Table Of ContentTHE INSTITUTE FOR POLISH-JEWISH STUDIES
The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies in Oxford and its sister organization, the American
Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, which publish Polin, are learned societies estab
lished in 1984, following the First International Conference on Polish-Jewish Studies, held
in Oxford. The Institute is an associate institute of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and
Jewish Studies, and the American Association is linked with the Department of Near
Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.
Both the Institute and the American Association aim to promote understanding of the
Polish Jewish past. They have no building or library of their own and no paid staff; they
achieve their aims by encouraging scholarly research and facilitating its publication, and by
creating forums for people with a scholarly interest in Polish Jewish topics, both past and
present.
To this end the Institute and the American Association help organize lectures and interna
tional conferences. Venues for these activities have included Brandeis University in
Waltham, Massachusetts, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Institute for the Study
of Human Sciences in Vienna, King’s College in London, the Jagiellonian University in
Kraków, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the University of Łódź,
University College London, and the Polish Cultural Centre and the Polish embassy in
London. They have encouraged academic exchanges between Israel, Poland, the United
States, and western Europe. In particular they seek to help train a new generation of schol
ars, in Poland and elsewhere, to study the culture and history of the Jews in Poland.
Each year since 1987 the Institute has published a volume of scholarly papers in the series
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry under the general editorship of Professor Antony Polonsky of
Brandeis University. Since 1994 the series has been published on its behalf by the Littman
Library of Jewish Civilization, and since 1998 the publication has been linked with the
American Association as well. In March 2000 the entire series was honoured with a
National Jewish Book Award from the Jewish Book Council in the United States. More
than twenty other works on Polish Jewish topics have also been published with the
Institute’s assistance.
For further information on the Institute for Polish-Jewish studies or the American
Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, contact <[email protected]>. For the website of
the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, see <www.aapjs.org>.
THE LITTMAN LIBRARY OF
JEWISH CIVILIZATION
Dedicated to the memory of
Louis
T h o m a s S id n e y L it t m a n
who founded the Littman Library for the love of God
and as an act of charity in memory of his father
J oseph A aron L ittm an
-jrn mar Nrr>
*Get wisdom, get understanding:
Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee ’
prov. 4: 5
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization is a registered UK charity
Registered charity no. 1000784
P O L I N
S T U D I E S IN P O L IS H JEWRY
VOLUME T W E N T Y -T W O
Social and Cultural Boundaries
in Pre-Modern Poland
Edited by
ADAM T E L L E R , MAGDA T E T E R
and
A N T O N Y P O L O N S K Y
Publishedfor
The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies
and
The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
Oxford * Portland, Oregon
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
2010
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Chief Executive Officer: Ludo Craddock
Managing Editor: Connie Webber
PO Box 645, Oxford 0x2 ouj, UK
www. littman. co. uk
Published in the United States and Canada by
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
d 0ISBS, 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786
© Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies 2010
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, without the prior permission in writing of
The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise; be lent, re-sold, hired out or
otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published
and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data appliedfor
ISSN 0268 /056
ISBN gy8-i-go4i 13-62-1
ISBN gj8-1-go 4113-37-g (pbk)
Publishing co-ordinator: Janet Moth
Production: John Saunders
Copy-editing: Bonnie Blackburn
Proof-reading: Mark Newby and Joyce Rappoport
Index: Bonnie Blackburn
Cover design: Pete Russell, Faringdon, Oxon.
Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by the MPG Books Group,
Bodmin and Kings Lynn
Articles appearing in this publication are abstracted and indexed in
Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life
This volume is dedicated to the memory of
A L E X A N D E R ( A L I K ) L E M P I C K I
1922-2OO7
a fighter in the Armia Krajowa during the Second World War,
a distinguished physicist, a humanist, and a committed believer in
Polish-jfewish understanding
This volume benefitedfrom grants from
THE M IR ISC H A N D L E B E N H E IM CHARITABLE F O U N D A T IO N
THE LU CIU S N. LITTAUER F O U N D A T IO N
VICTOR M ARKOW ICZ
and
THE TAUBE F O U N D A T IO N FOR
JEW ISH LIFE AND CULTURE
Editors and Advisers
EDITORS
Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Lublin
Israel Bartal, Jerusalem
Antony Polonsky (Chair), Waltham, Mass.
Michael Steinlauf, Philadelphia
Jerzy Tomaszewski, Warsaw
EDITORIAL BOARD
Chimen Abramsky, London Elchanan Reiner, Tel Aviv
David Assaf, Tel Aviv Jehuda Reinharz, Waltham, Mass.
Władysław T. Bartoszewski, Warsaw Moshe Rosman, Tel Aviv
Glen Dynner, Bronxville, N Y Szymon Rudnicki, Warsaw
David Engel, New York Henryk Samsonowicz, Warsaw
David Fishman, New York Robert Shapiro, New York
ChaeRan Freeze, Waltham, Mass. Adam Teller, Haifa
Józef Gierowski, Kraków Daniel Toilet, Paris
Jacob Goldberg, Jerusalem Piotr S. Wandycz, New Haven, Conn.
Yisrael Gutman, Jerusalem Jonathan Webber, Birmingham, UK
Jerzy Kłoczowski, Lublin Joshua Zimmerman, New York
Ezra Mendelsohn, Jerusalem Steven Zipperstein, Stanford, Calif.
Joanna Michlic, Bethlehem, Pa.
ADVISORY BOARD
Władysław Bartoszewski, Warsaw Heinz-Dietrich Löwe, Heidelberg
Jan Błoński, Kraków Emanuel Meitzer, Tel Aviv
Andrzej Chojnowski, Warsaw Shlomo Netzer, Tel Aviv
Andrzej Ciechanowiecki, London Zbigniew Pełczyński, Oxford
Norman Davies, London Alexander Schenker, New Haven, Conn.
Frank Golczewski, Hamburg David Sorkin, Madison, Wis.
Olga Goldberg, Jerusalem Edward Stankiewicz, New Haven, Conn.
Jerzy Jedlicki, Warsaw Norman Stone, Ankara
Andrzej Kamiński, London Shmuel Werses, Jerusalem
Hillel Levine, Boston Jacek Woźniakowski, Lublin
Stanisław Litak, Lublin Piotr Wróbel, Toronto
Preface
This volume of Polin, dedicated to pre-partition Poland, aims to open a new dis
cussion on inter-group relations in late medieval and early modern eastern
Europe. Combining new research about Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Com
monwealth and its neighbours to the east and west with earlier studies hitherto
untranslated into English, it examines the meeting points between Jews and non-
Jews, as well as between various groups within Jewish society. These include the
wealthy and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, religious and lay elites,
Polish Jews and German Jews, and transgressing others. Boundaries—physical,
political, social, religious, or cultural—made up the framework of life in this
period, and the ways in which they were honoured, crossed, or otherwise negoti
ated are at the heart of these essays. They focus on connections between Jews in
Poland and the rest of Europe, as well as on legal and religious boundaries and on
political, social, and economic interactions, including the vexed question of
conversion. In this collection an international group of scholars from the US,
Europe, and Israel thus reconsiders traditional views of Jewish history and
Jewish-Christian relations in the region.
The New Views section examines a wide range of subjects, including ritual
murder accusations in nineteenth-century Poland, the career of the Russian Jewish
integrationist politician Mikhail Morgulis, and the attitude of Bolesław Prus
towards Jewish assimilation and his relationship with the Jewish journalist Nahum
Sokolow. Other chapters investigate women in the Mizrahi movement in Poland,
Polish patriotism among Jews, and the treatment of the Jewish issue in the Polish
underground press during the Second World War. In addition there are pieces on
the impact of the war on the views of Julian Tuwim and Antoni Słonimski, on the
shtetl in the work of two American Jewish writers, Allen Hoffman and Jonathan
Safran Foer, and the initial Polish response to Jan Gross’s new book Fear.
Polin is sponsored by the Institute of Polish—Jewish Studies, which is an associated
institute of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and by the American
Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, which is linked with the Department of Near
Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University. As with earlier issues, this volume
could not have appeared without the untiring assistance of many individuals. In
particular, we should like to express our gratitude to Professor Jehuda Reinharz,
president of Brandeis University, Mrs Irene Pipes, president of the American
Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, and Professor Jonathan Webber, treasurer of
the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies. These three institutions all made substantial
contributions to the cost of producing the volume. A particularly important contri
bution was that made by the Mirisch and Lebenheim Foundation. The volume also
Vlll Preface
benefited from grants from Robert and Rochelle Cherry, Victor Markowicz, and the
Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. Finally, this volume could not have been published
without the constant assistance and supervision of Connie Webber, managing editor
of the Littman Library, Janet Moth, publishing co-ordinator, Pete Russell, designer,
and the tireless copy-editing of Bonnie Blackburn, George Tulloch, and Joyce
Rappoport.
