Creativity and Conflict reexamines interwar Polish Jewish history through the author’s collected essays and scholarly responses of leading academicians. The work covers Polish-Jewish relations, Orthodox Judaism and the rabbinate, women’s history, social history, and historiography, challenging prevalent myths about Jews in Poland.
Table of Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Notes on Commentators
Notes on Transliterations, Place-Names, and Publishers
Maps
Introduction: Interwar Polish Jewish History: A Reevaluation
Moshe Rosman
Part One
Looking Back: Society and Religion in Pre-World War I Poland
Jewish Society in the Polish Congress Kingdom, 1860-1914
Antony Polonsky comments
Prolonged Erosion, Organization, and Reinforcement: Reflections on Orthodox Jewry in Congress Poland., c. 1850 to 1914
Shaul Stampfer comments
3. Religious Coercion, Freedom of Expression, and Modern Jewish Identity in Poland:
I. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, and the ‘Circumcision Scandal’ in Warsaw, 1908
Adam Ferziger comments
Part Two
Society, Youth, Women, and Politics: Aspects of Jewish Life in Interwar Poland
4. Partial Success, Great Achievements: On Jewish Autonomy in Interwar Poland
Marcin Wodzinski comments
5. National Revival, Ongoing Acculturation: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland
Natalia Aleksiun comments
6. To Enlist the Enthusiasm of the Young: Orthodox Jewish Non-Political Responses to the Challenges of Interwar Poland
Uriel Gellman comments
7. The Missing 52%: The State of Research on Jewish Women in Interwar Poland and Its Implications for Holocaust Studies
Dalia Ofer comments
8. Woman? Youth? Jew?: The Search for the Identity of Jewish Young Women in Interwar Poland
Eliyana Adler comments
9. Reluctant Partners, Ideological Rivals: Reflections on the Relations between Agudath Israel and the Zionist and Religious Zionist Movements in Interwar Poland
Ada Gebel comments
Part Three
Struggles and Scandals: The Politicization of the Polish Rabbinate in Interwar Poland
10. Ideology of Agudath Israel: ‘Da’at Torah’ and ‘Birthpangs of the Messiah’
Aryeh Edrei comments
11. Enduring Prestige, Eroded Authority: The Warsaw Rabbinate in the Interwar Period
Asaf Yedidya comments
12. The New Jewish Politics and the Rabbinate in Poland: New Directions in the Interwar Period
Mordecai (Motti) Zalkin comments
Part Four
Jews as Part of the Fabric of Polish Society
13. Messianists, Pragmatists, and Patriots: Orthodox Jews and the Modern Polish State
Kamil Kijek comments
14. Polish-Jewish Relations in Modern Times: The Search for a Metaphor and a Historical Framework
Yitzhak Conforti comments
About the author
Professor Gershon C. Bacon held the Marcell and Maria Roth Chair in the History and Culture of Polish Jewry at Bar-Ilan University’s Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry in Ramat Gan, Israel. He has authored numerous books and articles on Polish Jewish history and currently serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, while continuing his research and writing.