Nationalism, “Philosemitism,” and Symbolic Boundary-Making in Contemporary Poland

Abstract

With one religion, we cannot listen With one color, we cannot see With one culture, we cannot feel Without you, we cannot even remember Without you, we remain locked away in the past With you, a future will open before us.---Nightmares 1

Philosemitism in contemporary German media

“…Kansteiner (2011) analyzes philosemitic television in West Germany as set of contradictory discursive rules about Jews, which permitted only positive statements about their extraordinary accomplishments, and preached the utopia of a peaceful Jewish-gentile coexistence. In both the German and the Polish case, as Zubrzycki (2016) demonstrates, interest in things Jewish involves guilt together with an attempt at cosmopolitanizing culture. Von Bieberstein (2016) further shows that in Germany, positive sentiment toward Jews is associated with protecting democracy.…”

Embracing the nation: Strategic deployment of sexuality, nation, and citizenship in Singapore

“…So also the literature on the reproduction of nationhood and national identity highlights symbolism and performance, such as through mundane and repetitive acts of “flagging” national markers (Billig, 1995), staging national anthems (Hobsbawm & Ranger, 1983), and engaging with other materialized symbols and objects (Zubrzycki, 2017). Nationhood and national identity are also displayed, celebrated, and reproduced through spectacles (Zubrzycki, 2016). Szulc (2016), for instance, has described a form of “coupling queer symbolism with national symbolism” in online LGBT communities, specifically the pairing of national references (e.g., country or city names) with well‐known global LGBT symbols (e.g., rainbow flags, pink triangles) to show identification with “an imagined global queer community.” (p. 319) My approach, thus, attends to how symbols and performances play critical roles in the strategic deployment of sexual and national identities.…”

Quo Vadis, Polonia? On religious loyalty, exit, and voice

“…It is in that context of struggles to define Polishness that Poland has witnessed, in the last two decades, a significant 'Jewish revival': there exist over 40 festivals of Jewish culture across Poland, several new Jewish museums and commemorative spaces, Jewish restaurants, cafés, and klezmer clubs, as well as new Jewish study programs at major universities (Gruber, 2002;Waligórska, 2013;Wodziński, 2011;Zubrzycki, 2012Zubrzycki, , 2016. Given the small size of the Jewish community in Poland, the majority of participants in those initiatives are non-Jewish Poles.…”