More than Acculturation: State School Systems, Jewish Pupils, and Various Modes of Jewish Nationalism and Orthodoxy in Interwar Poland

Creation of Polish state in Interwar period had marked revolution in Jewish education. In 1930s 80% of Jewish children in the age 7-14 studied in Polish state schools. They were most important institutions promoting knowledge of Polish language and culture among Jewish citizens of II Republic. This process came together with development of modern Jewish nationalism and orthodoxy. Their combined effects were described by Ezra Mendelsohn as “acculturation without assimilation”.

In my paper I would like to analyze how elements of Polish culture and Polish cultural identity could function among Jewish schools pupils together (and not against) with their national (Zionist, national and revolutionary socialist) and orthodox affiliations – on the level of their declared identification and also on the level of their daily cultural praxis. Polish cultural intimacy was often manifested not in Polish, but in Yiddish or Hebrew languages. And the very same time young Jews were able to manifest intimate elements of their Yiddishkeit while speaking and writing in Polish, in interactions with their school teachers and Christian class mates.

I will demonstrate how the Polish cultural codes were used by new generation of Polish Jews to fight for their citizen equality, as elements of their political resistance towards radical right wing anti-Semitism and discrimination experienced by the Polish state, as elements of various ideological declarations of young activists of Bund, various Zionist parties and organizations, and finally, of Agudat Israel.