the influence of jewish culture. on the intellectual

the influence of jewish culture. on the intellectual

Badania
The Influence
of Jewish Culture
ON THE INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE
OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
Edited by
Teresa Obolevitch and Józef Bremer
Wy˝sza Szko∏a Filozoficzno-Pedagogiczna „Ignatianum”
Wydawnictwo WAM
Kraków 2011
HUMANITAS
S T U D I A
K U L T U R O Z N A W C Z E
Badania • Wprowadzenia • Monografie • èród∏a
j
Seria pod redakcjà Andrzeja Gielarowskiego
Komitet Naukowy
prof. dr hab. Tomasz Gàsowski, prof. dr hab. Henryk Pietras,
prof. dr hab. Stanis∏aw Stabry∏a, dr hab. Krzysztof Koehler,
dr hab. Kazimierz Kuczman, dr hab. Stanis∏aw Sroka,
dr hab. Andrzej WaÊko
j
Publikacje serii Humanitas. Studia Kulturoznawcze, przygotowywanej przez
pracowników naukowych Instytutu Kulturoznawstwa WSFP „Ignatianum”
w Krakowie, kierowane sà do czytelnika zainteresowanego refleksjà
nad kulturà w zakresie jej êróde∏, natury oraz przemian dokonujàcych si´
przez wieki i wspó∏czeÊnie.
Celem serii jest zarówno wprowadzanie w poszczególne dziedziny
kulturoznawstwa, jak i prezentowanie najnowszych badaƒ w tym zakresie.
Dlatego publikujemy prace zbiorowe i podr´czniki, jak te˝ monografie
oraz teksty êród∏owe ujmujàce tematyk´ kulturoznawczà
z ró˝nych perspektyw naukowych.
Naukowy charakter serii, gwarantowany przez uczestnictwo
w jej powstawaniu kompetentnych badaczy poszczególnych dziedzin kultury,
idzie w parze z jej przyst´pnoÊcià równie˝ dla czytelników stawiajàcych
pierwsze kroki w analizowaniu fenomenu kultury.
© Wyższa Szkoła Filozoficzno-Pedagogiczna „Ignatianum”, 2011
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Publikacja dofinansowana ze środków przeznaczonych
na działalność statutową Wydziału Filozoficznego „Ignatianum” (2011)
Recenzent
dr hab. Ireneusz Ziemiński, prof. US
Korekta
Łukasz Malczak
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Contents
Preface (Teresa Obolevitch, Józef Bremer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Historico-cultural perspective
Tomasz Gąsowski
Yiddish Land – an Expedition to the Land of Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Edyta Koncewicz-Dziduch
Sephardi Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Tradition and the Present . . . . . . . 37
Alexander Lokshin
On the History of Traditional Jewish Education in the Russian Empire:
the Volozhin Yeshiva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Olga Gubareva
The Mythologem of the Promised Land in the Soviet Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Małgorzata Śliż
The Contribution of Scholars of Jewish Origin into the Development of Selected
Fields of Study and Academic life, based on the example of the Jagiellonian
University in Cracow in the Dayd of the Galician Autonomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Philosophico-theological perspective
Svetlana Klimova
The Russian and Polish Existentialism as mirrored by the “Jewish Problem”
(the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Irina Bardykova
“The Jewish Question” in Writer’s Diary by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. . . . . . . . . . . 89
Vyacheslav Musolov
Dialogue of Cultures: the Role of the Philosopher (based on the Interaction
between the Jewish and Russian Cultures in the 19th century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Victoria Kravchenko
The Kabbalistic concepts in Vladimir Solovyov’s Philosophy: Philosophical
Tools and the Creative Development of Ancient Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Vyacheslav Moiseev
Judaic Motifs in the Works of Vladimir Solovyov and his
“Logic of the Absolute” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6
CONTENTS
Alexey Kamenskikh
Philo of Alexandria and Vladimir Solovyov: Two ways of Sophiology . . . . . . 127
Olga Zaprometova
The Symbol of Torah as Wisdom and Light reflected in Eastern European
Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Vadim Miroshnychenko
On some features of the concepts of “Dialogue” and “Communion”:
through Negation to All-Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Peter Ehlen
The Personalistic Philosophy of Semyon L. Frank (1877–1950) . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Teresa Obolevitch
Judaic Motifs in the life and works of Semyon Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Oksana Dovgopolova
The “fraudulent” place of Lev Shestov in Russian Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Krzysztof Duda
Jews and the implications of Judaism in the life and thought
of Nikolai Berdyaev. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Ina Nalivaika
From the Profane to the Sacred: the Dialogue between I and Another in Poetry
and Everydayness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Olena Petrikovskaya
The Image of Judaism and the Problem of Synthesis of Religions in the
Philosophy of “New Religious Consciousness” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Oksana Kravchenko
The religious roots of the Aesthetic Principles (V. Ivanov on the Sublime) . . . 215
Lidia Bogataya
The Influence of Kabbalah Ideas on Analyses’ Methodology Formation
