Description
Book SynopsisChanges in childhood and children’s roles in society, and in how children participate in determining their own lives, have long been of interest to historians. Recent years have seen the emergence of new perspectives on the study of childhood, both in historical scholarship and in literary and cultural studies. Children’s experiences are now scrutinized not only as a means of examining the lives and self-representation of young individuals and their families, but also to investigate how the early experiences of individuals can shed light on larger historical questions. This volume applies both approaches in the context of Jewish eastern Europe. Historian Gershon Hundert has argued that studying the experience of children and attitudes towards coming of age offers an important corrective to the way we think of the Jewish past. This volume proves the potential of this approach in exploring many areas of historical interest. Among the topics investigated here are changes in perceptions of childhood and family, progress in the medical treatment of children, and developments in education. The work of charitable institutions is also considered, along with studies of emotion, gender history, and Polish–Jewish relations. From the First World War until after the Holocaust and the Second World War, countless children experienced traumatizing events. A special section is dedicated to their fate.
Table of ContentsIntroduction Natalia Aleksiun, François Guesnet, and Antony Polonsky
1. Childhood and Family
Children and Childhood in Hasidic Courts before 1939 Gadi Sagiv
Representations of Boyhood in Nineteenth-Century Hebrew Literature Roten Preger-Wagner
The Beautiful Manor House: Glimpses of Jewish Childhood in the Galician Countryside Yehoshua Ecker
Advocacy and Practice in CENTOS Journals Sean Martin
2. The Medical Treatment of Children
The Child in Traditional Jewish Medicine around 1900 Marek Tuszewicki
Newborn Care and Survival among Jews in Early Modern Poland Zvi Eckstein and Anat Vaturi
Who Nursed the Jewish Babies? Wet-Nursing among Jews in the Late Russian Empire Ekaterina Oleshkevich
TOZ Summer Camps: Modern Welfare for Weak and Exhausted Jewish Children in Poland, 1924–1939 Rakefet Zalashik
3. The Educational Experience
What Kind of Self Can a Pupil’s Letter Reveal? The Tarbut School in Nowy Dwór, 1934–1935 David Assaf and Yael Darr
State Schools as Polish–Jewish Contact Zones: The Case of Tarnów Agnieszka Wierzcholska
Working Children and young People as Seen by Contributors to Mały Przegląd Anna Landau-Czajka
Through Their Own Eyes: Jewish youngsters Describe Their Holidays in Interwar Poland Ula Madej-Krupitski
Autograph Books of Polish Jewish Schoolgirls as Historical Documents Natalia Aleksiun
From Relief to Emancipation: Cecylia Klaftenowa’s vision for Jewish Girls in Interwar Lwów Sarah Ellen Zarrow
4. Children and Trauma, 1914-1947
Zionist Care and Education for Galician Refugee Children in Austria during the First World War Jan Rybak
Jewish Children Seeking Help from Catholic Institutions in Kraków during the Holocaust Joanna Sliwa
It was easier with a child than without’: Creating and Caring for Polish Jewish Families in the Wartime Soviet Union, 1939–1946 Sarah A. Cramsey
Voices of Soviet Jewish Children Documenting the Second World War Anna Shternshis
Jewish Child Survivorsin the Aftermath of the Holocaust Joanna Michlic
The Rehabilitation of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, Poland, 1944–1947 Boaz Cohen
5. Childhood in Post-1945 Poland
Beyond Post-Holocaust Trauma: Polish Jewish Childhood in Dzierżoniów, Lower Silesia, 1945–1950 Kamil Kijek
Blurred Spots of Revolution: Polish Communists of Jewish Origin and Their Early Political Socialization Łukasz Bertram
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