1. Simon Dubnow, Nationalism and History: Essays on Old and New Judaism, ed. and intro. K. S. Pinson (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1958), 136-39, 336-40.

2. For recent examples see David Biale, Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (New York: Schocken Books, 1986), 62-69; Eli Lederhendler, The Road to Modern Jewish Politics: Political Tradition and Political Reconstruction in the Jewish Community of Tsarist Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 11-35.

3. See, for example, Louis Finkelstein, Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1924); S. W. Baron, The Jewish Community: Its History to the American Revolution (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1942); id., A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 1st ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937), 2:87-104; Yitshak Baer, “HaHathalot vehaYesodot shel Irgun haKehilot haYehudiyot biYmei haBeinayim,”Zion 15 (1949-50):1-41; B. D. Weinryb, The Jews of Poland: A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100-1800 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973), 71-78.

4. A work that examines both sets of factors and suggests no conflict between them is that of Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages, trans. B. D. Cooperman (New York: Schocken Books, 1993), 65-87. See also Robert Chazan, “Medieval Jewish Political Institutions: The Foundations of their Authority,” in The Quest for Utopia: Jewish Political Ideas and Institutions Through the Ages, ed. Zvi Gitelman (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1992), 67-79.

5. For specific references, see n. 7.

6. For an example of such a lacuna in a typological treatment, see Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, “Mekomah shel haKehilah-haIr beToledot Yisra'el,” in Retsef uTemurah: Iyyunim beToledot Yisra'el biYmei haBeinayim uvaEt haHadashah (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1984), 156-76.

7. See, inter alia, J. R. Berkovitz, The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century France (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), 99-110; Selma Stern, Der preussische Staat und das Judentum (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1962), 1a:102-18; Azriel Shohat, Im Hilufei haTekufot: Reshit haHaskalah beYahadut Germaniyah (Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1960), 113-22; Rafael Mahler, Divrei Yemei Yisra'el: Dorot Aharonim (Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim, 1954), 2:38-48; 3:26-38; Michael Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1983), 28-33, 124-33.

8. During its first year of existence (November 1944-November 1945), the Central Committee received a subvention of 73,751,770 złotys from the Polish Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. This sum represented slightly more than 80 percent of the Committee's total expenditures for that year (92,050,008 zł.). Of the remaining 18,298,238 zł. in expenditures, 16,000,000 zł. were covered by a loan from the National Bank and an additional 450,000 zł. by payments from other government agencies. Only slightly more than 2 percent of expenditures were covered by income from nongovernmental sources: “Sprawozdanie kasowe CKŻP, Warszawa, za okres od 15.XI.1944 do 1.XII.1945 r.,” Information Center of the Interuniversity Project for the Study of Illegal Jewish Immigration to Palestine, Tel Aviv (henceforth IC), record group 35, microfilm reel 3. These figures, however, evidently do not reflect the value of donations in kind (food, clothing, medical supplies, manufacturing equipment, and the like) contributed by Jewish organizations abroad, which began to enter Poland in early 1945. On these donations, see below. Moreover, in mid-1946 the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee began to provide the Central Committee of Polish Jews with large-scale monetary assistance as well, thus lowering substantially the percentage of support received from the government. See Israel Bialostocki, Shikkum haYishuv haYehudi beFolin aharei haSho'ah, 1944-1950, unpublished Ph.D diss., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1990, 74-75; Yehuda Bauer, Out of the Ashes: The Impact of American Jews on Post-Holocaust European Jewry (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1989), 144.

9. “Memoriał Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich do K. C. Polskiej Partii Robotniczej et al,” n. d., IC-35/3.

10. A Desk for the Affairs of the Jewish Minority was established within the Nationalities Bureau of the Ministry's Political Department in January 1945: Z. Sznek to Prezydium Rady Ministrów, 6 March 1945, Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warsaw (henceforth AAN), Ministerstwo Administracji Publicznej (henceforth MAP), 786, poz. 3. See also “Sprawozdanie [Referatu dla Spraw Mniejszości Żydowskiej] za okres od dnia 1.X.45 r. do 1.I.46 r.,” ibid., poz. 30-34; “Orientacyjne dane o organizacjach społecznych i politycznych ludności żydowskiej,” n. d., AAN—MAP 787, poz. 68.

