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Sparks Amidst the Ashes: The Spiritual Legacy of Polish Jewry

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Whether or not one agrees with everything he says, one can feel enlightened and uplifted by Sherwin's refreshingly-different and generally-balanced analysis of Polish Jewry and Polish-Jewish relations. He writes: "Indeed, the contemporary view of Poland as a land endemically inhospitable to Jews runs sharply counter to much of historical experience." (p. 55). And, it turns out, contrary to the claims of Jan Thomas Gross, far from all Poles attempted to erase all memories of Jews: "The Jews of Makow are gone...The cemetery was destroyed by the Nazis. The tombstones were used for construction. Remnants of these tombstones still pave parts of the road near the bus depot. After the war, the Poles of Makow salvaged what they could of the shattered tombstones and built a monument to the Jews of Makow." (p. 76).

Sherwin soundly repudiates the common notion that Poland is little more than a giant cemetery of Jews (p. 6). His travels throughout Poland uncover a surprisingly-large remnant of Jewish artifacts. Much of his book consists of detailed descriptions of the achievements in philosophy and religion of past Polish Jews, especially by the Hasidim. His entire work has a flavor of mysticism.

Rabbi Sherwin believes that most of American Jewry has turned to a lachrymose view of history (p. 87), forgetting this rich tradition and replacing it with poor substitutes: "The `myth' of death/rebirth, Holocaust/Israel tends to replace belief in God as the foundation of Jewish faith...Concerning American Jews, a number of Jewish scholars have observed that faith in Israel and in the Jewish people has replaced or superseded belief in God...The ideology of survivalism, coupled with the dual dogmatic pillars of Jewish civil religion of Holocaust-destruction and Israel-rebirth, folded nicely into an increasingly secularized Jewish self-identity." (pp. 85-86). Sherwin goes as far as suggesting that American Jewry is in danger of eventually self-destructing through the neglect of its heritage (p. 87, 90, 100).

Sherwin repeatedly stresses the reciprocity of Polish-Jewish prejudices, mentioning, for example, the Jewish belief that Christians are idol worshippers (p. 18). He also comments: "Perhaps the Jewish stereotype that Poles are anti-Semites was as problematic as the Polish stereotype that Jews are atheists and communists." (p. 32). But why do Polish anti-Semitism and Jewish Polonophobia persist? Sherwin believes that both Poles and Jews retain unexamined views of each other that have been handed down two or more generations from their ancestors, and usually without personally knowing anyone of the other group (pp. 129-130).

Sherwin freely acknowledges what many Poles had long suspected: "In the popular American and Israeli understanding of the Holocaust, the Poles all but replace the Germans as the perpetrators of the Holocaust, as the archenemies of the Jews throughout the thousand-year Jewish presence in Poland." (p. 84). He cites a visit to Auschwitz (p. 82) during which Israeli students were all but told that Poles were co-responsible with the Nazi Germans for the Holocaust, and suggests that this was being done not with the direct intention of denigrating Poles but for the forging of a post-Holocaust Jewish identity. (Even so, the outcome is identical.)

Sherwin criticizes what he considers the exaggerations of Polish aid to Jews during the Holocaust, but unfortunately makes no attempt to analyze the extent of this help. He also elaborates on the seemingly-paradoxical fact that prewar Polish anti-Semites often played a major role in the wartime rescue and hiding of Jews (p. 129).

Sherwin addresses the reality and limits of the Zydokomuna (Jewish Communism): "In this regard, it must be admitted that both for idealistic and self-serving reasons, proportionately more Jews than non-Jews were involved with the communist powers. But the popular Polish perception that Jews outnumbered non-Jews in the party or the state apparatus is patently false."(p. 136).

Sherwin recognizes the fact that contemporary Jewish attitudes may actually give rise to what may be called "secondary anti-Semitism": "However, to be sure, the pervasive Jewish stereotype of all Poles as anti-Semites may well encourage young Poles initially devoid of anti-Jewish sentiments to become anti-Semites." (p. 135). He also writes: "While the `competitive martyrology' of Jews and Poles results in nothing except the amplification of tensions, few Jews have acknowledged the devastating impact that the Nazi occupation had upon the non-Jewish population of Poland. (p. 133).

Sherwin includes various tidbits of little-known information, including the strongly philo-Semitic orientation of Kosciuszko (p. 143), and the fact that Hasidic dress is actually modified Polish clothing (p. 101). Rabbi Moses Isserles of Krakow once taught that philosophy originated with the Jews, and was only later copied by the Greeks (p. 37).

While not written for this purpose, some old rabbinical teachings discussed by Byron L. Sherwin find correspondence to Christian thinking. For example, the teachings of the Rabbi of Kotzk (Kock?) on the good works produced by genuine faith (p. 122) recount the Reformation teachings of good works as a fruit of genuine faith. Musar's warnings against an excessively mechanical obedience to the Law (p. 120), and that to the detriment of moral and ethical virtue, are reminiscent of the teachings of Jesus Christ against the Pharisees. And, contrary to the common view that the Jewish conception of God is one where He is less personal than in the Christian conception of God, Sherwin cites some Hasidic teachings (p. 114-115) that point to a very intimate human-God communion, even using such terms for God as "our little Father", "my darling", and God being not in heaven as much as "In our guts." A superb book!

Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin's "Sparks Amidst the Ashes: The Spiritual Legacy of Polish Jewry" is, at its best, warm, thought-provoking, informative, funny, tear-jerking, remarkably compassionate and human, and reflective of the Divine who guides all our lives. Sherwin is a good writer, exemplified by lines like "While the Jews no longer dwell in Poland, Poland still dwells in the Jews" (5) and "I am glad I have come to Poland but I am anxious to leave...[Back in the US] Poland stays with me...I find myself wanting to return" (48). It's impressive how much territory Sherwin covers, and covers well, in a short, easy-to-read book.

"Sparks" is a genre-crossing book. It is part personal memoir. Sherwin reports on his own trips to his ancestral homeland to trace his own exalted genealogy, and his participation in Polish-Jewish dialogue. Sherwin descends from a long line of Jewish luminaries; he introduces us to them. The book is part exhortation: Sherwin urges modern American Jews to be more religious. It is part anthology and history: Sherwin introduces the reader to great names in Jewish history in Poland, and quotes from folktales and theological debates.

"Sparks" is an appeal for tolerance. Sherwin sketches the state of Polish-Jewish relations. Sherwin is remarkably frank and evenhanded in his descriptions of the gifts and failings, the stereotyping and grievance-mongering, of each side. "Sparks" even includes a brief foray into literary writing. Sherwin reviews previous treatments of the love story of fourteenth-century Polish King Kazimierz the Great and his Jewish companion and mother of his four children, Esterka, and then offers his own take on the legend, on what Kazimierz was thinking and feeling. Sherwin emphasizes that Esterka never stopped being Jewish; she never converted. Jewish Esterka is an integral part of Poland and the life of its only king to be dubbed "the great."

Sherwin reports that American Jews have tried to forget their Eastern European roots (viii), that American Jews stereotype Polish Catholics to the point of substituting them for German Nazis as the perpetrators of the Holocaust (84, 132), and that American Jews are committing spiritual suicide. Sherwin argues that American Jews have adopted a lachrymose version of Jewish history that causes them to view their history in Poland through a distorted lens. American Jews can't see the highlights of their past in Poland because they must insist that that past was nothing but one long holocaust (84). Sherwin acknowledges that, "contrary to contemporary perceptions, Polish Jews for much of their history seem to have been presented with more economic, social, and cultural opportunities than were much of the general population" (57). Sherwin argues that American Jews have replaced their spiritual heritage with political liberalism and Zionism (98).

I did have some reservations. Sherwin dramatizes the exorcism of a dybbuk from a Jewish woman in Makow Mazowiecki. The story is highly dramatic and colorful. Many find exorcism more an example of tragic backwardness rather than of the treasures of a lost spiritual past. Many rabbis, political figures, and storytellers from Poland's and Sherwin's past are mentioned very briefly, one after the other; at times I could not keep track of all the names. Another chart would have been helpful; there is one chart to trace Sherwin's ancestry.

Some context would have been helpful as well. Sherwin mentions a debate on Jewish study of philosophy; some opposed it, and wanted to relegate it to the latrine. Others supported it. Concrete examples of how this debate affected the day-to-day lives of Jews in Poland would have enhanced this portion.

Sherwin barely mentions what responsible historians of Polish-Jewish relations are sure to mention: Jews' status as Poland's middleman minority. This would help to explain much of what Sherwin mentions briefly, including the pronounced anti-Semitism in Poland in the interwar (1918-1939) era. Sherwin mentions Roman Dmowski (136), but never mentions that Dmowski was a noted biologist, a follower of American-perfected Scientific Racism. Without explanatory context, readers may conclude - against Sherwin's intention - that anti-Semitism in Poland was purely the fruit of the Catholic Church and sheer Polish perversity.

Given that Sherwin is so tough on American Jews, I really wanted him to outline a program - what exactly does he want Jews to do? His charge that Jews don't honor their ancestry in Poland strikes me as unjust. Jews are noteworthy for the institutes of higher learning that they have founded, the cultural and religious books they sell, the organizations devoted to group support, and for producing writers like Anzia Yezierska and musicals like "Fiddler." What ELSE are they supposed to do?

Sherwin, as a rabbi, would like to see American Jews become more religious. How to make religion more inviting to people who are tempted by all the distractions of twenty-first century life? Historians agree that Jews in Poland were observant at least partly because Jews in Poland constituted something like a theocratic state-within-a-state that could enforce observance. That coercive structure just doesn't exist in the US. The comparison to Jews in the council-era Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and Jews in the US is not fair.

If you want to get Americans of any denomination into houses of worship, you've got to devise some attraction. Even if the Holocaust had never happened, Poland's Jews would have changed drastically. Modernity was on the horizon: rapid communication, travel, smashing of old boundaries, withering of old authorities. Bulldozers plough down rainforests. Worlds vanish regularly. Time's winged chariot makes refugees of us all. How much of our ancestors can be kept, and how can we keep it? Do we want exorcisms today? And if we reject them, by what basis do we accept the tales and insights of those who believed in exorcisms? These are questions people of any faith, of any ethnicity, might find pertinent.

Overall, though, anyone interested in this topic will probably enjoy this book greatly. I certainly did.