Żydzi Wschodniej Polski. Seria VII, Między Odessą a Wilnem : wokół idei syjonizmu

Abstract

The annual meetings of researchers in Jewish issues, held at the University of Białystok and the Łukasz Górnicki Library as part of the ‘Jews of Eastern Poland’ research programme, have already become a tradition. The seventh meeting, which took place in 2018, was devoted to the onset and development of the Zionist movement both in the eastern lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The topic of the conference was ‘Between Odessa, Kiev, and Vilnius. Zionist ideas in Central and Eastern Europe. Originators – Literary Repercussions – Language.’ Much of the focus of participants in the conference was on Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880–1940), a Jewish journalist, writer of fiction, and militant politician, born in Odessa. The event was organized by the East-West Chair of the Faculty of Language and Literature at the University of Bialystok, the Research Department of the Łukasz Górnicki Library in Podlasie, the Tykocin Museum, and the Oikoumene Academic Association. The research and organizing committees of the conference suggested the following research topics to be taken up by its participants: ‒ Ze’ev Jabotinsky, his life, oeuvre, and political activity. ‒ Odessa as a Jewish milieu: the literary and intellectual traditions of Odessa Jews. ‒ Zionist ideas in the former eastern territories of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and in Central and Eastern Europe. ‒ Portrayal of Zionists in works of fiction; transformations of the Zionist idea in Polish and other literatures. ‒ Zionism in the Ukraine. ‒ Białystok as a centre of Zionist thought. ‒ The language of Zionist ideas and its reflection in journalism, the press, and in art. The proceedings were opened on Monday, May 7 in the Auditorium Hall of the Podlasie Library (14a Skłodowska-Curie St.) with welcome addresses delivered by Prof. Jarosław Ławski and Director Jolanta Gadek. After that, eight presentations were made by researchers from the USA, Poland, Ukraine, and Israel. The sessions were chaired by Dr Monika Szabłowska-Zaremba (Catholic University of Lublin) and Dr Łukasz Zabielski (Górnicki Library). After the lunch break, the sessions were continued under the chairmanship of Dr Olha Tsivkach and Anna Lebet-Minakowska, MA. The day culminated with a festive dinner in the Parter Gallery at the Łukasz Górnicki Library. The second day of the conference was scheduled at the Tykocin Synagogue. At half past nine in the morning, participants were greeted at the synagogue by Mr. Jan Maciejewski, Director of the Tykocin Museum (a branch of the Podlasie Museum in Białystok). The opening was also attended by Mr. Andrzej Lechowski, Director of the Podlasie Museum, and Dr Barbara Rogalewska (Institute of National Remembrance, Białystok branch). The sessions were chaired by Dr Anna Jeziorkowska-Polakowska (Catholic University of Lublin) and Prof. Jarosław Ławski (University of Białystok). After the presentations, Mr. Juliusz Szoda-Borzyszkowski, a member of the museum staff, invited participants to tour Tykocin and discover the remaining traces of Jewish culture in this town. The guests took a few hours' walk around the sights that are not necessarily mentioned in guidebooks, before a dinner at local restaurants. The conference was marked by the presence of foreign guests who have strong connections with Poland and Polish culture: Prof. Rachel Brenner (USA, Israel), Mr. Philip E. Steele (an American from Idaho, residing in Poland), Dr Elena Tartakovsky, a researcher of the history of the Habima Theatre (Tel-Aviv, Israel), Dr Olha Tsivkach, who strives to preserve the Polish and Jewish past in what used to be the city of Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), and Dr Artur Malynovskyi, a researcher in Russian studies from Odessa in the Ukraine. The presentations collected in this book are divided into three chapters: Around the Zionist idea; Social life and culture; Literary representations of ideas. The volume has been edited by Ewelina Feldman-Kołodziejuk, MA of the Institute of Modern Languages, University of Białystok, who specializes in English studies, and Prof. Jarosław Ławski of the University of Białystok, specializing in Polish and comparative studies. The publication has been prepared in cooperation with the Research Department of the Łukasz Górnicki Library and the Oikoumene Academic Association. The next conference in this series, scheduled for 2019, will be devoted to Jewish artists from Central and Eastern Europe.