RECOVERING CONNECTIONS

RECOVERING CONNECTIONS Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage

Edited by Barbara Czyznikowska, Miriam Levene and Gil Pasternak

RECOVERING CONNECTIONS

RECOVERING CONNECTIONS Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage Edited by Barbara Czyznikowska, Miriam Levene and Gil Pasternak

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editors would like to thank all the participants in the Recovering Connections initiative for committing their time and efforts to bring it to fruition: Leon Charikar, Karolina Choina, Peter Coleman, Mary Cooper, Barbara Czyznikowska, Piotr Drażba, Elizabeth Frost, Ola Horbacz, Miriam Levene, Kazimiera Myers, Michael Myers and five individuals who prefer to remain anonymous.

We would also like to thank De Montfort University Leicester (UK), for providing us with a regular meeting space to develop and curate the content for this photobook at the Campus’ Breathing Space.

Gil Pasternak’s contribution to the initiative was made possible through his role as Project Leader of Digital Heritage in Cultural Conflicts, a research programme that received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 699523, implemented in the United Kingdom by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under Project Ref AH/S000119/1.

The Recovering Connections initiative and its resulting publication have been financed by the Polish Community Support Funds of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation.

Recovering Connections: Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage Publisher: Independent Publishing Network. London, UK. Publication date: 18 August 2020 ISBN: 978-1-83853-604-6 Editorial contact details Barbara Czyznikowska | contact@projectpolska.org.uk Miriam Levene | mirilev52@gmail.com Gil Pasternak | gpasternak@dmu.ac.uk Individual Photographs and Texts, Selection and Editorial Material © Barbara Czyznikowska, Miriam Levene and Gil Pasternak, 2020.

Designed by Gil Pasternak.

Cover image: Challah (Hebrew) / Chałka (Polish).

For legal purposes the Acknowledgments page also constitutes the copyright page. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

INTRODUCTION Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage

Leicester is often seen as a super diverse city, well known for its multi-faith population, where different cultures and religions live side-by-side harmoniously. Inter-cultural dialogue plays an important role in the lives of city residents, involving a broad spectrum of activities from formal visits to worship places to informal connections between distinct groups and individuals of different backgrounds.

Recovering Connections: Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage is the result of a local inter-cultural endeavor to bring together the Leicester-based Polish and Jewish communities, with the intention of empowering them to recover their long-standing shared cultural and historical connections. The culmination of a number of community engagement workshops that took place in Leicester in November and December 2019, the photobook constitutes a record of one Polish-Jewish dialogue, carried out through and with the assistance of the medium of photography. This dialogue between the two communities revolves around their shared life experiences in Leicester in the present day, while tapping into questions about their related heritage, uneasy collective memories of one another, and the implications of their different religious beliefs in the context of the past and the present alike.

Although this dialogue subsequently touches upon issues of sensitive nature for both communities, the photographs in the book, coupled with their accompanying reflective texts, aspire to assist in increasing mutual understanding between Poles and Jews in Leicestershire, as well as their familiarity with one another – as communities, but also as individuals. Photography is used here to enable community members of both groups to provide a level of access to their otherwise relatively separate personal, social, and cultural environments and lived experiences. Presenting the results of their endeavor side-by-side, the photobook reveals their individual experiences, hopes, and uncertainties at the very same time as it highlights their similarities, empathy, and feeling of togetherness, despite their undeniable difference.

The photographs included in the book were made and selected by over 15 individuals from the two communities, showcasing the richness and diversity of their cultures and everyday life. While those individuals represent a diverse range of social backgrounds and age groups, it is significant to explain that, initially, a larger number of members from each community were keen to enter into this inter-cultural dialogue. Some of them decided to withdraw due to emotional distress, as almost unavoidably their engagement with

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the subject in question triggered difficult memories and feelings related to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the experiences that followed these dark chapters in the history of both Poles and Jews. Others made their mind to leave the conversation and keep their photographs to themselves as they lacked conviction about the reasons behind their peers’ participation in the initiative, suspecting that not everyone was equally interested in allowing reciprocal understanding between Jews and Poles to prevail.