11. The largest number of Jews ever counted in Poland at any time after the Second World War was 243,926 as of 1 July 1946: “Liczbowy wykaz Żydów w Polsce: stan na dzień 1. lipca 1946,” AAN—MAP 786, poz. 67. The Central Committee, which prepared this census on the basis of the registration files of its branch provincial committees, estimated that between 10 to 15 percent of the Jews enumerated in it were registered with more than one provincial committee: see Tetikayts-Barikht fun Tsentral-Komitet fun di Yidn in Poiln fun 1 Yanuar 1946 biz dem 30 Yuni 1946, Warsaw 1947, 7. If so, the actual number of Jews in the country in the middle of 1946 was most likely between 205,000 and 210,000. Beginning in June 1946, however, a mass exodus of Jews from the country began, until by mid-1947 estimates of the Jewish population ranged between 88,000 and 105,000. For these estimates see Irena Hurwic-Nowakowska, A Social Analysis of Postwar Polish Jewry (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1986), 20; American Jewish Year Book 49 (1947-48):740. On the mass exodus see, inter alia, Yisrael Gutman, HaYehudim beFolin aharei Milhemet haOlam haRishonah (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1985), 44-49. See also Lucjan Dobroszycki, Survivors of the Holocaust in Poland: A Portrait Based on Jewish Community Records, 1944-1947 (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1994) 41-90.

12. On the government's plans to effect economic restructuring through the Central Committee, see “Sprawozdanie [Referatu dla Spraw Mniejszości Żydowskiej]” (n. 10). In early 1945 the Central Committee established an Economic Restructuring Fund (Kasa dla Produktywizacji) with an initial capitalization of 8,150,000 zł., as well as an Economic Restructuring Division (Wydział dla Spraw Produktywizacji): see “Sprawozdanie z działalności Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich za r. 1945,” 20-23, IC—35/3; “Regulamin Wydziału dla Spraw Produktywizacji przy Centralnym Komitecie Żydów Polskich,” n. d., Archives of the Diaspora Research Institute, Tel Aviv (henceforth DRI), INV. 153/24; and “Protokół z posiedzenia plenum Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich,” 2 February 1945, IC—35/12. In July 1946 the government established its own Commission on the Economic Restructuring of the Jewish Population in Poland to coordinate and finance the activities of government bodies and Jewish organizations pursuing this goal. This body was authorized to grant credits of up to 85,000,000 zł. to such organizations during the first four months of its operation: “Uchwała Rady Ministrów z dnia 25 lipca 1946 r. w przedmiocie powołania Komisarza Rządu dla spraw produktywizacji ludności żydowskiej w Polsce,” AAN—MAP 786, poz. 72.

13. Hersz Smolar, Oif der letster Pozitsiye, mit der letster Hofenung (Tel Aviv: Y. L. Peretz Farlag, 1982), 38. Smolar was actually referring to the Bureau for Matters Concerning Aid to the Jewish Population, which had been established by the Polish Committee of National Liberation in July 1944 and which was in turn instrumental in creating the Central Committee. On this see below. On the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs see, inter alia, Mordechai Altshuler, HaYevsektsia biVerit haMo'atsot 1918-1930: Bein Le'umiyut leKomunizm (Tel Aviv: Sifriat Poalim, 1981), 20-26.

14. See, for example, “Sprawozdanie z działalności Centralnego Komitetu” (n. 12), 1: “Following the victory over Nazi Germany and the liberation of Poland after awful years of aggression, during which some six million Jews from all the countries of Europe were murdered on Polish soil, the handful of Polish Jews who had survived miraculously faced extremely difficult problems.... In order to save the remnant of Polish Jewry it was necessary to organize quick relief action. An organization had to be created to undertake the reconstruction of the life of Polish Jewry, which had been devastated. In November 1944 the Provisional Central Committee of Polish Jews was established.” See also Smolar, Oif der letster Pozitsiye, 38-39.

15. These groups, composed of young Zionist activists from among the remnants of Polish Jewry, created a clandestine organization known as Berihah (flight), which was to lead some 111,000 Jews out of Poland in 1945 and 1946. On this organization and its relation to the Central Committee see David Engel, Bein Shihrur liVerihah: Nitsolei haSho'ah beFolin vehaMa'avak al Hanhagatam (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1996), passim.

16. Ibid., esp. ch. 2., for these alternative institutions.

17. See, for example, Zvi Netzer, “HaNedidah haMe'urgenet leErets-Yisra'el,” in Yom Iyyun al Sifro shel Yehuda Bauer, “HaBerihah” (Efal: Yad Tabenkin, 1975), 8-9; Yitshak Sternberg, BiZehut Aheret (Lohamei haGeta'ot: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1984), 87; testimony of Uri Yannai (Janowsky) in Shelihut LaGolah 1945-1948 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1989), 67; Efraim Dekel, BiNetivei haBerihah, s. 1. Haarachot 1959, 1:30-32. There is also evidence that the Orthodox Jewish party Agudas Yisroel, which had not been formally legalized in postwar Poland and which was therefore not represented on the Central Committee, employed the Yevsektsia image in propaganda attacks upon it: “Informacja dot. sytuacji Żydów w Polsce, działalności organizacji i projekt wytycznych dla naszej polityki na odcinku żydowskim,” n. d., Archiwum Komitetu Centralnego PZPR, 295-7-149, 22. On the Yevsektsia see, inter alia, Altshuler, HaYevsektsia, passim.

18. Historical studies that have discussed the Committee's founding and operation include Bialostocki, Shikkum haYishuv haYehudi, passim; Gutman, HaYehudim beFolin, 19-20; Dobroszycki, Survivors of the Holocaust, 5-8; id. “Restoring Jewish Life in Postwar Poland,”Soviet Jewish Affairs 3 (1973):58-72; Hana Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut shel Yehudei Polin beShilhei Milhemet haOlam haSheniyah,”Gal-Ed 2 (1975):287-331; id., “Pe'ilut Yehudei Polin leMa'an Hidush Hayei haYehudim baMedinah, Yanu'ar-Yuli 1945,”Gal-Ed 10 (1987):207-25; and Zygmunt Hoffman, “Der Tsentraler Komitet fun di Yidn in Poiln oifn Fon fun di ershte Yorn funem umophengikn Land,”Bleter far Geshikhte 24 (1986):8-39. For a study that asserts, without tangible support, that “the Central Committee... quickly became a Polish equivalent of the Yevsektsiya,” see Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum, “The Road to New Poland: Jewish Communists in the Soviet Union, 1939-46,” in Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939-46 ed. Norman Davies and Antony Polonsky, (London: Macmillan, 1991), 224.

19. Dokumenty i materiały do historii stosunków polsko-radzieckich (Warsaw: Książka i Wiedza, 1973), 375. It was the intention of the Council to supplant the London-based Polish government-in-exile.

20. Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 290. Berman was the younger brother of Communist leader Jakub Berman. Although the two brothers maintained cordial relations after the war, there were significant political differences between them. See Adolf Avraham Berman, BaMakom asher Yi'ed Li haGoral (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1978), 13-14.

21. “Przemówienie przedstawiciela Związku Robotników Żydowskich w Polsce na pierwszym zebraniu KRN,” in B. Mark, “Do dziejów odrodzenia osiedla żydowskiego w Polsce po II wojnie światowej,”Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego 51 (1964):4.

22. “Program pracy Referatu dla Spraw Żydowskich przy Krajowej Radzie Narodowej,” in Mark, “Do dziejów odrodzenia,” 6.

23. Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 293.

24. On the establishment of ZPP see, inter alia, Zbigniew Kumoś, Związek Patriotów Polskich: Założenia programowo-ideowe (Warsaw: Wydawaictwo Hon, 1983), 53.

25. See Yosef Litvak, “Korotav uFe'iluto haTsiburit shel Emil Sommerstein biVerit haMo'atsot beMilhemet haOlam haSheniyah,”Gal-Ed 12 (1991):146. For various estimates of the number of Polish Jewish refugees in the Soviet Union in 1944, see id., Pelitim Yehudim miPolin biVerit-haMo'atsot, 1939-1946 (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1988), 358; B. D. Weinryb, “Polish Jews under Soviet Rule,” in Peter Meyer et al, eds., The Jews in the Soviet Satellites (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1953), 362; Gutman, HaYehudim beFolin, 24.

26. Litvak, “Korotav... shel Sommerstein,” 149.

27. Ibid., 153. If such a proposal was ever prepared, it has not been located to date. According to Litvak, Sommerstein delivered an oral message to Joint Distribution Committee headquarters in New York in May 1944 through the mediation of Oskar Lange, a U. S. citizen sympathetic to the Polish cause who visited Moscow in the spring of that year: Yosef Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun haJoint leShikumah shel She'erit haPletah beFolin, 1944-1949,” in Yahadut Mizrah Eiropah bein Sho'ah liTekumah 1944-1948, ed. Binyamin Pinkus (Beersheva: Ben Gurion University Press, 1987), 337. No documentation is offered for this assertion, however. The earliest documented contact between Sommerstein and the JDC dates from August 1944; see below.

28. “Ludwik” (Adolf Berman) and “Ewa” (Pola Elster) to ZPP, 15 June 1944, in Mark, “Do dziejów odrodzenia,” 11.

29. The number is, of course, extremely tenuous. A report from mid-October 1944 by the director of the Bureau of Matters Concerning Aid to the Jewish Population of Poland of the Polish Committee for National Liberation (see below) indicated a Jewish population of 2,200 in Lublin, with an additional 4,189 Jews registered in local Jewish committees in 29 provincial locations. The author of the report indicated, however, that “the overall number of Jews [outside of Lublin] is upwards of 8,000, but for safety reasons a significant percentage of these are not identifying themselves openly as Jews and are not registering with the [Jewish] committees.”: Referat dla spraw pomocy ludności żydowskiej przy Prezydium P.K.W.N., “Trzecie sprawozdanie z działalności,” 12 October 1944, AAN—Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (henceforth PKWN) XI/6, poz. 17. The quoted passage was excised from the published version of this document; Michał Szulkin, “Sprawozdania z działalności referatu dla spraw pomocy ludności żydowskiej przy Prezydium Polskiego Komitetu Wyzwolenia Narodowego,”Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego 79 (1971):81. According to another estimate, attributed to Sommerstein, there were 40,000 Jews in the Lublin area in mid-November 1944: Litvak, Pelitim Yehudim, 433, n. 37. This latter estimate appears quite exaggerated in light of the fact that in May 1945, after all of Polish territory had been liberated, there were fewer than 50,000 Jews in the entire country (excluding Lower Silesia and other former German territories): “Liczbowy wykaz Żydów w Polsce na podstawie spisów wojewódzkich,” IC—35/3.

30. “Sprawozdanie z działalności Referatu dla spraw pomocy ludności żydowskiej przy Prezydium Polskiego Komitetu Narodowego Wyzwolenia [sic],” 1 September 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 1.

31. “LeMatsav haYehudim beFolin haMeshuhreret,” 23 March 1945, DRI—A.4/7.

32. See n. 30.

33. Ibid.

34. On the establishment of PKWN and its mandate, see, inter alia, Antony Polonsky and Bolesław Drukier, eds., The Beginnings of Communist Rule in Poland, December 1943-June 1945 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980), 21-23.

35. Kumoś, Związek Patriotów Polskich, 220.

36. It has been suggested, on the basis of eyewitness testimony, that Sommerstein had been slated initially to head the Treasury Department but had requested the War Reparations portfolio precisely because a central Jewish interest was likely to fall under this department's purview. Litvak, “Korotav... shel Sommerstein,” 157.

37. Kumoś, Związek Patriotów Polskich, 220; Rozenbaum, “The Road to New Poland,” 223.

38. They were associated with the PPS faction that formed the splinter party, the Polish Socialist Labor Party (Robotnicza Partia Polskich Socjalistów—RPPS), in 1943. See Jan Stefan Haneman, “U progu Polski Ludowej,”Z pola walki 46 (1969):153; Michael Weichert, Nokhn Khurbn (Tel Aviv: Orli, 1970), 51.

