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Literature
PiotrPaziński,KarolinaSzymaniak
LiteratureisafieldinwhichJewshavebeenhighlyactivesinceantiquity.Throughout
thecenturies,Jewishliteratureconsistedprimarilyofreligiouswriting:theBibleand
itscommentaries,legal,homileticormysticalwritingsthatwereincludedinrabbin-
icaltractates,intheTalmud,incodesoflaw,incollectionsofmidrashim,parables,
moralinstruction,andphilosophicalworks.Thisprocess,soimportantinJudaism,of
endlessinterpretationoftherevelationconstitutedtheJewishculturaluniverse.To
quotethewordsoftheIsraeliNobelPrizelaureate,ShmuelYosefAgnon,itwasthe
KingdomofGodtranspiringinthetexts.SincetheMiddleAges,Jewishcommunities
scatteredacrossthePolish-LithuanianCommonwealthhadbeentakinganactivepart
incocreatingthiskingdomofrabbinicalworks,creatingnewworksandneweditions
ofoldvolumesandprintingandreprintingtheminKraków,Vilna,Lublin,andŻółkiew.
SuchworksasthemonumentaleditionoftheTalmudprintedinVilnainthesecond
halfofthenineteenthcenturyandHasidicwritingspublishedinPodolia,Galicia,and
lateralsoinCongressPolandhadanimpactontheentireJewishworld.Thisdoesnot
meanthattherewasnosecularJewishliteraturebeforethemodernperiod,butitwas
createdwithinthepredominantlyreligiouspublicsphereandhadamoremarginal
positionandlessprestige.Fromthelateeighteenthcentury,modernJewishliterature
wasbeingwritteninYiddishandHebrew,generallywithoutrabbinicalapprobation,
whichdoesnotmeanthattherewasnomodernreligiousJewishliterature.Itonly
meansthatsecularliteraturewasgraduallymovingtothecenteroftheliteraryfield,
gainingmoreandmoreprestige.
Attheturnofthetwentiethcentury,suchcitiesasWarsaw,Łódź,andVilnawere
becomingimportantcentersofYiddishandHebrewsecularculture.Alongwithac-
celeratedemancipationinthepartitions,manyJewsresidingintheterritoriesofthe
formerPolish-LithuanianCommonwealthbegantowritealsointheulanguagesofthe
nationsoftheworld”:Russian,German,andPolish.SomebelongedtotheJewish
intelligentsia,othersintegratedintothesurroundingculture.SomecultivatedJuda-
ictradition,othersgraduallydriftedfurtherawayorabandoneditcompletely.Until
theoutbreakoftheSecondWorldWar,themajorityofPolishJewsweremultilingual.
TheyusedYiddish,Hebrew,aswellasoneortwootherlanguagesinvariousspheres
oflife,dependingonsocialclass,milieu,education,politicalafiliation,orfamilytra-
dition.Together,theycreatedarichmosaicofvoicesthatconstitutethelegacyof
PolishJews,includingtheliteraryone.Thatlegacyisacompilationofworksbyau-
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