Creativity and Conflict succeeds on several levels at once: as homage, as historiographical reflection, and as a resource for future scholarship and teaching. Bacon's essays do not simply endure as canonical statements in the historiography of Polish Jewry; they continue to challenge readers and invite new research.  

— Magdalena Kozłowska, Contemporary Jewry

“Fascinating product of a nearly millennia‑old civilization and the ‘warp and woof of Polish society, separate threads woven in and around each other,’ their society diverged in outcomes. The essays, well researched and written, offer refreshing insight into a highly transformative era.”

—Hallie Cantor, AJL

“Kenneth Levin’s timely, incisive, and thought-provoking study of this profoundly perilous psychological phenomenon should be read by every Jew in America. Alas, it won’t be.”

—Bruce Bawer, The FrontPage Magazine

Acknowledgments

Notes on Commentators

Notes on Transliterations, Place-Names, and Publishers

Maps

Introduction: Interwar Polish Jewish History: A Reevaluation

Moshe Rosman

Part One

Looking Back: Society and Religion in Pre-World War I Poland

Jewish Society in the Polish Congress Kingdom, 1860-1914

Antony Polonsky comments

Prolonged Erosion, Organization, and Reinforcement: Reflections on Orthodox Jewry in Congress Poland., c. 1850 to 1914

Shaul Stampfer comments

3. Religious Coercion, Freedom of Expression, and Modern Jewish Identity in Poland:

I. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, and the "Circumcision Scandal" in Warsaw, 1908

Adam Ferziger comments

Part Two

Society, Youth, Women, and Politics: Aspects of Jewish Life in Interwar Poland

4. Partial Success, Great Achievements: On Jewish Autonomy in Interwar Poland

Marcin Wodzinski comments

5. National Revival, Ongoing Acculturation: Jewish Education in Interwar Poland

Natalia Aleksiun comments

6. To Enlist the Enthusiasm of the Young: Orthodox Jewish Non-Political Responses to the Challenges of Interwar Poland

Uriel Gellman comments

7. The Missing 52%: The State of Research on Jewish Women in Interwar Poland and Its Implications for Holocaust Studies

Dalia Ofer comments

8. Woman? Youth? Jew?: The Search for the Identity of Jewish Young Women in Interwar Poland

Eliyana Adler comments

9. Reluctant Partners, Ideological Rivals: Reflections on the Relations between Agudath Israel and the Zionist and Religious Zionist Movements in Interwar Poland

Ada Gebel comments

Part Three

Struggles and Scandals: The Politicization of the Polish Rabbinate in Interwar Poland

10. Ideology of Agudath Israel: "Da'at Torah" and "Birthpangs of the Messiah"

Aryeh Edrei comments

11. Enduring Prestige, Eroded Authority: The Warsaw Rabbinate in the Interwar Period

Asaf Yedidya comments

12. The New Jewish Politics and the Rabbinate in Poland: New Directions in the Interwar Period

Mordecai (Motti) Zalkin comments

Part Four

Jews as Part of the Fabric of Polish Society

13. Messianists, Pragmatists, and Patriots: Orthodox Jews and the Modern Polish State

Kamil Kijek comments

14. Polish-Jewish Relations in Modern Times: The Search for a Metaphor and a Historical Framework

Yitzhak Conforti comments