Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Statement From the Editors
- ARTICLES
- DOCUMENTS
- INTERVIEW
- A DIALOGUE
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Norman Davies Heart of Europe. A Short History of Poland
- Linda Gordon Cossack Rebellions. Social Turmoil in the Sixteenth Century Ukraine
- Edward C. Thaden Russia's Western Borderlands, 1710–7870
- Raymond Pearson. National Minorities in Eastern Europe, 1848-1945; S. M. Horak et al Eastern European. National Minorities, 1979-1980
- Jerzy Tomaszewski Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów (A Republic of Many Nations)
- Henry Rollet La Pologne au XX’ siècle
- Jacob Goldberg (ed) Jewish Privileges in the Polish Commonwealth. Charters of Rights Granted to Jewish Communities in Poland-Lithuania in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
- Jacob Goldberg (ed) Jewish Privileges in the Polish Commonwealth. Charters of Rights Granted to Jewish Communities in Poland-Lithuania in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
- Maurycy Horn (ed) Regesty dokumentów i ekscerpty z Metryki Koronnej do Historii, (Żydów w Polsee 1697-1795. T. I: Czasy saskie (1697-1763); T. IL· Rzlądy Stanisiława Augusta (1764-1795), Część I: (1764-1779) (Summaries of Records and Excerpts of the Crown Registry Relating to the History of Jews in Poland, 1697-1795. Vol. I; The Saxon Era [1697-1763]; Vol. II: The Reign of Stanislaw August [1764'-95], Part I, 1764-79)
- Chone Shmeruk The Esterke Story in riddish and Polish Literature. A Case Study in the Mutual Relations of Two Cultural Traditions
- David Darshan Shir HaMa ‘alot L ‘David and Ktav Hitnazzelut L ‘Darshanim. Translated and Annotated by H. G. Perelmuter
- Raphael Mahler Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment. Translated from the Yiddish Eugene Orenstein. Translated from the Hebrew by Aaron Klein Jenny Machlowitz Klein
- Michael Stanislawski Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish Society in Russia 1825-1855
- O. O. Gruzenberg Yesterday: Memoirs of a Russian-Jewish Lawyerby Don C.|Rawson
- David Berger (ed) The Legacy of Jewish Migration: 1881 and Its Impact
- Steven E. Aschheim Brothers and Strangers. The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923
- A vigdor Dagan, Gertrude Hirschler and Lewis Weiner (eds) The Jews of Czechoslovakia. Historical Studies and Surveys
- Ferdinand Seibt (ed) Die Juden in den bohmischen Liindern. Vortriige der Tagung des Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee
- Ezra Mendelsohn The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars
- Joseph Marcus Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939
- Shlomo Netzer Ma'avak rehudei Polin al Zekhuyotehem ha-Ezrahiyot ve-ha-Leumiyot (1918-1922) (The Struggle of Polish Jewry for Civil and National Minority Rights [1918-1922])
- Randolph L. Braham (ed) Perspectives on the Holocaust. The Hungarian Jewish Catastrophe. A Selected and Annotated Bibliography
- Raul Hilberg The Destruction of the European Jews
- Władysław Bartoszewski Das Warschauer Ghetto - wie es wirklich war. Zeugenbericht eines Christen ; Oswald Amstler. Solidarität zu Kindern in den nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern
- Yisrael Gutman The Jews of Warsaw 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt
- Yechiel Szeintuch (ed) Yitzhak Katzenelson: Yidishe geto-ksovim: Varshe 1940-1943 (Yitzhak Katzenelson: Yiddish Ghetto Writings: Warsaw 1940-1943)
- Karin Wolff (ed) Hiob 1943. Ein Requiemfür das Warschauer Ghetto
- Lucjan Dobroszycki (ed) The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto 1947-1944
- Jack Kugelmass Jonathan Boyarin (editors and translators) From a Ruined Garden. The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry
- Rachel Ertel Le Shtetl. La bourgade juive de Pologne de la tradition à la modernité
- Fr. Tadeusz Sroka Dziennik izraelski czyli religijny wymiar ludzkiego losu (An Israeli Diary, or the Religious Dimension of Man's Fate)
- Znak The Jews in Poland and the World
- Gershon C. Bacon Gershon David Hundert (eds) The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays
- CONTRIBUTORS
Jack Kugelmass Jonathan Boyarin (editors and translators) From a Ruined Garden. The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry
from BOOK REVIEWS
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Statement From the Editors
- ARTICLES
- DOCUMENTS
- INTERVIEW
- A DIALOGUE
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Norman Davies Heart of Europe. A Short History of Poland
- Linda Gordon Cossack Rebellions. Social Turmoil in the Sixteenth Century Ukraine
- Edward C. Thaden Russia's Western Borderlands, 1710–7870
- Raymond Pearson. National Minorities in Eastern Europe, 1848-1945; S. M. Horak et al Eastern European. National Minorities, 1979-1980
- Jerzy Tomaszewski Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów (A Republic of Many Nations)
- Henry Rollet La Pologne au XX’ siècle
- Jacob Goldberg (ed) Jewish Privileges in the Polish Commonwealth. Charters of Rights Granted to Jewish Communities in Poland-Lithuania in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
- Jacob Goldberg (ed) Jewish Privileges in the Polish Commonwealth. Charters of Rights Granted to Jewish Communities in Poland-Lithuania in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
