Who Will Say Kaddish?

By the eve of the Holocaust, Poland was home to the second largest Jewish population in the world. By war's end, its Jews had been decimated and their once-vibrant culture all but destroyed. The authors of this book revisit their roots to research a rumor that Jewish life is being rekindled in modern Poland. What they discover are three generations of Jews -- Holocaust survivors and their offspring -- with differing historical perspectives.

A sociocultural portrait -- through interview, photography, reportage, and personal memoir -- of the Jewish resurgence that has taken place since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Who Will Say Kaddish? shows how each group explores the issue of "Jewish" identity for themselves and for Poland at large.

Larry N. Mayer is a writer and teacher. His articles have appeared in Hadassah and the Boston Phoenix. The son of Polish Holocaust survivors, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts Gary Gelb's photographs have appeared in Hadassah, Moment, Money, and Smart Money. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Foreword

vii

Thane Rosenbaum

Foreword

ix

Marc Riboud

Acknowledgments

xi

Prologue

3

(4)

PART ONE Amnesia

Those Chosen Few

7

(9)

A Time to Pray

16

(5)

The Paradox of Identity

21

(9)

Though He May Tarry

30

(6)

An Unfair Advantage

36

(5)

A Polish-Jewish Mother

41

(6)

PART TWO A Time to Gather Stones

The Sun Shines and Is Not Ashamed

47

(5)

When the Rabbis Came to Dance

52

(7)

Signs of Life

59

(9)

From Every Stone: A Moral Obligation

68

(3)

The Polish Price, the Jewish Cost

71

(8)

Two Histories

79

(16)

Nozyk Synagogue, Warsaw

95

(12)

PART THREE From Generation to Generation

I Know That God Wants Us to Be Happy

107