Antony Polonsky – författare

This book is the first to deal with the impact on the Jews of the area of the sovietization of Eastern Poland. The role of these conflicts both in the Anders army and in the Communist-led Kosciuszko division and 1st Polish Army is investigated, as well as the part played by Jews in the communist-dominated regime in Poland after 1944.

In recent years, a lively debate has developed in Poland on the question of what responsibility the Poles share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil. This debate was sparked off by the showing in Poland of Claude Lanzmann's film, Shoah , which revealed how deeply-rooted anti-Jewish prejudice could still be found in the Polish countryside. Anti-semitism is something which Poland has preferred to forget. But before the Second World War hostility to the Jews was widespread and this climate of pervasive anti-semitism may have facilitated the Nazis' murderous plans. But Poles now, with great courage, are facing this dark side of their past. This book, translated and edited by a leading British historian of Poland, Antony Polonsky, is a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust. It gathers together the most important contribution to the current debate, revealing the agony many Poles feel about their lack of action during the war.

In recent years, a lively debate has developed in Poland on the question of what responsibility the Poles share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil. This debate was sparked off by the showing in Poland of Claude Lanzmann's film, Shoah , which revealed how deeply-rooted anti-Jewish prejudice could still be found in the Polish countryside. Anti-semitism is something which Poland has preferred to forget. But before the Second World War hostility to the Jews was widespread and this climate of pervasive anti-semitism may have facilitated the Nazis' murderous plans. But Poles now, with great courage, are facing this dark side of their past. This book, translated and edited by a leading British historian of Poland, Antony Polonsky, is a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust. It gathers together the most important contribution to the current debate, revealing the agony many Poles feel about their lack of action during the war.

By the end of the 17th century probably three quarters of world Jewry dwelt within the borders of the Polish republic, which became not only a haven from persecution but the centre of a flourishing Jewish culture. This culture survived the decline and partition of the Polish state and in the 19th century became the seedbed for the intellectual movements that were to transform the Jewish world - zionism, secularism, socialism and neo-orthodoxy. With the development of mass emigration from the late 19th century onwards, the influence of Jews from the former Polish Republic was carried to Western Europe, North and South America, South Africa and Australasia. The Jews in Poland focuses on the relationship of the Jews to the other peoples with whom they lived - sometimes in harmony, sometimes in conflict - to offer a general outline of the most significant factors in the evolution of Jewish life in Poland from the beginnings of Jewish settlement to the present day.

Neighbors--Jan Gross's stunning account of the brutal mass murder of the Jews of Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors--was met with international critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award in the United States. It has also been, from the moment of its publication, the occasion of intense controversy and painful reckoning. This book captures some of the most important voices in the ensuing debate, including those of residents of Jedwabne itself as well as those of journalists, intellectuals, politicians, Catholic clergy, and historians both within and well beyond Poland's borders. Antony Polonsky and Joanna Michlic introduce the debate, focusing particularly on how Neighbors rubbed against difficult old and new issues of Polish social memory and national identity. The editors then present a variety of Polish voices grappling with the role of the massacre and of Polish-Jewish relations in Polish history. They include samples of the various strategies used by Polish intellectuals and political elites as they have attempted to deal with their country's dark past, to overcome the legacy of the Holocaust, and to respond to Gross's book.The Neighbors Respond makes the debate over Neighbors available to an English-speaking audience--and is an excellent tool for bringing the discussion into the classroom. It constitutes an engrossing contribution to modern Jewish history, to our understanding of Polish modern history and identity, and to our bank of Holocaust memory.

Devoted to collecting the finest Jewish writing from around the world, the Jewish Writing in the Contemporary World series consists of anthologies, by country, that are designed to present to the English-speaking world authors and works deserving international consideration. As a series, the books permit a broad examination of the international crosscurrents in Jewish thought and culture. Contemporary Jewish Writing in Poland brings together the works of a broad range of modern Jewish writers, most of whom remained in Poland after the Second World War. Although the Nazi genocide wiped out nearly all of the Jewish population in the country, the aftermath of the war has not stifled Jewish writing in Poland but has given it a different direction. A complex body of literature describes Jewish life before the war, documents the Holocaust, and wrestles with its legacy—particularly the difficulties of living in a country where it occurred.

