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The dynamic migration processes that affected the Jewish community in Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries had an impact on the demographic situation of this community in the following decades. The group particularly affected by these changes were elderly people, especially those whose relatives emigrated to America or to the Land of Israel. With the aim of providing organised care for lonely elderly people, institutions known as Moshav Zkenim were developed at this time. However, the difficult economic situation of the interwar period, and to some extent current politics, made it extremely difficult for Jewish institutional care to function. In this article I would like to point out how important the help coming from abroad was for the existence of the Jewish homes for the aged. The sources of that support were especially the countrymen's associations of immigrants (landsmanshaftn), and the aid was of a financial, material and infrastructural nature. However, cooperation between donors and societies in Poland has sometimes given rise to conflicts described later in the Jewish press.

Pierwszy tom swoich wspomnień Perec – jeden z najsłynniejszych pisarzy jidysz, opublikował w 1913 roku pt. Majne zichrojnes [Moje wspomnienia]. Z powodu śmierci nie zdążył napisać kolejnych tomów. We wstępie określił je jako przede wszystkim klucz do swoich dzieł. Książka zawiera dziewięć rozdziałów koncentrujących się na okresie dzieciństwa i młodości, przedstawia rozwój intelektualny i emocjonalny pisarza. Perec skupia się na procesie swojego kształcenia – tradycyjnej nauce w chederze i bejt-midraszu, ale również na wpływie edukacji mniej formalnej – poprzez własne lektury, kontakt z nie-Żydami, wpływ haskali. Opisując zdarzenia ze swojej biografii, tworzy barwne portrety postaci i miejsc ze wczesnego okresu swego życia (Zamość i Szczebrzeszyn). Główne powody, dla których warto przetłumaczyć wspomnienia tego autora, są następujące: z perspektywy żydowskiej ukazane są tam warunki życia w Polsce w okresie zaborów, powstanie styczniowe oraz relacje polsko-żydowskie; jego wspomnienia przedstawiają modelową biografię żydowskiego chłopca, który przechodzi drogę od dzieciństwa warunkowanego tradycją i religią do młodości, będącej okresem otwierania się na postawy oświeceniowe i wpływy zewnętrzne.

The Central Shelter for Jews in Warsaw, founded in the 1840s, served orphans, the poor, mentally ill and elderly persons. In December 1933, the Warsaw City Council moved the inmates from the new building at Leszno 127 to a palace in Broszków near Siedlce. The move, stemming from financial considerations in the first place, was a source of serious controversy among the Jewish masses. The papers carried stories of the tragedy of several hundred old men and women denied the care they needed, including a sizable number of deaths, seeing the actions of the city elders as a manifestation of a desire to eradicate manifestations of Jewish civic life. The problem was compounded by the unclear scope of the city’s authorization to use the assets of a foundation transferred to it on condition that the status of the shelter be preserved. Furthermore, the scandal surrounding the evacuation of the shelter’s inmates to Broszków coincided with a period of political crisis. The new city authorities recognized the „Broszków eviction” as one of the matters requiring an urgent resolution but the actions they took encountered a highly critical response of the society. The author looks at these matters based on materials published in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish press and reports of the Warsaw City Office and the audit committees established in the mid-1930s. The termination of the existence of the oldest care center for elderly Jews in Polish lands is reviewed in the context of local and national politics, the economic situation in the years of the Great Depression and the sentiments of the public articulated by newspapers and magazines.

Th e present article undertakes the question of the relationships between the historiography and ethnography in the context of the contemporary Jewish studies. Pointing to the affi nity of both these humanistic domains, it analyses the process of gaining independence by the Jewish ethnography and the consequences of the changes which took place at the turn of the 20th century: the negative ones, i.e. the researchers closing themselves in their own circles, as well as the positive ones, including the development of the new methodologies and the appreciation of the sources not used before. Th e article also notes the changes occurring during the last decades which encourage the historians and ethnographers to adopt the interdisciplinary approach. Further, it addresses the question of the folklore texts rooted in the past. It argues that they can refl ect the history, both in their content and the circumstances of originating, collecting and analysing the ethnographic materials by the successive generations of the ethnicists. Particular emphasis is put on the elements of this kind whose presence in the collections can point to close relationship of the folk culture and the views and theories dominating in Europe several centuries ago (e.g. in medicine or astrology). Th e last part of the article is devoted to the research into the folklore of the Ashkenazi Jews during the Holocaust and immediately aft er the World War 2, pointing to both historical and ethnographic dimensions of these studies.

Tom obejmuje literacką spuściznę getta warszawskiego zachowaną w Archiwum Ringelbluma. Ukazuje różne oblicza życia artystycznego „miasta za murem”. Zaświadcza o bogatym, wielojęzycznym repertuarze imprez kulturalnych, które pomagały mierzyć się z okropieństwami codzienności: represjami, głodem, wszechobecną śmiercią.