Nevertheless, while boiling down the interaction between the two communities to just a few words is not an easy task, other participants were led to undertake deeper and culturally diverse research into the history of Polish-Jewish relations, as well as into their own family history. Due to these tensions and complexities, the editors, together with the participating community members, have unanimously agreed that names of contributors to the photobook would be omitted, not least as blurring the boundaries between Jews and Poles in this way makes it easier to understand how similar they actually are despite their undeniable simultaneous difference.

to representatives of each community, express their unique perspectives, as well as provide further details about the production process of the photographs and text that follow. The editors and contributors to the photobook hope it can trigger further innovative opportunities for mutual reflections and dialogues between Poles and Jews to emerge, in Leicestershire and beyond.

Recovering Connections: Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage begins with brief editorial introductions that intend to give a voice

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The Editors, Leicester 2020

BARBARA CZYZNIKOWSKA FRSA Chair, Project Polska

It is estimated that there are over 25,000 individuals with Polish roots residing in the United Kingdom’s county of Leicestershire.

Polish migration to Leicestershire has seen several waves, and dates back to the Second World War, when many Poles endured a gruelling journey through Siberia and Persia to settle down in this county. So-called Solidarity migration brought the second wave of Poles who came to Leicestershire between the late 1970s and early 1980s when Poland was governed by an authoritarian, socialist regime, requesting political asylum. Lastly, following the 2004 admission of Poland as a member state of the European Union, another wave of Poles arrived in the United Kingdom. This time it mainly consisted of young individuals who left Poland in pursuit of a better economic wellbeing.

In Leicester, where Poles of all three waves settled, their presence has been positively noticeable and, similar to numerous other communities, they have largely assimilated into the broader fabric of the city. Over the years, it has seen the development of formal and informal networks that support the community, providing a gateway to preserve and pass on the richness of Polish heritage and culture.

At Project Polska, a community led organisation aiming at empowering the Polish diaspora to engage in social action and cross-cultural dialogue, we place particular emphasis on fostering sustainable relationships between members of the community with other local communities. By setting up the Recovering Connections initiative, we aspired to build a bridge between the local Polish and the Jewish communities, who are largely disconnected despite their shared cultural heritage. While isolation can breed misunderstanding, we believe that building better relationships can help us connect, comprehend each other’s challenges, and show that Poles and Jews can care for and appreciate one another.

As Holocaust survivors gathered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland in January 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, the world was compelled to reflect on the climate of hatred, contempt, and prejudice that is still present in our lives. When we look back at the horrifying images of the anti-Semitic and racist genocide that took place during the Second World War, we must still ask ourselves, “could this happen again?”. The sad lessons of that period were adequately captured by Eric Hoffer who once said that, “in a time of drastic change it is the

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learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists”.

No one can argue about the fact that the Holocaust was one of the most brutal chapters in world history, leaving millions grieving and displaced. However, while historically Poles and Jews have a longstanding relationship, the complexity of its nature during the Holocaust in particular has been under debate, especially in recent years. Yet, despite these passionate and sensitive debates, one must still remember that, before the Holocaust, Poland was home to 3.5 million Jews, which constituted Europe’s largest Jewish population at the time. To rephrase, on the eve of the Holocaust, 10% of Poles were Jewish.

At Project Polska we hope that Recovering Connections helps Poles and Jews to be reminded of their historical and cultural connections, as well as to establish new friendships and grow in their understanding of one another.

Before the Holocaust, Polish Christians and Polish Jews lived sideby-side, often conversing in various languages and interacting with one another as an integral part of their daily routines. To this very day at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, one can still observe strong cross-cultural influences in both Polish and Jewish everyday life experiences, including, for instance, the presence of Hebrew and Yiddish words in Polish language, and Polish cuisine being filled with Jewish dishes, as well as vice versa.

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Barbara Czyznikowska

MIRIAM LEVENE President, Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation

The Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation (LPJC) is a small but vibrant community of the multi-cultural makeup of this Midlands city. Our ethos focuses on equality, social justice, and social action, the latter of which is known in Hebrew as Tikkun Olam – “Repair of the world”.

