t
journey. his parents and grandparents
we love you?” but could
had lived their lives. After
not tell Yaakov the truth. For him, a theologian, this a soul-searching discussion
SoYaakov went on to enter the journey was a profoundly with the rabbi of the kibbutz,
priesthood. Around twenty- spiritual and intellectual Yaakov was accepted and
five years ago, his adoptive one. Yaakov spent years lived on the kibbutz for over
father passed away, at which learning more and more about a year. This gave him the
time his adoptive mother told Judaism, following in the opportunity for the first time to
him the truth—that he was footsteps of Pope John Paul see Jewish life up close, and to
not their biological child and II of discovering the Jewish
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 17live Jewishly every day. His Watching Yaakov Yaakov shared with us, in
experience was an inspiration Hebrew, his tremendous
beaming from cheek
to others, and is depicted in the happiness, his gratitude to
film Torn, made during his stay to cheek, watching a both his Jewish and Polish
on the kibbutz. The movie’s man who as a baby had parents and to all of us.
title aptly describes Yaakov’s “Chazarti habayita,” he said.
dilemma between the two survived the Shoah, “I have returned home.”
worlds in which he lived. so full of happiness The torn man is now whole.
I was in regular contact and contentment was Mazal tov, Yaakov! Ohavim
with Yaakov throughout his an experience that otcha!—We love you!
incredible journey of self-
transcends words. Postscript: Yaakov decided
discovery, full of its ups and
that he wanted to stay in
downs and his search for self- I arrived at the synagogue Israel and has been working at
reconciliation. that day and found a packed Yad Vashem since 2011. n
Over the years in which room full of people who had
we met, I increasingly only one goal in mind: to wish Michael Schudrich lives in
encountered a person who Yaakov a mazal tov! All had Warsaw and is the Chief Rabbi
was becoming more and more gathered to wish him well of Poland.
at home with himself and his in the next part of his life’s
newly “untorn” identity. journey, to welcome
him home.
This past Yom Kippur,
Yaakov was in Warsaw and Watching Yaakov beaming
attended services at our Nożyk from cheek to cheek, watching
Synagogue. I offered him a man who as a baby had
an aliya, to be called to the survived the Shoah, so full of
Torah. He declined, saying happiness and contentment
that he was home in the was an experience that
synagogue but not yet ready transcends words. This
for an aliya. seemingly impossible moment
filled the room with awe—to
On February 6, 2018, Yaakov see a person who persevered
decided to put on tefilin and to for over twenty-five years
be called to the Torah for the as a conflicted human being
first time in the Yad Vashem now standing proudly in his
synagogue. A very belated tallit and tefilin in perfect
Bar Mitzvah! wholeness, no longer “torn.”
18 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1ANNOUNCEMENTS
Books
Elie Wiesel: An Extraordinary Life and Legacy Reported by
Writings, Reflections, Photographs Tressa Berman
Edited by Nadine Epstein. Foreword by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Afterword by Ted Koppel (Moment Books, 2019)
T his newly released
tribute to the late Elie
Wiesel (1928–2016) is a
“I have learned the
danger of indifference,
with that memory to prevent
collective harm and to heal
it where it already occurred.
selected compilation of the crime of indifference. As he stated in his acceptance
visual narratives and personal For the opposite of speech for the 1985
reflections on the life and Congressional Gold Medal of
love … is not hate but
legacy of one of the most Achievement, “I have learned
preeminent human rights indifference.” the danger of indifference,
thought leaders of the 20th —Elie Weisel the crime of indifference.
and early 21st centuries. For the opposite of love, I
Elie Wiesel is remembered carried with him six million have learned, is not hate but
here by such prominent and fragments of our people. His indifference.” From receiving
diverse Jewish voices as Itzak was the voice of memory the Nobel Peace Prize in
Perlman, Michael Berenbaum, when others sought to forget.” 1986 until the final decade
Dani Dayan, Mark Podwal, of his life, Elie Wiesel lived
and Martha Hauptman (his Included in this compendium his words with a prophetic
personal assistant for almost is an interview with Wiesel grace and an empathy for
thirty years), plus many more himself, conducted by Elisha humankind borne of his
unexpected contributors, Wiesel (the son of Elie and own experience. n
including Oprah Winfrey. Marion), standing before the
famous quote of his father: Tressa Berman, PhD, serves
Most vivid are the portraits
“One person of integrity can as Managing Editor of Gazeta.
