Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish

SourceInstitute for Polish-Jewish Studies

Wednesday, 19 October 2022 18:00–19.00 BST on Zoom

This event is co-organised with UCL's Institute of Jewish Studies

Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish

with Professor Moshe Rosman, Professor François Guesnet and Professor Antony Polonsky (chair)

At this book launch Professor Rosman will delineate some principles that have guided his research and writing. He will describe how these shaped and gained expression in Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish.

Among the notions he will examine are reformed positivism, the relationship between history and metahistory, typical and atypical historical sources, and the place of 'influence' in historical analysis.

He also will explain his view of Jewish history in the Commonwealth as overall a story of stability and achievement punctuated by persecution and crisis.

For 30% off the ebook of Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish, use discount code ROSMANEB30 at liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk before 4th November 2022.

Moshe Rosman is Emeritus Professor in the Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University. Specializing in the history of the Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, his books have won awards in the USA, Israel and Poland.

François Guesnet is Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London. He specializes in Eastern European Jewish History and is co-chair of the editorial board of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry. His book publications include Polnische Juden im 19. Jahrhundert (Vienna, Cologne, 1998), and, as editor, Warsaw. The Jewish Metropolis (2015, paperback 2017). He also co-edited the collected volume Sources on Jewish Self-Government in the Polish Lands from Its Inception to the Present (Boston, Leiden: 2022).

Antony Polonsky, Chief Historian of the Global Educational Outreach Programme/Polin Museum Warsaw, and Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University, is co-chair of the Editorial Board of Polin Studies in Polish Jewry and the author of numerous studies on eastern European Jewish history, including ‘The Jews in Poland and Russia’, 3 vols (2010, 2012), and ‘The Jews in Poland and Russia. A Short History’ (2013).

Registration: Registration is free via Eventbrite. Please click the REGISTER button and fill in your details on the Eventbrite site. Once you have registered, you will receive your Zoom link with your Eventbrite confirmation. This zoom link will be sent to you once again just before the lecture takes place.

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Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies - story

The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies (IPJS) is a non-profit, educational institution devoted to the history and culture of Polish Jewry. It is an associated institute of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

The IPJS is best known for the publication of the yearbook Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, edited by world renowned historian Antony Polonsky (Brandeis University) and published by the Littman Library for Jewish Civilization, Oxford. In recent years, volumes have been dedicated to the history of the Jews in Cracow, and in Lithuania and in Ukraine. Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry publishes original research by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines working in the fields of history, literary criticism, history of the Holocaust, and the history of Jewish-non-Jewish relations.

The IPJS has hosts a number of significant public events, with the yearly conference to launch the new volume of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry being the most important. These events have been held in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, and the Polish Cultural Institute, London. The IPJS also cooperates with the Institute of Jewish Studies at University College London, and the American Association of Polish-Jewish Studies.

Public events devoted to a variety of topics are organized throughout the year. These events focus on the rich and multifaceted history and culture of eastern European Jewish communities, as well as the Holocaust. Members of the Institute of Polish-Jewish Studies engage actively in academic research and education, and are frequent public speakers on the history and culture of Polish and eastern European Jewry, as well as on the history of the Holocaust.