Obraz Żydówek na froncie wschodnim II wojny światowej we współczesnych rosyjskojęzycznych mediach żydowskich. Na przykładzie wydania internetowego amerykańskiego czasopisma „Jewriejskij Mir”

The Image of Jewish Women on the Eastern Front of World War II in Contemporary Russian-Language Jewish Media: The Example of the Online Edition of the American Newspaper Yevreiski Mir The main aim of this paper is to present the image of Jewish women participating in hostilities on the Eastern Front of World War II in the contemporary Russian-language Jewish media on the example of the online edition of the American newspaper Yevreiski Mir. An analysis of its articles proves that the fates of women of Jewish origin in the Red Army and the Soviet resistance movement are used by the authors to strengthen social ties among Russian-speaking Jews. Moreover, it is shown that the use of biographical threads of selected Jewish women helps journalists create a new narrative in which Jewish women are presented not only as victims but also as war heroines proud of their origin.

Między kamuflażem a stereotypem. Postać Żydówki w dramacie Gabrieli Zapolskiej Nerwowa awantura

Between Camouflage and Stereotype: The Portrayal of a Jewish Woman in Gabriela Zapolska’s Drama “Nerwowa awantura” [The Nervous Row] The article is an attempt to analyze Gabriela Zapolska’s drama entitled Nerwowa awantura [The Nervous Row], first published in 2012. The aim of the study is to answer the question whether Zapolska, while adding Peruwianka to other figures of Jewish women in her literary output, succumbed to popular opinions and provided her with stereotypical features. Or, on the contrary, perhaps she created her protagonist in an innovative, unprecedented way? The author is trying to answer the question whether the ideas of emancipation and feminist movements, so close to the writer, an attempt to fight the existing patriarchal order and Victorian bourgeois customs, also resonate in Nerwowa awantura. The analysis shows that there are no figures of Jewish women in Zapolska’s oeuvre who are clearly burdened with stereotypical traits or are completely free of them. However, none of the Jewish female characters created by the playwright is so independent, liberated and able to achieve her goals as Peruwianka, and as a result she can be perceived as a new figure on the literary and theatrical map.

Kobiece micwot – rola i pozycja kobiety w świetle religijnego prawa żydowskiego

Women’s Mitzvot: The Role and Position of Women in the Light of the Jewish Religious Law It is not possible to understand the history and present day of Jewish women without placing them in the Jewish tradition, resulting mainly from religion which for centuries was the foundation of Jewish life, regulating its finest aspects. The article describes how the regulations of the religious Jewish law, halakha, determine the place of Jewish women in traditional society, and how the resulting adjustments relate to Jews according to gender. The analysis covers three so-called special women’s mitzvot, i.e. the lighting of the Sabbath lights, the separation of the challah, and the observance of the laws related to the family purity, as well as the resulting positioning of women within a clear apportionment into female−male, public−domestic, or culture−nature.

Marian Turski – pamięć przeciwko upokorzeniu i obojętności

Marian Turski, XI Nie bądź obojętny. XI Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Stowarzyszenie Żydowski Instytut Historyczny w Polsce, Wołowiec–Warszawa 2021, ss. 253.

Kilka słów na marginesie Dziennika z getta Miriam Korber-Bercovici

A Few Words on the Margin of the Diary Written in the Djurin Ghetto by Miriam Korber-Bercovici The purpose of the article is to present fragments of the diary of Miriam Korber-Bercovici, a young Jewish woman deported with her whole family from Southern Bukovina to the Transnistria Governorate under the Antonescu regime. The excerpts translated from the original Romanian into Polish mainly concern the author’s experiences of deportation and everyday life in the Djurin ghetto. They were selected in order to acquaint Polish readers with the situation of the Jews of Bukovina and Bessarabia displaced to the Transnistria Governorate during World War II. The diary was first published in Romania in 1995 as Jurnal de ghetou. The presented translation is based on the second edition of the diary published in 2017 by Curtea Veche Publishing House and Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania.

Między filarami opieki społecznej, pracy na polu kultury, upolitycznienia i feminizmu. Syjonistyczne „Koło Kobiet Żydowskich” we Lwowie (1908–1939)

Between the Pillars of Welfare, Cultural Work, Politicization, and Feminism: The Zionist “Circle of Jewish Women” in Lviv, 1908–1939 The Circle of Jewish Women (“Koło Kobiet Żydowskich”), founded in Lemberg/Lviv in 1908 and active until 1939, played a vital role in the organization of Zionist women in the city and other places in Eastern Galicia. It was founded, among others, by Róża Pomeranc Melcer, one of the pioneers of Zionist women’s associations in Galicia and the first and only Jewish woman parliamentarian in the Second Polish Republic. Nevertheless, the history of the Circle, as well as the work of its many active members—many of whom perished in the Holocaust—has been almost forgotten and is rarely explored. The author of the article argues that this organization not only represents social welfare, but it also embodies elements of social support, cultural work, politicization, and feminism. Therefore, the author emphasizes the role the Circle played in the process of organizing Zionist women in Lviv and Galicia before World War I and especially during the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic, and how it contributed to women’s emancipation. Thus, the history of one of the most important Zionist women’s organizations is reconstructed and its versatile work facets explored in more detail.

