Conscious History

Thoroughly researched, this study highlights thehistorical scholarship that is one of the lasting legacies of interwar PolishJewry and analyses its political and social context. As Jewish citizensstruggled to assert their place in a newly independent Poland, a dedicated groupof Jewish scholars fascinated by history devoted themselves to creating a senseof Polish Jewish belonging while also fighting for their rights as an ethnicminority. The political climate made it hard for these men and women to pursuean academic career; instead they had to continue their efforts to create anddisseminate Polish Jewish history by teaching outside the university and publishingin scholarly and popular journals. By introducing the Jewish public to apantheon of historical heroes to celebrate and anniversaries to commemorate,they sought to forge a community aware of its past, its cultural heritage, andits achievements---though no less important were their efforts to counter theincreased hostility towards Jews in the public discourse of the day. Inhighlighting the role of public intellectuals and the social role of scholarsand historical scholarship, this study adds a new dimension to theunderstanding of the Polish Jewish world in the interwar period.

Natalia Aleksiun is the Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She is the co-editor, with Antony Polonsky and Brian Horowitz, of 'Writing Jewish History in Eastern Europe' (2016), and has published widely on Polish Jewish issues. Among several prestigious fellowships, she has been a fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich and at the Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies in Vienna, and the Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC.