List of Polish Jews

From the Middle Ages until the Holocaust, Polish Jews comprised an appreciable part of Poland's population. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, known for its religious tolerance[1] and described as Paradisus Judaeorum (Latin for "Paradise of the Jews"),[2][3][4][5][6] had attracted tens of thousands of Jews who fled persecution from other European countries. Poland was a major spiritual and cultural center for Ashkenazi Jews.

At the start of the Second World War, Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world (over 3.3 million, some 10% of the general Polish population).[7] The vast majority were murdered under the Nazi "Final Solution" mass-extermination program in the Holocaust in Poland during the German occupation; only 369,000 (11%) of Poland's Jews survived the War.

The list below includes persons of Jewish faith or ancestry.

Historical figures[edit]

Politicians[edit]

Others[edit]

Graves of Polish Jews among the fallen soldiers of the Polish Defensive War of 1939; Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw

Sovereign Polish Armed Forces[edit]

  • Berek Joselewicz, Polish-Jewish Colonel in the Polish Legions of Napoleon's armies
  • Bernard Mond, member of the Austrio—Hungarian Army, 1914–1918; Polish soldier and officer, 1918–1939; sent to POW camp by the Germans; finished his career in the rank of Brigade General and, in command of the 6th Infantry Division (Poland), fought against the Germans in 1939
  • Poldek Pfefferberg, Polish soldier in 1939 saved from death by his sergeant major; Holocaust survivor; a man who inspired the book that the film Schindler's List was based on
  • Baruch Steinberg, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces, murdered by the Soviet NKVD

Religious figures[edit]

Rabbis[edit]

Academics[edit]

Economists[edit]

Mathematicians[edit]

Philosophers[edit]

Sciences[edit]

Historians[edit]

Cultural figures[edit]

Artists[edit]

Musicians[edit]

Screen and stage[edit]

Writers and poets[edit]

Polish-language[edit]

Yiddish-language[edit]

Business figures[edit]

Sports[edit]

Baseball[edit]

Chess[edit]

Fencing[edit]

Football[edit]

Professional wrestling[edit]

Swimming[edit]

Track and field[edit]

  • Myer Prinstein, Olympic long-jumper from Szczuczyn, Poland
  • Irena Szewińska, sprinter and long jumper; world records in 100-m, 200-m, and 400-m; three-time Olympic champion, plus four medals (for a total of seven Olympic medals)
  • Jadwiga Wajs, two world records (discus); Olympic silver and bronze (discus)

Weightlifting[edit]

  • Ben Helfgott, Polish-born, three-time British champion (lightweight), three-time Maccabiah champion; survived Buchenwald and Theresienstadt; all but one family member was murdered by the Nazis

Holocaust survivors[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution, University of Chicago Press 1992, page 51. Quote: "Poland, at that time, was the most tolerant country in Europe." Also in Britain and the Netherlands by S. Groenveld, Michael J. Wintle; and in The exchange of ideas (Walburg Instituut, 1994).
  2. ^ Haumann, Heiko (2002-01-01). A History of East European Jews. Central European University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9789639241268.
  3. ^ Geller, Ewa (2018). "Yiddish 'Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum" from Early Modern Poland: A Humanistic Symbiosis of Latin Medicine and Jewish Thought". In Moskalewicz, Marcin; Caumanns, Ute; Dross, Fritz (eds.). Jewish Medicine and Healthcare in Central Eastern Europe. Springer. p. 20 (13–26). ISBN 9783319924809.
  4. ^ Despard, Matthew K. (2015-01-02). "In Search of a Polish Past". Jewish Quarterly. 62 (1): 40–43. doi:10.1080/0449010x.2015.1010393. ISSN 0449-010X.
  5. ^ Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (September 2016). "Mixed Metaphors in Muranów: Holocaust Memory and Architectural Meaning at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews". Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust. 30 (3): 258–273. doi:10.1080/23256249.2016.1242550. ISSN 2325-6249. S2CID 191753083.
  6. ^ Daniel Elphick (3 October 2019). Music behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries. Cambridge University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-108-49367-3.
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  9. ^ David Ben-Gurion The First Prime Minister
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  17. ^ "Notes for an Autobiography". Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2006-12-20.
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  20. ^ Gaspar da Gama
  21. ^ Tributes to Sir Hersch Lauterpacht Archived 2005-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Annette Insdorf (1987-05-31). "Rosa Luxemburg: More Than a Revolutionary". The New York Times.
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  26. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia Archived 2008-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Elijah Ba'al Shem
  28. ^ Crosswhite, James (2013). Deep Rhetoric: Philosophy, Reason, Violence, Justice, Wisdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-0226016344.
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  31. ^ The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language
  32. ^ Richard McBee, “Itshak Holtz: Jewish Genre Painting,” The Jewish Press, July 4, 2003.
  33. ^ Kirshenblatt, Mayer and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. They called me Mayer July: Painted memories of a Jewish childhood in Poland before the Holocaust. University of California Press. Los Angeles:2007.
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  36. ^ "Slawomir Kowalinski", Wikipedia (in German), 2022-02-25, retrieved 2022-03-19
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  39. ^ "YIVO | Ford, Aleksander".
  40. ^ a b Hoberman, J. "Cinema." YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe 2 August 2010.<http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Cinema>. Accessed 7 July 2012.
  41. ^ "YIVO | Cinema".
  42. ^ Cohen, Roger (1993-08-08). "Holland Without a Country". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
  43. ^ Jewish Film Festival
  44. ^ Jewish Film Festival
  45. ^ Zyciorysy.info: Krzysztof Kowalewski
  46. ^ IMDb: Roman Polanski
  47. ^ Jewish Women's Archive
  48. ^ "Piotr Skrzynecki". Archived from the original on 2006-12-08. Retrieved 2006-11-28.
  49. ^ "British Express Concern About Fate of Jerzy Toeplitz, Polish Film Figure." Jewish Telegraphic Agency 20 May 1968.
  50. ^ Jewish Film Festival
  51. ^ Samuel Blumenfeld, L'homme qui voulait être prince: les vies imaginaires de Michal Waszynski (Paris: B. Grasset, 2006).
  52. ^ Dia-Pozytyw: Ludzie Sylwetki Biografie
  53. ^ Kazimierz Brandys – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  54. ^ YIVO: Boleslaw Lesmian
  55. ^ List Teodora Parnickiego do Jerzego Giedroycia
  56. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica, art. Stern, Anatol
  57. ^ David Frum on National Review Online
  58. ^ Aleksander Wat: Life and Art of an Iconoclast
  59. ^ Dia-Pozytyw: Ludzie Sylwetki Biografie
  60. ^ a b c d Classical Yiddish Authors
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  62. ^ Warsaw Stories: Peretz
  63. ^ YIVO: Aleksander Zederbaum
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  65. ^ Tom Gross Mideast Media Archive: Henry Orenstein
  66. ^ Dia-Pozytyw: Ludzie Sylwetki Biografie
  67. ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica; immigrated to France
  68. ^ Ezra Mendelsohn (2009). Jews and the Sporting Life: Studies in Contemporary Jewry XXIII. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538291-4. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  69. ^ Eldad Beck (August 9, 2010). "Anti-Semitism feared ahead of Euro 2012". European Jewish Congress. Archived from the original on July 31, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  70. ^ Tom Archdeacon (April 26, 1998). "Memories never dim from Games of Shame; Message of "Nazi Olympics'still vital". The Denver Post. Retrieved December 24, 2010.