Description: Creativity and Conflict reexamines interwar Polish Jewish history through the author's collected essays and scholarly responses of leading academicians. The work covers Polish-Jewish relations, Orthodox Judaism and the rabbinate, women's history, social history, and historiography, challenging prevalent myths about Jews in Poland.
Brief description: Professor Gershon C. Bacon held the Marcell and Maria Roth Chair in the History and Culture of Polish Jewry at Bar-Ilan University's Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry in Ramat Gan, Israel. He has authored numerous books and articles on Polish Jewish history and currently serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, while continuing his research and writing.
Review Quotes:
Creativity and Conflict succeeds on several levels at once: as homage, as historiographical reflection, and as a resource for future scholarship and teaching. Bacon's essays do not simply endure as canonical statements in the historiography of Polish Jewry; they continue to challenge readers and invite new research.
-- Magdalena Kozlowska, Contemporary Jewry
"Fascinating product of a nearly millennia-old civilization and the 'warp and woof of Polish society, separate threads woven in and around each other, ' their society diverged in outcomes. The essays, well researched and written, offer refreshing insight into a highly transformative era."
--Hallie Cantor, AJL
"Kenneth Levin's timely, incisive, and thought-provoking study of this profoundly perilous psychological phenomenon should be read by every Jew in America. Alas, it won't be."
--Bruce Bawer, The FrontPage Magazine