Overview

The first appearance of Jews in Poland and their adventures during their early years of settlement in the country are concealed in undocumented shadows of history. What survived are legends of origin that early chroniclers, historians, writers, and folklore scholars transcribed, thus contributing to their preservation. According to the legendary chronicles Jews resided in Poland for a millennium and developed a vibrant community. Haya Bar-Itzhak examines the legends of origin of the Jews of Poland and discloses how the community creates its own chronicle, how it structures and consolidates its identity through stories about its founding, and how this identity varies from age to age. Bar-Itzhak also examines what happened to these legends after the extermination of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust, when the human space they describe no longer exists except in memory. For the Polish Jews after the Holocaust, the legends of origin undergo a fascinating transformation into legends of destruction. Jewish Poland-Legends of Origin brings to light the more obscure legends of origin as well as those already well known. This book will be of interest to scholars in folklore studies as well as to scholars of Judaic history and culture.

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9780814343913

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Reviews

A poignant portrait of the Polish Jewish life as duly recorded and exegetically revealed in selected traditional legends, brilliantly retrieved and effectively translated from often arcane sources written in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and Polish. A highlight is an astute and subtle analysis of Agon's literary reworkings of several of these legends showing how the necessarily transitory and precarious Diaspora existence, eventually decimated by the Holocaust, pointed towards the hope of realizing the Zionist dream of the establishment of the state of Israel. A sophisticated folkloristic explication de texte at its best.--Alan Dundes University of California-Berkley Bar-Itzhak's book on Jewish origin legends, which were created and nominated in Poland, is a pioneering and outstanding contribution to Jewish and Polish histography, as well as to general folklorists. Its conclusions divert the much discussed problem of legend versus history (fantasy versus reality) to the essential role of local legends in promoting an ethnic identity. Historians, folklorists and anthropologists will be grateful to the author for her innovative shift of focus.--Dov Noy The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Haya Bar-Itzhak enables us to deeply understand the place of Poland in the Jewish imagination. Well we should, if we are to fathom the meaning of the Jewish Diaspora experience, and the formation of identity through narrative. The legends she offers intriguingly mesh history and belief, and she masterfully analyzes them to reveal the Jewish past and Jewish destiny.--Simon Bronner Penn State, Harrisburg This is a study of legend as a form of historical imagination and understanding in relation to a particular place understood as a geographical location, metaphysical landscape, and materialized settlement. By looking at the legends of a Diaspora (Jews) in a place (Poland) where they developed a vibrant community in the course of a millennium, this book illuminates a vernacularprocess of place-making.--Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett New York University This is a useful tool for understanding Jewish folklore study, and the authors's analyses are thought provoking. Among the interesting topics studied are differences between Jewish self-perceptions and Polish views of Jews as well as shifts in attitudes in the Jewish community over time. This book is well suited for comparative studies as well as modern Jewish literature (especially with regard to Agnon) and has something to offer for students of popular religion as well.--Religious Studies Review

Author Information

Haya Bar-Itzhak is head of folklore studies and chair of the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel. She is the author of numerous essays and books and is co-author of Jewish Moroccan Folk Narratives from Israel, which was selected as an honor book of the 1994 National Jewish book Award in Folklore/Anthropology by the Jewish Book Council.

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