39. On Żołna and his role, see Ireneusz Caban, Lublin, lipiec 1944 (Lublin: Krajowa Agencja Wydownicza, 1984), 96.

40. See, for example, Żołna to District National Council (Powiatowa Rada Narodowa), Garwolin, 5 August 1944, AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 1.

41. Z. Wyrozembski and L. Stawiarski, Economic Department, PKWN, to Provincial National Councils in Lublin, Otwock, Staszów, Rzeszów, and Białystok, with copies to Department of Labor and Social Welfare and Department of War Reparations (Nr. 617/44 Ke/W), 16 September 1944, ANN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 42.

42. See n. 40.

43. See the lists of local Jewish committees in Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 77, 79-80. There do not appear to be any surviving descriptions of the process by which these committees were formed in the territories east of the Vistula. Such descriptions do exist, however, for several communities in the territories west of the Vistula liberated in January 1945, and they attest to the spontaneous nature of the organization. See, for example, Szymon Kozik, “Der Letster Yid in Shtot,” in Pinkes Mlave (New York: World Federation of Jews from Mława, 1950), 412; Pinhas Brum, “Nokh der Bafrayung,” in Yizkor-Bukh Wielun (Tel Aviv: Association of Jews from Wielun in Israel, 1971), 378; and “Di Shreklikhe Antoyshung fun di `Bafrayte' Ostrovtser Yidn,” in Sefer Ostrovtsa, ed. Gershon Zylberberg, (Tel Aviv: Organization of Jews from Ostrowiec in Israel, [s.d.]), 455. There are also several pieces of correspondence between some of the local committees east of the Vistula and PKWN that strongly suggest organization independent of the new Polish authorities: see, for example, the letter from the Board of the Jewish Religious Community of Przemyśl (Zarząd Gminy Wyznaniowej Żydowskiej w Przemyślu) to the Department of Labor and Social Welfare, PKWN, undated [datable from file position and accompanying correspondence to early October 1944], AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 52-54. It is certain that at this time the Polish authorities did not have in mind the inclusion of religious services among Jewish community functions; they conceived of the Jewish communities as providers of social welfare services and political representation only. Jews were permitted by the Polish government to organize public religious bodies only in mid-1945: Gutman, HaYehudim beFolin, 77-78. A Jewish body from Przemyśl that called itself a religious community in October 1944 could thus have been organized only on its own initiative, without official instigation.

44. See, for example, the complaints of Emanuel Glückman of the Jewish Social Welfare Committee of Jarosław (Żydowski Komitet Opieki Społecznej w Jarosławiu) to the Department of Public Administration, PKWN, undated [October 1944], AAN—PKWN VII/29, poz. 14; Glückman to PKWN Chairman Edward Osóbka-Morawski, undated [October 1944], AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 23-24; note to the mayor of Żelechów, 22 August 1944, AAN—PKWN VII/29, poz. 1; and Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 83. See also n. 41.

45. See n. 41; note to the major of Żelechów (n. 44); Department of Public Administration to chairman, District National Council, Włodawa, 25 August 1944, AAN—PKWN VII/29, poz. 2; and Drobner to Provincial Department of Social Welfare, Białystok, 6 October 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 56.

46. Herszenhorn was at the time a major in the Polish army; Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 75-76. On Herszenhorn see also Jonas Turkow, Nokh der Bafrayung (Buenos Aires: Union Central Israelita Polaca, 1959), 32.

47. Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 78.

48. See Wrzesiński's authorization (upoważnienie), signed by Jan Wende, secretary of the PKWN presidium, 12 September 1944, AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 3.

49. Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 76.

50. There is considerable ambiguity in the sources about when such a committee actually began to function. In his first report, dated 1 September 1944, Herszenhorn hinted that the committee had already been elected and had begun to work with him; ibid. However, the earliest tangible, unambiguous indication of the existence of a Jewish committee in Lublin is contained in a document dated 16 September; Z. Wyrozembski and L. Stawiarski to Department of Labor and Social Welfare, PKWN, 16 September 1944 (Nr. 611/44 Ke/W), AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 43. The earliest extant document actually produced by a Jewish committee in Lublin is a handwritten letter from two officials of the committee to Drobner dated 26 September 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 46-47. According to another letter from the same two officials to Drobner dated 19 October 1944, “the present board of the committee (zarząd komitetu) came into being on 1 October after a long and exhaustive discussion at an electoral assembly of those receiving the committee's support;” AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 22. This letter stated that “this present board is the authorized voice of the opinion of the Jewish population of Lublin.”

