Focusing on Jewish popular culture in Poland and its afterlife / edited by Michael C. Steinlauf and Antony Polonsky.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Steinlauf, Michael C.

Polonsky, Antony.

Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies (Oxford, England)

American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies.

Series:

Littman library of Jewish civilization (Series)

Polin (Series) ; v.16.

Polin : studies in Polish Jewry, 0268-1056 ; v. 16

Littman Library of Jewish civilization

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Poland--History.

Jews.

Jews--Poland--Civilization.

Jewish way of life.

Poland--Civilization.

Poland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xix, 602 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

1st digital on-demand ed.

Other Title:

Focusing on Jewish popular culture and its afterlife

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Liverpool University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Scholarship on the civilization of Polish Jews has tended to focus on elite culture and canonical literature; even modern Yiddish culture has generally been approached from the perspective of 'great works'. This volume of Polin focuses on the less explored but historically vital theme of Jewish popular culture and shows how, confronted by the challenges and opportunities of modernity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it blossomed into a complex expression of Jewish life. In addition to a range of articles on the period before the Second World War there are studies of the traces of this culture in the contemporary world. The volume as a whole aims to develop a fresh understanding of Polish Jewish civilization in all its richness and variety.Subjects discussed in depth include klezmorim and Jewish recorded music; the development of Jewish theatre in Poland, theatrical parody, and the popular poet and performer Mordechai Gebirtig; Jewish postcards in Poland and Germany; the early Yiddish popular press in Galicia and cartoons in the Yiddish press; working-class libraries in inter-war Poland; the impact of the photographs of Roman Vishniac; contemporary Polish wooden figures of Jews; and the Krakow Jewish culture festival. In addition, a Polish Jewish popular song is traced to Sachsenhausen, the badkhn (wedding jester) is rediscovered in present-day Jerusalem, and Yiddish cabaret turns up in blues, rock 'n' roll, and reggae garb. There are also translations from the work of two writers previously unavailable in English: excerpts from the ethnographer A. Litvin's pioneering five-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 variety of topics in Polish Jewish studies.These include the origins of antisemitism in Poland; what is known about the presence of German forces in the vicinity of Jedwabne in the summer of 1941; and the vexed question of Jews in the communist security apparatus in Poland after 1944. The review section includes an important discussion of what should be done about the paintings in Sandomierz cathedral which represent an alleged ritual murder in the seventeenth century, and an examination of the 'anti-Zionist' campaign of 1968. CONTRIBUTORS Michael Aylward, Nathan Cohen, Walter Zev Feldman, Natan Gross, Ruth Ellen Gruber, Francois Guesnet, Ellen Kellman, Ariela Krasney, Anna Landau-Czajka, Erica Lehrer, Alex Lubet, Yaakov Mazor, Barbara Milewski, Andrzej Paczkowski, Brian Porter, Edward Portnoy, Alexander B. Rossino, Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum, Shalom Sabar, Jeffrey Shandler, Joshua Shanes, Michael C. Steinlauf, Andrzej Trzcinski, Bret Werb, Marcin Wodzinski, Seth L. Wolitz, Gwido ZlatkesScholarship on the civilization of Polish Jews has tended to focus on elite culture and canonical literature; even modern Yiddish culture has generally been approached from the perspective of 'great works'. This volume of Polin focuses on the less explored but historically vital theme of Jewish popular culture and shows how, confronted by the challenges and opportunities of modernity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it blossomed into a complex expression of Jewish life. In addition to a range of articles on the period before the Second World War there are studies of the traces of this culture in the contemporary world. The volume as a whole aims to develop a fresh understanding of Polish Jewish civilization in all its richness and variety.Subjects discussed in depth include klezmorim and Jewish recorded music; the development of Jewish theatre in Poland, theatrical parody, and the popular poet and performer Mordechai Gebirtig; Jewish postcards in Poland and Germany; the early Yiddish popular press in Galicia and cartoons in the Yiddish press; working-class libraries in inter-war Poland; the impact of the photographs of Roman Vishniac; contemporary Polish wooden figures of Jews; and the Kraków Jewish culture festival. In addition, a Polish Jewish popular song is traced to Sachsenhausen, the badkhn (wedding jester) is rediscovered in present-day Jerusalem, and Yiddish cabaret turns up in blues, rock 'n' roll, and reggae garb.There are also translations from the work of two writers previously unavailable in English: excerpts from the ethnographer A. Litvin's pioneering five-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 variety of topics in Polish Jewish studies. These include the origins of antisemitism in Poland; what is known about the presence of German forces in the vicinity of Jedwabne in the summer of 1941; and the vexed question of Jews in the communist security apparatus in Poland after 1944.The review section includes an important discussion of what should be done about the paintings in Sandomierz cathedral which represent an alleged ritual murder in the seventeenth century, and an examination of the 'anti-Zionist' campaign of 1968.

