The Institute for the History of Polish Jewry
and Israel-Poland Relations


Head of The Institute: Professor David Assaf
Endowed in 2004, the Institute works within the framework of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center to promote the study of Polish Jewry and Israeli-Polish relations. The Institute will cooperate with other units in the University to develop a multi-disciplinary program for research and classroom instruction, focusing on the place of Poland in the Jewish and Israeli experience-as it evolved over the course of history, as it has begun to reemerge in the present, and as it promises to develop in the future.
The Institute will encourage scholars and students to confront these issues in an array of programs:
1. Grants for the publication of original research and documentary sources;
2. Grants for students at Tel Aviv University who have demonstrated achievement and promise in their studies in the field;
3. Grants for students to study Polish in intensive summer courses at Polish universities, and grants to students from Poland to study Hebrew at Israeli universities;
4. Publication of journals and monographs;
5. Sponsorship of conferences and symposia;
6. Promotion of ongoing dialogue and exchange between scholars in Israel and Poland, including the exchange of qualified students.

The Institute also publishes an academic journal, Gal-Ed - On the History of the Jews in Poland. Nineteen volumes have appeared up until now. From Volume 20 onward, Gal-Ed will appear in a new format and will be called Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry.




 

 

 



Studies

Poland - Memories and Portraits

Gal-Ed: On the History of the Jews in Poland. Vol. 19

 Tradition in Transition: Historical and Sociological Aspects of the East European Heder

 Poland's Attitude toward the Zionist Movement and Palestine between the Two World Wars

Jewish Parliamentary Activity in Poland, 1918-1939

The CYSZO School System in Poland in the Interwar Period (1921-1939)



Poland - Memories and Portraits, Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk
David Assaf and Avraham Noverstern, editors


The institute has commenced the Hebrew translation of the last seven volumes of Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk's Yiddish-language work, Polin - Zichroynes und Bilder, which was published in New York between 1946 and 1953.

This series, which is one of the finest works of modern Yiddish literature, is not just a book of documents or memoirs. On the contrary, it contains powerful literary and educational elements that make it an important cultural and historical document about the Jews of Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries.

As part of this undertaking, the first two volumes - which were translated into Hebrew by Ezra Fleisher and published in 1962 - will be reissued. The translation will be accompanied by a historic and literary introduction and by notes and a commentary.


Gal-Ed: On the History of the Jews in Poland. Vol. 19

Following volume 18 that contained 26 articles and research notes, Volume 19 of Gal-Ed returns to a more traditional format, combining original research articles, archival documents, book reviews and a general bibliography. Readers should also note two innovations:

· Reviews of books written in Hebrew appear for the first time in the English section. This step was taken so that readers abroad, many of whom find it difficult to keep abreast of scholarly publications in Israel because of geographical or linguistic impediments, can be better apprised of what Israeli academics who work in their field of interest are doing.
· The bibliography has begun to incorporate not only print materials and analog recordings (films, videotapes, and sound recordings) but digital media as well. Not only are academic works published in digital format included for the first time in the general bibliographic list, but a special survey of Internet sites pertaining to the history and culture of Polish Jews has been provided.

Together, the articles, book reviews and bibliography form a volume that spotlights newly discovered or forgotten sources that illuminate various aspects of the Polish Jewish past.

Table of Contents


Gal-Ed : On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry (New Format).
David Engel, Editor; David Assaf and Elhanan Reiner, Associate Editors

Since adopting a bilingual format in 1987, a new volume of Gal-Ed has appeared every two years. However, the need to serve a growing community of scholars in Europe, North America and Israel prompted the recent decision to turn the series into an annual publication.

This transformation will be accompanied by personnel changes and by other physical and structural alterations as well. Two distinguished senior scholars, David Assaf and Elhanan Reiner, will join the editorial staff as associate editors and will work with editor David Engel to effect the planned changes in Volume 20. From that volume forward, the series will be called Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry. In accordance with the new title, Gal-Ed will endeavor to devote greater space to articles dealing with cultural expression (belletristic literature, folklore, language, art, religious trends, and the like), although the point of departure for such articles will continue to be historical. Of course, it is anticipated that articles about the political, economic and social history of Polish Jewry will continue to constitute a substantial portion of each volume.

Efforts will also be made to publish articles about the state of research in the various areas of Polish Jewish studies, along with broad review essays about recent relevant scholarly literature and short notices about a larger number of books than was previously reviewed. The bibliography will continue to be published in each volume, as will a select number of book reviews in the conventional format.

Publication of archival documents, research notes, and surveys of archival collections will continue as before, with annotated versions of archival documents appearing in the original language together with a translation into Hebrew or English. Future volumes will have a different look and feel: they will consist of about 250 pages each, will be bound in a soft cover, and will employ new graphics and typography.

