Small Numbers, Big Presence: Jews in Poland after World War II

This book provides an account of the presence of Jews in Poland after World War II. Some chapters refer to earlier periods, but in the hope of providing a better understanding of the origins of post-war developments, the narrative is always guided by our focus on the past eight decades. It is obvious, and stressed in Chapter 3, that the post-war era cannot be compared with earlier periods. Jews have been incomparably less numerous and often deeply assimilated. Nonetheless, their story, that is, our story, is worth telling. Naturally, it is important to Jews in Poland. It is also of special interest to Jews all over the world because Poland used to be the center of the Ashkenazi Jewish world. What is more, Jewish topics attract considerable interest in contemporary Poland, both affirmative and antisemitic. Therefore, the best summary of the post-war period of Polish-Jewish history is “small numbers, big presence,” as was emphasized by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett during our work on the core exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Jews in Poland. It is my pleasure to dedicate this book to her, in recognition of her guidance and influence and with gratitude for over four decades of our friendship.

An explanation is needed to clarify what this book is not. The title’s phrase “big presence” can suggest that the focus is on the Poles’ attitudes towards Jews. One can invoke Polish critical scholars who try to detect antisemitic patterns deeply embedded in Polish culture, especially in connection to the Shoah.¹ Yet, while those patterns form an important part of the background of the situation of Jews in post-war Poland, this book is not primarily about them. I do not believe that everything significant for the Jewish experience is reducible to antisemitism and the Shoah. The focus here is on Polish Jews, individuals and institutions. On the other hand, the book does not contain documents, detailed descriptions of events, lists of leaders, numbers, and organizations.² The essays collected here describe Jewish life, that is, major trends within the Jewish community, varieties of Jewish attitudes, the concepts that illuminate the Jewish experiences in post-war Poland. Hence, such topics as assimilation and de-assimilation, religious legacy, the Communist project, Jewish-Christian dialogue.

The book is scholarly and also deeply personal. It covers a period which is more or less the extent of my life. Moreover, all the post-war events and processes described here have a strong connection to my life and to my family members. In some developments I have taken an active part, primarily in the post-1968 mini-renaissance of Jewish life, especially in its religious variety, as well as all the advances in Jewish-Christian relations and particularly Jewish-Christian dialogue. Thus, the essays included in the book are written by an academic who was a participant in many of the described events. The following one-sentence summaries of the chapters reveal my personal connection to their contents. My personal involvement means that, as much as I tried to be fair and objective, I am not as distanced as some other writers have been or will be. Nevertheless, I hope that my remarks are valuable not only as reminiscences and reflections, but also from a purely academic perspective.

The book consists of eight chapters of unequal length. Seven have already been published, albeit mostly in a somewhat different form, and I thank the original publishers for their consent to adapt the texts for this book. Specifically, I refer to the POLIN museum for chapters 1 and 3, the journal Jewish History Quarterly for chapter 2, Academic Studies Press for chapter 4, the journal Contemporary Jewry – or rather the University of Warsaw that made it possible for the paper to be available in open access – for chapter 5, the journal Studies in Jewish Christian Relations for chapter 7. Chapter 6 was written specially for this book, but it contains much material appearing in my earlier publications, namely 2005, 2007a, 2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2016, 2016a, 2018a, 2020, 2020a, 2021a (the numbers refer to the References section at the end of the book.) Fragments of chapter 8 appeared in Polish only.

Chapter 1, “Religious Legacy of Polish Jews,” appeared in the book Legacy of Polish Jews, accompanying an extension of the permanent exhibition at the POLIN Museum. (See Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Tamara Sztyma 2021.) It is an attempt to sketch a comprehensive survey of specifically religious aspects of the legacy of Polish Jews, which informs my own involvement in Jewish life.

Chapter 2, “How Jewish Were Jewish Communists?” has recently appeared in the journal Jewish History Quarterly, published by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (See 2023.) It presents a study of the first generations of radical Jewish leftist leaders, among whom one can find my own ancestors. I argue that they were quite strongly un-Jewish, an identity they worked hard to assume, even though virtually all critics, as well as admirers, have been perceiving them as Jews.

Chapter 3, “Jews in Post-war Poland,” forms a part of the catalogue accompanying the core exhibition at the POLIN Museum. (See 2014.) It presents a survey of the history of Jews in Poland from 1944 to 2014 (with a postscript about the last ten years). The story is closely related to my own life, especially its second part: the developments originating in 1967 and especially since the 1980s.

Chapter 4, “Assumptions behind the Work on the Post-war Section of the Core Exhibition in POLIN,” appeared in a volume devoted to the history of Jews in Poland and in particular to the analysis of the background of the exhibition at the POLIN Museum. (See Antony Polonsky, Hanna Węgrzynek, and Andrzej Żbikowski 2018.) I have identified the main assumptions that, consciously or not quite so consciously, guided our work on the last part of POLIN’s core exhibition. Its concept was prepared by Helena Datner and me.

Chapter 5, “The Concept of De-assimilation: The Example of Jews in Poland,” has recently appeared in the journal Contemporary Jewry, accompanied by responses from other authors. (See 2023a.) It introduces the concept of de-assimilation, which is relatively novel, and is in my opinion very helpful in describing the character of Jews in contemporary Poland, especially those of my generation. I am myself very much a “product” of the process of de-assimilation.

Chapter 6, “Jewish-Christian Dialogue in Post-War Poland,” is new, and, as already mentioned, draws on my other texts published in both Polish and English. It sketches out Jewish-Christian relations in general and surveys the Jewish-Christian dialogue in post-Shoah Poland. A significant part of it refers to events in which I took part or to which I had some personal connection. It is fair to say that I have been more seriously involved in Christian-Jewish dialogue than any other Polish Jew after World War II.