Bundist Counterculture in Interwar Poland

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments My thanks to Prof. Henry Feingold, whose encouragement greatly facilitated publication of this book. My thanks as well to the late Abraham Brumberg , the late Victor Erlich, Solomon Krystal, Yitskhok Luden, and the late David Rogoff, all of whom lived in interwar Poland and commented on various portions of my work. Motl Zelmanowicz, who also lived in interwar Poland, and who grew up in the Bundist counterculture, provided me with much-appreciated material and moral support over an extended period of time. I also received material support for this project in 2003–4 as the recipient of a PSC-CUNY Research Award and as the Workmen’s Circle/Dr. Emanuel Patt Visiting Professor at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and am delighted to be able to acknowledge my thanks in print. Dr. Diethelm Blecking of Freiburg, and Professors Roni Gechtman (Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia), Samuel Kassow (Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut), Ellen Kellman (Brandeis University ), and Gertrud Pickhan (Freie Universität, Berlin) generously shared materials and unpublished papers with me. The trust and collaboration of these scholars means a great deal to me. I did the bulk of the research for this book at the YIVO Institute and am grateful to all of those affiliated with the institute. I am also honored by YIVO’s decision to issue this work in conjunction with Syracuse University Press. Dr. Carl J. Rheins, the YIVO’s executive director, deserves special mention, as do Jesse Aaron Cohen, Krystyna (Krysia) Fisher, Leo Greenbaum , Chana Mlotek, Fruma Mohrer, and Marek Web, all of whom are on xii | Acknowledgments the staff of the YIVO Archives, as well as Yeshaja Metal, its public service librarian. My friend Nava Schreiber of Tel Aviv helped me to locate suitable illustrations from the YIVO’s collections. I have also benefitted from the expertise and cordiality of staff members at other institutions, including Dr. Gail Malmgreen, Associate Head for Archival Collections of the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, Eleanor Yadin of the New York Public Library, Rena Fuks-Mansfeld of the International Institute of Social History, and Misha Mitsel at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives. I delivered papers on themes discussed in this book, at various points in time, in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, and in the United States and learned a great deal from the reactions of audiences. I am sincerely grateful to my hosts for inviting me to present my ideas. From among many, I single out Bobbi and Michael Zylberman of Melbourne, the staff of the Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews in Vilnius, Claudie Weill of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, Prof. Dan Diner of the Simon-Dubnow-Institut für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur, Leipzig, Prof. Feliks Tych of the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Prof. Michael Brenner of the Institute of Jewish History and Culture at the University of Munich, Prof. Jack Kugelmass, currently at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and Dr. Rachel Rojanski of the University of Haifa. Jeffrey Broxmeyer of the Ph.D. program in political science at the CUNY Graduate Center helped to format the typescript and provided additional support services. I thank him for his careful work and genuinely appreciate the help provided by all those who aided me in preparing this study. Susan Milamed has been an anchor in times of despair. I would not have been able to complete this book without her. Bundist Counterculture in Interwar Poland ...