Popkultura wobec izraelskich wzorców pamiętania o Zagładzie

Author(s): Jagoda Budzik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

After the long period of intentional silence surrounding the subject of the Holocaust survivors in the official discourse of Israel, more and more often the Holocaust served as a justification for the Israeli military activity as well as it became a central element shaping the national identity of the Israeli Jews. This situation is directly reflected in the texts of Israeli mass culture but also has been widely criticized with the use of tools it offers. The main objective of the article is to give a brief overview of the history of this dual relationship between Israeli pop culture and the Holocaust memory, as well as to explain the special status it has in Israel from the first decades of the state’s existence until the period of an extensive presence of the topic of Holocaust memory in various kinds of popular media.

John Zorn. Jak być żydowskim postmodernistą (albo postmodernistycznym Żydem)?

Author(s): Michal Wandzilak,Mariusz Czubaj / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

Being one of the most prominent figures of the New York avant-garde scene since the early 1980s of the 20th century – John Zorn is almost nonexistent in the Polish musical studies. Moreover, even though his art is densely packed with the dilemmas of the contemporary culture, Zorn’s music seems to be unnoticed neither by the anthropology nor by the cultural studies. Style-wise, due to the theory of the Jonathan Kramer and other notable music theorists, John Zorn’s music should be classified as connected to the postmodern movement. In his early works Zorn explores different musical contexts: the concept of “high” and “low” styles, structural unity, eclecticism, popular culture, etc. But dated from the release of the album, titled Kristallnacht, the next period of Zorn‘s musical activity is deeply involved in search for the Jewish identity in music and therefore rerouted to the new political religious social and traditional context. In short, John Zorn through his music is questioning the fundamental issues of contemporary culture: its identity, existence and tradition.

Dlaczego Superman nie mógł być Żydem? Tożsamość żydowska w komiksie amerykańskim i frankofońskim

Author(s): Martyna Steckiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

Beginning with Superman and the Golden Age of American Comic Books, by Will Eisner’s graphic novels and Art Spiegelman’s underground stories, till the most recent examples of artists from both American and Francophone comic schools – there is a long history of Jewish motives in the comic stories. The article presents an analysis of the relations between the identity of the authors and their comic books. Among them are i.a. Art Spiegelman, Michel Kichka and Jérémie Dres who represent both different artistic generations and cultural backgrounds; yet, they all explore the issue of Jewishness and express their thoughts by using the language of comic books.

Żydowska Warszawa w obrazkach. Komiksowa antologia Złote pszczoły jako przykład kultury historycznej

Author(s): Gaweł Janik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

The following article aims to show places where pop culture merges with Jewish tradition on the example of comic books. The author tries not only to reconstruct the evolution of the genre and its changing reception but also to show the history of comic books which introduce Jews as their main characters. The emphasis is put on comics about the Holocaust and superheroes which have actually become a separate category of graphic stories. The author uses as an example the Polish comic anthology - Złote pszczoły, which is one of the rare examples concerning the comic art about Jews and which has been incorporated into the cultural heritage and rescue history. The article draws attention to the fact that this is and institutional comic in which animal symbols have an important meaning and the Holocaust is not mentioned by its name at all, which seems to be done on purpose.

Żydowskie dziedzictwo. Uwagi o sagach współczesnych

Author(s): Marta Tomczok / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

In the article I pay attention to the contemporarily increasing importance of the family saga in the Polish Jewish studies. I propose the reading of the prose of Bronisław Wildstein (Czas niedokonany), Ałbena Grabowska (Stulecie Winnych), Ben Elton (Two Brothers) and Karina Schaapman (The Mouse Mansion. Sam and Julia). The 20th c. history of the European Jews present in these books usually focuses on several key pictures/moments/situations, that is: pre-war pogroms, the Shoah, and – only in the Polish version – żydokomuna [“Judeo-Communism”] and March 1968. I demonstrate their influence on pop-cultural narration through the analysis of Czas niedokonany in particular. In this story the inheritance of trauma, significant for the narration of the Second Generation, gains a supplement in the form of the inheritance of the Jewish capital, post-war Jewish careers and professional advancement. The article is an introduction to the profound study on the newest pop-cultural story tackling the subject of Jewishness; it also indicates the necessity of extracting from a large group of Polish, noble and post-noble family sagas the storylines centered on Jewish culture, based on a different ideology and distinct myths.

Co kultura popularna zrobiła z Żydem Wiecznym Tułaczem? Współczesne renarracje legendy o Ahaswerze.

