The Rise of Jewish Warsaw: 1862-1939
Tuition: $360 | YIVO members: $270**
This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, etc.) will be posted to Google Classroom. Students will be granted access to the class on Google Classroom after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English, and any readings will be in English.
Instructor: Samuel Kassow
This course will study why and how Warsaw became a Jewish metropolis, the largest Jewish city in Europe. Between 1862 and 1939, its Jewish population increased five-fold, and the city became a mosaic of different Jewish tribes: Litvaks, Hasidim from the Polish provinces, Jews from Galicia, Polish-speaking Jewish professionals and businessmen. Warsaw was the hub of the Jewish labor movement, the center of Yiddish theater and literature and the home of the major organizations that helped Polish Jewry defend its rights against escalating antisemitism. This course will also investigate the role of what the German scholar Katrin Steffen has called “Jewish Polishness”, the growing importance of the Polish language in Jewish life. Readings will include historical articles and appropriate literary selections.
Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Google Classroom.
Questions? Read our 2027 Winter Program FAQ.
Samuel D. Kassow is the Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, and is recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust and the Jews of Poland. He is widely known for his 2007 book, Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive (Indiana University Press). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, has won numerous awards, and has lectured widely.
**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.