Since the end of Communism, Jews from around the world have visited Poland to tour Holocaust-related sites. A few venture further, seeking to learn about their own Polish roots and connect with contemporary Poles. For their part, a growing number of Poles are fascinated by all things Jewish. Erica T. Lehrer explores the intersection of Polish and Jewish memory projects in the historically Jewish neighborhood of Kazimierz in Krakow. Her own journey becomes part of the story as she demonstrates that Jews and Poles use spaces, institutions, interpersonal exchanges, and cultural representations to make sense of their historical inheritances.

Encountering Jews and Jewishness in contemporary Poland

About the Author

Erica T. Lehrer is Associate Professor of History and Anthropology and Canada Research Chair in Post-Conflict Memory, Ethnography, and Museology at Concordia University, where she founded and directs the Centre for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence.

Reviews

In Jewish Poland Revisited, [Lehrer] excavates forgotten history and discusses surprising recent developments-including the large number of Jewish tourists coming to Poland and the growing interest among non-Jewish Poles in Jews and Judaism. . . She boldly asserts that 'Poland-the epicenter of the destruction of European Jewry-is now a key site for the regeneration, rearticulation, and redefinition not only of a local Jewish community, but of inventive, hybrid ideas of post-Holocaust Jewishness itself.' 4/24/15

* Jewish Book Council *

Lehrer's monograph is a refreshing approach to the subject of Jewish Poland. As a study in tourism and heritage, the book provides an interesting addition to a growing field.

* Slavic Review *

Jewish Poland Revisited is a valuable book for anyone headed to Poland-or perhaps to any 'heritage tourism' location. And because it raises profound questions about Jewish engagement with other ethnicities, I suspect it will provoke reflection even in those with no interest in leaving home.Fall 2015

* Jewish Book World *

Erica Lehrer gives a detailed, extensive, and fascinating account of the making, unmaking, and remaking of Poland's Jewish heritage.

* Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *

Well researched and clearly written, Lehrer's book is a personal exploration and a learned analysis of a new and fascinating chapter in Polish Jewish history and society, and readers will gain a much deeper appreciation for recent developments in Poland as well as the country's ongoing role in contemporary Jewish culture and memory in North America, Israel, and other locales. . . . Indeed, this is one of those rare academic books that successfully fulfills the needs of both the popular and the academic communities.

* Religious Studies Review *

Lehrer offers a fresh and delightful portrait of Jewish renewal in Poland. . . . Highly recommended.

* Choice *

The unquiet nature of Poland as a Jewish heritage place is changing rapidly, and Lehrer's Jewish Poland Revisited is an up-to-date and detailed guide to the shifting landscape.

* Canadian Jewish News *

[T]he main asset of Lehrer's work is its huge potential and argumentative power to influence and change the prevailing . . . negative attitudes towards Poland among many people in the international Jewish community. Thanks to her work perhaps more Jews will no longer conceive Poland only as the site of Holocaust and as a widely antisemitic country, but rather as a place full of hope and future for the recognition of Polish Jewish culture, history and heritage and for the Jewish communities here.

* New Eastern Europe *

Jewish Poland Revisited is appropriate for a wide readership from specialists in cultural anthropology, graduate students, and college students to well educated general audiences.

* American Ethnologist *

Recommended. . .

* AJL Reviews *

[O]ne of the most nuanced and enthralling studies on Jewish space, heritage tourism, and the role that memory and identity play in the complex post-Holocaust and post-Communist Polish society. . . Jewish Poland Revisited is unequivocally an obligatory reading . . .April 2015

* H-Poland *

The result of Lehrer's twenty years of intense engagement with Kazimierz is a tour-de-force volume as important for Jewish studies as it is for tourism studies and heritage studies.

* H-SAE *

Often the history of the Jews in Poland and Polish history are written as two distinct narratives. On the one hand, this separation is necessary to accommodate the different experiences and trajectories of the historical actors. On the other, the split often provides a disjointed view of Polish-Jewish relations and lived experiences in Poland. Lehrer's book is an important point of intersection between these narratives and it highlights the problem of a Polish history lacking Jews, and the important role of Jews in Polish culture and vice versa.

* Holocaust and Genocide Studies *

Jewish Poland Revisited is an important and insightful study, one that will hopefully lead to a wider range of new works devoted to Polish-Jewish relations and heritage in Cracow and beyond.

* Center for Interdisciplinary Studies *

This book is of interest to a wider readership than might be suggested by its title. Not only does the work provide a detailed ethnographic monograph about Jewish heritage and tourism in Kazimierz in Kracow, Poland, but it also analyses the challenges of ethnographic research and heritage interpretation more generally. The context of Kracow, Auschwitz and Jewish heritage in Poland is, of course, by no means unfamiliar to anyone interested in the complexities of heritage interpretation in a 'dissonant' environment. However, Erica Lehrer provides many thought-provoking and (for some) controversial alternative narratives to the construction of Jewish culture, heritage and identities post-Holocaust.

* Journal of Heritage Tourism *


Awards
Commended for AJS Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for Social Science, Anthropology, and Folklore 2013. Short-listed for National Jewish Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience 2013.



Book Information
ISBN 9780253008862
Author Erica T. Lehrer
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 408g