Author(s): Szymon Makuch / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

The main purpose of the article is an analysis of the ways of existence of the Wandering Jew character in contemporary culture. Considerations include literary texts, movies, comic books and computer games. In the 20th and 21th century this motif is still present in pop culture, and the apocrypha is very interesting material for many reinterpretations and renarrations. The analysis is based on two types of narration – “biblical” and “non biblical.” The first group includes works where the Wandering Jew participates in the suffering of Jesus and has a possible impact on the course of events. The second group includes works where the Wandering Jew does not participate in life and death of Jesus; however, characters have his name or there are references to the legend.

Wątki żydowskie w polskim kabarecie na początku XXI wieku

Author(s): Diana Karwowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

The paper deals with the image of Jews in contemporary Polish cabaret. Increasingly, homegrown artists take up the subject of anti-Semitism and intolerance although sometimes they include stereotypical figures, clever Jews. Sometimes you can still find very nostalgic references to the lost past. Generally, this subject does not enjoy the popularity of cabaret performers; their focus on describing the present Polish society rarely takes into account any representatives of other nationalities. The analysis of these representations is supplemented by the reflection on the vitality of prejudices against the Jewish community and the place of their Polish heritage in popular culture.

Siedmioro karłów z Auschwitz, które „Doktorowi Śmierć zawdzięczały życie”. O bohaterach reportażu Kukiełki doktora Mengele Yehudy Koren i Eliat Negev

Author(s): Agnieszka Kamińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2015

A man mistreated day after day – experiencing his own death every day for years, denigrated, beaten, threatened, with no perspectives for the future – should hate his oppressor. The story of a Jewish Hungarian family of dwarfs shows that this is not always the case. In this sketch, the author analyzes the biographical narrations of the chacters of the book, who are clearly ambivalent towards doctor Mengele. It appears that the key to the interpretation of their behavior lies in deep psychological mechanisms. The analysis of the subjects’ narrations shows that Holocaust survivors suffered until the end of their days from, what psychologists and psychiatrists have named, the posttraumatic stress disorder. As the author is not a psychiatrist, she does not discuss PTSD symptoms from a medical perspective. The aim of the study is to look at the memories presented in the book with an approach informed by the humanities and embedded in the context of psychiatric terminology. The main analytical method is hermeneutics (Prot 2009).

Pisać w trzecim języku: przestrzeń między świętym a świeckim w myśli Gershoma Scholema i Jacquesa Derridy

Author(s): Karen C. Underhill / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2016

This article explores Gershom Scholem’s ‘On Our Language: A Confession’ (an open letter to Franz Rosenzweig on the secularisation of the Hebrew language) as well as Jacques Derrida’s essay on Scholem’s text. Underhill draws on the figure of the palimpsest and the cabbalistic concept of language in her attempt to reconstruct both texts. She also borrows Derrida’s notion of the ‘third language’ on the border between sacred and profane language.

Милена Кирова. Героичното тяло. История и мъжественост в еврейската Библия. София, 2017

Author(s): Kristina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION. SIMMEL’S THEORY OF CONFLICT APPLIED TO JUDAISM

Author(s): Mădălina Măndiţă / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

The study analyses the way in which the spiritual manifestation - the Judaism - forms in a very profound way the identity of a community. In this view we discover those key elements that become essential in the sociological understanding of a very troubled history, and we can reach this objective using the conflict theory of Georg Simmel. For this sociology of Judaism through what we can call creative conflict (with positive outcomes) we use the impressive studies of Max Weber and Antonin Causse concerning the ancient Judaism. The research of Judaism by the founding fathers of sociology permits us to read this unique people, contributing also to a right framing to understand present social realities, but also to the discovery of those decisive points that forms the immutable character of Jewish identity.

Love Strong as Death: Towards Another Finitude

Author(s): Agata Bielik-Robson / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

The essay focuses on love as a characteristic marker of a finite existence and its inherent relationship with others. Against the thanatophilic thought of Martin Heidegger, who defined human life as being-towards-death, the author would like to develop a philosophy of love which is, at the same time, an alternative philosophy of finitude. In order to do so, she evokes the Jewish concept of ahava which cannot be reduced either to the Greek sublimatory eros or the Christian agape. The author understands ahava as a way in which finite contingent life says yes to itself as a life, and not as a short-lasting moment of being, dead the very moment it gets born (as in Schopenhauer.s famous pun: natus est denatus). She also claims that there is a specifically Jewish conception of the love of the neighbour, which cannot be conflated with the Christian one and which implies its own rendering of both ‘love’, constituting an alternative to death, and ‘the neighbour’, constituting the truly singular other.

