Jewish Poland Revisited by Erica T. Lehrer

Author:Erica T. Lehrer [Lehrer, Erica T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Holocaust, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Jewish Studies
ISBN: 9780253008930
Google: b9TsNl-ZcdIC
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2013-07-19T01:41:25+00:00

Marketing Values?

Among the earlier generation of Jewish cultural stewards under communism, there was a sense that “any immediate rewards for their efforts [would be] ethically unacceptable [because] their work, after all, grew out of a deeply felt moral concern and not a cold calculation of means and ends.”19 But given Poland's systemic transformation from state socialism to “dziki kapitalizm” (unbridled [lit. “wild”] capitalism), a reappraisal of the motivations and ethics of culture brokering is in order. Local brokers were clearly aware of the suspicions and criticisms harbored by many observers of their undertakings, and seemed to be engaged in an ongoing effort to demarcate their own ethical boundaries.

When I met Krzysiek, the young editor of the short-lived magazine Kraków, Etc. at the Jarden Jewish Bookshop in 1999, he stated forthrightly, “I'm pro-Jewish.” I gave him a quizzical look, and he continued, “Well, you know, most people are anti-Jewish.” He went on to stress the uniqueness of Kazimierz in comparison to Prague's Židovské město (Jewish quarter), which he criticized as “too expensive.” “Even Westerners complain,” he said. He told me that people involved in the development of Kazimierz don't want it to be like Prague; “we think it's like Disneyland there.”

While certainly not all brokers of Jewish heritage in Kazimierz were idealistically motivated, neither have most of their projects been singularly mercenary. Rather, as Smithsonian Folklife Festival director Richard Kurin has described culture brokering projects elsewhere, they may be better understood as representing “an honor, a responsibility, and something that can sometimes be turned to personal advantage and profit.”20 In the 1990s, key brokers took real social risks, like claiming and forging public space for Jewishness, that the few, mostly old, remaining local Jews were unable or unwilling to take, and the handful of emerging younger Jews had not yet conceived. As international Jewish tourism and local Jewish confidence have grown, these brokers have been open to, and in some cases actively courted, Jewish engagement in their endeavors.

Zdzisław—perhaps due to his ideological background—has his own sense of the appropriate limits of the capitalist enterprise. He often criticized the prices at the restaurants and expressed disdain at the refusal of the Izaak Synagogue Project (a local memory installation in the former synagogue building) to offer a student discount, as well as charging everyone to enter, including Hasidim who wanted to use the space for prayer.21 Café Ariel (later Klezmer Hois) offered space for Jewish community events and donated food, such as challah and wine, to the older Jews who congregated there after shul on Shabbat. The Jarden Jewish Bookshop provided frequent support in mediating interactions between locals and visitors—whether travel-related needs (including toilets and telephones), genealogical research support, medical emergencies, or religious needs such as opening the synagogue after hours or finding an alternative place to pray, typically involving Hasidim on pilgrimage; I once stumbled upon a Hasid swaying behind the bookshelf in Zdzisław's tiny office nook. When the old Jewish men who tend the synagogue needed translators to deal with foreign visitors, Zdzisław sent over one of his shop's tour guides.

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