FOSTERING A VIBRANT RENEWAL OF JUDAISM IN POLAND
Freighted Legacies Webinar
June 8, 2025
10AM Los Angeles / 12N Chicago / 1PM New York / 6PM London / 7PM Warsaw / 8PM Jerusalem
REGISTRATION LINK COMING SOON!
POLES and JEWS: A Call for Myth Reconstruction
Comprehensive Research
Independent researcher Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal will present Poles and Jews: A Call for Myth Reconstruction, an expansive and engaging investigation into centuries of changing Polish-Jewish relations. With forthright honesty the author calls on Poles and Jews to recognize and challenge the “myths” each tells about the other and themselves.
Through accessible language, Stark-Blumenthal brings the complexity of history to the reader while proposing an important moral reckoning for both Poles and Jews. Through a clear-eyed inspection of the past, this book invites a new moment to emerge in Polish-Jewish relations.
The dean of Polish/Jewish historians, Antony Polonsky, will join the conversation. This will be the second time that Professor Polonsky has joined us (see Barry Cohen’s Opening the Drawer: The Hidden Identities of Polish Jews). Polonsky is the senior editor of series of Jews of Poland.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Stark-Blumenthal is an independent researcher of Polish-Jewish relations with an extensive background in Judaic studies from Brandeis University, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and YIVO. Having conducted interviews with scholars, community leaders, and laity in Poland and the U.S., Stark-Blumenthal elevates context, respectfully challenging current taboos dividing the two groups.
SUMMARY
Nationalism’s global resurgence has upended societies. With the rise of the Polish nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, and American Jewry’s swift reaction to its law punishing people who allege Polish complicity in Holocaust crimes, both sides have revived old stereotypes. Stark-Blumenthal argues that American Jews’ disgust with Polish nationalism ought to be checked by America’s centuries-old embrace of white supremacy. Poles and Jews: A Call for Myth Reconstruction confronts both the anti-Polonism deeply embedded in the American Jewish community and Poland’s enduring relationship with antisemitism. Armed with two decades of research and in-depth interviews with scholars, community leaders, and laity in Poland and the U.S., Stark-Blumenthal dispels myths and considers new approaches to this relationship.
PRAISE
“This book is an outline of the history of changing Polish-Jewish relations as much as it is a record of the author’s personal journey, of grasping with the concept of the Other, of one’s Self, and of one’s homeland. The book looks at the history of Jewish experiences in Poland through Polish and Jewish understanding of the collective past, deconstructing components of both groups’ national myths.”
— Katarzyna Person, Jewish Historical Institute
DONATE TO SUSTAIN OUR WORK HERE.
ALL FREIGHTED LEGACIES BLOG POSTS ARE HERE.
A FULL LIST OF FREIGHTED LEGACIES EVENTS ARE HERE.
DONATE TO SUSTAIN THE FREIGHTED LEGACIES SERIES HERE.
ENJOY SOME OF OUR OTHER CONTENT
OUR WEBINARS ARE ALSO ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
It’s no cost to you to help us monetize our YouTube channel.
Please click the “subscribe” button (we need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers).
OUR WEBINARS ARE ALSO ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
It’s no cost to you to help us monetize our YouTube channel.
Please click the “subscribe” button (we need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers).