Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 17 : The Shtetl: Myth and Reality

The shtetl is one of the key concepts for our understanding of the Jewish past in Eastern Europe. Although today most Jews live in big cities, the majority of Jews in Poland historically lived in the villages and small towns known as shtetls; even as late as 1931, only 43% lived in towns with a population of more than 20,000. The shtetl was thus the main context and arena for Jewish life in Poland, but much of what we know of shtetl life still comes from literary accounts rather than historical research. This volume attempts to redress that imbalance. Among the topics covered are the Jewishness of the shtetl; Polish--Jewish relations and social relations more widely in the shtetl; inter-religious contacts; the hasidic conquest of shtetl life; cultural evolution in the shtetl; Polish shtetls under Russian rule and Soviet shtetls in the 1920s; and a contemporary account of returning to visit a shtetl. Other articles consider how shtetl life has been reflected in Hebrew, Polish, and Yiddish literature. The New Views section analyses the work of the Russian Jewish writer Lev Levanda and the correspondence of an interwar Polish Jew,Wolf Lewkowicz. There are also two articles on the 'GesiÃ3wka' concentration camp established by the Nazis to clear the remains of the Warsaw ghetto. A special section is devoted to whether the incidents in Przytyk in 1936 constituted a pogrom, while another is devoted to discussing two important documents illustrating Wladyslaw Gomulka's attitude to Jews. Cover 1 Half Title 3 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Editors and Advisers 7 Preface 8 Contents 12 Note on Place Names 16 Note on Transliteration 17 List of Abbreviations 18 Part I: The Shtetl: Myth and Reality 20 Introduction. The Shtetl: Myth and Reality 22 The Shtetl as an Arena for Polish–Jewish Integration in the Eighteenth Century 44 Inter–Religious Contacts in the Shtetl: Proposals for Future Research 60 The Hasidic Conquest of Small-Town Central Poland, 1754–1818 70 The Drama of Berdichev: Levi Yitshak and his Town 102 Polish Shtetls under Russian Rule, 1772–1914 116 How Jewish Was the Shtetl? 128 The Changing Shtetl in the Kingdom of Poland during the First World War 138 The Shtetl: Cultural Evolution in Small Jewish Towns 152 Small Towns in Inter-War Poland 162 Jewish Patrons and Polish Clients: Patronage in a Small Galician Town 172 Maintaining Borders, Crossing Borders: Social Relationships in the Shtetl 190 The Soviet Shtetl in the 1920s 216 Shtetl and Shtot in Yiddish Haskalah Drama 232 Kazimierz on the Vistula: Polish Literary Portrayals of the Shtetl 252 Imagining the Image: Interpretations of the Shtetl in Yiddish Literary Criticism 262 Shtetl Codes: Fantasy in the Fiction of Asch, Schulz, and I. B. Singer 278 Returning to the Shtetl: Differing Perceptions 286 Part II: New Views 296 A Jewish Russifier in Despair: Lev Levanda’s Polish Question 298 Like a Voice Crying in the Wilderness: The Correspondence of Wolf Lewkowicz 318 Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943–1944 344 The Gęsiówka Story: A Little-Known Page of Jewish Resistance 372 Part III: Documents 382 Gomułka Writes to Stalin in 1948 384 Introduction 384 Document 1: Władysław Gomułka’s Letter to Stalin 395 Document 2: Cryptogram from Stalin and Molotov to Bolesław Bierut 400 Part IV: The Sixty-Fifth Anniversary of Events in Przytyk: A Debate 402 If Not a Pogrom, Then What? 404 Pogrom? The Polish–Jewish Incidents in Przytyk, 9 March 1936 411 It Was No Ordinary Fight 416 Life and History 419 Letter from Ryszard Fenigsen 420 Przytyk and the Market Stall 423 Part V: Reviews 430 Chone Shmeruk, Hakeriyah lenavi: mehkerei historiyah vesifrut, edited by Israel Bartal; Chone Shmeruk, Ayarot ukerakhim: perakim beyetsirato shel shalom aleikhem, edited by Chava Turniansky 432 Anna Michałowska, Między demokracją a oligarchią: Władze gmin żydowskich w Poznaniu i Swarzędzu 438 Magdalena Sitarz, Yiddish and Polish Proverbs: Contrastive Analysis Against Cultural Background 441 Shmuel Feiner and David Sorkin (eds.), New Perspectives on the Haskalah 446 Brian Porter, When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland 448 Irena Janicka-Świderska, Jerzy Jarniewicz, and Adam Sumera (eds.), Jewish Themes in English and Polish Culture 451 Nancy L. Green (ed.), Jewish Workers in the Modern Diaspora 453 Gertrud Pickhan, ‘Gegen den Strom’. Der Allgemeine Jüdische Arbeiterbund ‘Bund’ in Polen, 1918–1939 457 Anna Cichopek, Pogrom Z ydów w Krakowie, 11 sierpnia 1945 r. 459 Michał Horoszewicz, ‘Przez dwa millenia do rzymskiej synagogi’: Szkice o ewolucji postawy Kościoła katolickiego wobec Żydów i judaizmu 467 Obituaries 472 Rafael Scharf (1914–2003) 472 Eugenia Shrut (1925–2003) 479 George Szabad (1917–2002) 481 Notes on the Contributors 484 Glossary 490 Index 494 The shtetl is one of the key concepts for our understanding of the Jewish past in Eastern Europe. Although today most Jews live in big cities, the majority of Jews in Poland historically lived in the villages and small towns known as shtetls; even as late as 1931, only 43% lived in towns with a population of more than 20,000. The shtetl was thus the main context and arena for Jewish life in Poland, but much of what we know of shtetl life still comes from literary accounts rather than historical research.This volume attempts to redress that imbalance. Among the topics covered are the Jewishness of the shtetl; Polish--Jewish relations and social relations more widely in the shtetl; inter-religious contacts; the hasidic conquest of shtetl life; cultural evolution in the shtetl; Polish shtetls under Russian rule and Soviet shtetls in the 1920s; and a contemporary account of returning to visit a shtetl. Other articles consider how shtetl life has been reflected in Hebrew, Polish, and Yiddish literature.The New Views section analyses the work of the Russian Jewish writer Lev Levanda and the correspondence of an interwar Polish Jew, Wolf Lewkowicz. There are also two articles on the Gesiowka concentration camp established by the Nazis to clear the remains of the Warsaw ghetto. A special section is devoted to whether the incidents in Przytyk in 1936 constituted a pogrom, while another is devoted to discussing two important documents illustrating Wladyslaw Gomulka's attitude to Jews. Historically, many Polish Jews lived in shtetls, villages and small towns, but little of what we know about shtetl life comes from historical research. Topics in this volume include the role of the shtetl in integration, their existence under Russian/USSR and Polish rule, how they changed culturally in the early twentieth century, how they maintained their social relationships, and how they were portrayed in literature. Contributors offer work on correspondence from shtetl residents, the 1936 incidents in Przytyk, and Jewish prisoner labor in Warsaw after the Ghetto uprising The majority of Polish Jews always lived in the villages and small towns known as shtetls. Much of what we know of life in the shtetls comes from literary accounts rather than from historical research. This volume redresses that imbalance, with leading experts investigating the social and economic history of the shtetl as well as the way in which shtetl life has been reflected in Hebrew, Polish, and Yiddish literature.