Intelligence judaic in Poland
"When the Jews grow calmly, we hear the cries of despair that they flood us; erstwhile the Christian crowd emergence up against them, it sounds outraged at his wildness; erstwhile the Israelites stay in their darkness and separateness, evil, for they are a abroad component and harmful; erstwhile they are enlightened and likened, evil, for they cast us out of all positions."
“We want to take the role,” you say, “Jews take the land from us; to medicine, advocates, notariats—they shout: Jews vaporize us from all positions. Limited to commerce, 1 in a 1000 we make in it a wealth of turnover, hazard and savings – you call out: Jews cheat and exploit. In order to grow better with society, we accept your customs and religion. Will you take us in then? You challenge: baptism! – we are out of our own, and we are not gaining you. Finally, erstwhile in the civilian office we want to service this land, which, in any case, raised us and fed us, erstwhile we want to carry our wealth and work, then you answer: we do not want you, go away! Trade and exploit, it is your only craft.”
The 2 above statements, formulated almost simultaneously in the early 1880s, represent a strong expression of the breakthrough that took place at that time in the past of Jews, especially judaic intelligence in Poland. The first 1 was published in the weekly "Truth" in 1881, and its author is "Pope of Polish positivism" Aleksander Świętochowski1. The second quote was taken from the work of the playwright and writer of Warsaw, Kazimierz Zalewski. Both were created under the influence of the event, which can be regarded as the symbolic end of the 19th century and the beginning of the next decisive century in the past of Polish Jews. On Christmas Day, 25th XII, 1881, about 20 people were lost during Mass in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. For the next 2 days – as a consequence, rumors that panic caused a judaic thief caught in the church – the crowd demolished judaic shops throughout the city. During the riot, 2 Jews were killed and twenty-four people were injured. These accidents were a clear consequence of the anti-Semitic policy of the Russian authorities, which provoked many pogroms in Russia and the Polish Kingdom, but the very fact of the pogrom in Warsaw proved to be an acute experience for intelligence – both Polish and judaic – which realized the failure of the thought of assimilation. The dream of “good times” of Poles and Jews from the period of the January Uprising definitely ended; shortly afterwards the end was sealed by the pogroms in Galicia in the nineties and early 20th century, as well as the statements of Polish and judaic national activists. This was the beginning of a new, possibly most crucial phase in the past of judaic intelligence – and this judaic origin – in Poland.
Jews, especially doctors (including court physicians of Polish kings) and lawyers, have been present for centuries within these professional groups, among whom they search the roots of intelligence in its modern sense. In the 18th century, they were influenced by the influences of the Enlightenment judaic Hascala movement on the 1 hand, while on the other, by national and pan-European phenomena, which resulted in a qualitatively fresh collectiveity at the end of the pre-district Republic. Its members not only persisted through their own education and intellectual activity, but besides gained awareness of their separateness from another layers of society. Until the second half of the 19th century, however, it is impossible to find how much of this congregation the Jews were. Only the formal alignment of the legal situation of the judaic and non-Jewish population opened the first way to all intellectual professions, giving modern historians tools to survey the national structure of intelligence in Polish lands.
After the fall of the January Uprising, positivists – both Polish thinkers and representatives of any judaic communities – saw the future of Polish Jews in assimilation, or average (with the preservation of their own religion and customs), or radical, understood as a complete adaptation to Polishness. However, after 2 decades, these accounts proved to be deceptive, as the 1881 pogrom mentioned in the beginning was a strong expression. The statements of nationalists on both sides made the process of assimilation even more difficult. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century judaic intelligence on Polish lands varied materially, intellectually, spiritually and linguistically – it was besides profoundly divided by the attitude towards Polish culture and Polish independency aspirations.
A peculiar group was formed here most closely related to the judaic tradition of the “taught in the Talmud” – rabbis and their disciples utilizing Hebrew. Doubtless intellectual qualities let her to be classified as intelligence, but this group lived in isolation not only with Polish society, but besides with a large part of judaic communities. The judaic intelligence utilizing Yiddish was gaining in importance at the turn of the century, drawing from the native tradition and the specificity of Polish-Jewish towns. Starting from the 1990s, her most prominent representatives – Shalom Ash, Isaak B. vocalist or Icyk Manger – they raised literature in Yiddish to the planet level. Finally, a crucial collective was represented by the intelligence of Polish judaic origin – writers, scholars, artists and publishers, located at various stages of the process of assimilation and acculture and facing challenges associated with this process. For any (mostly representatives of wealthy intelligence, connected with many contacts with the Polish communities) full assimilation until after the change of religion ran almost unconflict and irreversibly; I can mention the well-deserved families of Bersohn, Lewenthals or Kraushars in Warsaw. For others, the necessity to decision distant from their own tradition, the attacks of Polish nationalists and judaic orthodoxs proved unbearable, which led to uncertainty and tragedy (such as the suicide of a prominent chemist and social activist Bolesław Hirszfeld in 1899). With specified elections in mind, Wilhelm Feldman, a Krakow critic and literate writer, wrote the fresh “Jews,” whose protagonist declared solemnly: "I have not known the clarity nor the enjoyment of the unblemished... I don't know what freedom is, what laughter and youthful savor, what embrace and caress... In eternal pain, in constant fit—with misery, with the enemy, with stormy reason... with hedges... my days were falling.”
After 11 November 1918, the previously outlined phenomena deepened. This date was the culmination of many years of efforts with Poles; for others it went unnoticed; for any it yet became another informing At the same time, 1918 opened a period of unprecedented improvement of judaic intelligence in Poland, unprecedented numerical leap and promotion in almost all fields of discipline and culture.
Around 1918 Jews accounted for about 10 percent of the Polish population; their percent was higher in large cities – Warsaw, Łódź, Lviv, Krakow or Vilnius – where it exceeded 30 percent. At the same time, however, as the first Polish census of 1921 showed, only 11 percent of all active Jews were engaged in intelligent professions requiring essential general and professional education. After 1918, there was a visible increase in the number of students on the scale of the full Polish society, and after a fewer years – the number of people with higher education, feeding a series of creative and creative intelligence. On a judaic scale, however, this leap was the largest. Already respective years after the reconstruction of the Polish state, judaic intelligence (especially students) was a proportionally higher percent than the analogous Polish group.
Statistical Yearbook of 1929/1930 showed that Jews accounted for 19.3 percent of the full people studying at Polish universities. In any directions this percent was even more crucial (e.g. law and political discipline – 26 percent, doctrine – 24.5 percent). There was besides a large group of Jews with secondary education, from which the recipients of higher culture were recruited – mass visitors of opera, philharmonics or galleries.
Growing numbers of students were mainly feeding the ranks of free professions – doctors, lawyers, artists or writers. In 1931, the intellectual profession represented 15.4 percent of all active Jews. They were a large percent on the scale of all Polish intelligence – in any professions they clearly dominated Poles. For example, in Warsaw in the 1930s. Jews accounted for 66 percent of the full doctors and 37 percent of the full lawyers, and 90 percent of the widely understood movie manufacture was in judaic hands. The consequence was, on the 1 hand, the phenomenon of unemployment among the intelligent Jews and the suppression of the growth described above. On the another hand, during the 1930s anti-Jewish sentiments were increasing among Poles. The judaic competition, to which Polish students and workers frequently appeared helpless, produced calls for a formal simplification in the number of Jews (number claususus) or even for their full exclusion (number nullus). With the improvement of aggressive anti-Semitism in Poland and Europe, these appeals led to specified shameful excesses as the usage of a bench ghetto, assaults on judaic students, or even cases of the adoption of a "Aryan paragraph", eliminating Jews from the general professional congregation.
At the same time, however, Jews were co-creators and active participants in the improvement of Polish culture in many areas. They were predestined by their own centuries-old tradition – respect for the word written and printed, love for thought speculation and philosophy, developed rhetoric and imagination. Strong relationships with planet culture (sometimes, as in the case of the Solar family, for example, they were simply household relationships) made the intellectuals of judaic origin rapidly and abundantly draw from the universal spiritual achievement. An equally crucial origin was the influence of Polish culture (especially literature) and Polish intelligence tradition, which is hard for judaic artists to overestimate as a origin of inspiration and a mention point.
The conventional love of books has made many judaic families peculiarly popular among publishers (and publishers of publishing activities). Glucksbergs, Orgelbrands, Jakub Mortkowicz in Warsaw, Himmelblauów in Krakow, Boris Kleckin in Vilnius – these are just a fewer of many names. Publishers and their owners frequently gathered around themselves the intellectual elite of the time. The perfect kind of publisher – the inspiration and friend of the creators was Jakub Mortkowicz, whose flat on 12 Mazowiecka Street in Warsaw was composed of Polish and judaic writers: Bolesław Leśmian, Janusz Korczak, Stefan Żeromski, Maria Dąbrowska, Maria Kuncewiczowa, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Antoni Słonimski, Julian Tuwim and others. The celebrated poetic group “Skamander” was attended by poets Poles and Jews. Julian Tuwim, Bolesław Leśmian (Lesman), Antoni Słonimski are judaic poets. Kazimierz Wierzinski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jan Lechon (Leszek Józef Serafinowicz) are Polish poets. The work of poets Skamandra is highly patriotic, actual Polish lyric.