The Quality of Vital Registration of the Jews in East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century

Vital records are one of the main sources providing insight into the demographic past. For most of the nineteenth century, however, the degree of under-registration of vital events among Jews was much higher than among non-Jews. These omissions undermine the credibility of demographic data on fertility and mortality published in contemporary statistical yearbooks. The analysis shows that the male-to-female ratio at birth aggregated on a regional level reveals the highest under-registration among Jews in the Russian Empire, including Congress Poland, until World War I. On the other hand, Prussian registration covers the Jewish population most completely and already in the 1820s shows no signs of under-registration. Despite the general low quality of registration systems, records from selected individual towns still pass quality tests. Top-down imposition of the registration duties, corporatism, defective legal regulations, bureaucratic inefficiency and personal characteristics of civil registrars were the main reasons for under-registration.

Słowo i obraz – teksty i związane z nimi motywy ikoniczne na nagrobkach kobiet na cmentarzach żydowskich na historycznych obszarach Rzeczypospolitej

Word and Image: Texts and Related Iconic Motifs on Women’s Gravestones in Jewish Cemeteries in the Historical Areas of The Republic of Poland The research material in the article covers the period from the earliest gravestones from the fourteenth century to contemporary ones of the twenty-first century. Among iconic motifs taken into account are those which are specific for women’s gravestones, and from texts in inscriptions—those corresponding to artistic motifs. The aims of this study are the following: to distinguish thematic groups, determine the range of iconic motifs used and the chronology and frequency of their occurrence, as well as to juxtapose them with normative content from religious writings of Judaism and with rites and customs. The following conclusions emerge from the research: In the early period (until the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century), there was no differentiation on tombstones between separate motifs ascribed to men (except for the Kohanim and Levites) and separate motifs ascribed to women. Among the common motifs, the bird motif dominated on women’s gravestones, while the crown motif acquired its specific character. In the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century, the motif of a candlestick appeared on women’s gravestones; it spread very quickly and became a visual identification feature. In the nineteenth century, with the introduction of vanitas motifs on gravestones, they began to be used on women’s gravestones. The connection of motifs with the names of the deceased is also noticeable (e.g. Feigl–bird, Rachel–fairy, Royza–rose, or scenes related to biblical namesakes). The contents of women’s epitaphs presented as praise or description of virtues largely concern traditional female duties toward the home, husband, and children. Women’s gravestones contain no attributes or references to the study of Torah and scholarship, or else to activities in the public sphere—to professions, both religious and later secular—which obviously results from the position and role of women in the patriarchal community. Such information does not appear until the interwar period on the tombstones of women from families assimilated into the surrounding culture which is also evidenced by non-traditional tombstone forms and inscriptions in non-Jewish languages.

Genderowy wymiar jidyszowej literatury masowej w twórczości Szomera

The Gender Dimension of Yiddish Popular Literature in Shomer’s Writings The article explores a model of construing gender in Yiddish shund (trash) literature. The author focuses on three aspects—womanhood, manhood, and relationships—comparing both cultural ideals and historical reality of Ashkenazic Jewry at the end of the nineteenth century with the gender roles constructed in the novels. The focus is placed on the stories of Nokhem Meir Shaykevitch (Shomer), the most popular shund writer of that time. The author of the article emphasizes the gender ideals in Shomer’s novels and investigates possible ideological inspirations that led the writer to bring the ideals to a textual level.

Rachela Fajgenberg

The project “Canon of the Memoir Literature of Polish Jews”is currently being prepared at the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław in cooperation with the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Polish Scientific Publishers PWN in Warsaw. Its purpose is to introduce 27 volumes of Jewish memoirs that make up the Jews. Poland. Autobiography series into Polish academic and literary circulation, and to integrate this corpus into the current scholarly discourse on Polish history and culture. This section presents excerpts from the autobiographies of two Jewish writers translated from Yiddish: Rachel (Rokhl) Feygenberg (1885–1972) and Kadia Molodowsky (1894–1975). Rachel Feygenberg depicts her childhood in the shtetl of Lubańin Minsk province, reminiscing about her education, her family’s religiosity, her work in a shop, and the first signs of her writing talent. Molodowsky describes her work teaching homeless children during World War I and the beginnings of her poetic career. She also portrays the Jewish literary milieu in Kiev centered around the Eygns almanac, and her meeting with the patron of Yiddish literature and publisher Boris Kletskin that resulted in the publication of her first volume of poetry Kheshvendike nekht [Nights of Cheshvan].