Polin – realna i fantazmatyczna ojczyzna Żydów polskich

Abstract

Georomanticism relates not only to the actual area itself but also to the imagined one, representing the phantasm. For the Jewish people, since the early Middle Ages, Poland has been the projection of a secure place, inhabited by good‑natured people. The Jews did not refrain from paying fiscal charges and defended their homeland, for example during the Kościuszko Uprising, the Napoleonic Wars, the November Uprising and the Cracow Uprising of 1846. Nevertheless, they were treated with hostility by Poles. The writers of the Enlightenment created a model of Judeopolonia, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory positing future Jewish domination of Poland. It was the Romantic literature that created a model of presenting the Jews as rightful citizens. The period of patriotic demonstrations, preceding the January Uprising, represented the climax of the Romantic model of social life and was the time of genuine unity between Polish and Jewish people. Despite all religious and ethical differences, a shared value, i.e. the freedom of the shared country worth sacrificing one’s life, was finally found.