of Symbolic Units (based on V. Shmakov’s works). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Elina Shekhtman
The Seminal Idea of Dialogue in the Work of Martin Buber
and Mikhail Bakhtin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Svetlana Panich
“Jewish issue” in the Russian immigration discourse of 1930th–1940th:
some reflections on the Witness of Mother Maria (Skobtsova). . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Józef Bremer
Wittgenstein and Hasidism: Some Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Andrzej Gielarowski
Revelation in the Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig and Józef Tischner . . . . . . 289
7
CONTENTS
Jacek Bolewski
The Significance of Gershom Scholem for Christians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Kirill Voytsel
Israel and the Church: The Unity of the Community of Election
in Karl Bacth’s Interpretation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Literary perspective
Dieter Schrey
Borrowed Metaphysical Splendor. On the Possibility of an Aesthetic Theodicy
after the Disruption of the Epoch (1914–1918) in the Example
of Joseph Roth’s Job. Novel of a Simple Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Fritz Hackert
Does Joseph Roth’s Hiob Have a Happy Ending?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Elina Sventsitskaya, Sergey Sichov, Tamara Panich
Jewish Tradition in Anna Akhmatova’s Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Irina Shatova
Particular characteristics of the Kabbalistic Idea of the Invisible
Word Representation in Daniel Kharms’ Carnival Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Preface
Jewish culture has left a lasting mark on the intellectual heritage of
East-Central Europe. Yet what is it, in fact, that is meant by the phrase
“Jewish Culture?” For example, was Jewish culture in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in essence the same as in Tsarist Russia? Even when we just focus on Jews residing in the latter of these two places at a specific historical
juncture, talk of a single Russian Jewish culture seems highly imprecise.
The reason for this state of affairs is partly to be found in the dispersed and
diverse geography of the places where Jews have lived, as well as the not
unconnected fact of the plurality of languages spoken by them (including
Russian, Yiddish, German, Hebrew and Polish). Yet it also partly lies in
the shifting attitude of the Jews themselves towards their own tradition,
and towards religion and politics more generally. An example of this last
feature is, perhaps, the plurality of approaches adopted to Zionist thought.
Such thoughts about a culture inevitably prompt a further question: can it,
whatever it is, be grasped from outside? Is it not the case that only those
who acknowledge a culture as their own can properly claim to know it, and
is it not then also the case that only these are entitled to evaluate the influence of other cultures with respect to its intellectual heritage? Moreover,
as a result of the extermination of the Jews carried out during the period of
the Second World War, we have, in an important respect, lost our access to
the cultural phenomenon of a multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-faith
East-Central Europe.
As editors of the book entitled THE INFLUENCE OF JEWISH CULTURE ON THE INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE OF CENTRAL AND
EASTERN EUROPE, we are concerned with these difficult issues, and
it is for this reason that we have chosen to invite distinguished specialists from Belarus, Germany, Russia, the Ukraine and Poland, working in
a variety of domains of the humanities, ranging from philosophy and theology to history and literary studies, to cooperate with us. As a result, this
publication has an interdisciplinary character and sheds light on the subject
10
TERESA OBOLEVITCH, JÓZEF BREMER
mentioned in its title in three distinct contexts. The first part (“Historicocultural perspective”) contains articles that depict selected aspects of Jewish history and culture in East-Central Europe: i.e. in Poland, the Soviet
Union and Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Particular attention is paid
to the motive of the Promised Land, and to educational questions. The
second (“Philosophico-theological perspective”) explores and analyses
the particular topics connected with the presence of strains of Jewish culture in the thought of a wide range of distinguished writers, philosophers
and theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries, coming from Poland (Józef
Tischner), Russia (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Leskov, Vladimir Solovyov, Semyon Frank, Lev Shestov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Vasily Rozanov,
Vyacheslav Ivanov, Vladimir Shmakov, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mother Maria
(Skobtsova), Viktor Malakhov, et al.) and German speaking (Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gershom Scholem and Karl
Barth). Finally, the third part (“Literary perspective”) presents material
connected with the Jewish tradition that appears in the literary works of
Joseph Roth, Anna Akhmatova and Daniel Kharms.
