Jewish Heritage in Poland

The figure of the Jew remains a multivalent symbol in Poland; centuries of Jewish residence are difficult to reconcile with the destruction Jews faced during the Holocaust and the further erasure of Jewish culture during state socialism. My research asks: What can be done with the fragments of Jewish heritage that remain, sometimes hidden and sometimes in plain sight? And what value does such memory work have? At the heart of my investigation are questions about the social construction of national and religious boundaries, and the possibilities for complex linkages between Polish and Jewish identities.
At present, I am at work on two related projects: Fragments of Memory: Reassembling Jewish Life in Poland” will be an ethnographic study of Jewish heritage projects in Poland; Do Not Open: A Family Memoir of Hidden Jewish Ancestry recounts the story of my own family. Some preliminary observations and reflections are in my blog, Uncovering Jewish Heritage.

Memory in Fragments: Reassembling Jewish Life in Poland Marysia Galbraith from UA College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo.