Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland

411 Pages·2010·4.285 MB·English

by  Kalman Weiser

JEWISH PEOPLE, YIDDISH NATION
Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland
Noah Prylucki (1882–1941), a leading Jewish cultural and political figure
in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe, was a proponent of Yiddishism, a
movement that promoted secular Yiddish culture as the basis for Jewish
collective identity in the twentieth century. Prylucki’s dramatic path –
from russified Zionist raised in a Ukrainian shtetl, to Diaspora nationalist
parliamentarian in metropolitan Warsaw, to professor of Yiddish in Soviet
Lithuania – uniquely reflects the dilemmas and competing options
facing the Jews of this era as life in Eastern Europe underwent radical
transformation.
Using hitherto unexplored archival sources, memoirs, interviews, and
materials from the vibrant interwar Jewish and Polish presses, Kalman
Weiser investigates the rise and fall of Yiddishism and of Prylucki’s po-
litical party, the Folkists, in the post–First World War era. Jewish People,
Yiddish Nation reveals the life of a remarkable individual and the fortunes
of a major cultural movement that has long been obscured.
kalman (keith) weiser is the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish
Studies in the Centre for Jewish Studies at York University.
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Jewish People,
Yiddish Nation
Noah Prylucki and the
Folkists in Poland
Kalman (Keith) Weiser
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2011
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9990-7 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8020-9716-3 (paper)
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Weiser, Keith Ian, 1973–
Jewish people, Yiddish nation : Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland /
Kalman (Keith) Weiser.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9990-7 (bound) ISBN 978-0-8020-9716-3 (pbk.)
1. Priluts kki, Noah. 2. Yiddish language – Poland – History – 20th century.
3. Yiddish language – Political aspects – Poland. 4. Yiddish language – Social
aspects – Poland. 5. Jews – Poland – Politics and government – 20th century.
6. Jews – Poland – Civilization – 20th century. 7. Jews – Poland – Intellectual
life – 20th century. 8. Yiddishists – Poland – Biography. 9. Jews – Poland –
Biography. 10. Politicians – Poland – Biography. I. Title.
PJ5111.5P76W44 2011 439′.10943809041 C2011-901391-6
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its
publishing activities.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction xi
1 Jewish Life, Language, and Politics in Poland 3
2 The Making of a Jewish Nationalist: Noah Prylucki and the
Warsaw Yiddish Press 31
3 Creating Modern Yiddish Culture 73
4 Cultural Politics in Action: The Birth of Folkism 119
5 From Avant- to Arrière-garde: The Folksparty in
Interwar Poland 171
6 Compromises? The Chair of Yiddish at the
University of Vilnius 226
Conclusion 261
Notes 273
Bibliography 341
Index 369
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Acknowledgments
The completion of this book, which began as my doctoral dissertation
at Columbia University in New York City, would not have been possible
without the support, advice, and encouragement of a number of insti-
tutions and individuals. I would first of all like to thank my professors
at Columbia University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I was
initially encouraged to write on this subject by Rakhmiel Peltz, now of
Drexel University, who guided me through the Yiddish Studies program
in my early years at Columbia and instilled in me an appreciation for
Yiddish culture in all of its breadth and depth. His mentshlekhkeyt and his
unflagging enthusiasm for my academic endeavours have meant much
to me since I first began my doctoral studies. My sincere thanks also go to
Michael Stanislawski, who oversaw all stages of my doctoral dissertation
and taught me to strive for a dispassionate and critical eye in the study of
history. Professor Stanislawski’s good-natured humour, his pragmatism,
and his ability to arrive quickly at the crux of complex and often con-
voluted matters were a tremendous aid in finishing a dissertation in a
timely fashion.
I thank Professors Ezra Mendelsohn (Hebrew University), David Fish-
man (Jewish Theological Seminary), Bradley Abrams (Columbia), and
Jeremy Dauber (Columbia) for participating in my dissertation commit-
tee and for contributing discerning comments and suggestions during
the defence. Professor Shaul Shtampfer (Hebrew University) also pro-
vided important guidance for reworking the dissertation into a book.
During the writing of this book I benefited from the counsel and sug-
gestions of several teachers and colleagues. I availed myself countless
