Lesson 9: "Independent Poland"
Summary: Interwar Poland was a “laboratory” testing the various modern Jewish approaches to the Jewish question. Never before had the conditions been so favorable for the flourishing of Jewish national politics and culture in the Diaspora, nor is it likely to ever be again. Ultimately, no form of modern Jewish politics could address the crisis of impoverishment and antisemitism in Poland; all of them failed in their various strategies. Emigration to Palestine became impossible and Jewish rights – national civil - were ignored at home. However, Jewish national culture flourished: newspapers, theater, schools, film, literature and more all thrived despite the disastrous economic and political crisis. Thus we have the exact opposite of the Soviet experience; Jewish individuals suffered terribly from a material perspective, but Jewish culture thrived as never before.
Recommended Reading:
Ezra Mendelsohn, “Interwar Poland: good for the Jews or bad for the Jews?” in The Jews in Poland (1986), 130-139
Gershon Bacon, “Agudat Israel in interwar Poland,” in The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars,
Sam Kassow, “Community and Identity in the Interwar Shtetl” in The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars, 198-222
Antony Polonsky, “A Failed Pogrom: the demonstrations in Lwow, June 1929” in The Jews of Poland Between Two World Wars,
