Polish-Jewish Studies

To the Editors:

As a result of the International Conference on Polish-Jewish Relations held at Somerville College, Oxford University, in September, 1984, an Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies was founded at Oxford by scholars from Israel, Poland, Western Europe, and North America. An American Foundation for Polish-Jewish Studies has recently been established in Boston to promote the activities and objectives of the Institute in the United States.

The aim of the Institute is to promote research into the history and culture of Polish Jewry. It has established an international annual journal, POLIN: A Journal of Polish-Jewish Studies, with a distinguished editorial board, to be published by Blackwell at Oxford.

In addition, the Institute and the Foundation plan:

to establish at Oxford—in cooperation with Yad Vashem and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—an annual Emmanuel Ringelblum Memorial Lecture to be delivered by leading Holocaust scholars;

to create a fund for grants for Polish and other East European scholars wishing to visit Oxford, Jerusalem, New York, and other centers, to study Hebrew and Yiddish and pursue Polish-Jewish studies;

to create a fund for students of Judaica who wish to visit Poland and other East European countries;

to translate scholarly literature in the East European and Jewish languages into English and vice versa.

Polish Jewry was the seedbed for such movements as Hasidism, Neo-orthodoxy, Zionism, and Bundism, which transformed the Jewish world. The history of this unique civilization is the most lasting memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The programs of the Institute and the Foundation require financial support. We very much hope your readers will contribute generously to a venture from which all who are seriously interested in the history and culture of the Jewish people have much to gain.

The American Foundation for Polish-Jewish Studies in Boston is registered as a non-profit corporation and all contributions are fully tax-deductible.

Contributions and inquiries should be sent to: The American Foundation for Polish-Jewish Studies, One Post Office Square, Suite 3700, Boston, MA 02109

Salo W. Baron (Columbia), Yehuda Bauer (International Center for the Study of Antisemitism), Isaiah Berlin (Oxford), Shmuel Ettinger (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Oscar Handlin (Harvard), David S. Landes (Harvard), Walter Laqueur (Georgetown), Richard Pipes (Harvard), Henry Rosovsky (Harvard), Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Laureate for Literature), Adam B. Ulam (Harvard)