Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland
Freighted Legacies Webinar
May 10, 2026
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10 am PST / 12 pm Chicago; 1 pm EST / 6 pm London / Poland 7 pm / 8 pm Israel
This is part of a new series of biographies and a survey of the work of prominent Polish Jewish religious, cultural, and philosophical leaders. Others in the series will include Hillel Zeitlin, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Julian Tuvim, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and Zalman Schachter-Shlomi. Our forthcoming list of biographies is extensive and will remind us of the deep roots that Jews nurtured in the "Polish lands" well into this century. Be sure to join us and tell your friends.
Introduction to the Exilic Worlds of Zygmunt Bauman: Sociologist, Philosopher, and Skeptic
The Fate of “Zionists” Expelled from Poland in 1968
Zygmunt Bauman was one of the great social thinkers of our time: the inventor of the idea of “liquid modernity.” Bauman transformed our thinking about the social conditions shaping our lives today. His own life was shaped by the great social forces that scarred the second half of the twentieth century – war, communism, antisemitism, and forced migration (exile from Poland). His work bears the traces of an outsider (Jew?) who knew all too well the enormous impact that social and political forces can have on individuals and whole societies.
Zygmunt Bauman’s work was multifaceted because he exercised a persistent commitment to the integrity of inquiry. Our webinar will focus on two central areas. Poland’s expulsion of “Zionists” in 1968 created an important post-exilic theme in Bauman’s thinking. He sought to understand why the social sciences struggled to address the Holocaust (Modernity and the Holocaust) and the extensive world inaugurated by the term Liquid Modernity.
Dr. Izabela Wagner is the editor of My Life in Fragments (2023) and author of Bauman: A Biography (2020)
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Dr. Wagner Has Graciously Shared Important Excerpts from Her Work:
Izabela Wagner (born 3 November 1964) is a Polish-born European sociologist. Wagner was awarded the scientific title of Professor Belwederski by the President of the Republic of Poland in May 2023[1] and has been a full professor at Université Paris Cité since September 1, 2023. Wagner has been an associate professor at the Institute of Sociology at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw[2] from December 2019 to August 2023. She is also a member of URMIS (Unité de Recherche Migrations et Société) Fellow at ICM (Institut Convergence Migration) in Paris since 2019. Her sociological research concerns migration and the exile of scientists, intellectuals, and musicians (violin virtuosos). Wagner’s contributions are also focused on the careers of artists and intellectuals, professional socialization and geographic mobility, migrations, and forced migrations. Dr. Izabel Wagner is the editor of My Life in Fragments (2023) and author of Bauman: A Biography (2020)
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