by those who knew him
best, and most telling are the make a difference.” This
praises by historians of the personal and public account of
Holocaust and Jewish history, his father’s accomplishments
the survivors, the celebrators and teachings segues into
of life, and the recoverers of perhaps the most captivating
loss, to which Wiesel’s life section of the book—Elie
itself was a living testament. Wiesel’s own words, essays,
Indeed, as Rabbi Jonathan and speeches, written and
Sacks points out in the preface presented in over forty years.
of the book, “Whatever he did His mission was not only to
and wherever he went, Elie remember, but to act in accord
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 19Reported by
Józef Czapski: Three New Books Adam Schorin
Last autumn, The New York for public awareness about
Review of Books published the situation in Communist
three books by and about Józef Poland.
Czapski, the 20th-century
The recently published books
Polish painter and writer.
are Almost Nothing: The
C zapski was born in 20th-Century Art and Life
Prague in 1896 and of Józef Czapski, Lost Time:
died in France in 1993: he Lectures on Proust in a Soviet
lived through and witnessed Prison Camp, and Inhuman
the Russian Revolution, the Land: Searching for the
Parisian art world of the Truth in Soviet Russia, 1941–
roaring twenties, the front 1942. The first of these is a
lines of World War II, the biography of Czapski by Eric
Siberian gulag, and the fall Karpeles, a painter himself,
of communism. As a young that has been reviewed by
man, he studied law in Saint “Together these books Robert Hass as “an amazing
Petersburg and painting in and completely unexpected
document Czapski’s
Warsaw and Kraków; in 1924, achievement told with a
physical and spiritual steadiness of vision that is
he moved to Paris, where he
worked as a painter and critic. survival during a breathtaking.” Karpeles also
As a Polish reserve officer translated Czapski’s lectures
nightmare era, but, more
fighting against the Nazis in on Proust (collected in Lost
the first weeks of World War than that, they re-create Time), which he originally
II, he was taken prisoner by an overlooked life, one delivered to his fellow
the Soviets. One of the few inmates in a labor camp
marked by an exemplary in Siberia.
soldiers excluded from the
massacre of Polish officers at measure of modesty,
Inhuman Land is Antonia
Katyn, he was sent instead to moral clarity, and artistic Lloyd-Jones’s new translation
a gulag labor camp. Though of Czapski’s reportage of his
richness.”
he never returned to Poland time in Anders’ Army. General
after the war, he continued in —Cynthia Haven,
Władysław Anders had
his adopted France to fight The Wall Street Journal
20 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1personally assigned Czapski Cynthia Haven writes in
the task of investigating the The Wall Street Journal:
disappearance of thousands “Together these books
of Polish officers, including document Czapski’s physical
those who had been killed and spiritual survival during
on Stalin’s orders at Katyn, a nightmare era, but, more
a crime for which the USSR than that, they re-create an
never accepted responsibility. overlooked life, one marked
In the book, Czapski also by an exemplary measure of
describes his release from modesty, moral clarity, and
the gulag labor camp, and his artistic richness.” n
arduous journey with Anders’
Army through Central Asia Adam Schorin is Assistant
and the Middle East to fight Editor of Gazeta.
on the Italian front. The book
includes an introduction
by Timothy Snyder, Yale
University Professor and
historian of Eastern Europe
and the Holocaust.
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 21Recent Polish Jewish Studies Books of Note
Compiled by Agnieszka Ilwicka
1. Anna Bikont, Sendlerowa. W ukryciu. Warszawa: 10. Artur Markowski, Przemoc antyżydowska i
Czarne, 2017 wyobrażenia społeczne. Pogrom białostocki
1906 r. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu
2. A
rchiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne archiwum Warszawskiego, 2018
getta Warszawy, t.29. Pisma Emanuela
Ringelbluma z getta, ed. Joanna Nalewajko- 11. Ojzer Warszawski. Szmuglerzy, trans. and ed.