Polish writers and poets of judaic origin co-created the most crucial literary currents of the interwar period, from avant-garde to light music. The list of their names is besides a list of leading representatives of Polish poetry, prose and drama of that time. It must be found in Bolesław Leśmian and Julian Tuwim, Anatol Stern and Bruno Schultz, Mieczysław Jastrun and Józef Wittlin, Tadeusz Peiper and Leopold Lewin, Bruno Winawer, Bruno Jasieński, Aleksander Wat, Julian Stryjkowski and Roman Brandstaetter, Antoni Słonimski.
From judaic tradition, the ability to observe fellowmen and brilliance (sometimes criticized as “Jewish smartness”) caused many journalists and columnists, specified as Leo Belmont, Antoni Słonimski and Aleksander Hertz, to be recruited from among the Jews. Mieczysław Grydzewski (Grycendler) was the publisher and editor-in-chief of 1 of the most influential writings of the interwar period – Warsaw's "Literary News". Marian Hemar (Hescheles)
and Jerzy Jurandot (Jerzy Glejgewicht) were the creators of the top cabaret hits; Jan Brzechwa (Jan Wiktor Lesman) a judaic poet, he was among the most popular authors of children's books.
Jewish scholars took a prominent place in many different fields of humanities and sciences. Historians Aleksander Kraushar, Szymon Aszkenaz or Marceli Handelsman, economists Stanisław Kempner and Leopold Caro, lawyers Maurice Alerhand, Rafał Taubenschlag and Tadeusz Nussbaum Hilarowicz, paremiologist Samuel Adalberg, mathematician Samuel Dickstein, many doctors of various specialties – they are a close leader of the Polish intellectual elite of the early 20th century and the interwar 20th century. Arnold Szyfman was 1 of the leading figures of the Polish theatre of that time; musicians, painters and architects – Jews were co-creators of modern interwar art of Poland. In addition to prominent representatives of creative intelligence, there were besides a multitude of judaic reproductive intelligence, representatives of various intellectual professions, officials, employees with higher and mediate education, which was an absorbent marketplace for advanced culture.
Finally, it should be signalled that among the judaic intelligence in Poland there were many prominent scholars of the planet format, who – although they did not have direct links with culture or discipline co-created on the Vistula River – influenced it with the strength of their thought and talent. True, philosophers specified as Henri Bergson, Jean Finot-Finkelstein, Emil Lasker and Martin Buber and Poland mostly had nothing more to do with Poland than the place of origin, but for the remaining intelligence about judaic pedigree they were the origin of pride and a sense of connection with the intellectual acquis of the modern world.
Finally, 1 more – but very crucial – feature of judaic intelligence in Poland of the interwar period, whose sources should be sought in the tradition of Polish intelligence in general. After the January Uprising, and especially at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, this intelligence consciously undertook tasks of a non-existent state and consistently implemented a program of educational work among the lower layers of society. This sense of mission and service prior to 1918 was peculiarly characteristic of the progressive intelligence of the Kingdom of Poland, which was co-created by descendants of Polish nobles, townsmen and Jews. Kraushar, Dickstein, Hirszfeld and others engaged in educational and social activities – both legal and illegal, calculated to meet the needs of both Polish and judaic communities. The tradition of social activities was then referred to by representatives of the interwar generation, Poles and Jews. By supporting or replacing the activities of the state institutions, they undertook initiatives of a variety of character and scale – from the Free Ally of Poland to Sunday courses, daylights and orphanages. In this sense, Janusz Korczak, Jakub Mortkowicz or Helena Radlińska were excellent representatives of the Polish intelligence of their time and spiritual heirs of those prominent representatives who organized folk education societies, working readings and shelters at the Flying University at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, presented simple elements, encyclopedias and textbooks for self-learning.
The sources of judaic and Polish tradition from which judaic intelligence in Poland came from the interwar period have decided on its own face and its extraordinary function in Polish culture of that time.
On the scale of the full judaic community of the Second Republic, this layer was comparatively small. Entering the Polish intelligence frequently active its representatives having to break ties with their own environment and blur their origin. These dramatic decisions did not even receive a prize that would be full accepted by Poles – on the contrary, at the end of the inter-war period cases of verbal and physical aggression against Jews were increasingly occurring. Despite this, judaic intelligence played an outstanding active and passive function in Poland between the wars – it co-created the most outstanding achievements of thought and talent, provided creators and recipients, influenced the functioning and improvement of Polish cultural and technological institutions. This function was much greater than the percent possible of the judaic collective in Poland in general, or its intelligent layer in particular. The coming war brought almost complete demolition to this layer – while Polish intelligence understood as a full left tragically mutilated.
Source:
Magdalena Micińska
Canadian Polish – judaic Heritage Foundation in Montreal
THE POLISH-JEWISH HERITAGE FOUNDATION OF CANADA
Station Cote St.Luc,
C. 284, Montreal QC,
H4V 2Y4
http://polish-jewish-heritage.org/pol/intelligence_sidowska.htm