- Maurycy Horn (ed) Regesty dokumentów i ekscerpty z Metryki Koronnej do Historii, (Żydów w Polsee 1697-1795. T. I: Czasy saskie (1697-1763); T. IL· Rzlądy Stanisiława Augusta (1764-1795), Część I: (1764-1779) (Summaries of Records and Excerpts of the Crown Registry Relating to the History of Jews in Poland, 1697-1795. Vol. I; The Saxon Era [1697-1763]; Vol. II: The Reign of Stanislaw August [1764'-95], Part I, 1764-79)
- Chone Shmeruk The Esterke Story in riddish and Polish Literature. A Case Study in the Mutual Relations of Two Cultural Traditions
- David Darshan Shir HaMa ‘alot L ‘David and Ktav Hitnazzelut L ‘Darshanim. Translated and Annotated by H. G. Perelmuter
- Raphael Mahler Hasidism and the Jewish Enlightenment. Translated from the Yiddish Eugene Orenstein. Translated from the Hebrew by Aaron Klein Jenny Machlowitz Klein
- Michael Stanislawski Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish Society in Russia 1825-1855
- O. O. Gruzenberg Yesterday: Memoirs of a Russian-Jewish Lawyerby Don C.|Rawson
- David Berger (ed) The Legacy of Jewish Migration: 1881 and Its Impact
- Steven E. Aschheim Brothers and Strangers. The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923
- A vigdor Dagan, Gertrude Hirschler and Lewis Weiner (eds) The Jews of Czechoslovakia. Historical Studies and Surveys
- Ferdinand Seibt (ed) Die Juden in den bohmischen Liindern. Vortriige der Tagung des Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee
- Ezra Mendelsohn The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars
- Joseph Marcus Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939
- Shlomo Netzer Ma'avak rehudei Polin al Zekhuyotehem ha-Ezrahiyot ve-ha-Leumiyot (1918-1922) (The Struggle of Polish Jewry for Civil and National Minority Rights [1918-1922])
- Randolph L. Braham (ed) Perspectives on the Holocaust. The Hungarian Jewish Catastrophe. A Selected and Annotated Bibliography
- Raul Hilberg The Destruction of the European Jews
- Władysław Bartoszewski Das Warschauer Ghetto - wie es wirklich war. Zeugenbericht eines Christen ; Oswald Amstler. Solidarität zu Kindern in den nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern
- Yisrael Gutman The Jews of Warsaw 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt
- Yechiel Szeintuch (ed) Yitzhak Katzenelson: Yidishe geto-ksovim: Varshe 1940-1943 (Yitzhak Katzenelson: Yiddish Ghetto Writings: Warsaw 1940-1943)
- Karin Wolff (ed) Hiob 1943. Ein Requiemfür das Warschauer Ghetto
- Lucjan Dobroszycki (ed) The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto 1947-1944
- Jack Kugelmass Jonathan Boyarin (editors and translators) From a Ruined Garden. The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry
- Rachel Ertel Le Shtetl. La bourgade juive de Pologne de la tradition à la modernité
- Fr. Tadeusz Sroka Dziennik izraelski czyli religijny wymiar ludzkiego losu (An Israeli Diary, or the Religious Dimension of Man's Fate)
- Znak The Jews in Poland and the World
- Gershon C. Bacon Gershon David Hundert (eds) The Jews in Poland and Russia: Bibliographical Essays
- CONTRIBUTORS
Summary
How does one commemorate the destruction of millions of people, indeed of an entire nation, without being overwhelmed by the enormity of the numbers? How can one grieve for and honour so many human beings on an individual plane and accord to their memory the dignity which they were denied?
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust responded to this by creating a unique tombstone - a collection of yizker bikher, memorial books. A large majority of these books, around four hundred volumes, commemorate Polish Jewish communities, providing an extraordinary insight into the life of the shtetl. From a Ruined Garden is an anthology of fragments from over 60 memorial books of Polish Jewry. The translators and editors of this volume, Jack Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin, have done a most important job of introducing yizker bikher to a wider, English-speaking audience.
These books constitute a very special genre, for not only are they written monuments, preserving and establishing the living memory of a people and its culture, but they are a source of historical information as well. They usually bear the same structure, with one section devoted to the history of a particular shtetl before the First World War, another to life in independent Poland, and a third to the Holocaust. These books stem from the need to preserve the past, but as the translators point out in the Introduction, the reality of that past is distorted because it is seen always through the prism of the Holocaust.
The English anthology presents us with a personal selection based on a thorough familiarity with Yiddish texts. The editors include both pieces which are very representative for the memorial books, and those which they regard as most interesting. Thus besides the typical descriptions of, for example, market day in a small town, there are others relating the history of over 200 years of relations between the aristocratic Plater family and the Jews, or a story of Jewish anarchists from Krynki. A rich picture of Jewish social life is presented. There are stories about various organizations from a burial society to a sports club and the union of Jewish porters. We have descriptions of religious and family ceremonies like burials, weddings and visits to a tsaddik.
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- Poles and Jews: Renewing the Dialogue , pp. 407 - 409Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2004