Judaizing and Identity in the earliest Transylvanian Sabbatarian Writings (1588? – 1621)

Author(s): Réka Újlaki-Nagy / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The denominational and national identity of Transylvanian Sabbatarians (‘Judaizers’) has been constantly debated since the mid-19th century discovery of Sabbatarian literature. The question has always been haunted by mythologizing tendencies. The absence of something that was a given in the case of other denominations – that is, reflection on their native land and their nationality – was explained in terms of denominationally and nationally biased standpoints. Although most scholars had their own opinion about this question, no one has tried to perform a detailed inquiry into the problem, based on the texts themselves, and within a context of the Sabbatarians’ attitude to Jews. The present essay tries to address this problem. Utilizing a relevant set of keywords, I try to identify the signs of identity-creation in the earliest extant texts, and I also try to explore the Sabbatarian perception of Jews. My investigation reinforces the hypothesis that the absence of a patriotic voice is rooted in the theological advance towards Jews. Although the perception of the Jews is not entirely positive in Sabbatarian texts, their role is unique, making them essential for salvation. This indicates the later direction of the formation of Sabbatarian national and denominational identity, which is a gradual movement towards Jewishness, leading to ‘assimilation’ later.

„Kwestia żydowska” w literaturze religijnej. Analiza treści modlitewnika Machzor li-Jom Kipur

Author(s): Agata Rybińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

The analysis of the prayer contained in the Hebrew-Russian prayer book allows to describe the linguistic image of God and his people — Israel/Jews. Appealing to the patriarchs, to the covenant between God and Israel, to the Torah, Jerusalem and temple worship, that is, the centuries-long Jewish religious tradition, are cultural codes, and at the same time key components of Jewish identity. They are a point of reference in considering so called the Jewish question, taking into account primarily the Jewish perspective, not the Christian one.

From Vienna Art Diaspora

Author(s): Gero Fischer / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The portfolio of the eminent and significant emeritus Professor of linguistics at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna Gero Fischer titled From Vienna Art Diaspora presents portraits of 18 artists of different nationalities. He gained artistic inspiration by studying world photography, mainly Czech and Slovak documentary photography. He created several cycles about Vienna, the Austrian-Czech border region, Northern Moravia, Moldavia, the Romanian Banat, Turkey, Poland and Estonia, etc. His main interest in taking photograph projects is everyday life in the tradition of the documentary photograph. In later years he has concentrated on creating portraits. He has exhibited his works in Vienna and abroad. As a curator he realized more than 150 exhibitions where he introduced not only well- known artists but also young graduates of art photography schools from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and other countries. His photography project From Vienna Art Diaspora between 2008 and 2009 was carried out on the basis of a commission from a non- profit organisation and an institution for migrants. In the context of the photographic display, personally, I see a similarity to the style of the remarkable American portraitist Arnold Newman and his environmental portraits, which achieved great acclaim during the 1950s. Fischer, like Newman, defines the being of the artists he captures in connection with their most familiar surroundings and representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities. The relation between the photographer and the depicted subject is defined by the important measure of communication with people in front of the camera. As for Newman, likewise with Fischer, it is just an experimental approach and a tendency to graphical simplicity. In the spirit of “environmental portraiture”, the point is that a photographer does not try to capture only the subject but also his surroundings and with that portrait itself tell its story. Therefore with both authors it comes down to a kind of psychoanalysis of the portrayed artists, either with their artworks, or in the environment in which they work, live - thus everything which affects their personality development. In this way the limits of the photographic medium are moving to an authentic plain of fellowship with the depicted subjects, with their destiny, being and living. It is a remarkable sociological dimension of photography. Our aim should be an effort to understand each another in integrity as well as in fragments.

Niegodziwi pasterze i Dobry Pasterz

Author(s): Jerzy Bosowski / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 24/2020

Kontekstem podjętych badań było odmienne opisywanie struktury tekstu Ez 34 przez różnych komentatorów Księgi Ezechiela. Celem badań było odkrycie struktury, którą starożytny autor zaplanował i zapisał. Zastosowano metodę retoryki hebrajskiej, którą opracował Roland Meynet. Osiągnięto następujące wyniki badań: fragment Ez 34,1-10 ma strukturę paralelno-koncentryczną o schemacie: A, B, C, B’, A’. Fragment Ez 34,11-31 też ma strukturę paralelno-koncentryczną o takim samym schemacie. Wniosek, jaki można wyciągnąć z badanego tekstu, sprowadza się do stwierdzenia, że Księga Ezechiela jest aktualna dzisiaj.