Paradox is no new feature of Polish political life. A Slavnation, fiercely Catholic, yet looking towards the non-Slavonic, largely non-Catholic west; a people whose sense of nationhood is uniquely strong, yet who have spent much of their history under foreign rule. Poland remains headline news, and her present is as full of paradoxes as her past. First published in 1990, Polish Paradoxes explains how Poles themselves look at their problems and opportunities and provides a unique insight into the real and perceived pressures on Poland. As well as examining the historical and political roots of the ‘Polish crisis’, the contributors analyse the Polish culture and a national psyche which has equipped Poles to resist foreign domination whilst often inhibiting them from resolving persistent political and economic crises. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of history and politics.

This book describes the establishment, growth and partial decline of one of the most important Jewish communities in the world. In the late 15th century the Polish-Lithunaian commonwealth became the centre of Jewish intellectual and legal activity. The culture created by the Polish Jews survived the decline and partition of the Polish state in the 19th century, and the area that was formerly the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth became a seedbed for further Jewish intellectual developments. The essays in this book provide a picture of the Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth during the periods of its finest flowering and initial decline.

Each of the three volumes of this magisterial work provides a comprehensive picture of the realities of Jewish life in the Polish lands in the period it covers, while also considering the contemporary political, economic, and social context.Volume I: 1350 to 1881 provides a wide-ranging overview down to the mid-eighteenth century, including social, economic, and religious history. The period from 1764 to 1881 is covered in more detail, with attention focused on developments in each country in turn, especially with regard to the politics of emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, and forced integration.Volume II: 1881 to 1914 explores the factors that had a negative impact on Jewish life as well as the political and cultural movements that developed in consequence: Zionism, socialism, autonomism, the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Jewish urbanization, and the rise of popular Jewish culture. Galicia, Prussian Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the tsarist empire are all treated individually, as are the main cities.Volume III: 1914 to 2008 covers the interwar period, the Second World War, and the Holocaust, including Polish–Jewish relations and the Soviet record on the Holocaust. A survey of developments since 1945 concludes with an epilogue on the situation of the Jews since the collapse of communism.

Each of thethree volumes of this magisterial work provides a comprehensive picture of therealities of Jewish life in the Polish lands in the period it covers, while alsoconsidering the contemporary political, economic, and social context. Volume I: 1350 to 1881 provides a wide-rangingoverview down to the mid-eighteenth century, including social, economic, andreligious history. The period from 1764 to 1881 is covered in more detail, withattention focused on developments in each country in turn, especially withregard to the politics of emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, and forcedintegration.Volume II: 1881 to 1914 explores the factors that had a negative impact on Jewish life aswell as the political and cultural movements that developed in consequence:Zionism, socialism, autonomism, the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddishliterature, Jewish urbanization, and the rise of popular Jewish culture. Galicia,Prussian Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the tsarist empire are all treatedindividually, as are the main cities.Volume III: 1914 to 2008 covers the interwar period, the Second WorldWar, and the Holocaust, including Polish–Jewish relations and the Soviet recordon the Holocaust. A survey of developments since 1945 concludeswith an epilogue on the situation of the Jews since the collapse of communism.

Each of thethree volumes of this magisterial work provides a comprehensive picture of therealities of Jewish life in the Polish lands in the period it covers, while alsoconsidering the contemporary political, economic, and social context. Volume I: 1350 to 1881 provides a wide-rangingoverview down to the mid-eighteenth century, including social, economic, andreligious history. The period from 1764 to 1881 is covered in more detail, withattention focused on developments in each country in turn, especially withregard to the politics of emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, and forcedintegration.Volume II: 1881 to 1914 explores the factors that had a negative impact on Jewish life aswell as the political and cultural movements that developed in consequence:Zionism, socialism, autonomism, the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddishliterature, Jewish urbanization, and the rise of popular Jewish culture. Galicia,Prussian Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the tsarist empire are all treatedindividually, as are the main cities.Volume III: 1914 to 2008 covers the interwar period, the Second WorldWar, and the Holocaust, including Polish–Jewish relations and the Soviet recordon the Holocaust. A survey of developments since 1945 concludeswith an epilogue on the situation of the Jews since the collapse of communism

Few features have shaped east European Jewish history as much as the extent and continuity of Jewish self-rule. Offering a broad perspective, this volume explores the traditions, scope, limitations, and evolution of Jewish self-government in the Polish lands and beyond. Extensive autonomy and complex structures of civil and religious leadership were central features of the Jewish experience in this region, and this volume probes the emergence of such structures from the late medieval period onwards, looking at the legal position of the individual community and its role as a political actor. Chapters discuss the implementation of Jewish law and the role of the regional and national Jewish councils which were a remarkable feature of supra-communal representation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.The volume reflects on the interaction between Jewish legal traditions and state policies, and offers an in-depth analysis of the transformation of Jewish self-government under the impact of the partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the administrative principles of the Enlightenment. Co-operation between representatives of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities at the local level is discussed down to the interwar years, when Jewish self-government was considered both a cherished legacy of pre-partition autonomy and a threat to the modern nation state.

Few features have shaped east European Jewish history as much as the extent and continuity of Jewish self-rule. Offering a broad perspective, this volume explores the traditions, scope, limitations, and evolution of Jewish self-government in the Polish lands and beyond. Extensive autonomy and complex structures of civil and religious leadership were central features of the Jewish experience in this region, and this volume probes the emergence of such structures from the late medieval period onwards, looking at the legal position of the individual community and its role as a political actor. Chapters discuss the implementation of Jewish law and the role of the regional and national Jewish councils which were a remarkable feature of supra-communal representation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.The volume reflects on the interaction between Jewish legal traditions and state policies, and offers an in-depth analysis of the transformation of Jewish self-government under the impact of the partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the administrative principles of the Enlightenment. Co-operation between representatives of the Jewish and non-Jewish communities at the local level is discussed down to the interwar years, when Jewish self-government was considered both a cherished legacy of pre-partition autonomy and a threat to the modern nation state.

An in-depth and multifaceted investigation of how Polish Jews, Polish Zionism, and Polish culture influenced Israel’s cultural and political development, as well as of how the Zionist project influenced Jewish life in Poland. From its inception as a political movement, Zionism had as its main goal the creation of a ‘New Jew’ who could contribute to building a Jewish state, preferably in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, where Jews would free themselves from the negative characteristics which, in the view of the ideologues of Zionism, had developed in the diaspora. Yet, inevitably, those who settled in Palestine brought with them considerable cultural baggage. A substantial proportion of them came from the Polish lands, and their presence significantly affected the political and cultural life of the Yishuv, and later the State of Israel. In this volume, scholars from Israel, Poland and elsewhere in Europe, and North America explore different aspects of this influence, as well as the continuing relationship between Israel and Poland, up to the present day.

Changes in childhood and children’s roles in society, and in how children participate in determining their own lives, have long been of interest to historians. Recent years have seen the emergence of new perspectives on the study of childhood, both in historical scholarship and in literary and cultural studies. Children’s experiences are now scrutinized not only as a means of examining the lives and self-representation of young individuals and their families, but also to investigate how the early experiences of individuals can shed light on larger historical questions. This volume applies both approaches in the context of Jewish eastern Europe. Historian Gershon Hundert has argued that studying the experience of children and attitudes towards coming of age offers an important corrective to the way we think of the Jewish past. This volume proves the potential of this approach in exploring many areas of historical interest. Among the topics investigated here are changes in perceptions of childhood and family, progress in the medical treatment of children, and developments in education. The work of charitable institutions is also considered, along with studies of emotion, gender history, and Polish–Jewish relations. From the First World War until after the Holocaust and the Second World War, countless children experienced traumatizing events. A special section is dedicated to their fate.

Changes in childhood and children’s roles in society, and in how children participate in determining their own lives, have long been of interest to historians. Recent years have seen the emergence of new perspectives on the study of childhood, both in historical scholarship and in literary and cultural studies. Children’s experiences are now scrutinized not only as a means of examining the lives and self-representation of young individuals and their families, but also to investigate how the early experiences of individuals can shed light on larger historical questions. This volume applies both approaches in the context of Jewish eastern Europe. Historian Gershon Hundert has argued that studying the experience of children and attitudes towards coming of age offers an important corrective to the way we think of the Jewish past. This volume proves the potential of this approach in exploring many areas of historical interest. Among the topics investigated here are changes in perceptions of childhood and family, progress in the medical treatment of children, and developments in education. The work of charitable institutions is also considered, along with studies of emotion, gender history, and Polish–Jewish relations. From the First World War until after the Holocaust and the Second World War, countless children experienced traumatizing events. A special section is dedicated to their fate.