The resulting publication is supposed to furnish an opportunity for
a strengthening of institutional and personal connections linking together
scholars from Poland and from elsewhere, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences. It is also conceived as a modest illustration of the state of research into Jewish culture (in the broader context of
research not confined to Poland), and as a nexus of scholarly interaction. It
is our hope that the presentation of Jewish threads in European civilisation,
and the mutual currents of influence – sometimes hard to separate out – of
these great cultures on one another, will engender a deeper understanding
of their significance for the development of our intellectual heritage generally, and, especially, for the philosophical heritage of East-Central Europe,
opening the way to further studies in the area of the history of ideas, as well
as to interfaith dialogue.
We wish, here, to thank all of the authors who responded to our request
for contributions to the book for their excellent and fruitful cooperation.
We would also like to thank the administrative authorities of the “Ignatianum” Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education in Cracow, as well
as the Goethe Institute in Cracow and Ignatianum Press/WAM, for all their
assistance connected with the preparation of this volume for publication.
Teresa Obolevitch, Józef Bremer
HISTORICO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Tomasz Gąsowski
Jagiellonian University
“Ignatianum” Jesuit University of Philosophy and Education (Cracow, Poland)
Yiddish Land – an Expedition to the Land
of Shadows
I. The search for Central Europe
Since ancient times, the fact that our continent was divided in a multitude of ways has been considered as obvious, constant and normal. Starting
from natural conditions, through matters of ethnicity, culture, civilisation
or, finally, politics, Europe has always been and remains divided in many
different ways. There have been numerous divisions functioning in various
times and various contexts, but I would like to concentrate on one division,
which first appeared during the period between World War I and World
War II. The authors of the division were a number of political scientists, as
well as historians from Poland and Hungary. A particularly important role
here was played by Oskar Halecki, who – starting from his speech during
an international congress of historians in the year 1923, continued to promote the idea of the existence of another part of Europe, located between
the Western and the Eastern parts of the continent – the Central Europe.1
The idea was a kind of intellectual, but also partially political, reaction to
J. Cisek, Oskar Halecki: Historyk – szermierz wolności [Oskar Halecki: The Historian –
a Champion of Freedom], Warszawa: IPN – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi
Polskiemu 2009, p. 9, 39-40. His most important publications concerning this matter include:
The Historical Role of Central-Eastern Europe, Philadelphia 1944; The Limits and Divisions
of European History, New York: Sheed & Ward 1950; Borderlands of Western Civilization:
a History of East Central Europe, New York: The Ronald Press Company 1952, as well as
Historia Europy – jej granice i podziały [The Limits and Divisions of European History],
trans. by J.M. Kłoczowski, Lublin: Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej 1994.
1
14
TOMASZ GĄSOWSKI
the profound changes which took place in Europe following World War I,
which involved the fall of the neighbouring Romanov and Habsburg empires. As a result of these changes, a number of new countries appeared
between the weakened Germany and the Soviet Russia, more or less in the
middle of the continent. The elites of these countries were searching for
a manner in which they could define their place in the inter-war Europe.
These countries were created by nations which had either freed themselves
from the rule of the tsar (the Balts, the Poles), or were the beneficiaries of
the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Stressing the separate character of
this region became of even greater importance after World War II, when the
political map of Europe ended on the Elbe river, and the remaining part of
the map, which was coloured red, continued all the way to the Pacific Ocean
and only had one centre: Moscow.
In the 1980s, the idea of Central Europe (in some sources, also the name
of Central-East Europe is used) was revived. Independent of one another,
three outstanding intellectuals: Milan Kundera from the Czech Republic,
György Konrad from Hungary and Czesław Miłosz from Poland started to
place great stress on the separate character of their “motherland Europe.”
