Pole/Jew: History, Literature, Identity, Future

by John J. Bukowczyk (Editor), Halina Filipowicz (Editor)

Pole/Jew brings together a group of scholars—about half of them Jewish, about half of them ethnic Poles—from the United States, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Canada and enlists their diverse methodological and generational perspectives to push debates over Polish-Jewish relations beyond entrenched and reductive positions. At the core of the volume are the following –What impact has the Holocaust had on Polish history and Polish literature? –How has the Holocaust affected Polish-Jewish—and Polish—identity? –What future is there for relations between Poland’s small Jewish minority and the country’s overwhelming ethnic Polish majority? Between Poland and Israel? Between Jews of the diaspora and ethnic Poles abroad? –Which research areas have yet to be addressed or revisited and reexamined? –Are there ways to move beyond the reductive notion of 1989 (i.e., the fall of the communist regime in Poland) as wall and fulcrum? By addressing these compelling questions, this volume offers fresh perspectives and encourages a nuanced understanding of Polish-Jewish relations. M. B. B. Biskupski Robert Blobaum John J. Bukowczyk Patrice M. Dabrowski Halina Filipowicz Agnieszka Jezyk Bozena Karwowska Kamil Kijek Kate Korycki Elzbieta Kossewska Grazyna J. Kozaczka Stanislaw Krajewski Adam Lipszyc Wiktor Marzec Alina Molisak Stanislaw Obirek Benjamin Paloff Antony Polonsky Brian Porter-Szucs Piotr Puchalski Roma Sendyka Dariusz Stola Katarzyna Zechenter Joshua D. Zimmerman Geneviève Zubrzycki Slawomir Zurek

366 pages, Hardcover

Published December 23, 2025

About the author

Professor Bukowczyk is a specialist in American immigration and ethnic history and urban history. His work focuses on the construction, maintenance, and transformation of personal, civic, and ethnic identities; urban and regional economic development; urban ethnic, race, and class relations; and the relationship between group rights and social justice. His scholarship engages large questions about citizenship and society: What is an American? What is America? What should it be?