Suchergebnisse

A new, "unexpected" generation of Jews made an appearance in Poland following the fall of the communist regime. Once home to the greatest Jewish community in the world and then site of one of the biggest tragedies in Jewish history, today Poland is experiencing what some have called a "renaissance of Jewish culture." Simultaneously, more and more Poles are discovering their Jewish roots and beginning to seek forms of Jewish affiliation. Can there be "authentic" Jewish life in Poland after fifty years of oppression? "Return of the Jew" offers the first in-depth study of the third post-Holocaust generation of Jews in Poland. It provides a revealing account of the experience of being or rather becoming Jewish vis-a-vis uniquely compelling circumstances.

The subject of Polish-Jewish relations during WWII has been largely ignored by Polish researchers, & remains shrouded in myth & simplistic, one-sided patriotic stereotypes. Data from respected historical journals & underground publications is presented to counter the accepted view that the Poles did all they could to help the Jews within the constraints imposed by the Germans (most notably, the threat of death). Errors in such a value-free, cost-benefit analysis & its causal assumptions are illuminated. It is shown how relatively few Poles were actually involved in helping Jews; indeed, there was widespread anti-Semitism. Thus, Poles' attitudes & behavior were equally as important as the German-created situational context in shaping Polish-Jewish relations. It is argued that these facts have been ignored because of the incompatibility of such behavior with the dominant romantic interpretation of Poland's destiny. K. Hyatt

At a time when Poland is emphasizing its distance from Russia, Polish Encounters, Russian Identity points to the historical ties and mutual influences of these two great Slavic peoples. Whether Poland adopted a hostile or a friendly stance toward Russia, the intense responses of Russian thinkers, writers, and political leaders to Poland and to Polish culture shaped Russians' idea of themselves and their place in the world. Countering the recent trend to deny the rich interactions between Russia and Poland

Front ; Contents; Preface; Sergio DellaPergola's Contributions to Jewish Demography: An Appreciation; Jewish Immigration to Palestine and the United States, 1905-1925: A Socio-Demographic Analysis; A Socio-demographic Profile of Old Greece's Jewish Population between the World Wars; Return to the Golden Age: Immigration Policies as a Means of Preserving "Old America" and Its Values; Split at the Root: Italian Jewish Identity Between Anti-Zionism and Philo-Semitism, 1961-1967

Highlights Poland's central role in the formation of a modern Russian identity.