Jewish Poland: Legends of Origin. Ethnopoetics and Legendary Chronicles (review)

THE JEWISHQUARTERLYREVIEW,XCII,Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 2001)222-226 HAYABAR-ITZHAK.Jewish Poland: Legends of Origin. Ethnopoetics and Legendary Chronicles. Detroit:Wayne State University Press, 2001. Pp. 195 + illustrations. The literarymanifestationsof folk artand specifically the stories Polish Jews told aboutthe origins of theircommunityform the announcedsubject of this short study. Etiological stories always serve a contemporarypurpose . According to the author,earlierscholars, such as B. D. Weinryb,saw this purpose as exclusively one of justification addressed to the outside, Gentile world: I add a new threadthat escaped their notice-the attemptto provide, for internalconsumption, a spiritualand theological justification for the very fact of Jewish residence in Poland. (p. 22) Indeed the importance of the folk-narrative, according to Bar-Itzhak, is its illuminationandpreservationof the collective memoryof Polish Jewry, its embodiment of "the heritage of generations"(p. 14). The task of the present study would presumablybe the analysis of legends of origin in a way that exposes the elements of the collective memory of Polish Jewry. We will returnto the question of whetherthe book is consonant with this approach. The sources used include materialfrom the An-Ski Expedition of 19121914 , chiefly as publishedby Y. L. Cahan,AvrahamRechtmanandAn-Ski himself; publicationsby ethnographersin various languages, mainly in the interwarperiod;the IsraelFolktalesArchive at the University of Haifa;and yizker-bikher.Bar-Itzhak,had she wished to be comprehensive,might have cast her net more widely. It is likely that the homiletical and ethical literature producedin early modernPoland-Lithuaniaincluded more legends of origin thanthe one I mentionedin an articlethreeyears ago.1 There is also considerable reference in Bar-Izthak'sbook to two studies: one by Chone Shmerukof the Esterke story, and the other by Shmuel Werses on Poland in Agnon'swritings.2 1 Gershon David Hundert,"On the Problem of Agency in 18th-CenturyJewish Society,"ScriptaHierosolymitana 38 ["Studiesin the History of the Jews in Old Poland :In Honorof Jacob Goldberg,"ed. AdamTeller] (1998) 85-86. 2Shmerukpublished a version of this study in English: TheEsterkeStory in Yiddish and Polish Literature-A Case Study in the Mutual Relations of TwoCultural Traditions(Jerusalem, 1982). This probablyshould have been listed in the bibliography by Bar-Itzhak.Similarly, there might have been reference to S. Werses' "revised and expanded version" of his original 1989 Hebrew article which became a book, Relations between Jews and Poles in S. Y Agnon's Work(Jerusalem, 1994). BAR-ITZHAK,JEWISHPOLAND:LEGENDSOF ORIGIN-HUNDERT 223 After a methodological and summarizingpreface, the firstchapterdeals with the most famous of the legends of origin: "ThePoh-lin legend ... expoundsthe Hebrewnamefor Polandandtranslatesit as 'lodge here"'(p. 31). The earliest known source for this tale derives from the second half of the 19th century.Most of the versions depict Jewish refugees arrivingin Polish lands and receiving a direct or mediated divine message instructing them: poh lin-lodge here. The implicit claims of the legend-that Jews gave Polandits name, and thatJewish residence there is divinely ordained, ancient, continuous, and especially, permanent-constitute a retroactive place-making and, indeed, Judaizing of their native land. It constitutes, therefore,a rationalefor a continuous Jewish presence in Poland, which is "recreatedas a Jewish land"(p. 34). The second chapter is devoted to "Legends of Acceptance,"which are presentedas reflectingtwo models of Jewish-Gentilerelations:segregation and cooperation, and two mixed categories labeled "From Indulgence to Equality"and "ConditionalAcceptance: The Jews as Rain-Bringers."The single example of the segregation model is drawn from an 18th-century Hebrew source. It depicts Jews being accepted by Polish rulers because they brought wealth to the country, but this acceptance was conditional. The Jews must retain their distinctive dress. In fact, the 18th-centuryauthor added, "This was the custom until our time. In no wise did the Jews intermingle with the Gentiles in this country; they rejected not only their clothes but also their language" (p. 47).3 The cooperation model is based on 19th-centuryGermanand Polish versions of a story that has the Polish rulerkindly and beneficently receiving Jews from Germanywho were facing persecution. The Polish monarch,after hearing an exposition of Judaism , grants the Jews extensive rights and privileges. And when the Jews arrived, "every place they were greeted kindly" (p. 53). Bar-Itzhaknotes thatthis legend served the...