Plans for future volumes of Polin are well advanced. Volume 23 examines the his
tory of the Jews in Kraków, and volume 24 will investigate the long trajectory in the
relations between Jews and their neighbours in the area, while volume 25 will analyse
the history of Jews in Lithuania. Further volumes are planned on Jewish— Ukrainian
relations, on Polish Jewish literature, and on Jewish elites in the lands of the former
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. We should welcome articles for these issues,
as well as for our New Views section. We should also welcome any suggestions or
criticisms. In particular, we should be very grateful for assistance in extending the
geographical range of our journal to Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, both in the
period in which these countries were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
and subsequently.
We note with sadness the deaths of Jan Błoński, a major Polish literary critic and
a key figure in the reassessment of the Polish Jewish past, Henryk Halkowski, a
devoted student of the history of Jews in Kraków, and Joanna Wiszniewicz, who
has done so much to illuminate the post-war history of Jews in Poland.
POLIN
We did not know, but our fathers told us how the exiles of Israel came to the land of
Polin (Poland).
When Israel saw how its sufferings were constantly renewed, oppressions
increased, persecutions multiplied, and how the evil authorities piled decree on
decree and followed expulsion with expulsion, so that there was no way to escape
the enemies of Israel, they went out on the road and sought an answer from the
paths of the wide world: which is the correct road to traverse to find rest for their
soul? Then a piece of paper fell from heaven, and on it the words:
Go to Polaniya (Poland)!
So they came to the land of Polin and they gave a mountain of gold to the king,
and he received them with great honour. And God had mercy on them, so that
they found favour from the king and the nobles. And the king gave them permis
sion to reside in all the lands of his kingdom, to trade over its length and breadth,
and to serve God according to the precepts of their religion. And the king pro
tected them against every foe and enemy.
And Israel lived in Polin in tranquillity for a long time. They devoted them
selves to trade and handicrafts. And God sent a blessing on them so that they were
blessed in the land, and their name was exalted among the peoples. And they
traded with the surrounding countries and they also struck coins with inscriptions
in the holy language and the language of the country. These are the coins which
have on them a lion rampant from the right facing left. And on the coins are the
words ‘Mieszko, King of Poland’ or ‘Mieszko, Król of Poland’. The Poles call their
king ‘Król’.
And those who delve into the Scriptures say: ‘This is why it is called Polin. For
thus spoke Israel when they came to the land, “Here rest for the night \Po lin].”
And this means that we shall rest here until we are all gathered into the Land of
Israel.’
Since this is the tradition, we accept it as such.
1916
S. Y. AGNON,
POLIN
Studies in Polish Jewry
volume i Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue (1986)
volume 2 Jews and the Emerging Polish State (1987)
volume 3 The Jews of Warsaw (1988)
volume 4 Poles and Jews: Perceptions and Misperceptions (1989)
volume 5 New Research, New Views (1990)
volume 6 Jews in Łódź, 1820-1939 {1991)
volume 7 Jewish Life in Nazi-Occupied Warsaw (1992)
From Shtetl to Socialism (1993): selected articles from volumes 1-7
volume 8 Jews in Independent Poland, 1918-1939 (1994)
VOLUME 9 Jews, Poles, and Socialists: The Failure of an Ideal (1996)
volume 10 Jews in Early Modern Poland (1997)
volume ii Aspects and Experiences of Religion (1998)
volume 12 Galicia: Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians, 1772-1918 (1999)
Index to Volumes 1—12 (2000)
volume 13 The Holocaust and its Aftermath (2000)
volume 14 Jews in the Polish Borderlands (2001)
volume 15 Jewish Religious Life, 1300-1900 (2002)
volume 16 Jewish Popular Culture and its Afterlife (2003)
volume 17 The Shtetl: Myth and Reality (2004)
volume 18 Jewish Women in Eastern Europe (2005)
volume 19 Polish-Jewish Relations in North America (2007)
volume 20 Making Holocaust Memory (2008)
volume 21 1968: Forty Years After (2009)
volume 22 Social and Cultural Boundaries in Pre-Modern Poland (2010)
volume 23 Jews in Kraków (2011)
