Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 10 : Jews in Early Modern Poland

Frontmatter Towards a Polish-Jewish Dialogue: The Way Forward (KRZYSZTOF ŚLIWIŃSKI Polish Ambassador to the Jewish Diaspora, page xvii) Note on Transliteration, Names, and Place Names (page xxvii) List of Abbreviations (page xxix) Introduction (GERSHON DAVID HUNDERT, page xxxi) PART I: JEWS IN EARLY MODERN POLAND Jewish Marriage in Eighteenth-Century Poland (JACOB GOLDBERG, page 3) 'For the Human Soul is the Lamp of the Lord': The Tkhine for 'Laying Wicks' by Sarah bas Tovim (CHAVA WEISSLER, page 40) The Ban on Polygamy in Polish Rabbinic Thought (ELIMELECH WESTREICH, page 66) The Ashkenazi Élite at the Beginning of the Modern Era: Manuscript versus Printed Book (ELCHANAN REINER, page 85) The Accusation of Ritual Murder in Poland, 1500-1800 (ZENON GULDON and JACEK WIJACZKA, page 99) Jewish Art and Architecture in the East European Context: The Gwoździec-Chodorów Group of Wooden Synagogues (THOMAS C. HUBKA, page 141) In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov: A User's Guide to the Editions of Shivḥei haBesht (MOSHE ROSMAN, page 183) Knowledge of Foreign Languages among Eighteenth-Century Polish Jews (DANIEL STONE, page 200) PART II: NEW VIEWS Walls and Frontiers: Polish Cinema's Portrayal of Polish-Jewish Relations (PAUL COATES, page 221) 'That Incredible History of the Polish Bund Written in a Soviet Prison': The NKVD Files on Henryk Erlich and Wiktor Alter (Gertrud Pickhan, page 247) Mayufes: A Window on Polish-Jewish Relations (CHONE SHMERUK, page 273) On the History of the Jews in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Poland (ISRAEL M. TA-SHMA, page 287) PART III: REVIEWS REVIEW ESSAYS On Eisenbach on Emancipation (TOMASZ GĄSOWSKI, page 321) A Reply to Tomasz Gąsowski (ARTUR EISENBACH, page 326) Two Books on Isaac Bashevis Singer (CHONE SHMERUK, page 333) On Auschwitz (NECHAMA TEC, page 339) BOOK REVIEWS Israel Bartal, Rachel Elior, and Chone Shmeruk (eds.), Tsadikim ve'anshei ma'aseh: Meḥkarim beḥasidut Polin (SETH BRODY, page 344) S. Bronsztejn, Z dziejów ludności żydowskiej na Dolnym Śląsku po II wojnie światowej (DAVID ENGEL, page 347) Abraham David (ed.), A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615 (JOSEPH M. DAVIS, page 350) Norman Davies and Antony Polonsky (eds.), Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939-1946 (OREST SUBTELNY, page 351) Artur Eisenbach, The Emancipation of the Jews in Poland, 1780-1870 (MARSHA ROZENBLIT, page 353) Barbara Engelking, Na łące popiołow: Ocaleni z Holocaustu (SHMUEL KRAKOWSKI, page 355) Barbara Engelking, Zagłada i pamięć (TECIA WERBOWSKI, page 358) Peter Faessler, Thomas Held, and Dirk Sawitzki (eds.), Lemberg-Lwow-Lviv: Eine Stadt im Schnittpunkt europäischer Kulturen (PAUL ROBERT MAGOCSI, page 360) Darrel J. Fasching, The Ethical Challenge of Auschwitz and Hiroshima: Apocalypse or Utopia? (ELLEN M. UMANSKY, page 362) P. Fijałkowski (ed.), Dzieje Żydów w Polsce: Wybór tekstów źródłowych XI-XVIII wieku (JUDITH KALIK, page 364) David E. Fishman, Russia's First Modern Jews: The Jews of Shklov (ELI LEDERHENDLER, page 367) Joseph Held (ed.), The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (IRINA LIVEZEANU, page 369) Edward H. Judge, Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom (JERZY TOMASZEWSKI, page 370) Edward Kossoy and Abraham Ohry, The Feldshers: Medical, Sociological, and Historical Aspects of Practitioners of Medicine with below University Level Education (LISA EPSTEIN, page 372) Mark Levene, War, Jews, and the New Europe: The Diplomacy of Lucien Wolf, 1914-1919 (JERZY TOMASZEWSKI, page 374) Steven M. Lowenstein, The Berlin Jewish Community: Enlightenment, Family and Crisis, 1770-1830 (PAULA E. HYMAN, page 377) Paul Robert Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (PHILIP