Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak

Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland by Professor Joshua D. Zimmerman

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 01/27/2026 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies

Part II: Focusing on Chapter 14 State Builder

WEBINAR 2/15/26 – The story of the enigmatic Jozef Pilsudski, the founding father of modern Poland: a brilliant military leader and high-minded statesman who betrayed his own democratic vision by seizing power in a military coup.

In the story of modern Poland, no one stands taller than Jozef Pilsudski. From the age of sixteen he devoted his life to reestablishing the Polish state that had ceased to exist in 1795. Ahead of World War I, he created a clandestine military corps to fight Russia, which held most Polish territory. After the war, his dream of an independent Poland realized, he took the helm of its newly democratic political order. When he died in 1935, he was buried alongside Polish kings.[…]

Poles and Jews: A Call for Myth Reconstruction

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 01/01/2026 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies

Back for a Deeper Understanding

WEBINAR: Please join us January 11, 2026, when Freighted Legacies returns with a conversation featuring author Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal and her monumental book, Poles and Jews: A Call for Myth Reconstruction. We will focus on Chapter 20, “Myth Reconstruction and the Backlash in Poland.” Understanding the complex political and cultural dynamics within Poland will be a key takeaway from this upcoming webinar. Stark-Blumenthal also poses the significant question: Could the study of history replace nationalist slogans and tired prejudices? We hope you will join in the conversation.

Laurel Kratochvila and Polish Baking—A Culinary Meet-Cute

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 11/22/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies

In 2009, Laurel was living in Prague, aimless and bartending when a “nice Moravian guy” took her to buy pickles in Poland. “I wound up on a second date, skidding around snow drifts to cross the border into Poland, the first time anyone in my family had been back in about a hundred years.” Carrying an enormous plastic pickle bucket between them, the couple eventually stumbled into a local bakery, where Laurel found herself ogling an “almost impossible variety” of beautiful baked goods. The experience launched her love affair with Polish baking, and pushed her further toward her culinary career. She’s now a French-trained baker and the owner of Berlin’s acclaimed Fine Bagels. And she married that nice Moravian guy. […]

Andrea Strongwater’s Lost Synagogues of Europe

By Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak 11/05/2025 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Freighted Legacies

Paintings and Histories

Lost Synagogues of Europe recreates in vivid color paintings and chronicles the life stories of nearly eighty majestic— and destroyed— European synagogues, each one a testament to the approximately 17,000 synagogues decimated during the Third Reich and early takeover of the Communist regimes. After WWII only about 3,300 buildings remained standing, and just 700+ are still in use as synagogues. This exquisite and significant work of historical preservation collects, organizes, and documents their stories.

Freighted Legacies has invited Andrea Strongwater to focus on the synagogues in the Polish Lands which include close to 20 locations. The imagination is drawn into a reflection of the missing material culture of Jewish life.[…]