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Polish Galicia: The Lost World of Jewish Shtetls with Malgorzata Fus

Polish Galicia: The Lost World of Jewish Shtetls with Malgorzata Fus


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

The historical region of Galicia, although it cannot be found on contemporary maps of Poland, lives in the memory of many as the idyllic land of Jewish shtetls. What is a shtetl in this sense of the word? They were small, market towns and villages where Jews lived next to their gentile neighbors. Our conversation will hone in on this era of Polish history when shtetls were home to the majority of the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Their residents also followed a very traditional lifestyle – guided by religion and tradition, socially stable, and indifferent to the changes shaking the world outside their walls.

The microcosm of Galician shtetls was destroyed during the Holocaust. Jewish peddlers and tailors, rabbis, and yeshiva students were almost all killed. Their homes were taken, their places of worship and eternal rest were destroyed. But the traces of this world still remain for us to examine together. During our conversation, we will virtually travel through the land area formerly occupied by historical Polish Galicia to discover physical and cultural traces of the world that once was: synagogues that miraculously survived, remote Jewish cemeteries, and signs of Jewish history and culture located within the landscape of modern Polish towns and villages.

We welcome participants of all backgrounds to this seminar as we explore the rich history of this region that exists not only in memories, literature, and popular culture but remains a tangible real world destination – and that constitutes an important chapter of the history of the broader Jewish faith and culture.

Led by an expert on the Jewish history of Poland and Eastern Europe, Małgorzata Fus, this Conversation will give you an understanding of physical and cultural traces of the Jewish past in the region of historical Polish Galicia. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with increased knowledge on the past and present of this region, which once was home to the majority of the Ashkenazi Jewish population.

Małgorzata Fus has a degree in Jewish Studies from Jagiellonian University, where she specialized in Jewish culture and Yiddish theater. Following her studies, she joined the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków as a member of the education department. There she was responsible for creating exhibits, designing educational programs, and guiding visitors. Building on her passion for educating about Polish Jewish history, she later became an official tour guide. She now runs her own tour company which cooperates with a number of Jewish institutions (Jewish Community Centre in Kraków, Forum for Dialogue, and the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews). She also coordinates commemoration projects, among them the Jewish orphanage in Kraków's former ghetto.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
17%
(1)
67%
(4)
0%
(0)
17%
(1)
0%
(0)
D
Debra B. (Cheyenne, US)
Polish Galicia

Excellent. Thorough. Great photos, etc.

D
Debra B. (Casper, US)
Galicia sztetles

It would have been an excellent talk has there not been technical difficulties. I am actually amazed they don’t happen more often; and they were handled it with grace and generosity.

V
Vivienne (San Diego, US)
Interesting but not what I was expecting

I enjoyed Malgorzata's presentation but I would not have taken this seminar if I knew what it was about. The title "Polish Galicia" is very specific and I was excited to take a seminar on exactly that. However, this seminar only focused specifically on Polish Galicia for one section of the presentation while the majority of the seminar was on the history of Jewish settlement and shtetls more generally, covering Poland and Ukraine. So, yes, it was interesting, and Malgorzata Fus is a knowledgeable and engaging presenter, and she provided excellent visual images, but this talk should be retitled.

K
Kitty (New York, US)
Galicia

This was an immensely informative discussion on the history of Jews in Poland and Galicia. I learned a lot about the genesis of the shtetl and it’s dynamics.

G
Guy Griffith (Nashville, US)
Polish Galicia

I found the presentation informative and interesting. I did, however, have some difficulty hearing well as the sound was not good whenever the presenter drew away from being close to her computer.

Customer Reviews

Based on 6 reviews
17%
(1)
67%
(4)
0%
(0)
17%
(1)
0%
(0)
D
Debra B. (Cheyenne, US)
Polish Galicia

Excellent. Thorough. Great photos, etc.

D
Debra B. (Casper, US)
Galicia sztetles

It would have been an excellent talk has there not been technical difficulties. I am actually amazed they don’t happen more often; and they were handled it with grace and generosity.

V
Vivienne (San Diego, US)
Interesting but not what I was expecting

I enjoyed Malgorzata's presentation but I would not have taken this seminar if I knew what it was about. The title "Polish Galicia" is very specific and I was excited to take a seminar on exactly that. However, this seminar only focused specifically on Polish Galicia for one section of the presentation while the majority of the seminar was on the history of Jewish settlement and shtetls more generally, covering Poland and Ukraine. So, yes, it was interesting, and Malgorzata Fus is a knowledgeable and engaging presenter, and she provided excellent visual images, but this talk should be retitled.

K
Kitty (New York, US)
Galicia

This was an immensely informative discussion on the history of Jews in Poland and Galicia. I learned a lot about the genesis of the shtetl and it’s dynamics.

G
Guy Griffith (Nashville, US)
Polish Galicia

I found the presentation informative and interesting. I did, however, have some difficulty hearing well as the sound was not good whenever the presenter drew away from being close to her computer.