times of the invaluable aid of Dr Mordkhe Schaechter, z’l, of Colum-
bia and the League for Yiddish. His peerless knowledge of the Yiddish
viii Acknowledgments
language and eagerness to share it with students remains a constant
source of inspiration to me even after his death. I also extend my sin-
cere thanks to Ezra Mendelsohn, whose expertise and interest in all as-
pects of Eastern European Jewish culture motivated me to deepen my
studies of Polish Jewry during my tenure as a Lady Davis Fellow at the
Hebrew University. His colleague at the Hebrew University Professor
Avrom Nowersztern likewise never failed to astonish me with his encyclo-
pedic mastery of sources and his readiness to be of assistance to students.
Both scholars have made me feel most welcome whenever a guest in the
Israeli academic community.
I wish also to express my sincere gratitude to the Jerusalem staff respon-
sible for the computerized Index to the Yiddish Press, without which this
research project would not have been possible: Vera Solomon, Michael
Dunayevski, Noga Rubin, and, above all, Vicky Shifris. They provided
me with constant intellectual stimulation and expertise in the fields of
Yiddish literature and the press, as well as with genuine friendship and
collegiality while conducting my research in Israel. Chaya Meller, also of
Israel, was kind enough to share with me her Bar Ilan University doctoral
dissertation about the Folksparty.
I would similarly like to single out colleagues whose suggestions,
insights, and criticisms unquestionably enhanced the quality of this
work at various stages of its conception and execution: Edward Portnoy,
Phillip Hollander, Rebecca Stanton, and Scott Ury. Each helped by not
only elucidating difficult matters in his or her respective areas of ex-
pertise and suggesting directions for further research but also by rec-
ommending and procuring sources for me. I also owe immeasurable
gratitude to Sol Goldberg and to Scott Ury for patiently reading drafts
and offering suggestions.
Friends and loved ones both inside and outside of academia provided
a stimulating and supportive environment in which to conduct my work.
In particular I am grateful to Marc Miller, Rebecca Margolis, Naomi
Kadar, z”l, Beatrice Lang Caplan, Marc Caplan, Annie Polland, and Dror
Abend for their constant encouragement and interest in my work. Mark
Clamen, Sol Goldberg, and, above all, Sharon Levinas have helped to
make me feel at home in Toronto and have always been available for
thought-provoking discussion and intellectual exploration. I similarly
thank my colleagues and students at York University for providing such
a congenial academic home and for supporting my endeavours. More
than once, my student Jordana de Bloeme has brought to my attention
pertinent sources or details that I would have otherwise overlooked.
Acknowledgments ix
In New York City, the staffs of Butler Library of Columbia, the Jewish
Theological Seminary, the Jewish Division of the New York Public Library,
and the Joint Distribution Committee all aided me. My special thanks go
the academic staff and archivists of YIVO, who have always been generous
with their time and expertise. In Israel, I benefited from the assistance
of the staffs of the National Library, the Central Zionist Archives, and
the Central Archives of the Jewish People, all in Jerusalem, as well as the
Arkhion ha-avoda in Tel-Aviv. Messieurs Eliyahu Prylucki, z”l, Mordkhe
Tsanin, z”l, and Shloyme Schweitzer, z”l, permitted me to interview them,
and Arkady Zeltser procured materials for me from the Yad Vashem Ar-
chives. My research in Warsaw would not have been possible without the
assistance of Karen Auerbach, Joshua Zimmerman, and the staffs of the
Sejm Library and Archives (especially Adam Rutkowski), the Jewish His-
.
torical Institute (ZIH), the National Library, the Archiwum Akt Nowych,
and the Municipal Archives. Materials from the Archives of the University
of Vilnius were kindly obtained for me by Marcos Silber of the University
of Haifa and Julija Sukys of Montreal, who was also kind enough to trans-
late materials for me from Lithuanian.
Several institutions contributed substantial financial support without
which this project would never have come to fruition. I would therefore
like to thank the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Lady Davis Fellowship, and the Atran
and Littauer Foundations, as well as the Center for Israel and Jewish
Studies at Columbia University and YIVO for their generosity. Generous
funding was also provided by the Centre for Jewish Studies at York Uni-
versity, the Faculty of Arts at York University, and the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (SHHRC).
Finally, I would like to thank my editors at University of Toronto Press
and the external reviewers, whose critique significantly improved this
work.
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