LONGWORTH, page 379) Jerzy Michalski (ed.), Lud żydowski w narodzie polskim (DANIEL STONE, page 381) Clare Moore (ed.), The Visual Dimension: Aspects of Jewish Art (MARC MICHAEL EPSTEIN, page 383) Gedalyah Nigal, Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism (SHAUL MAGID, page 386) Magdalena Opalski and Israel Bartal, Poles and Jews: A Failed Brotherhood (MAURICE FRIEDBERG, page 388) Eugenia Prokóp-Janiec, Międzywojenna literatura polsko-żydowska jako zjawisko kulturowe i artystyczne (JOLANTA KISLER-GOLDSTEIN, page 391) Joel Raba, Bein zikaron lehakheḥashah: Gezerot taḥ vetat bereshimot benei hazeman ubere'i haketivah hahistorit (EDWARD FRAM, page 396) Marek Rostworowski (ed.), Żydzi w Polsce: Obraz i słowo (EZRA MENDELSOHN, page 398) Jean W. Sedlar, East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500 (HENRIK BIRNBAUM, page 402) Jerzy Topolski, Polska w czasach nowożytnych: Od środkowoeuropejskiej potęgi do utraty niepodłegłości, 1501-1795 (JACOB GOLDBERG, page 405) Lawrence Weinbaum, A Marriage of Convenience: The New Zionist Organization and the Polish Government (ANDRZEJ CHOJNOWSKI, page 408) E. Thomas Wood and Stanisław M. Jankowski, Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust (MICHAEL BERENBAUM, page 411) Steven J. Zipperstein, Elusive Prophet: Ahad Ha'am and the Origins of Zionism (MICHAEL BROWN, page 412) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF POLISH-JEWISH STUDIES, 1994 (authorname, page 415) Notes on the Contributors (page 435) Glossary (page 437) Index (page 441) Jewish society in Poland-Lithuania in the second half of the eighteenth century was by no means insular: Jews numbered about 750,000, and comprised about half the urban population of the country. The contact between Jews and the wider Polish society found expression in the languages Jews knew, in their marriage patterns, even in their synagogue architecture and decoration, but also in Polish accusations of Jewish ritual murder. All these aspects are here systematically reviewed. Internal factors influencing developments within Jewish society are discussed: treatments of the medieval rabbinic ban on polygamy, as well as various influences of the growing interest in kabbalah-its impact on synagogue structure, on prayer, and on the spiritual world of women. The growth of hasidism is considered through critical analysis of the legends about its founder, Israel Ba'al Shem Tov. This wealth of topics helps to fill the gaps in our understanding of Jewish life in this important period. The New Views section of the volume incorporates valuable studies on other topics. Articles include a revisionist view of the beginnings of Polish Jewry, based on analysis of medieval manuscripts; a thought-provoking review of the depiction of Polish-Jewish relations in recent Polish cinema; a study of the NKVD's treatment of Henryk Erlich and Wiktor Alter; and an erudite study of mayufes as a window on Polish-Jewish relations. The Book Reviews section includes a debate between Tomasz Gasowski and Artur Eisenbach on the latter's book on Jewish emancipation in Poland; review essays of books on Auschwitz and on I. B. Singer; and twenty-seven individual book reviews, followed by a bibliography of Polish-Jewish studies for 1994. The contemporary state of Polish-Jewish relations is covered, along with additional aspects of Jewish life in today's Poland, in an article by Poland's Ambassador to the Jewish Diaspora, Krzysztof Sliwinski. CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Coates, Artur Eisenbach, Tomasz Gasowski, Jacob Goldberg, Zenon Guldon, Thomas C. Hubka, Gertrud Pickhan, Elchanan Reiner, Moshe Rosman, Chone Shmeruk, Krzysztof Sliwinski, Daniel Stone, Israel M. Ta-Shma, Nechama Tec, Chava Weissler, Elimelech Westreich, Jacek Wijacka.