Jewish Belonging on the ‘Polish Road to Socialism:’ Migration and the Re-Making of Polish Jewry, 1956-60

"Jewish Belonging on the ‘Polish Road to Socialism:’ Migration and the Re-Making of Polish Jewry, 1956-60" uncovers the complexity of post-Stalinist Polish Jewry between the years 1956 and 1960. I argue that Polish Jews redefined their communities and identities in this period as a result of migration and diasporic connection, both made possible by the Polish Thaw’s initial potential for liberalization. The Thaw saw the limited opening of Poland’s migration policy with two specific ramifications for Polish Jews: first, the passing of a visa law specifically permitting migration to Israel; and second, the signing of a repatriation agreement with the Soviet Union that allowed thousands of Polish Jews to return ‘home’ to Poland after the Stalinist period. Individuals and organizations saw in the repatriation a possibility for renewed Jewish life in communist Poland, reviving conversations about and hopes for the future of Polish Jewry. Yet this ‘re-making’ of Polish Jewry tested the boundaries of inclusion on the ‘Polish road to socialism,’ and Polish Jews grappled with the existential issue of emigration. Amid these two simultaneous migrations, I demonstrate that the experience of migration itself was the central element fostering the development of a postwar Polish Jewish subjectivity forged within networks of displacement, diaspora, and transnational connection.