LPJC members come from varied backgrounds, with many having strong family connections to Central and Eastern Europe. Often connected through the unfortunate historical persecution of the Jewish people, and while never forgetting these experiences, we also look forward to building connections and raising awareness of different perspectives.

Anti-Semitism has been and continues to be an integral part of our life. The pattern of its expression goes in cycles, but it is ever present. Like racism in general, it seems there will always be those who need scapegoats; those who cannot accept that all human beings are equal in the sight of God and should be so in each other’s sight too. At LPJC we believe that we have a responsibility as individuals and as a community to resist misrepresentation and misunderstanding of ourselves but also of other peoples.

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Miriam Levene

Speaking for myself for a moment, communication has been a key element of my professional life as a speech and language therapist and in my personal life too. It was a constant source of frustration to me as a child that I could not communicate fully with my PolishJewish maternal grandmother on her occasional visits to the United Kingdom from abroad. She spoke Polish, German, Yiddish and Hebrew but not English. I could read biblical Hebrew and the type of Hebrew used in prayer books. I could even translate some of it, but I could not speak the language.

Having been involved in interfaith work in Leicester for some time, I was delighted to be able to co-create Recovering Connections as an opportunity for Poles and Jews to meet each other, talk to one another, and develop some creative practice about our shared lives in the United Kingdom, in the city of Leicester to be more specific.

We, Poles and Jews, share so much, whether it is foods such as borscht, cheesecake and our love of gherkins, or our common history of displacement and relocation. We can also share the values of human respect and the family, and care together for the environment.

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GIL PASTERNAK (PhD) Associate Professor of Social and Political Photographic Cultures at De Montfort University Leicester

We tend to think about photographs as images of a world that exists independently, beyond the boundaries of the picture frame.

We may subsequently forget that with every photograph we take, we give visual expression to the sights and experiences that we encounter separately, as individuals who move from one place to another according to our own personal pace of life. As our cultural background, education, beliefs, profession, and family history most commonly condition who we meet and who we make friends with, where we live, with whom we choose to build a life and how we understand others, those same aspects also influence where we photograph, when, what, why, and how.

Our photographs must therefore not be considered as mere records of an objective reality that appears the same to anyone looking at it.

Our photographs must also not be understood as pictures of a world that means exactly the same to everyone living in it. Each photograph is rather a document of what its producer has specifically chosen to commemorate and share with others.

Inasmuch as each photograph reveals what was there and then, in front of the camera when the picture was taken, it equally divulges something quite specific – even if indirectly – about the inner life and lived experience of its producer.

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Gil Pasternak

Between November and December 2019, members of the Progressive Jewish and Polish communities in the city of Leicester in the United Kingdom turned to photography with a view to introducing themselves to one another and opening a new world of social and cultural possibilities. Underpinning the initiative was the realisation that despite their shared history and heritage, Jews and Poles rarely connect with each other as minority groups in the United Kingdom. Assisted and facilitated by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Manchester, Project Polska, Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation, De Montfort University, and the European Commission funded research project Digital Heritage in Cultural Conflicts (DigiCONFLICT), the initiative was therefore designed to help the otherwise largely segregated Polish and Jewish communities to build social, cultural, as well as interpersonal bridges.

For the benefit of those less familiar with Polish and Jewish history, it must be explained that, as two peoples Jews and Poles have much in common. Already in the tenth century, the lives of Jews who lived for centuries in Central and Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi Jews) were especially closely and irreducibly entangled with the lives of Poles. Yet, from the 1025 foundation of the Kingdom of Poland,

Jews and Poles began to co-exist under the same rule, and have experienced the country’s many political transitions and territorial transformations ever since – if not always together, then side-byside at the very least. Owing to the internal social diversity of both peoples, some Jews and Poles had closer relationships than others.

Being the two largest peoples living within the same land, however, contact and reciprocal influence on each other’s culture, heritage, and lived experience was a matter of fact throughout Poland’s history. This last statement also takes into consideration some of Poland’s extremely challenging historical periods, such as its 123 years of partition by Russia, Prussia, and Austro-Hungary (17951918), its occupation by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (1939-1945), and the country’s subsequent 44 years of Soviet domination (1945-1989).