51. Testimonies of people who claim to have been in contact with the committee not only are not consistent with one another but also contradict the extant documentary record of the committee's activities. One witness named the Zionist Mendel Kosower and Communists Marek Bitter and Paweł Zelicki as committee members in addition to Zonszajn but did not mention Gelbard; see Turkow, Nokh der Bafrayung, 32. In contrast, Kosower stated that the other Zionist member of the committee was Reuven Feldschuh and that Herszenhorn was chairman. He too failed to mention Gelbard and suggested that Bitter and Zelicki joined only later. For his testimony see Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 303. In the event it appears that the composition of the committee changed frequently because of various circumstances; on this see below.

52. Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 76; Zonszajn and Gelbard to PKWN Department of Labor, Social Welfare, and Health, 4 October 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 40; Zonszajn and Gelbard to PKWN Presidium, 11 October 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 41.

53. See Herszenhorn's description of his relation with the Lublin Jewish committee in Szulkin. “Sprawozdania,” 79.

54. It is difficult to account for this difference. It is possible that Jews in Lublin did not organize spontaneously the sort of committee that was eventually formed as a result of government prodding because their spontaneous tendency was to arrange themselves along different lines. It appears, for example, that during the first weeks following liberation representatives of various Zionist groups held discussions about uniting all of Polish Jewry under a single banner for the purpose of preparing an orderly mass exodus of Jewish survivors from the country and without creating any sort of Jewish communal representation in Poland at all. See, in particular, Avraham Rosenman, “ `HaIhud'—Kavim leDemuto uleFe'iluto,”Masu'ah 19 (1991):205. Similarly, a number of Communists especially interested in Jewish affairs who were present in Lublin immediately following liberation seem to have preferred to approach the matter of Jewish needs through party channels: Hana Shlomi, “The Communist Caucus in the Central Committee of Jews in Poland, November 1944—February 1947,”Gal-Ed 13 (1993):82-83.

55. Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 81.

56. Ibid., 83, 85.

57. Drobner to Jewish Committee, Lublin, 21 October 1944 (POZ/III/1036), AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 62. Szuldenfrei had been, together with Sommerstein, a member of a body called the Organizing Committee of Polish Jews in the Soviet Union (Organizir-Komitet fun Poylishe Yidn in Ratn-Farband), which had functioned under the auspices of ZPP. On this organization see Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 315-18.

58. The first document produced by this new committee (signed by Szuldenfrei as vice chairman) bears the date 20 November 1944: Provisional Central Committee of Polish Jews to PKWN Department of Labor, Social Welfare, and Health (for Drobner), AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 67. Three weeks earlier, however, on 31 October, a note was addressed by Feliks Mantel, deputy director of the Department of Labor, to Sommerstein as “president of the Central Jewish Committee”: Ibid., poz. 63. A complete official list of the members of the Provisional Central Committee has not been located in any of the accessible archives, and the several extant unofficial lists are not consistent with one another. All of these latter lists include the names of General Zionists Mordechai Zonszajn and Mendel Kosower and of the Communist Marek Bitter; otherwise there is no agreement. See Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 313; Turkow, Nokh der Bafrayung, 32; David Kahane, Aharei haMabul: Nisayon leHahayot et haKehilot haDatiyot beFolin sheleahar Milhemet haOlam haSheniyah (1944-1949) (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kuk, 1981), 27; Shalom Stefan Grajek, HaMa'avak al Hemshech haHayim: Yehudei Polin baShanim 1945-1949 (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1989), 15.

59. In the event, the members of the committee were chosen not by direct election but by the leading Jewish political parties, who apportioned seats among them on the basis of a mutually agreed party key: “LeMatsav haYehudim beFolin haMeshuhreret,” 23 March 1945, HaShomer HaTsa'ir Archive, Giv'at Havivah, 31.2(2); Shlomi, “Pe'ilut Yehudei Polin,” 214. There is one document that refers to the committee as being attached formally to the PKWN Presidium (in it the committee is called Tymczasowy Centralny Komitet Żydów Polskich przy Prezydium PKWN); this, however, appears to be an isolated reference and is in all likelihood insignificant: Jan Konrad-Janasek, secretary, PKWN Presidium, to PKWN Department of Public Safety, 20 November 1944, AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 7.

60. According to Herszenhorn, “one of the first steps [of this new group] was to appoint a commission to investigate the entire operation of the Lublin committee. The work of that commission is in progress; in the nearest future the commission will present its conclusions. [Meanwhile], because of the resignation of two of its members, the Lublin committee lacks a quorum and has ceased to function.”: Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 85.

61. “Sprawozdanie z działalności Centralnego Komitetu” (n. 12), 3. See also Weichert, Nokhn Khurbn, 48-49. One of the provincial committees established was a new Provincial Jewish Committee in Lublin, which was on the same administrative level as the Białystok provincial committee and others created following the liberation of territories west of the Vistula.

62. See the appointment orders of two such supervisors, Bronisław Żuraliński and Izaak Alter, 12 December 1944, AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 8, 9.

63. Sommerstein, who continued to serve as chairman of the new permanent Central Committee, explained the change as follows: “When leaders of the Jewish underground movement in the newly liberated territories came [to Lublin], a joint interparty meeting effected a reorganization of the Provisional Central Committee of Polish Jews, so that henceforth the Central Committee would include all of the democratic parties, the workers parties, and the Jewish organizations.”: “Protokół z posiedzenia Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich,” 2 February 1945, IC—35/12. The committee initially consisted of fifteen members (seven Zionists, three Bundists, three Communists, and two independents). Herszenhorn was given one of the seats allocated to the Bund. By this time, neither Sommerstein nor Herszenhorn was associated formally with the ruling power in Poland; in the new provisional government Sommerstein's department was eliminated and Drobner replaced by Wiktor Trojanowski.

64. See n. 10. Although Drobner had exercised pressure concerning the composition of the Provisional Central Committee in November 1944, there is no evidence that the regime attempted to exercise any influence upon further selections to the Committee or the assignment of functions within it until 1947; see Shlomi, “The Communist Caucus,” 99.

65. PPR was formed in 1942. It deliberately refrained from assuming the name of the former Communist Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Polski—KPP), which had been disbanded by Stalin in 1938, and emphasized that its ranks were open to any Pole prepared to take part in the anti-Nazi struggle and to work for the establishment of a democratic Poland following liberation. In reality it was, however, a party of Communists. See, inter alia, Marian Malinowski, Geneza PPR (Warsaw: Ksiażka i Wiedza, 1972), passim.

66. See Shlomi, “The Communist Caucus,” 83-85.

67. Drobner to Jewish Committee, Lublin, 17 October 1944, AAN—PKWN I/47, poz. 5.

68. At its meeting of that date the presidium decided that Oskar Lange and Father Stanisław Orlemański, both U. S. citizens of Polish extraction and ZPP supporters, would contact Herbert Lehman, head of UNRRA, regarding possible assistance from that international body. It was also at this meeting that Sommerstein was charged with the task of formulating a proposal to the Joint Distribution Committee. See Litvak, “Korotav shel Sommerstein,” 153.

69. See, for example, the text of Sommerstein's cable to the chief rabbi of the British Empire, J. H. Hertz, received in London on 13 September 1944: “Jews of Britain! Hearken to my Appeal and Help!... You must act quickly. Every moment of delay means the death of many of our saved people. Living corpses in rags awaiting your aid. Give them clothing and food, medical aid and shelter, give them tools to begin work. Save and return to life all those who, half dead, survived this general disaster.” For a copy of the cable, see “Urgent Telegram from Lublin,” Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem (henceforth YVA), M2/270. For information on telegrams sent to other Jewish organizations, see Dobroszycki, “Restoring Jewish Life,” 64; Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 309; Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun ha`Joint',” 337.

70. Cable, Ignacy Schwarzbart to Jewish Agency, 15 October 1944, YVA—M2/270. See also Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun ha`Joint',” 336—39; Dobroszycki, “Restoring Jewish Life,” 64.

71. Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun ha`Joint',” 339; Dobroszycki, “Restoring Jewish Life,” 64-65.

72. “Preliminarz budżetu Komitetu Żydowskiego w Lublinie na paźdz. 1944 r.,” AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 87. This estimate was later reduced to 1.4 million zł.; Ibid., poz. 88.

73. Drobner to Lublin Jewish committee, 17 October 1944, AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 58.

74. “Preliminarz budżetowy Tymczasowego Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich na m. Listopad 1944 r.” AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 91; Szulkin “Sprawozdania,” 85. Drobner had been prepared initially to allocate 100,000 zł.: Drobner to Central Jewish Committee, n. d. (POZ/III/1438, dotyczy preliminarza budżetowego na listopad 1944), Ibid., poz. 92.

75. “Preliminarz budżetowy Tymczasowego Centralnego Komitetu Żydów Polskich na miesiąc grudzień 1944 r.,” AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 94-95; Drobner to Jewish committee, n. d. (POZ/O/3145), Ibid., poz. 96-97.

76. Drobner to Jewish committee (see n. 75).

77. Drobner to Central Jewish Committee, 18 December 1944 (POZ/O/3039), AAN—PKWN XI/6, poz. 73.

78. See Shlomi, “Reshit haHitargenut,” 301-03; id., “The Communist Caucus,” 83.

79. A complete discussion of the relationship of PPR to the Central Jewish Committee is beyond the scope of this article. For some preliminary observations suggesting that such was in fact the thinking of the PPR leadership, see Shlomi, “The Communist Caucus,” 90-100.

80. The U.S. government lifted its ban on private contacts with PKWN in October 1944, and shortly thereafter the JDC dispatched its first shipment of relief supplies to Poland. See Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun ha`Joint',” 339.

81. Litvak, “Terumato shel Irgun ha`Joint',” 339-40; Szulkin, “Sprawozdania,” 89. Only supplies were involved at this point. The JDC, which was eventually to supply a significant portion of funds for Jewish relief, refrained from sending monies into Poland until mid-1946 because of a dispute with the Polish government over the rate at which its dollar contributions would be converted into Polish currency. See Bauer, Out of the Ashes, 144.

82. In April 1945, for example, the Polish government gave a grant of 5 million zł. to the Central Committee, and committee members expressed optimism that such grants would increase during the coming months: “Protokół plenarnego posiedzenia członków Centralnego Komitetu Zydów Polskich,” 28 April 1945, IC—35/12.

83. See n. 12.

84. Of course, the majority of Polish Jews, rather than integrate themselves into the new Polish socialist society, preferred to leave the country; between mid-1946 and mid-1947 the Jewish population of Poland dropped from over 200,000 to less than 100,000, almost entirely as a result of emigration. See Hurwic-Nowakowska, Social Analysis, 20. Most elements in the government did not oppose this emigration, and some even appear to have actively favored it—in some measure, no doubt, in order to make certain that those Jews who remained in the country would be favorably disposed toward the new regime. See Engel, Bein Shihrur liVerihah, ch. 4. The Jewish groups (mainly Zionist youth movements) who tried to foster mass Jewish emigration (often in cooperation with government agencies) formed the primary opposition to the Central Committee on the Jewish street, seeing in the Committee's work a vehicle for the long-term integration of Jews into Polish society, which they sought to resist. Their relationship to the Central Committee cannot be considered adequately within the limitations of this article; for a full discussion, see Engel, Bein Shihrur liVerihah, ch. 2.

85. During its first year of operation the Central Committee established a Yiddish-language newspaper (Dos Naje Lebn), a Polish-language press service (Żydowska Agencja Prasowa), a Central Jewish Historical Commission, a Central Jewish Library, a network of Jewish schools in which Yiddish was the language of instruction and Hebrew a mandatory second language, and an ongoing program of Yiddish-language theatre performances and concerts of Jewish music. See “Sprawozdanie z działalności Centralnego Komitetu” (n. 12), 28-36.

86. See Smolar, Oif der letster Pozitsiye, 68-75.

The Reconstruction of Jewish Communal Institutions in Postwar Poland: the Origins of the Central Committee of Polish Jews,1944-1945

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