It seems that the most intensive reaction was provoked by the essay written by the first of the intellectuals, under the title The Kidnapped West or
the Tragedy of Central Europe.2 The essay was a kind of appeal, an emotional manifesto addressed to the public opinion of the free world, stating
that between Western Europe and Eastern Europe (Russia, in other words),
there existed Central Europe, a part of Europe which was culturally and
historically connected with the western part of the continent. He began his
essay by reminding the world of the profile of the director of a Hungarian
press agency, who in the year 1956, on the day when the Soviet Union army
entered Budapest, sent a telegram to the world, stating that “We would die
for Hungary and for Europe.” The unique character of Central Europe, an
area dominated by the Communists at the time, results from the fact that
this region “had an extremely condensed experience of history.” The region
was a bastard of history, which gave it up to Eastern Europe, to which it
had never belonged culturally. Above all, it was the Europe of small nations – let us not depend that the author of the appeal came from Bohemia
– which in the past used to be parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. What
are “small nations,” actually? They are nations which are not certain of their
First printed in “Le Debat” (1983), then in the “New York Review of Books” 4 (1984).
Polish edition was printed in “Zeszyty Literackie” 5 (1984).
2
YIDDISH LAND – AN EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF SHADOWS
15
fate, of their existence, which have to prove time and again to the world that
they do exist and that their existence is indeed justified, most frequently on
the basis of their input in the European culture. Central Europe is also the
embodiment of the idea of multiculturalism. According to Mr Kundera, the
central European model was based on the rule of maximum multiculturalism on a minimum space. At the end of his work, Kundera presents the
profiles of two outstanding inhabitants of Central Europe, whose profiles
are of unique importance for the following part of this argument. The first of
them is Sigmund Freud, the Austrian psychologist who spent his childhood
in Bohemia and his Jewish family came from the “Polish” Galicia. The second one is the German-speaking Jew Franz Kafka, who lived in the Prague
and in the Czech language was used in his home. In my opinion, among
many potential candidates, at least one more person should be mentioned:
Joseph Roth, a famous Austrian writer who was born near Brody in Galicia,
and who never managed to accept the fact of the collapse of his father land,
the monarchy of Franz Joseph.3 At this moment, Kundera makes his most
important point, stating that
Jews were the most important cosmopolitan element which integrated Central Europe.
They were a kind of intellectual binding material for the region, an embodiment of its
spirit and the creators of its spiritual unity.
And it was their disappearance that gave the hardest blow to the European character of this region, which became dominated by Russia as a result
of the Second World War.
The idea was repeated, in a less emotional but equally suggestive manner, in the essay under the title The Three Historical Regions of Europe by
the Hungarian historian and philosopher Jeno Szucs,4 and also, at a slightly
later date, by Timothy Garton Ash.5 In current times, the idea continued to
be expressed not only by historians,6 but also by writers such as Yuri Andrukhovyvch or Andrzej Stasiuk. The territorial shape of the area has also
The novel The Radetzky March (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie 1995), as well as the
volume The Bust of the Emperor from the so-called Galician-Austrian triptych, Poznań:
Bene Nati 1996.
4
First printed in The Three Historical Regions of Europe, Budapest: Magvetö 1983, Polish
edition under the title Trzy Europy [Three Europes], trans. by J.M. Kłoczowski, Lublin:
Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej 1995.
5
T. Garton Ash, The uses of Adversity: Essays on the Fate of Central Europe, London:
Penguin 1990.
6
Here, it is necessary to mention, above all, the founder of Instytut Europy ŚrodkowoWschodniej [The Central-Eastern Europe Institute] in Lublin, professor Jerzy Kłoczowski.
3
16
TOMASZ GĄSOWSKI
recently been defined by Csaba G. Kiss.7 He defines the area as a territory
“located East of Germany and West of the Russian-speaking area.” The
area does not only include countries which comprised the former AustroHungarian Empire, but also countries outside the Empire, such as Poland
and the Balkans.8
The discussion concerning Central Europe continues, in particular in
terms of defining its borders and the formula – is it Central or CentralEastern Europe? However, nobody questions the existence of the area any
more. The argument rather concerns the definition of the character of the
area – political or only cultural, or in other words, whether it is of material
or only spiritual character. In terms of defining the area, I am in favour of
the classical definition, according to which Central Europe encompasses
the Polish-Lithuanian state, as well as the countries of the Crown of Saint
Wenceslas and the Crown of Saint Stephen (i.e. the historic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hungary and Bohemia). In terms of the other facet of
the definition, I place greater stress on the cultural aspect, although in some
cases, the political aspect only played an important role in the consolidation
of this region.9 A specialist in the field, the history professor Piotr Wandycz,
in his work under the title The Price of Freedom, presented several constitutive features of this area which form the basis of the community.10 Among
others, the professor mentions the important presence of the Jewish community and various roles played by the community in different areas of life.
This means that the literary intuition of Milan Kundera was confirmed by
the acclaimed historian, a professor at Yale University. It is not a surprise,
then, that this territory is also frequently called “Yiddyshland.” The area
and the fate of its inhabitants are the main theme of this text.
7
Lekcja Europy Środkowej. Eseje i szkice [The Lesson of Central Europe. Essays and Sketches], Kraków: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury 2009.
8
Jak widzimy siebie nawzajem. Obrazy narodów i uprzedzenia w Europie Środkowej [How
We Perceive One Another. The Images of Nations and Prejudice in Central Europe], “Herito
– Dziedzictwo, kultura, współczesność” 1 (2010), p. 6.
9
As a result of the rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty, then the Habsburg dynasty, and after the
year 1989, it was the so-called “Visegrád Group.”
10
P.S. Wandycz, Cena wolności. Historia Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej od średniowiecza
do współczesności [The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present], trans. by T. Wyrozumski, Kraków: Znak 1995, p. 23-25.
YIDDISH LAND – AN EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF SHADOWS
17
II. The birth of Yiddishland. Ashkenazi Jews in Central Europe –
from the darkness of the Middle Ages towards the lights of the
Enlightenment period (11th–18th century)
Starting from the Middle Ages, the rulers as well as lords in the area
had a supportive attitude towards the Jews coming to live in this area, who
had in most cases been refugees from the Catholic monarchies of Western
Europe, such as the German states, France or even Spain.11 Their attitude remained friendly in spite of the protests of the local church authorities, who
followed the Catholic doctrine of the time, which defined Jews as a threat to
the believers in the only true, holy faith, as well as a group which was harmful for the social fabric, destroying it by its usury activities, and also the
sale of alcohol. However, even though appeals, orders or even just warnings against any contacts with the “infidels” had been repeatedly issued
since the thirteenth century, they did not manage to stop the constant, and
sometimes dramatically increasing, influx of Jews into the area of Central
Europe. While the motives of their migration towards the East are fairly
obvious, the decisions taken by the local elites to accept the Jews, and in
some cases even to encourage them to inhabit their lands are much more
complicated. These decisions were not an act of deeply humanitarian tolerance, which they have sometimes been claimed to be. What was important
was the multitude of various advantages of the presence of Jews for the
area. These resulted from the fact that Jews specialised in various fields of
the economy at the time, they became the initial group which formed the
core of early inhabitants of towns, and were frequently in high demand
in the newly created settlements. Another useful feature include the Jews’
skills in medicine or other more sophisticated handicrafts, such as e.g. minting. Another important feature worth noticing, which resulted in a fast increase in the number of Jews (also called Hebrews) in this area was the high
birth rate.
A huge majority of Jews who decided to settle in this area were Ashkenazi Jews, one of the two major groups of the Diaspora, who had travelled
from Italy to the Rhineland region, and then started to travel further towards
The broadest printed collection of information concerning Jews in Central Europe is present in a two-volume work edited by the outstanding researcher David Gerszon Hundert: The
Yivo Encyclopaedia of Jews In Eastern Europe, vol. 1-2, New Haven – London: Yale University Press 2008, which provides information on the current state of research conducted
by numerous scientists from many countries and research centres who specialised in this
subject matter.
