POLIN

‘The history of Polish–Jewish relations is of crucial importance in the history of the Jews since the late Middle Ages, and scarcely less so in the history of Poland in more modern times. The story is often painful, at all times complex, and at times of high achievement; and it deserves the kind of objective and illuminating treatment that I am sure [Polin] will provide.‘
Sir Isaiah Berlin

‘Polin . . . has performed an extraordinary act of memory retrieval in its own right.‘
Irving Louis Horowitz

‘Nobody can doubt that systematic study of Polish–Jewish history is of the highest scholarly interest. . . . Polin, having many prominent Polish and Jewish scholars among its contributors, will be able to inject a new life into those studies. All scholars in the humanities will certainly hail it as a most welcome event.‘
Leszek Kolakowski

‘It is certainly the leading publication in its field and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in this important and fascinating subject . . . we should recognise the valuable work of Polin, whose scholarship serves to further Polish–Jewish understanding.‘
Melissa Collett, Liberal Jewish Synagogue News

‘Fascinating reading . . . they stimulate various revelations; and induce the abandoning of stereotypes. The introduction of part of the contents . . . to a wider public circulation in Poland would be probably very profitable.‘
Michal Horoszewicz, Acta Poloniae Historica

‘No comparable journal exists and Polin is to be emphatically recommended to all students of Polish and Jewish history.‘
Lionel Kochan, British Book News

‘Adds in an unusual way to our knowledge of our past. It illustrates parallel paths which were suddenly—and irrevocably closed. It dispels more than one comfortable stereotype, flattering to our self-perception.‘
Michal Horoszewicz, Czlowiek i Swiatopoglad

‘This series is now well established and vital to current Jewish historiography.‘
Albert H. Friedlander, European Judaism

‘Taken in all, the standard . . . is extremely high . . . There is much of genuine interest on a lost world . . . if the standard of the best of these essays is maintained, there will be much of interest and enlightenment in store both for the professional and amateur historian alike.‘
Hugh Courts, Jewish Book News & Reviews

‘Perhaps the only scholarly publication devoted entirely to Polish–Jewish history . Readers are struck by the sheer weight of scholarship and by the quality of historical research represented . . . they will be struck even more by the freshness of approach many of the authors apply . . . It is already becoming, and fast, a weighty, ineradicable presence in the continuing Polish–Jewish history, as well as in the on-going social-scientific effort to comprehend the changing world in which we live.’
Zygmunt Bauman, Jewish Quarterly

‘These scholarly pieces demonstrate the often total absurdity of the stereotypes of the Jew created on the Polish side. They also lead us to reflect on the images of the Pole which have become embedded in Jewish consciousness . . .’
Michael Horoszewicz, Kultura i Spoleczenstwo

‘Proof that there has now been established a proper forum for the exchange of ideas on Polish–Jewish matters, which is vital to deepen our understanding of these problems which have often been overgrown by misunderstandings, myths, and falsifications . . . creates the chance to conduct genuine discussion on the most difficult Polish-Jewish problems and to initiate and develop scholarly investigation of these problems . . . Reading Polin, one becomes aware how much is being done in the world to explain the history of the Jews and to examine it in a more rational manner. It also shows how necessary is discussion of this type on an international plane and how dangerous to scholarly understanding are all prejudices which derive from a chauvinistic basis.’
Wojciech Wrzesinski, Orda

‘Further evidence of the vitality of the study of the Jews in Poland which is now taking the character of a debate conducted on an international level.’
Daniel Tollet, Revue des Etudes Juives

‘It is impossible to read Polin with indifference, but is does encourage one to take a balanced attitude . . . The authors frequently ask difficult questions, both of themselves and of their own group. Everything has been done to ensure that the “dialogue” is not an exchange of the deaf and that controversial issues should be resolved in a scholarly manner.’
Maria Karpluk, Studia Historyczne

‘Performs a very valuable function as a forum in which both sides—Polish and Jewish—can discuss their views. That such a forum is needed is evident from the distance which remains between Jewish and Polish perceptions of their common history.‘
Steven Beller, Times Higher Education Supplement