Bringing together participants from Leicester’s Progressive Jewish and Polish communities to create a space in which they could contemplate their shared history and heritage, as well as reflect on their more immediate everyday realities in the city where they now reside, the photo-based initiative mostly employed disposable cameras, digitisation, and digitalisation practices to engage them in carefully considered photographic storytelling. Consisting of a

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series of workshops that were delivered to individual volunteers from the two communities, it established an environment and the means for all participants to share, analyse, and discuss photographs that each of them produced in-between the meetings. Gradually the participants began to share with each other a range of other photographs that they considered relevant to their shared interests and endeavour. At first, however, disposable film cameras were used to encourage the participants to slow down the process of picturetaking. In the context of a digital world in which photographs are being taken rapidly and mostly without due attention, using these cameras compelled the participants to take some extra time to capture more considered and meaningful images. Nevertheless, in the initiative’s more advanced stages, digital technology was used to generate a communal, inclusive atmosphere, and as a way to direct attention to visual details that may escape the participants’ attention when engaging with their photographic paper-prints.

explore and understand the multiplicity of personal, historical, and cultural connections to the Polish country. The photographs that follow and the texts accompanying them represent some of the initiative’s creative results. Each interweaves a reference to a personal emotion, memory, feeling, object, landscape, or worldview into a mosaic of others that converge into one relatively coherent sentiment, despite the number of contributors, their age, interests, and backgrounds.

In creating and sharing photographs about their homes, families, and domestic as well as communal lives, participants in the initiative entered into dialogue on their origins, backgrounds, cultural legacies and social realities alike. They touched on each other’s perceived knowledge, stereotypes, differences, and similarities, learning to

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RECOVERING CONNECTIONS

I have always been a collector. Many people live without books and “things”. I find this curious. Someone once said, “When we are sad – it can be comforting to cling to familiar things that don’t change.” Maybe that’s why.

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The letters K, M and B denoting the initials of the Three Kings – Kasper, Melchior and Baltazar. It is a Polish custom of taking chalk home on the 6th of January – the Feast Day of the Three Kings – and then writing the letters and the year in your doorway. The chalk has been previously blessed in Church and is said to bring good luck to the household for the forthcoming year.

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My great-grandfather, Joe Pottok, grew up in Dąbrowa Górnicza in southern Poland. He was actually born in London’s Bethnal Green, but the family wanted to get back to Poland. They couldn’t return immediately because of the Russian Civil War and Soviet-Polish War – they even ended up in Siberia for a while before they could get back to Poland. Joe came to Britain in 1939 – leaving all his family behind in Poland. He found lodgings in the East End of London, where he met my great-grandma (we call her “bubba”). At first, they could only talk to each other in Yiddish but Joe was clever and learned English quickly. Like a lot of Jewish people living in the East End, he found work as a tailor. In my photograph, I’m wearing one of the caps he made. He died before I was born but I like to wear the cap and hear stories about him.

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Polish graves in Saffron Hill cemetery. All Saints’ Day in Poland on the 1st of November is for families to gather and visit the graves of family members who have passed away. The graves are lavishly decorated with flowers and candles are lit in their hundreds so that a view from the sky creates an impression of hundreds of lakes on fire.

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A sad day at the funeral of a friend. A kind, lovely man, and the last remaining member of the original Polish Ex-Combatants Association in Leicester. Paying our last respects at the cemetery with the lowering of the Standards.

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The 10th of November 2019. Remembrance Sunday. The annual Remembrance Service takes place at the Cenotaph in London on the nearest Sunday to the 11th of November, the official date of Armistice Day (the end of the First World War), Veterans Day (in the USA) and coincidentally Poland’s National Day of Independence. Watching the ceremony broadcast from London on TV, I find Elgar’s Nimrod being played by the band captured on screen really touching. It is such a moving piece and for me it captures a feeling of sadness and nostalgia of the occasion.

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First beautiful December frost. Leicester, December 2019.

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The abundance of floral tributes at the grave of Henry Kubinski; the red and white of his country’s flag.

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Decorating the Christmas tree, 2019. Every year, decorating the Christmas tree reminds me of our childhood Christmases, celebrated in our Nissen huts – a post-war dwellings for the refugee Poles – when Christmas was such a magical time, when receiving a sugar mouse or an orange or crayons, gave us, small children, immeasurable joy. The wonder of a decorated Christmas tree has remained with me to this day.

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Selfie with a student support officer. I had just confirmed I would be the Jewish chaplaincy representative at one of the local universities in Leicester. Work with those of faiths and no faith is very important to me. I feel a strong responsibility to share information about my own faith. Finding common values is empowering. My personal family background reflects the pattern in history of anti-Semitism and its devastating effects.

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A welcome sign. “Gość w dom, Bóg w dom” (Guest in the house, God in the house) is a Polish saying which typifies Polish hospitality. A guest in one’s house should be treated with the same welcome, care, and kindness as one would treat God Himself, were He to visit one’s humble abode.

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Beach with heavy clouds at the Baltic Seashore in Poland just minutes before a storm arrived. Łukęcin, Poland, August 2018.

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Trees reflections in a forest in Poland captured in a soap bubble. That moment lasted just a few seconds. Łukęcin, Poland, August 2018.

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Making uszka – a family Christmas tradition. Uszka (little ears) are dumplings filled with mushrooms and served with borsch on Christmas Eve, the night for Polish families to gather and celebrate the start of Christmas. The meal consists of twelve courses traditionally. Presents are exchanged and carols are sung before attending the Midnight Mass. Family celebrations continue for the next few days.

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My great-grandfather, Joe Pottok, was quite a character. As a tailor, he put his sewing skills to good use. They were clever little features – a secret pocket here; a clever seam there. He liked to entertain my dad with magic tricks he learned from a travelling circus that used to visit where the family lived in Poland. Even just before he died, he started to write short stories – in my photograph I’m reading some – two of which were broadcast on a local London radio station.

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A November Sunset somewhere around Braunstone Town at 15:15. Leicester, November 2019.

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Our local Shul façade; a doorway of spiritual freedom, love, and Faith. Starting the journey, bringing me Home to my People and Birth Right.

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The book collection. My husband has created a collection of a few hundred books, predominantly books about the Second World War. It was that war which fragmented thousands of families throughout Europe, sending those who survived to seek refuge in other countries. England became our foster country, that we had grown to love and now cannot imagine living anywhere else.

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Autumn in a garden. With a little mess but still with some order. Leicester, November 2019.

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Walking down the streets of Leicester, I can find many buildings that feature Jewish symbols which in my understanding testify to the long presence of Jews in the city, even though I don’t know if this is true. Knowing the history of the Second World War and that of the post-war period, I wonder how many people of Jewish origin came from Poland to Leicester? How many people have Polish roots? Where are the Poles...?

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Entrance to Bouskell Park in Blaby, Leicestershire. A place I visit to relax all year round.

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Heart-shaped pebbles. You can always find some at the seaside. Love is all around. Leicester, November 2019.

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Attending the local Remembrance Day event. I find this a very moving event. Lives lost and damaged in power struggles. It causes me to reflect on my grandfathers’ role as soldiers in the Polish and German armies during the First World War, on my father as a British soldier in the Second World War, and on several nephews currently in the Israeli army. The pattern of familial re-location represented in a variety of army uniforms! Amongst those marching were these members of the naval services. My eldest grandchild is very interested in sailing. The link potentially continues. I hope he never has to experience it.

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Standing against the elements. One of many survivors of storm, just like the Jewish people.

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Peter, my friend and carer in his elements, surrounded by family memories.

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Unexpected fungi on a small patch of grass I pass regularly. One day, just green grass, then in clear outlines and amazing colours, nature’s passing beauty. I reflected on how life can change rapidly, unexpectedly, and soon all evidence disappear. Sure enough, some days later there was no sign of the fungi. Evidence of Jewish life can be temporary too.

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Transported shop image of Adnams of Southwold Brewery, reliving memories of my home town.