11
18
TOMASZ GĄSOWSKI
the East.12 As early as in the first half of the eleventh century, Jewish communities existed in the Prague, Cracow and Esztergom. In the centuries
which followed, new communities were created, and the number of their
inhabitants was rising at a fast rate. The wave of Jewish settlers was moving
East together with the boundaries of Poland, and then the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth. Everywhere, the legal status of the inhabitants was defined
by the servitus Iudeorum (“the captivity of Jews”) formula, which defined
their dependence on the state authorities as well as the Church. Their status
was further defined by special legal acts – statutes introduced at almost the
same time, first by the king Bela IV of Hungary in 1251, then by Ottokar
II of Bohemia in 1255, as well as the Greater Poland prince Boleslaw the
Pious in 1264. It is worth noticing that the state laws created in this manner
also accepted of some forms of Talmudic Law, respected the Torah oaths
and also mentioned the cherem (the highest ecclesiastical censure). The religious life of Central Eastern Jews was, above all, based on the Talmud
and on the tradition, and to a lesser extent on the decisions taken by the
rabbis. At the same time, the first Jewish districts (“town”) were created –
the earliest ones in the 1270s in the Prague. In the next two hundred years,
following the collapse of the Spanish centre, the Prague was to become the
most important centre of the Jewish spiritual and intellectual life on an European scale. At a later date, Poland increased in importance. The wealthy
and densely populated communities in Cracow, Lublin, Lviv, or Vilnius,
were inviting more migrants from the West, particularly as regular violence
from the commoners or the edicts of Catholic monarchs, forcing Jews to
be christened or be forced into exile, did not give them hope for a secure
existence. The situation was different in Poland. It was then that the Jews
became more frequently present on private lands, thus becoming dependent
on the local lords. Their fate in some cases was worse, but frequently it was
better than the fate of the Jews who remained under the rule of the monarch,
in the cities controlled by the King.13 In this manner, the unique Central European community of Ashkenazi Jews was growing in the spirit of relative
freedom of practising their religion, following their traditions and culture.
12
H. Zaremska, Żydzi w średniowiecznej Europie Środkowej: w Czechach, Polsce i na Węgrzech [Jews in Medieval Central Europe: in Bohemia, Poland and Hungary], Poznań: Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk 2005, p. 29f.
13
Por. G.D. Hundert, The Jews in a Polish private town, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press 1992, also A. Kaźmierczyk, Żydzi w dobrach prywatnych w świetle sądowniczej
i administracyjnej praktyki dóbr magnackich w wiekach XVI–XVIII [Jews on private Lands
in the Light of Judicial and Administrative Practices of Noblemen’s Lands in the 16th – 18th
centuries], Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka 2002.
YIDDISH LAND – AN EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF SHADOWS
19
The sixteenth century became “the golden age” in the history of Jewish communities in Central Europe, and above all, in Poland. The dynamic
demographical growth facilitated the creation of new communities and the
formation of a three-layer system of autonomic Jewish authorities which
encompassed a number of districts, and whose crowning achievement was
the Council of Four Lands (Waad Arba Arcot), which started operating in
the 1580s, in Lublin and in Jarosław in turns. A similar institution was also
created in Lithuania. From that time, the Jews living in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enjoyed two centuries of the existence of a unique
system of extended autonomy, which made it possible for them to live in
relative peace, in accordance with the Torah, Talmud and the Halakha. At
the same time, the system managed to strengthen the integrity of Jews in
institutional, religious, cultural and also spatial (separate Jewish “towns,”
districts, or streets) terms, thus turning Jews into a separate estate in the
feudal society of the time. The accusations sometimes presented towards
Jews, as well as signs of aggression (also in physical terms), which were
ideologically supported by anonymous brochures stemming from the spirit
of Christian anti-Judaism of the time, were much less frequent here than in
the countries of Western Europe. However, there was also another aspect
of this solution, which in following years started to develop into a difficult
problem. The matter involved deep isolation of Jews from the surrounding
Christian communities, which was made even stronger by the language difference. This was because at the time, the Ashkenazi Jews used their own
language, a local version of Yiddish, which was sometimes called “jargon”
by Poles. It was this situation that became the source of the legend presenting the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as “Po-lin,” a place where one
could find shelter and a safe haven in the world. The Commonwealth was
also sometimes called “the pillar of Torah,” or, somewhat exaggeratedly,
the “Paradisus Judeorum” (the Jewish Paradise). Also other cities of the
Commonwealth, such as Cracow, Lublin or Vilnius, became known after
some time as “the New Jerusalem.”14
Nevertheless, the presence of the Jewish community remained clearly
visible in the two remaining countries of the region. Consequently, when
the “golden age” of the Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth came to an end in the middle of the 17th century, the Prague
again became the centre of the Jewish community in Europe. A sign of their
Cf. D. Kac, Wilno Jerozolimą było. Rzecz o Abrahamie Sutzkeverze [Vilnius used to be
Jerusalem. The Story of Abraham Sutzkever], 2nd edition, Sejny: Pogranicze 2004.
14
20
TOMASZ GĄSOWSKI
presence which is visible until this day is the perfectly preserved Jewish
district in the city, nowadays one of the biggest tourist attractions in the
whole region.
