At the thirty-fourth annual conference of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), held in Budapest, students enrolled in the Jewish Studies research seminar ‘Understanding Pogroms’ presented some of the findings of the research project, led by Alfred Landecker Lecturer Jan Rybak at CEU.
Abijah Ahern (MA student in Nationalism Studies at CEU) and Gresa Hasa (visiting student from the University of Graz) delivered a paper, entitled ‘Understanding Anti-Jewish Violence of 1918–1919 and Nationalism in the Newly Defined Borders of Poland from an International Perspective’. The paper summarised some of the main findings of the research project to date, in which students work with original source material in multiple language, studying international reports and perspectives on the mass violence against Jewish communities in Poland in the immediate aftermath of the First World War.
See the abstract of their presentation:
The end of World War I and the emergence of nation-states in Central and Eastern Europe strengthened identities and generated conflicts within the newly drawn borders. In this context, Jewish minority populations faced not only challenges in achieving full civic and political recognition, but also were the targets of severe violence. This research employs a qualitative historical analysis in exploring how the pogroms in the Second Polish Republic were perceived and interpreted abroad during that period, through a comparative study of four international reports: the reports of journalist Israel Cohen, representing the Zionist Organization in the United Kingdom; diplomat Henry Morgenthau Sr., reporting for the U.S. government; British Member of Parliament Sir Stuart Samuel, serving as a British government representative; and a delegation from the Socialist International on behalf of various European nations. Each of these reports examine the same events, but reach different conclusions as regards to the causes of the violence, the guilty parties, and how future relations between Jews and non-Jews in Poland should be organized. Our research analyzes how the findings of these international reports interpret and reflect the processes and dynamics of nationalization in relation to anti-Jewish collective violence in Poland in 1918-1919. We suggest that the authors’ varying political positionalities shape their analyses of the underlying causes of this violence, particularly in relation to the viability of the Polish state.