Jewish ‘Shtadlan’ in Communist Poland? A Microstudy of the Historical Continuation and Paradoxes of Jewish Communal Subjectivity
Jewish ‘Shtadlan’ in Communist Poland? A Microstudy of the Historical Continuation and Paradoxes of Jewish Communal Subjectivity

Summary/Abstract: This article is a microhistorical study of the activity of Commissar for the Productivisation of the Jewish Population that took place in the Jewish community of Reichenbach/ Dzierżoniów in the years 1946–1947. By studying the activity of communist Jewish Commissar, Simcha Intrator, in the very unique milieu of Dzierżoniów (town in former German territories of which half of the population consisted of Polish Jews in the summer of 1946) – this article shows the role of prewar continuations in post-Holocaust Polish Jewish life. As I claim, in the specific social and cultural climate of Dzierżoniów, Simcha Intator, nominated to help to mould the Jewish community according to the communist model, acted against the prerogatives of his institutions, strengthening non-communist, pluralistic elements of local Jewish life. Thus, this article is a microhistorical study of the role of continuation of older norms and traditions in the post-war socio-political subjectivity of the Polish Jewish community.

• Details
• Contents