Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 32

Co-editor, with Antony Polonsky, of Jewish Self-Government in Eastern Europe, Polin, 34 (2022), and, with Jerzy Tomaszewski, of Sources on Jewish Self-Government in the Polish Lands from Its Inception to the Present (2022). He is chair of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and secretary of the European Association for Jewish Studies. He has held research fellowships and visiting teaching positions at University of Pennsylvania, University of Oxford, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dartmouth College, Potsdam University, Vilnius University, and the Jagiellonian University Kraków.Benjamin Matis is the spiritual leader of Agudath Achim Synagogue in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He qualified as a cantor and a Master of Sacred Music at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Author of The Jews in Poland and Russia, 3 vols. (Littman Library, 2010–12), also published in an abridged version: The Jews in Poland and Russia: A Short History (2014). In 2012 The Jews in Poland and Russia was awarded the Pro Historia Polonorum prize of the Polish Senate for the best book on the history of Poland in a non-Polish language written in the previous five years. Holds honorary doctorates from the University of Warsaw (2010) and the Jagiellonian University (2014). In 2011 he was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Polonia Restituta and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Independent Lithuania.

Reviews"This is an essential contribution to the fields of musicology, ethnomusicology, Jewish studies, cultural studies, and European studies. The publication indeed explores Jews and music-making in Poland that is engaging and accessible."Mark Kligman, Yearbook of Traditional Music

• IntroductionFrançois Guesnet, Benjamin Matis, and Antony PolonskyPART I. CANTORIAL AND RELIGIOUS MUSICA Chestnut, a Grape, and a Pack of Lions: A Shabbos in Płock with a Popular Synagogue Singer in the Early Nineteenth CenturyDaniel KatzMoshe Koussevitzky (1899–1966) in Vilna, Warsaw, and RussiaAkiva ZimmermanThe Art of Cantorial Singing in the Polish TerritoriesBożena MuszkalskaPART II. JEWS IN POPULAR MUSICAL CULTURE IN POLANDMusical Afterthoughts on Shmeruk’s MayufesBret WerbServant Romances: Eighteenth-Century Yiddish Lyric and Narrative Folk SongsMichael LukinBroder Singers: Forerunners of the Yiddish TheatreAmanda (Miryem-Khaye) SeigelGimpel’s Theatre, Lwów: The Sounds of a Popular Yiddish Theatre Preserved on Gramophone Records, 1904–1913Michael AylwardThe Polish Tin Pan Alley—A Jewish StreetRobert RothsteinOn the Dance Floor, on the Screen, on the Stage. Popular Music in the Interwar Period: Polish, Jewish, SharedTamara SztymaThe Jews in the Band: Anders Army’s Special TroupesBeth HolmgrenSzpilman, Bajgelman, and Barsht: The Legacy of an Extended Polish Jewish Klezmer FamilyJoel E. RubinWładysław Szpilman’s Post-War Career in PolandFilip MazurczakAbraham Ellstein’s Film Scores: Some Less Obvious SourcesRonald RobboyPART III. JEWS IN THE POLISH CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENEThe ‘Lust Machine’: Recording and Selling the Jewish Nation in the Late Russian Empire James LoefflerLeo Zeitlin and the Flourishing of Jewish Art Music in Early 1920s VilnaPaula Eisenstein-Baker‘Jewish musicians are the crowning achievements of foreign nations’: Jewish Identity and Yiddish Nationalism in the Writings of Menachem KipnisJulia RiegelOstbahnhof Berlin: Jewish Music Students of East European Origin at the Berlin Conservatory, 1918–1933Adam J. SacksJewish Music Institutions and Organizations in Interwar GaliciaSylwia Jakubczyk-ŚlęczkaJewish Composers of Polish Music after 1939: A Story in Lists and NumbersMaja TrochimczykTadeusz Zygfryd Kassern’s American YearsSławomir DobrzańskiPART IV. THE HOLOCAUST REFLECTED IN JEWISH MUSIC‘My song, you are my strength’: Personal Repertories of Polish and Yiddish Songs from Young Survivors of the Łódź GhettoJoseph ToltzSinging Their Way HomeEliyana R. AdlerThe Nazi-Era Confiscation of Wanda Landowska’s Musical Collection and Its AftermathCarla ShapreauMusic as a ‘Paper Bridge’ between Generations before and after the HolocaustBella Szwarcman-CzarnotaPART V. KLEZMER IN POLAND TODAYThe Klezmer Revival in Poland as a Contact ZoneMagdalena WaligórskaThe Sound of Change: Performing ‘Jewishness’ in Small Polish TownsEllie Shapiro