Between Worlds: Performing Polish-Jewish Continuities and Encounters

Between Worlds: Performing Polish-Jewish Continuities and Encounters
Monday 12 December 2022

Between Worlds: Performing Polish-Jewish Continuities and Encounters

POLIN Museum, The Global Education Outreach Program Workshop

 



Dr Katarzyna Williams (The Australian National University), Dr Agata Dąbrowska (University of Lodz) and Dr Rachel Merrill Moss (Boston University) have been awarded an interdisciplinary research grant from the POLIN Museum through the Global Education Outreach Program. The grant is awarded for new, innovative and interdisciplinary research in Jewish studies.

The project Between Worlds: Performing Polish-Jewish Continuities and Encounters examines the characteristics, functions and significance of Yiddish theatre in transnational, international and intergenerational contexts. It explores contact and conflict zones Yiddish theatre enforces and renegotiates in Poland – one of the most important centres of its development – and in a broader context of Jewish global diasporas. It examines theatre’s role in stimulating intercultural dialogue, and its impact on the identity of the Jewish communities with Polish roots living in Australia and the Americas.

The project engages artists and researchers of Jewish studies, diaspora and migrant cultures from Poland, the US, Australia, and other parts of the world.

The workshop in Warsaw will be followed by two seminars, in Australia and the US.

 

The workshop at the Polin Museum, 5-7 December 2022


The first and main part of the project, the 3-day academic workshop in the Polin Museum Warsaw, took place on 5-7 December 2022.

The intensive program of the workshop included academic presentations and roundtables, a guided tour of the POLIN Museum, visits to The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the Center for Yiddish Culture and the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw.

The workshop participants included (in the order of presentations):

  • A/Prof Ruthie Abeliovich (University of Haifa/ Tel Aviv University)
  • Prof Daniel Kalinowski (Pomeranian University)
  • Dr Agata Dąbrowska (University of Lodz)
  • Anna Nienartowicz (University of Wroclaw)
  • Prof Małgorzata Leyko (University of Lodz)
  • Dr Agnieszka Żółkiewska (The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute Warsaw)
  • Dr Jakub Parnes (University of Economics in Katowice)
  • Prof Joel Berkowitz (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
  • Dr Paula Ansaldo (The Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University)
  • Amanda (Miryem-Khaye) Seigel (The Dorot Jewish Division, New York Public Library)
  • Dr Rachel Merrill Moss (Boston University)
  • Dr Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams (The Australian National University)
  • Monika Krawczyk (The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute Warsaw)
  • Prof Ian Maxwell (University of Sydney)
  • Estelle Rozinski (University of New South Wales)
  • Galit Klas (Kadimah Yiddish Theatre in Melbourne)

The final panel discussion featured Prof Anna Kuligowska-Korzeniewska (The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw), Remigiusz Grzela (Literary director, the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw) and Hanna Pałuba (Vice-director, the Center for Yiddish Culture)

 

Workshop program (full program)


Day 1 – Monday 5 December

10.00–12.00   Museum POLIN tour

12.30–14.00  Session 1: Poland I  (Ruthie Abeliovich, Daniel Kalinowski, Agata Dąbrowska, Anna Nienartowicz)

15.00–16.30   Session 2: Poland II  (Agnieszka Żółkiewska, Jakub Parnes, Joel Berkowitz, Małgorzata Leyko)

17.00–19.00   Session 3: Australia and the Americas (Paula Ansaldo, Debra Caplan, Miryem-Khaye Seigel, Rachel Moss, Katarzyna Williams)

Day 2 – Tuesday 6 December

10.00–10.30   The opening lecture: Monika Krawczyk, Director of The Emanuel Ringelblum’s Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw

10.30–11.30   Session 1: Jewish Theatre as Conflict/Contact Zones roundtable (incl. presentations by Ian Maxwell and Galit Klas)

12.00–13.30   Session 2: Nuancing Holocaust/post-Holocaust narrative roundtable (incl. presentations by Estelle Rozinski and Galit Klas)

14.30–16.00   Session 3: Future directions roundtable (with a special guest – Shmuel Atzmon-Wircer)

19.00–21.00    Theatrical performance: Der Shturem. Cwiszyn by The Jewish Theatre in Warsaw (performance in Yiddish, with subtitles in English and Polish)  

Day 3 – Wednesday 7 December

10:00–12:00   Visit to The Emanuel Ringelblum’s Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw 

13:00–14.30   Visit to the Center for Yiddish Culture in Warsaw

16:00   POLIN Museum – Lecture and panel discussion with The Jewish Theatre in Warsaw (Anna Kuligowska-Korzeniewska, Gołda Tencer, Remigiusz Grzela, Hanna Pałuba)

 

Partners:


  • ANU Centre for European Studies
  • University of Lodz
  • Boston University
  • Jewish Theatre in Warsaw
  • Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw
  • Polish Association for Yiddish Studies
  • The Jewish Museum in New York
  • Australian Institute of Polish Affairs
  • Australian Society of Polish Jews and their Descendants
  • Melbourne Yiddish Theatre at the Kadimah

 

SHARE

Updated:  13 December 2022/Responsible Officer:  Centre Director/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications