The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov's Oral History

Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, chair of the Polish Association for Yiddish Studies, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on May 1, 2013 in Warsaw, Poland. Joanna, who grew up in Warsaw, has a Polish and Ukrainian family background. She is not Jewish and only recalls one Jewish friend during her childhood or adolescence, a children's book author who gave her a book of Itzik Manger's. This book impressed her and got her interested in Yiddish, which she began studying at the Yiddish Theatre. During her first year at university, Joanna took a summer course which was a collaborative effort of YIVO and the Jewish Historical Institute. She majored in Hebrew studies in college in an "inter-faculty" program that allowed the students to make many of their own choices. Her interests spanned history, languages, and literature. She came back to Yiddish when pursuing graduate work in Jewish Studies at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and describes the feelings associated with discovering a unique culture and choosing to explore it. Her parents, both engineers, found her choice of a course of study surprising and "exotic", but they did not discourage her. Joanna suggests that studying Jewish history in the academy is different from participating in Jewish rituals and holidays. She is slowly noticing more of a connection between academia and the community. For her, participation in Jewish life enriches her work and does not impact her Protestant identity. Joanna's doctoral thesis was on David Sfard, a Jewish communist during the post-war period who dreamt of a utopian world where Yiddish-speaking Jews were full-fledged citizens; her thesis was published as a book entitled "Citizen of Yiddishland." In honor of her mentor, she is currently working on a book about the "Haynt" newspaper, founded by his grandfather Avrom Goldberg. She talks about some of the controversies surrounding "Haynt" and the Yiddish press in general. She goes on to discuss the role of mentors in general and of her specific mentors. She considers the current status of Jewish Studies programs in Poland and the growing options available. She is concerned about whether there is a limit to how many graduates will find jobs in this field in their native country. She suggests that awareness of the Polish-Jewish past would enrich the lives of students outside of the Jewish studies field. Joanna talks about some of the frustrations she has as a historian and her awareness of the limited ability of academics like herself in terms of cultural transmission. She advises students to learn languages which is a way of "opening new windows."

This interview was conducted in English.