Contents:

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Dedication; Editors and Advisers; Preface; Polin; Contents; Note on Place Names; Note on Transliteration; Part I: Jewish Popular Culture in Poland and its Afterlife; Introduction; In Pre-War Poland: The Badkhn: From Wedding Stage to Writing Desk; Remembrance of Things Past: Klezmer Musicians of Galicia, 1870-1940; Early Recordings of Jewish Music in Poland; Jewish Theatre in Poland; A Tuml in the Shtetl: Khayim Betsalel Grinberg's Di khevre-kedishe sude; Mordechai Gebirtig: The Folk Song and the Cabaret Song; Simkhe Plakhte: From 'Folklore' to Literary Artefact. Between Poland and Germany: Jewish Religious Practices in Illustrated Postcards of the Early Twentieth CenturyPapers for the Folk: Jewish Nationalism and the Birth of the Yiddish Press in Galicia; Shund and the Tabloids: Jewish Popular Reading in Inter-War Poland; Dos yidishe bukh alarmirt! Towards the History of Yiddish Reading in Inter-War Poland; Exploiting Tradition: Religious Iconography in Cartoons of the Polish Yiddish Press; Afterlife From 'Madagaskar' to Sachsenhausen: Singing about 'Race' in a Nazi Camp. The Badkhn in Contemporary Hasidic Society: Social, Historical, and Musical ObservationsTransmigrations: Wolf Krakowski's Yiddish Worldbeat in its Socio-Musical Context; 'The Time of Vishniac': Photographs of Pre-War East European Jewry in Post-War Contexts; Repopulating Jewish Poland-in Wood; The Kraków Jewish Culture Festival; Part II: Documents; A. Litvin: Chronicler of Jewish Souls; Excerpts from Yidishe neshomes; Urke Nachalnik: A Voice from the Underworld; Excerpts from Zyciorys wlasny przestepcy; Part III: New Views. Making a Space for Antisemitism: The Catholic Hierarchy and the Jews in the Early Twentieth CenturyPolish 'Neighbours' and German Invaders: Anti-Jewish Violence in the Bialystok District during the Opening Weeks of Operation Barbarossa; Jews in the Polish Security Apparatus: An Attempt to Test the Stereotype; Part IV: Review; Review Essays: Some Remarks on Leszek Hondo's Study of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Kraków; The Last Controversy over Ritual Murder? The Debate over the Paintings in Sandomierz Cathedral; The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland of 1967-1968: Documents. Book Reviews: Hillel J. Kieval, Languages of Community: The Jewish Experience in the Czech LandsJacob Goldberg, Hahevrah hayehudit bemamlekhet polin-lita; Kristi Groberg and Avraham Greenbaum (eds.), A Missionary for History: Essays in Honor of Simon Dubnow; Israel Kleiner, From Nationalism to Universalism: Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Question; Konrad Zielinski, Zydzi Lubelszczyzny 1914-1918; Jerzy Malinowski, Malarstwo i rzezba Zydów polskich w XIX i XX wieku; Kadya Molodowsky, Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky, ed. and trans. Kathryn Hellerstein.

Notes:

"Published for the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-909821-67-5

1-80034-073-7

Publisher Number:

2027/heb31377 hdl