We hope that these changes will help Gal-Ed continue to serve its readers effectively and that readers will feel encouraged to contribute actively to future volumes.



Tradition in Transition: Historical and Sociological
Aspects of the East European Heder:

Editors: David Assaf, Emmanuel Etkes

 This research project seeks to produce a standard text book on the Heder phenomena in the Ashkenazi civilization, mainly in Eastern Europe during a time of transition. The volume will comprise two sections: Research (new and classic articles) and documents and sources.
The articles section will include new research by the following scholars Prof. Chava Turnianski. 'The Ashkenazi Heder'; Prof. Shaul Stampfer, 'Heder Study, Knowledge of Torah, and the Maintenance of Social Stratification in Traditional East European Jewish Society'; Prof. Avner Holzman, The Heder in the Hebrew Literature; Prof. Avraham Nowershtern, The Heder in the Yiddish Literature; Prof. Rachel Alboim-Dror, The Modern Heder'. Alongside this new research we shall also re-publish a few classic articles: Eliezer Meir Lipshitz, 'The Heder'; Yehiel Stern, 'Heder and Bet Midrash' (will be translated from Yiddish).
In the documents and sources section will be included excerpts from different genres of literature, mainly from the memoir genre, which will present the Heder and its surroundings from various aspects. Among the writers: Solomon Maimon, Haim Nahman Bialik, Simon Dubnow, Shalom Aleichem, Yechezkel Kotik among others. This section will comprise also a valuable report of the 1912 survey on the state of the Heders that was done in the Russian Pale of Settlement (to be translated from the Russian).

Editors: Professor David Assaf (Jewish History Department, Tel Aviv University) and Professor Emmanuel Etkes (Jewish History Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)





Poland's Attitude toward the Zionist Movement and Palestine between the Two World Wars.
Emanuel Melzer

This study examines the relationship between the Polish government and the world Zionist movement as well as Poland's attitude toward the development of Jewish settlement in Palestine between the two World Wars.

Mainly during the 1930s, the Polish government was interested and actively involved in the Palestine issue and encouraged emigration as part of its "emigrationist policy" with regard to the Jewish population. The research tracks Polish diplomatic activity in this area as part of its global policies.

In addition, various episodes related to this topic are examined on the basis of archival sources that have recently been made available. They include the negotiations regarding a commercial barter agreement between the government of Poland and the Jewish Agency, Polish support for the Haganah and the Etzel for the purpose of arms purchases, training courses provided by Polish military personnel, "illegal" immigration plans, etc.

The preparation of the first phase of the study (1919-1929) has been completed.




Jewish Parliamentary Activity in Poland, 1918-1939
Shlomo Netzer

An examination of Jewish parliamentary activity during this period reveals a unique aspect of the Polish Jewish community's political struggle to secure civil and national rights, namely, the fact that this political activity was conducted by Jewish representatives who were democratically elected from Jewish party lists according to the national constitution.

In an effort to exercise its parliamentary power, which reached its peak during the period in question, the Jewish parliamentary delegation somehow managed to place the Jewish problem on the state's agenda. This was no small accomplishment in a Polish nationalist state whose non-Jewish political forces ignored minority rights and denied their demands for national self-expression.

This work also examines the subject of Avodat Hahoveh ("the work of the present"), as Zionist activity in the Diaspora was known, along with related problems.

The parliamentary struggle in the first decade conformed to the prevailing democratic parliamentary system. It was ultimately undermined by the accession of an autocratic regime that gradually threw off the restrictions of parliamentary discipline. In the 1930s, Jewish parliamentary activity was characterized by intermittent changes of fortune that were influenced by the radical political changes taking place within the regime and the rise in anti-Semitism.

The efforts of the Jewish parties to cultivate Jewish national and political awareness, both within and outside the framework of their parliamentary activity, produced patterns that left their imprint on the history of the Jews in general and Polish Jewry in particular.




The CYSZO School System in Poland in the Interwar Period (1921-1939)
Shlomo Netzer

The Central Yiddish School Organization (CYSZO) was one of four Jewish private school systems established by the Jewish public in Poland during the period of the second Polish republic. The network, which was founded by the left-wing Jewish parties - first and foremost the Bund - supported Jewish secular and socialist-oriented education in Yiddish. It sought to educate its students in the spirit of progress and enlightenment, utilizing advanced educational methods and promoting education through practical work experience. This system conformed to the political demands of the Bund: the granting of full civil rights to the Jews, as befitted an advanced, democratic country, and the recognition of the Jewish minority as an autochtonic nationality in Poland.

The CYSZO suffered from a permanent budgetary deficit owing to the meager subsidy it received from the Polish authorities, who ignored the international commitments made at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, at which the "Minorities Treaty" was signed. Furthermore, the authorities were forever creating administrative problems in order to impede the progress of this school system.

This study will examine the educational activities of the CYSZO, its development, achievements and struggle for survival.