Historians have largely tended to regard Polish Jewish history and German Jewish history, from the Middle Ages to the present, as playing out solely within national boundaries, thereby ignoring the interactions that have in practice shaped Jewish cultural life. Geographical proximity has meant that Jews from both countries have been linked through kinship ties as well as shared economic, cultural, and linguistic realities. The complexity of this relationship and its consequences have been only partially reflected in scholarship. This volume takes a different approach, shifting the focus away from the nationally distinct to investigate instead mutual influences and interactions. Moving beyond the traditional paradigms that characterize Polish Jewry as ‘authentic’ and German Jewry as ‘modernizing’, it challenges the sharp historiographic division between these two communities and opens up a nuanced understanding of modern European Jewish history.Interested in subscribing to Polin? Institutional subscriptions are now available via LUP's Journals department. To find out more or to recommend Polin to your institutional librarian, please visit: https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/polin

Jewish attitudes to the body, gender, and sexuality are traditionally influenced by religious considerations. Explorations in this volume extend to how communal and state-related concerns have intersected with the personal—in care for the elderly, birth control, white slavery, and burial, as well as in the recent entanglement of antisemitism and misogyny. Holocaust-related topics include gender-dependent perceptions of warfare; gender and pogrom violence; how impersonating diverse identities became a matter of survival; how the plunder of Jewish clothes engaged the bodies of both victims and bystanders; and how mass graves perpetuated a Jewish presence after the genocide. Other studies include how the Jewish body has been construed in fiction, ego-documents, and (queer) poetry, and how Jewish youth thought about sport. The volume concludes with four reflections on the embodied self.

Since the late eighteenth century artistic representation has had a growing impact on how Poles and Jews have perceived each other. Literary works, the visual arts, and, from the twentieth century onwards, film, have complemented earlier perceptions shaped by religious prejudice and everyday culture. Introduced by a section evaluating these earlier mutual perceptions, this volume provides interpretations of literary works from the eighteenth to the twentieth century in Polish and Yiddish by Jan Potocki, Julian Ursynowicz Niemcewicz, Klemens Junosza-Szaniawski, Bruno Schulz, Piotr Szewc, and others. A section on cinematographic representation before and after the Second World War illustrates the importance of this new genre of cultural production, and an extensive reflection on the fine arts examines the impact of artistic contexts (such as Kazimierz Dolny) as well as individual creators (Józef Herman, Zdzisław Bęksiński) and representations in popular culture. Literature, film, and the fine arts thus emerge as a prism through which it is possible to trace both negative stereotyping and nuanced representation.Interested in subscribing to Polin? Institutional subscriptions are now available via LUP's Journals department. To find out more or to recommend Polin to your institutional librarian, please visit: https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/polin

Until 1939 Poland was the heartland of European Jewry, and the Polish Jewish community was still one of the largest and most important in the world. For nine centuries it was one of the central forces in the shaping of Jewish culture and its impact on the shaping of modern Jewry-religious and secular-was profound. An understanding of the history of the Jews of Poland is thus essential to a proper understanding of Jewish history. This book, comprising a selection of studies drawn from the first seven volumes of Polin, provides that understanding. Written by scholars from Europe (including Poland itself), Israel, and North America, it illuminates the most critical aspects of the history of the Jews in Poland and illustrates how these issues are being treated by the leading and most innovative scholars in the field. A broad spectrum of subjects is discussed, covering the origins and development of the community and the many crises it experienced from the earliest date of Jewish settlement in Poland to the establishment of Communist rule in postwar Poland.Maps and a chronology of Polish Jewish history are also provided, and the book is prefaced by an extensive introduction by Antony Polonsky, general editor of Polin. CONTRIBUTORS: Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Israel Bartal, David Biale, Eugene C. Black, Jan Blonski, Norman Davies, David Engel, Jacob Goldberg, Gershon David Hundert, Krystyna Kersten, Stefan Kieniewicz, Pawel Korzec, Ewa Kurek-Lesik, Magdalena Opalski, Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Eugenia Prokopowna, Laura Quercioli-Mincer, M. J. Rosman, Szymon Rudnicki, Pawel Samus, Robert Moses Shapiro, Chone Shmeruk, Shaul Stampfer, Michael C. Steinlauf, Pawel Szapiro, Jean-Charles Szurek, Janusz Tazbir, Jerzy Tomaszewski, Paul Wexler, Anna Zuk

Addressing various aspects of Jewish life and religion, particularly in the last two centuries, this book examines different aspects of the Hasidic tradition; present-day contacts between Bobower Hasidism in New York and Bobowa in Poland; and how a rabbi trained in the Lithuanian tradition adapted to the very different conditions of the United States. The modifications of Jewish religious tradition practiced in the modern pre-war synagogues in Warsaw, L dz, and Lw w are considered, as is the attempt by Hillel Zeitlyn to re-interpret Jewish tradition in the interwar years.

