Research

Post-conference publication: "Biographies and Politics: The Involvement of Jews and People of Jewish Origin in Leftist Movements in 19th and 20th Century Poland."

Okładka Kwartalnika Historii Żydów / a cover of Jewish History Quarterly
fot. Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich

This publication contains papers presented at the conference "Biographies and Politics. The involvement of Jews and People of Jewish Origin in Leftist Movements in 19th and 20th Century Poland" organized in 2019 by POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, together with Aleksander-Brückner-Zentrum Für Polenstudien, Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford and UCL.

They essays raise the subject of the involvement of Jews in leftist movements in the Polish lands in the 19th and 20th centuries from the perspective of their individual ideological choices. The presented collection of essays focuses on personal stories and on formation of political identity analyzed using the biographical method. It seeks answers to questions about the motivations of Polish Jews joining leftist groups.

Title: "Biographies and Politics. The Involvement of Jews and Persons of Jewish Descent in 19th and 20th Century Leftist Movements," introduction and editing by Michał Trębacz, in: Jewish History Quarterly, September 2023, No. 3 (287), pp. 433-661.

Editor: Michał Trębacz

Publisher: Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute

Table of Contents:

  • Michał Trębacz: Introduction
  • Piotr Forecki, Anna Zawadzka: "'The Różańskis, the Fejgins, the Bermans.' Jewish Communists as a Collective Entity in the Polish Collective Imagination"
  • Piotr Laskowski: "Autobiographical Parabasis. Mojżesz Kaufman (1880-1936) and the Politics of Historical Writing"
  • Anna Ładowska: "Diana Blond as a Second-Generation Activist in the Bund"
  • Magdalena Grabowska: "Edwarda Orłowska. Politician, Activist, Feminist?"
  • Ewa Herbst: "Herman Diamand – on the 90th Anniversary of His Death"
  • Stanisław Krajewski: "How Jewish were Jewish Communists?"