Report from the philosophical workshop organized by The Lvov–Warsaw School Research Center and Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv

Author(s): Ewelina Grądzka / Language(s): English Issue: 71/2021

Between 11–14 February 2021 the first international Philosophical Workshop organized by The Lvov–Warsaw School Research Center (LWSRC) and Kazimierz Twardowski Philosophical Society of Lviv (KTPSL) took place in the on–line version due to the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic. The working languages of the event were Polish, Ukrainian and English. The coordinators’ goal was to refer to the tradition of seminar of Kazimierz Twardowski, who was not only a distinguished philosopher but also a great educator, to stimulate interest and support for the young generation of researchers into the heritage of the Lvov–Warsaw School (LWS). It is claimed that due to Twardowski’s unprecedented didactical engagement he managed to upbring dozens of Professors like Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Stefan Baley, Leopold Blaustein, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Izydora Dąmbska, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Stanisław Leśniewski, Jan Łukasiewicz, Władysław Witwicki.

LE BATACLAN – LE DORĆOL: LE PATRIMOINE CULTUREL ET HISTORIQUE JUIF DE PARIS ET DE BELGRADE

Author(s): Nevena Daković,Aleksandra Kolaković / Language(s): French Issue: 75/2021

À travers une perspective multidisciplinaire, basée sur les connaissances historiques et pointant vers de nouvelles recherches sur le patrimoine culturel et historique des Juifs de Belgrade et de Paris, il s’agit de souligner les similitudes et les différences dans l’existence, la préservation et la présentation du patrimoine juif dans deux environnements géographiquement éloignés, historiquement et socialement différents. L’objectif est de tenir compte du contexte historique, culturel et artistique du patrimoine culturel juif historique et la question inextricablement liée de l’Holocauste. L’article cherche à lancer une discussion sur le Bataclan, le quartier juif de Paris, et Dorcol, une partie de Belgrade où les noms de rue témoignent de la vie de la communauté juive. Le but de l’article n’est pas seulement de comparer et de souligner le lien, mais aussi de promouvoir la diversité du patrimoine culturel de la France et de la Serbie.

ТРОП ВОЗА КАО СИМБОЛ ТРАУМЕ У КЊИЖЕВНОСТИ ХОЛОКАУСТА

Author(s): Milica M. Karić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 76/2021

Traumatic experience such as the Holocaust requires traumatic ways of representation. Those who dare to write about it encounter various dilemmas and difficulties in finding the right ways to write about something that cannot be written about. Train trope is a usual symbol of the biggest XX century trauma because rail- way system and different types of cars enabled transportation of millions of people from the whole Europe, whose lives were terminated in the death camps, as well as their wealth, gold and other valuables. Trains found their way in literature with both survivor writers and those who didn’t experience the Holocaust. The symbol of train had been interpreted within psychoanalysis of dreams as passage of time and life before it started to operate as a symbol of the very death in reality. In this paper we tried to investigate how train trope functions in this trauma based literary genre with those writers who were inside and those who felt them as cultural heritage. Those who were inside death trains, such as Elie Wiesel, insisted that the only way of representation has to be in documentary and realistic style. On the other hand, writers who were lucky not to experience the hell on Earth couldn’t write from the ‘inside’ and had to find other ways of representation. Their styles vary from allegory in Kosinsi’s autofictional novel to magic realism in David and Thomas’s novels. Thomas also adds Freudian psychoanalysis while Pinter experiments with stage representation.

Еврейските мотиви в „Сказание за буквите“ на Константин Костенечки – културни и интерпретационни проблеми

Author(s): Hristo Saldzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The present article deals with the translations of Hebrew and non Hebrew but presented as Hebrew anthroponyms and oikonyms in the work of Konstantin Konstenechki “Treatise of Letters” dating back to the first decade of the 15th century. Up to this moment excluding Jagić the researchers have not pay significant attention to this part of work and according to common opinion Konstantin did not know Hebrew language. However the careful language and textological analysis indicates that a big part of the translations of names and words loaned from the Old and New Testaments are identical or stay close to the etymologies including in the modern dictionaries and other are result of phonetic comparison to Aramaic. There are also translations influenced by Midrashes and the works of Philo of Alexandria.