Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland

Erica Lehrer is Associate Professor in the History and Sociology/Anthropology Departments at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, where she also holds the Canada Research Chair in Post-Conflict Memory, Ethnography, and Museology.Michael Meng is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Clemson University, South Carolina.

"Erica Lehrer requested removal of this blurb on our website: What immediately strikes the reader of this book is its unique focus on space as an analytical category, particularly as it is modified by various modes of construction and transnationalism. . . . It is impressive for the overall consistency of the chapters and the range of parochial discourses (Jewish, Polish, memory-studies, theoretical) that are interwoven by the authors, offering opportunities for readers from a variety of disciplines to learn something new."—Oren Stier, Florida International University"Lehrer and Meng have done an admirable job both in obtaining essays from authors in a wide variety of disciplines and in making this material accessible to non-specialists."—Studies in Contemporary Jewry"Lehrer and Meng have edited an important interdisciplinary work, which should make an immediate impact on the field of Polish Jewish Studies."—Religious Studies Review"There has been a surge of interest in the history and lives of Polish Jews by Polish Gentiles and the descendants of Holocaust survivors in recent decades. . . This collection offers deep insights into and thoughtful analysis of this fascinating phenomenon. Highly recommended."—Choice"Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland evokes a revolution – the word is not too strong – in the possibilities, new goals, and shifting facts on the ground associated with Jewish history and lives in Poland today."—Canadian Jewish News"[T]he authors' understanding of the Jewishness of 'Jewish space' encompasses the plurality of Jewish expression. As the editors note, their approach seeks 'to break out of predetermined, normative views of Jewishness to explore how history and identity inform each other, raise questions about difference and solidarity, and recognize that Jewish culture is shaped in a field of interactions with other cultures.' From the vantage point of Poland, the editors see their work as part of a national discourse, looking to the construction of a new, post-communist Polish identity.May 2015"—Literary Review of Canada"[This] collection is an important step toward deeper and clearer understanding of what Poland's Jewish spaces were, are, and may yet become.October 2016"—H-SAE"The diversity and uniqueness of examples presented in 'Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland' make this book a significant contribution to Polish-Jewish memory studies.10/13/15"—Pol-Int"A fascinating reading of a palimpsest of death, devastation and revival of the Jewish world in East Central Europe. This volume brings to light an array of concrete developments occurring in Poland since the sweeping systemic change in the region: the reconstruction of the annihilated Jewish world takes place on the ruins of the communist utopia. This much-needed initiative surveys reconstructive and reconciliatory processes (such as the creation of the Polin, the first museum dedicated to the history of Polish Jewry, the revitalization of Cracow's Jewish quarter and the ongoing restoration of Polish synagogues, as well as mental maps of nostalgia and memorization) and gives the reader a renewed sense of hope. As a discursive harbinger of the changes, this volume is both constructive in its ethical stance and constructivist in its approach to the cultural and material dimensions of that lost Jewish world."—Bożena Shallcross, University of Chicago

• Introduction / Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng1. "Oświęcim"/ "Auschwitz": Archeology of a Mnemonic Battleground / Geneviève Zubrzycki2. Restitution of Communal Property and the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland / Stanislaw Tyszka3. Muranów as a Ruin: Layered Memories in Postwar Warsaw / Michael Meng4. Stettin, Szczecin, and the "Third Space." Urban nostalgia in the German/Polish/Jewish borderlands / Magdalena Waligórska5. Rediscovering the Jewish Past in the Polish Provinces: The Socio-Economics of Nostalgia / Monika Murzyn-Kupisz6. Amnesia, Nostalgia, and Reconstruction: Shifting Modes of Memory in Poland's Jewish Spaces / Slawomir Kapralski7. Jewish Heritage, Pluralism, and Milieux de Memoire: the case of Krakow's Kazimierz / Erica Lehrer8. The Ethnic Cleansing of the German-Polish-Jewish 'Lodzermensch' / Winson Chu9. Stony Survivors: Images of Jewish Space on the Polish Landscape / Robert L. Cohn10. Reading the Palimpsest / Konstanty Gebert11. A Jew, a Cemetery, and a Polish Village: A Tale of the Restoration of MemoryJonathan Webber12. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews: A Post-War, Post-Holocaust, Post-Communist Story / Barbara Kirshenblatt-GimblettEpilogue: Jewish Spaces and their Future / Diana PintoNotesContributorsIndex