In spite of the fact that the condition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was gradually deteriorating, at the end of the 18th century it
continued to be the home to nearly 80% of the whole global population of
Jews. In the 19th century, this area had the biggest Jewish population in the
world. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the total number
of Jews in the area exceeded five million, three quarters of the total number
of Jewish inhabitants of the Old Continent. On the New Continent, that is
in the USA, a community had only begun to form, then continued rising
until at the end of the 20th century, it became the biggest Jewish community,
which mainly comprised emigrants from Central Europe. However, the exceptional force and importance of the Central European Jewish community
was not only defined by its sheer numbers.
In spite of some regional differences, the community formed a unified,
almost homogenous group functioning within the Yiddish culture, as it is
nowadays called. As was mentioned previously, it is for that very reason
that this area is sometimes called “Yiddishland,” although today the name
only refers to its historical heritage.15 When Jews were settling in the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, in Bohemia or in Hungary – lands which starting from the 16th century were incorporated in the second inter-regional
empire – the Habsburg Empire, they brought along their cultural heritage,
which they continued to develop and enrich creatively, taking advantage of
the favourable conditions. The basis of the heritage was formed by the unchangingly integral Judaism, including all its religious imperatives and prohibitions, religious observances, customer and way the lives of individuals,
families and whole communities were organised. This kind of community
life was organised within the Jewish Quahal (kehilla), the autonomous governments of Jewish communities, including their institutions, functions and
structure. In all major cities of the region, Jewish quarters, sometimes even
called Jewish towns, appeared and remained open in day time – the town of
Kazimierz near Cracow is a good example. The towns did not have the form
of closed ghettoes, which were characteristic for Western Europe. Another
unique form of Jewish settlements, unknown to the inhabitants of Western
Europe, was the shtetl, a settlement which found its definite form in the 18th
For example E. Geller, M. Polit, Jidyszland – polskie przestrzenie [Yiddishland – Polish
Spaces], Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 2008.
15
YIDDISH LAND – AN EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF SHADOWS
21
century. The shtetl was a town in which Jews comprised the majority of inhabitants.16 This kind of settlement is clearly a direct opposite of the Western
European ghettoes. A huge number of lands in Central and Eastern Poland,
Lithuania, the Ukraine, Transylvania or Slovakia were covered with Jewish
towns of this kind right as long as until the Second World War. It was the
“Lord’s Land,” which was described, in a slightly poeticised manner, by
Abraham Jehoszua Heschel.17 In some cases, the features of the shtetl are
ascribed – due to the fact that this settlement is unique and not very clearly
defined – also to towns in which Jewish inhabitants were not the majority,
but which they themselves perceived as their “little homelands.” “Little”
ones, as the “huge” homeland, their ideological homeland was always the
Promised Land – the Palestine. Consequently, it is worth remembering that
the country where the Jews settled, or the region or the country was not of
major importance in this emotional system. The inhabitants of a shtetl were
well-visible and fully participated in the social and cultural lives in these
towns, and in some cases they were elected to hold important official positions. Finally, there is another important feature which characterised the
inhabitants of this region – a unique form of religiousness which first appeared in the Podolia area in the middle of the 18th century as a result of the
religious teachings of the “Master of the Good Name,” Yisroel (Israel) ben
Eliezer, often called Baal Shem Tov or Besht, a Jewish mystical rabbi. He is
considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism.18 In the following century,
Hasidic Judaism became the dominating, although not the only form of
religiousness for the huge numbers of Central European Jews. These were
the beginning of the presence of Jews in this region and this is how the
foundations for the existence, culture and cultural heritage were built for
the Jewish community.
The Shtetl: Myth and Reality, A. Polonsky (ed.), “Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry,” vol. 17
(2004).
17
A.J. Heschel, Pańska jest ziemia: wewnętrzny świata Żyda w Europie Wschodniej [The
earth is the Lord’s; the inner world of the Jew in East Europe], trans. by H. Halkowski,
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Esprit 2010.
18
Cf. J. Doktór, Początki chasydyzmu polskiego [The Beginnings of Hassidic Judaism in
Poland], Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 2004; Hassidism in Romania, “Studia Judaica,” vol. III (1994), p. 7-170. See also: R. Elior, Mistyczne źródła chasydyzmu [The Mystical Sources of Hassidic Judaism], trans. by M. Tomal, Kraków – Budapest:
Wydawnictwo Austeria 2009.
16