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I was very much saddened while walking my dog in the local park to see this change. Normally this ground is dry underfoot. Suddenly, after heavy rainfall, the current environmental concerns were reflected in this “pop up” rivulet from the nearby pond through undergrowth into the drains. Light glistening on water flowing in natural curves through the leaves.

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Stamford. Lincolnshire river side at dusk in the Autumn. Away from the bustle of life and madness of people.

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Riverside reflections of a “tree of life” and I am feeling close to nature, where the beauty and peaceful environment gives me joy.

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Polish immigration to Leicester is relatively young as far as I know. The multi-cultural nature of the city, and its openness to people from all cultures and diverse communities gives hope that the Polish community will have more places to showcase its culture and identity in the near future.

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Survival Kit Bedside daily requirements for the 60+. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is still relevant, and very much on the table.

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Holocaust Memorial at Leicester Progressive Jewish Synagogue, in the Shul’s garden of our people that perished. A reminder of anti-Semitism and our history.

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Sukkah (booth) structure in the garden of Neve Shalom Synagogue, Leicester, after the Jewish festival of Sukkot, 2019. My first experience of the Feast of Tabernacles and of Ingathering with my Jewish community.

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Mini Poland. Walking around our city we can see many Polish markets full of colour advertisements of “native products”.

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Mini Poland. They fit perfectly into commercial spaces with already existing local stores.

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Signs of Polish culture can now be seen in Leicester’s urban space not only at special times but also on a daily basis. But, of course, Polish culture and traditions are mostly visible during Catholic holidays or anniversaries related to the history of Poland.

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Nowadays we can also find many “Polish accents” in everyday life.

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“Urban culture”. The way we can see the activity of Polish people in Leicester on a daily basis.

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Tuesday. I went to make a presentation to two schools on the Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 competition theme.

I showed images of members of my father’s family from Ruthenia – formerly in Czechoslovakia and now in Ukraine – before they were sent to Auschwitz, and I showed my father, who was able to flee the Nazis.

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The schools I visited were Badgerbrook Primary, Year 6 students, and Rushey Mead Academy, Year 9. It was one of the darkest and rainiest days I can remember, but the students in both schools were delightful and engaged in the project.

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Matyda’s desk. A place where she does her homework, from her English school and Saturday Polish school.

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Looking across the park from an upstairs bedroom at home. A particularly beautiful evening at sunset.

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This is our new family member, a female border collie dog. Her name is Poppy, as her fur is white and reddish, and she arrived to our house on 10 November 2019, near the time of Remembrance Sunday.

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Toby is our visiting cat. He was a very nervous animal at first, but wooed and tamed by platefuls of food, he now resides on our balcony, as if he owns the place.

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This is a plateful of Polish “pierniczki”, small, ginger, icing-coated biscuits – welcome favourites at any tea-time.

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Challah reminds me of Friday night when I was growing up. My mum used to buy a challah, give it to me, sitting in the back of the car to hold. On the way home I used to pull off some of the delicious crust and enjoy nibbling it, in the back of the car. My mum was furious but the smell and taste of the bread was irresistible.

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This house could have been our home in Poland. It is here in Leicester, a stabilising place for our family. As children, we experienced a succession of dwelling places during the war years en route to England. We had no experience of an extended family (grandparents, uncles, aunts or cousins). Our wish was to create a secure environment for our own family. We have been living in this house for nearly 50 years.

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RECOVERING CONNECTIONS Poles, Jews and Our Interrelated Cultural Heritage

Fragments of the lives and feelings experienced by members of Leicester’s Jewish and Polish communities are brought to light through photographs they share with each other in an attempt to reconnect with their interrelated history and culture. Recovering Connections interweaves their visual impressions, reflections as well as individual and communal heritage, demonstrating the deep relationship between two communities who live in the same city but only rarely encounter one another.

Barbara Czyznikowska is Chair of Project Polska Miriam Levene is President of Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation Gil Pasternak is Associate Professor of Social and Political Photographic Cultures in the Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University Leicester

ISBN: 978-1-83853-604-6