From 1772-1918 Jews were concentrated more densely in Galicia than in any other area in Europe. Bartal (modern Jewish history, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Polonsky (Judaic and social studies, Brandeis University) are joined by a number of other scholars of Judaism to explore the Jewish community in Galicia and its relationship with the Poles, Ukranians, and other ethnic groups. Essays include discuss of the consequences of Galician autonomy; Galician Jewish migration to Vienna; the reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II in the 18th century, the assimilation of the Jewish elite; and levels of literacy among Poles and Jews.

The assessment of the Nazi genocide in Poland, an issue which has deeply divided Poles and Jews, lies at the core of this volume. Also included are discussions of Polish attitudes to the nearly 300,000 Jews who tried to resettle in post-war Poland; the little-known testimony of Belzec survivor Rudolf Reder; a discussion of Holocaust victims as martyrs; and a presentation of how the Auschwitz Museum sees its future.

Each of the three volumes of this magisterial work provides a comprehensive picture of the realities of Jewish life in the Polish lands in the period it covers, while also considering the contemporary political, economic, and social context.Volume I: 1350 to 1881 provides a wide-ranging overview down to the mid-eighteenth century, including social, economic, and religious history. The period from 1764 to 1881 is covered in more detail, with attention focused on developments in each country in turn, especially with regard to the politics of emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, and forced integration.Volume II: 1881 to 1914 explores the factors that had a negative impact on Jewish life as well as the political and cultural movements that developed in consequence: Zionism, socialism, autonomism, the emergence of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, Jewish urbanization, and the rise of popular Jewish culture. Galicia, Prussian Poland, the Kingdom of Poland, and the tsarist empire are all treated individually, as are the main cities.Volume III: 1914 to 2008 covers the interwar period, the Second World War, and the Holocaust, including Polish–Jewish relations and the Soviet record on the Holocaust. A survey of developments since 1945 concludes with an epilogue on the situation of the Jews since the collapse of communism.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created in 1569, covered a wide spectrum of faiths and languages. The nobility, who were the main focus of Polishness, were predominantly Catholic, particularly from the later seventeenth century; the peasantry included Catholics, Protestants, and members of the Orthodox faith, while nearly half the urban population, and some 10 per cent of the total population, was Jewish. The partition of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century and the subsequent struggle to regain Polish independence raised the question of what the boundaries of a future state should be, and who qualified as a Pole. The partitioning powers, for their part, were determined to hold on to the areas they had annexed: Prussia tried to strengthen the German element in Poland; the Habsburgs encouraged the development of a Ukrainian consciousness in Austrian Galicia to act as a counterweight to the dominant Polish nobility; and Russia, while allowing the Kingdom of Poland to enjoy substantial autonomy, treated the remaining areas it had annexed as part of the tsarist monarchy. When Poland became independent after the First World War more than a third of its population were thus Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, Jews, and Lithuanians, many of whom had been influenced by nationalist movements. The core articles in the volume focus especially on the triangular relationship between Poles, Jews, and Germans in western Poland, and between the different national groups in what are today Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. In addition, the New Views section investigates aspects of Jewish life in pre-partition Poland and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are also the regular Review Essay and Book Review sections.

This volume highlights new research on Jewish spiritual and religious life in Poland before modern political ideas began to transform the Jewish world. It covers a range of topics. Three articles deal with rabbinic scholarship in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and a fourth presents accounts of Purim festivities at that time. The eighteenth-century studies focus on Jewish spirituality. Four articles deal with the Frankist movement, the main topics being Frankist propaganda; non-Christian Frankists; Jonathan Eibeschuetz and the Frankists; and the influence of Frankism on Polish culture. There are four articles on hasidism-on the tsadik and the ba'al shem; the childhood of tsadikim in hasidic legends; the fall of the Seer of Lublin; and the hasidism of Gur-and one about Nahman Krochmal. Of the contributors to the core section on Jewish spiritual and religious life, four are Polish. Three contributors are working in Germany, where Jewish studies is likewise re-establishing itself. Other contributors are scholars from Canada, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some are themselves religious, others are secular; taken together, their contributions further the study of Jewish religious traditions in Poland, a topic central to an understanding of Jewish society and history in Poland but one which has long been considered marginal by the academic world. As in earlier volumes of Polin, substantial space is given to new research in other areas of Polish-Jewish studies. There is an extensive survey of the papal Holocaust papers, as well as contributions relating to education for girls, to Auschwitz as a site of memories, and to aspects of Jewish literature, politics, society, and economics. A young Polish scholar from Jedwabne has contributed a moving article on local reactions to news of the massacre of the Jews of that town. The review section include two separate essays with contrasting opinions on Yaffa Eliach's monumental study of Eishyshok.

Scholarshipon the civilization of Polish Jews has tended to focus on elite culture andcanonical literature; even modern Yiddish culture has generally beenapproached from the perspective of ‘great works’. This volume of Polin focuses on the less exploredbut historically vital theme of Jewish popular culture and shows how,confronted by the challenges and opportunities of modernity in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it blossomed into a complexexpression of Jewish life. In addition to a range of articles on the periodbefore the Second World War there are studies of the traces of this culturein the contemporary world. The volume as a whole aims to develop a freshunderstanding of Polish Jewish civilization in all its richness andvariety. Subjects discussed in depth include klezmorim and Jewish recorded music; the development of Jewish theatrein Poland, theatrical parody, and the popular poet and performer MordechaiGebirtig; Jewish postcards in Poland and Germany; the early Yiddish popularpress in Galicia and cartoons in the Yiddish press; working-class librariesin inter-war Poland; the impact of the photographs of Roman Vishniac;contemporary Polish wooden figures of Jews; and the Kraków Jewish culturefestival. In addition, a Polish Jewish popular song is traced to Sachsenhausen,the badkhn (wedding jester) is rediscovered in present-day Jerusalem, andYiddish cabaret turns up in blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and reggae garb. There are also translations from the work of two writers previouslyunavailable in English: excerpts from the ethnographer A. Litvin’s pioneeringfive-volume work Yidishe neshomes (Jewish Souls) and several chapters from the autobiography,notorious in inter-war Poland, of the writer and thief Urke Nachalnik. As in earlier volumes of Polin substantial space is also given to new research into a varietyof topics in Polish Jewish studies. These include the origins of antisemitismin Poland; what is known about the presence of German forces in the vicinityof Jedwabne in the summer of 1941; and the vexed question of Jews in thecommunist security apparatus in Poland after 1944. The review section includes an important discussion of what should be doneabout the paintings in Sandomierz cathedral which represent an alleged ritualmurder in the seventeenth century, and an examination of the ‘anti-Zionist’campaign of 1968.

The shtetl is one of the key concepts for our understanding of the Jewish past in Eastern Europe. Although today most Jews live in big cities, the majority of Jews in Poland historically lived in the villages and small towns known as shtetls; even as late as 1931, only 43% lived in towns with a population of more than 20,000. The shtetl was thus the main context and arena for Jewish life in Poland, but much of what we know of shtetl life still comes from literary accounts rather than historical research.This volume attempts to redress that imbalance. Among the topics covered are the Jewishness of the shtetl; Polish--Jewish relations and social relations more widely in the shtetl; inter-religious contacts; the hasidic conquest of shtetl life; cultural evolution in the shtetl; Polish shtetls under Russian rule and Soviet shtetls in the 1920s; and a contemporary account of returning to visit a shtetl. Other articles consider how shtetl life has been reflected in Hebrew, Polish, and Yiddish literature.The New Views section analyses the work of the Russian Jewish writer Lev Levanda and the correspondence of an interwar Polish Jew, Wolf Lewkowicz. There are also two articles on the Gesiowka concentration camp established by the Nazis to clear the remains of the Warsaw ghetto. A special section is devoted to whether the incidents in Przytyk in 1936 constituted a pogrom, while another is devoted to discussing two important documents illustrating Wladyslaw Gomulka's attitude to Jews.