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Polanim’s literary journalism/reportage draws on extensive interviews with Israelis of Polish origin and their children, with each chapter organized around a particular experience of Poland and of Palestine/Israel, or around memories passed on. Some had gotten away from pre-war antisemitism, some found post-war devastated Poland unbearable, and some were pushed out in 1968. Through those individual experiences, Przewrocka-Aderet gets at Jewish life in Poland from the 1920s into the 1990s, and at their experiences in Palestine/Israel of these Polanim. Leaving at and arriving at different moments, they also differed in social class, education, gender, political affiliation, and age at the moment of emigration—but they also differed in the unpredictable variety of human experience beyond any social categories.
“Polish Jews—Zionists and entrepreneurs, pioneers and survivors—made Israel. Some settled in a neighborhood called Gomulkaville, from the name of the communist leader who had let them go, and tried to recreate Krakow on the Mediterranean. Israel eventually transformed them even more than they had transformed it. Karolina Przewrocka-Aderet masterfully traces their individual life stories, showing Poland's loss, Israel's gain—and their joy and pain.”
—Konstanty Gebert, Polish Jewish journalist and author
“Karolina Przewrocka-Aderet moved from Krakow to Tel Aviv to join her Israeli husband. She set out to know the city and the country through searching for familiar clues and tiny bits of Poland. By recording the hints of their presence there with precision, and by carrying out tender and diligent interviews with successive generations of immigrants from Poland, she has brought Israel closer not only to herself, but also to the readers of this book.”
—Anna Bikont, journalist and writer
“This moving and timely volume, which originally appeared in Polish, is made up of a series of extended interviews with Jews from Poland and their descendants conducted by a well-respected Polish journalist, who lived for many years in Israel. Their reasons for leaving Poland differ widely—some were inspired by the Zionist dream of building a Jewish state, others were unwilling to live in a country where most of their families and friends had perished or felt compelled to leave because of the persistence of antisemitism or as a result of the “anti-Zionist” campaign of 1968. They have all retained strong elements of their Polish identity and the way they have adapted to life in the Jewish state differs widely, ranging from those who feel comfortable in their new environment to those who have taken the drastic step of returning to Poland. This book is essential reading for all interested in the evolution of the Jewish settlement in Palestine and the State of Israel from the 1920s to the present and in Polish-Israeli relations.”
—Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, Brandeis University, Chief Historian, Global Education Outreach Project, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw
“I’m an Israeli. I’m a Pole. I survived the Warsaw Ghetto. In reading Karolina Przewrocka-Aderet’s beautiful accounts of the lives of other Polanim (as we are known in Hebrew), each one different, I found a piece of my life. I’ve longed for a book that would explain that life to my children and grandchildren who read neither Polish nor Hebrew. This book does it.”
—Yoheved Berwald-Netter, Research Director, French National Centre for Scientific Research
“Polanim explores the often-overlooked Polish roots of the modern state of Israel, weaving together poignant stories of contemporary Israelis rediscovering their Polish heritage. At a time when many Poles in Poland are uncovering long-hidden Jewish ancestry, a parallel process is unfolding in Israel—one of reconnection, reflection, and rediscovery. This important book sheds new light on the deep, complex, and sometimes fraught entanglements that continue to bind Poland and Israel today”.
—Geneviève Zubrzycki, author of Resurrecting the Jew: Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland's Jewish Revival
Karolina Przewrocka-Aderet is a Polish journalist and longtime resident of Israel. She has reported from Israel for the respected weekly Tygodnik Powszechny, and other venues in Poland. As an editor, she led the Polish-language, socio-cultural quarterly Kalejdoskop in Israel. Karolina is the co-author of numerous publications focused on Polish-Jewish and Israeli topics. She has contributed to other media in Poland and Germany, including Przekrój, TVP Kultura, Onet.pl, Deutsche Welle, and Der Freitag. Karolina studied in Kraków, Berlin, and Tel Aviv. After October 7, 2023, she returned to Krakow, where she currently coordinates cultural projects at the local Jewish Community Center.
Małgorzata Markoff translated The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc as well as three chapters in Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, which won the National Jewish Book Award. Previously, she translated novels from English into Polish. Together with John Markoff, Małgorzata translated Paweł Pieniążek, Greetings from Novorossiya: Eyewitness to the War in Ukraine and Magdalena Grzebałkowska, Poland 1945: War and Peace.
John Markoff is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh. His books have earned awards from the American Sociological Association, the Society for French Historical Studies, and the Social Science History Association.
INSTEAD OF AN INTRODUCTION
Roots
Gidi
1. ROAD TO THE ERETZ
Rush
Tel Aviv
Lodzia
Illegals
Miri
Kibbutznikim
2. THEY SURVIVED
Aliza
The Strong
Boris
3. IN YOUNG ISRAEL
Midwife
Unwanted
Gomułkowo
Jakub
Judeocommunism
Michał
Palimpsest
Polish Mother
Mother and Son
Together
4. RETURN JOURNEYS
Karol
Zuza
Haggai
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY