Since the Enlightenment, the cultural creativity of Polish Jews has found expression not only in Hebrew and
The volume comprises six sections. There is new research on Jewish literature in Polish, including discussions of less widely known works by Janusz Korczak and Julian Stryjkowski. Polish–Yiddish–Hebrew literary contacts are then reviewed, with important pieces on Y. L. Peretz’s early work, the translation of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s poetry into Polish, the influence of Polish writers on Sholem Asch’s early plays, and the reception of Yosef Opatoshu’s novels in interwar Poland. The next section explores the images of Poles and Poland in the work of Jewish writers and of Jews in the work of Polish authors, for instance in the work of the Hebrew Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and the Polish writer Stanisław Vincenz. The subsequent section looks at avant-garde art and modern ideologies, with discussions of Bruno Schulz’s graphic works and why communism appealed to some Jewish writers.
In spite of this wide range of themes, the coverage of the topic is not exhaustive: there are still very few studies of Polish–Hebrew literary contacts, and although more has been written about Yiddish writers in Poland there are still areas requiring a comparative perspective. This is a major study of topics which have rarely been discussed in English, especially Jewish literature written in Polish. The articles should appeal to all students of literature, and particularly to those interested in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew creativity understood as a rich cultural