UC Berkeley

Abstract

Mapping Jewish Poland: Leisure Travel and Identity in the Interwar Period

By

Urszula H. Madej-Krupitski

Doctor of Philosophy in History

and the Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies

University of California, Berkeley

Professor John Efron, Chair

This study explores the development of leisure cultures and practices among the highly-diversified population of Polish Jews during the interwar period. Travel networks, guidebooks, and the leisure industry all helped propel a transformation of Polish-Jewish society that transcended the multitude of religious, socio-economic, political, and linguistic divides among them. Approaching this subject from the methodological perspective of Alltagsgeschichte, the history of everyday life, drawing on popular materials in Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and German, such as travel brochures, magazines and advertisements, as well as an array of underutilized archival documents, my work analyzes the travel choices of Jewish, and for comparative purposes, non-Jewish, citizens, during the Second Polish Republic. Through examining the recreational preferences of both Jews and others in the Polish context, and how those preferences enabled identity formation, this research examines the grand processes of Jewish acculturation, belonging, and assimilation in interwar Poland.

Modern scholars usually portray Polish Jews of the period in a decidedly lachrymose manner. Historians such as Celia Heller and Emanuel Melzer suggest respectively that Jews were living on the “edge of destruction” with “no way out.” However, this study firmly demonstrates that between the two world wars, Polish Jews lived rich lives, negotiated complicated relationships with broader Polish society, and dreamed of diverse futures in their homeland. Despite experiencing difficult and changing times marked by severe economic challenges, nationalism, and increasing antisemitism, Polish Jews thrived within the boundaries of the Second Polish Republic. By exploring their engagement in domestic tourist activities, this dissertation reveals the genuine emotional connection they felt for Polish forests, rivers, mountains and towns. In doing so, it challenges historical accounts that depict the Polish Jewish experience of the period solely as a series of desperate attempts to leave the country.

Beyond the quotidian travel choices of Jews, this study examines the Yidisher Gezelshaft far Landkenetnish or Żydowskie Towarzystwo Krajoznawcze (Jewish Society for Knowledge of the Land), founded in 1926. Headed by Jewish intellectuals, physicians, and historians, it sought to promote a sense among Jews that they were both an integral part of the Polish nation and that Poland was very much their homeland. Through its tours, publications, public lectures, and other forms of public programming, the Landkentenish movement aimed to change the consciousness of Jews and transform them from being ‘Jews in Poland’ to Polish Jews. Largely but not exclusively expressing itself in Yiddish, Landkentenish had a sort of Jewish interiority that made its commitment to acculturation complex and unique. Its activities were not designed to “impress” or ingratiate itself to the majority, but to foster a deep commitment to a new and truly integrated Polish-Jewish identity. In short, this dissertation underscores not only why and how Polish Jews became tourists, but also the ways in which leisure travel aided them in establishing and expressing their Jewishness and Polishness.