Kulikov, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Magdalena Ruta,
Warszawskiego, 2018 Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-
Skłodowskiej, 2018
3. Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne archiwum
12. Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX
getta Warszawy, t. 29A. Pisma Emanuela
wieku. Tom 1: Literatura I sztuka, ed. Sławomir
Ringelbluma z bunkra, ed. Eleonora Bergman,
Buryła, Warszawa: Instytut Historii PAN, 2018
Tadeusz Epsztein, Magdalena Siek, Warszawa:
Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2018 13. Przecież ich nie zostawię. O żydowskich
opiekunkach w czasie wojny. Red. Monika
4. M
ordechaj Canin, Przez ruiny i zgliszcza. Podróż Sznajderman, Magdalena Kicińska. Warszawa:
po stu zgładzonych gminach żydowskich, Czarne, 2018
trans. and ed. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska,
Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Nisza, 2018 14. Monika Stępień, Miasto opowiedziane.
Powojenny Kraków w świetle żydowskiej
5. Maria Cieśla, Kupcy, arendarze i rzemieślnicy. literatury dokumentu osobistego. Kraków:
Różnorodność zawodowa Żydów w Wielkim Austeria, 2018
Księstwie Litewskim w XVII i XVIIIw. Warszawa:
15. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Pod klątwą. Społeczny
Instytut Historii PAN, 2018
portret pogromu kieleckiego. Warszawa: Czarna
6. D
alej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych Owca, 2018
powiatach okupowanej Polski. Ed. Barbara 16. Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism: Key Questions.
Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Warszawa: Centrum New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Badań nad Zagładą Żydów, 2018 2018
7. Urszula Glensk, Hirszfeldowie. Zrozumieć krew. 17. Marcin Wodziński, Historical Atlas of Hasidism,
Kraków: Universitas, 2018 Cartography by Waldemar Spallek, Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2018
8. Karolina Koprowska, Postronni? Zagłada
w relacjach chłopskich świadków. Kraków: 18. Żydzi polscy w oczach historyków.
Universitas, 2018 Tom dedykowany pamięci Profesora A.
Gierowskiego, ed. Adam Kaźmierczyk, Alicja
9. J oanna Lisek, Kol isze. Głos kobiet w poezji jidysz Maślak-Maciejewska. Kraków: Wydawnictwo
(od XVIw. do 1939r.). Sejny: Pogranicze, 2018 Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2018
Agnieszka Ilwicka is a Yiddish Studies scholar and a
researcher at Taube Philanthropies.
22 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1Auschwitz Jewish Center Publishes Guidebook to
Oświecim Jewish Cemetery
T he Auschwitz Jewish
Center (AJC) recently
published a guidebook titled
The Jewish Cemetery in
Oświęcim: History, Symbols,
Nature, written by Dr. Artur
Szyndler, the chief curator
of the Jewish Museum at
AJC, Dr. Jacek Proszyk,
Wojciech Gałosz, and Marcin
Karetta. The book describes
the cemetery’s history and
current condition, presented
in four sections: “History,”
“People,” “Symbols,” and
“Nature.” Each section
addresses different aspects
of the cemetery, ranging
from the notable community
members buried there to the
unique biodiversity of the Jacket image of The Jewish Cemetery in Oświęcim: History, Symbols, Nature,
site. The text, illustrated published by the Auschwitz Jewish Center.
with photographs from the
cemetery and including
details of particular
headstones, is available in
Polish and English. n
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 23ANNOUNCEMENTS
Conferences
Art and the Holocaust
Conference in July 2019
T he international
conference Art and the
Holocaust: Reflections for
the Common Future will
take place on July 2–3,
2019, in Riga, Latvia. The
conference is organized by
the Riga Jewish Community
Museum, Jews in Latvia, and
the Museum of Romans Suta
and Aleksandra Belcova,
in collaboration with the
International Centre for
Litvak Photography (Kaunas,
Lithuania) and the Jewish
Monument at the site of the Great Choral Synagogue in Riga, which was burned
Historical Institute (Warsaw, down in 1941 by the Nazis.
Poland). The aim of the Photograph by Adam Jones. Wikimedia Commons.
conference, according to
its call for papers, is “to as depicted by non-Jewish
present new researches artists, and art created in sites
about the relationships of imprisonment. n
between the Holocaust
For more information,
and art (drawing, painting,
please visit http://www.
sculpture, photography,
jewishmuseum.lv/en/item/318-
contemporary art, the art of
international_conference_art_
commemoration),” as well
and_the_holocaust_july_2-3.
as about the ways in which
html.
individuals behaved during
the Holocaust and how the
Holocaust has influenced
European society. Some
thematic areas to be covered
are the fates of artists during
the Holocaust, the Holocaust
24 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1Conferences
Reported by Antony Polonsky
November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland
A n international conference
—November Hopes:
Jews and the Independence
[T]he fact that Jews were
a significant proportion
At the same time, these years
were marked by a series
of anti-Jewish outrages, in
of Poland in 1918—convened of the Communist which between 350 and 500
on November 29-30, 2018, Jews lost their lives. As the
leadership in Russia and Poles fought to establish their
at the POLIN Museum of
frontier, they showed little
the History of Polish Jews in Poland, and that some
understanding for the desire
in Warsaw. It was organized
of them had welcomed of Jews in ethnically mixed
by the POLIN Museum and
areas such as East Galicia
the Institute of History of the the Bolshevik revolution, or Lithuania to maintain a
University of Warsaw, within neutral posture in the national
was seized upon as a
the framework of the Global conflicts. Moreover, the fact
Education Outreach Program means of discrediting the that Jews were a significant
and under the patronage proportion of the Communist
postwar revolutionary
of the Polish Society for leadership in Russia and in
Jewish Studies. It received wave as a primarily Poland, and that some of them
generous support from Taube had welcomed the Bolshevik
Jewish phenomenon. revolution, was seized upon
Philanthropies, the William
K. Bowes, Jr., Foundation, principle of nationality. In as a means of discrediting
and the Association of the the new state, the largest and the postwar revolutionary
Jewish Historical Institute most powerful in East Central wave as a primarily Jewish
Europe, the Jewish community phenomenon.
of Poland, with additional
support from the European perceived both positive These complex and
Association for Jewish Studies and negative implications controversial issues received
in national independence.
and the Ministry of Science careful and insightful
The rights of the Jews in
and Higher Education, as part examination in a speech at
Poland were assured under
of the commemoration of the Carnegie Hall in New York on
the treaty protecting national
centennial of independence. July 28, 1919. Louis Marshall,
minorities that the Poles one of the main architects
The re-emergence of the had been compelled to sign. of the National Minorities’
Polish state after World War I The democratic constitution Treaties, described what had
was the most obvious example established in 1921 been achieved in ecstatic
of the postwar triumph of the strengthened the hope that terms. “For the first time, the
Jews would be equal citizens.
GAZETA SPRING 2019 n 25nations of the world have speech by David Engel with
recognized that, in common the title “Independence for
with all other peoples, we Whom? Jews and the New
are entitled to equality in Political Order in Eastern
law … It has now become an Europe after 1918.” The
established principle that any second day opened with a
violation of the rights of a session, “Realities,” chaired
minority is an offense not only by Professor Stola. Antony
against the individuals but Polonsky led the concluding
against the law which controls roundtable on “Jews and
all of the civilized nations of Polish Independence.
the earth.” One hundred years 100 Years Later.” The
later, the conference amplifies deliberations of this
these themes from historical stimulating and thought-
perspectives. provoking conference will
be published in a special
The conference opened edition of East European
with addresses by Professor
Jewish Affairs. n
Dariusz Stola of the POLIN
Museum and Professor
Lukasz Niesiolowski-Spano
of the Institute of History of
the University of Warsaw.
A roundtable on “Polish
Independence, the Jewish
Question and the Neighbors”
was then chaired by journalist
Maciej Zakrocki. The next
panel dealt with the “hope”
of independence and was
chaired by Kamil Kijek of the
University of Warsaw. After
that came a session, chaired
by Jerzy Kochanowski of
the Institute of History, that
addressed the “fears” that
accompanied the regaining
of Polish statehood. The
evening featured a stimulating
and provocative keynote
26 n GAZETA VOLUME 26, NO. 1You can also read
