Studies on folk music as an element of Jewish children and youth's school education in Poland between the World Wars (1918–39) constitute a considerable challenge for researchers, primarily because the sources have either been lost or scattered. The school authorities’ official forms, syllabuses, and handbooks have largely been preserved, but material concerning young Jews’ experiences in Polish schools is rather scanty. The press is a major source, in particular Education was compulsory under the Act of 7 February 1921 for children and teenagers aged 7 to 14. Cf. S. Mauersberg,
Those young Jews were an extremely large, culturally and socially varied group. They lived both in great cities and small towns or settlements, in the ethnically diversified territories formerly ruled by three empires that had partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. These Jews were citizens of a state that had just regained its independence. It was therefore one of the aims of its internal policy to shape the national identity of its inhabitants by ideological means. The Polish Jews, as the largest of the national minorities inhabiting the interwar Poland, were, in political and cultural terms, an extremely diversified group. The main indicator of these differences was every individual's degree of identification with the religion (Judaism) and attitude to his or her own community as nation-wise separate from others. At one end of the spectrum, there was religious orthodoxy and a strongly separate cultural identity (even reflected in command of the Polish language, which was poor or none at all in this group). Further along the axis, we find factions promoting various social and political concepts, which emphasised (to a varying degree) the need for national autonomy and advocated different visions of the future (one of these was the Zionist Movement).
Zionism – the ideology of Jewish national revival through building their own national seat in Palestine and a renaissance of Hebrew as a native tongue. Originally Zionism was the basis of the Zionist Movement. After the establishment of the state of Israel, it became the foundation of official state ideology. Cf. N. Aleksiun, ‘Syjonizm’ [‘Zionism’], in
In the case of (particularly pre-adolescent) schoolchildren, their adherence to one or another of these groups was determined by their family home. However, it was in the interwar period that the phenomenon of teenagers rejecting their family traditions first became distinctly noticeable (Kijek 2017: 65–66). This great diversity was reflected, to some extent, in the extremely complicated educational system in Poland, including that of Jewish schools. Though the Polish Constitution guaranteed access to free education in their native tongues to national monitories,
The so-called Little Treaty of Versailles, signed on 31 July 1919, part of whose directives entered the Polish Constitution of 17 March 1921, guaranteed (in Article 9) elementary education in publicly run schools with non-Polish language of instruction to all citizens whose native tongue was different from Polish, provided that they constituted a significant proportion of the population in the given city or province. Cf. Article 9; Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland, 1920, no. 110, item 728; see also Mauersberg,
Publicly owned schools were attended by those Jewish children and teenagers who either came from well assimilated families or whose parents could not afford private education. That this experience was not always easy for the Jewish youth is corroborated by comments printed in I wrote that attending a Polish school is not a good thing, and it's true. When the school organises a trip, they go on Saturdays, when jewish [sic!] girls can’t go. Or they eat at Polish restaurants during such trips, which again makes it hard to reconcile. But the worst thing is when [children] are at play and something happens; parents forbid Polish girls to play with jewish [sic!] ones.
Lucia,
The question is, to what extent the school syllabuses, with their numerous references to Polish culture, could be perceived by the Jewish youth as an ideologically oppressive tool. Apart from the dominance of a narration that supported the national perspective (reflected in a suitable music repertoire), folk music was also commonly invoked. Official directives of the school authorities recommended the use of Polish folklore as an instrument of ideological formation of youth, of building a Polish national identity, while the cultural heritage of the numerous national minorities was almost completely left out. The integrating potential of Polish folksongs and dances, with special emphasis on forms proper to the given region, could help to familiarise the population with local traditions, and thus – reinforce the narration intended to unify the culturally heterogeneous Polish society. Jewish children attending state-run, publicly owned schools were particularly strongly exposed to such syllabuses. In private schools, this ideology was replaced by other narrations suited to the given school's profile. In Jewish Hebrew-language schools, the curricula of Zionist-nationalist education included learning the so-called Palestine songs in Hebrew, which were part of a wider process of reinventing the traditions of the newly formed Jewish national seat in Palestine. In CISZO schools, where Yiddish was the language of instruction, folksongs in Yiddish were a particular focus since Yiddish-language folklore was viewed as an integral part of the nation's cultural heritage. In both cases, this contributed to the accumulation of cultural and symbolic capital, which shaped the students’ national identities. However, even children from Hebrew- and Yiddish-language schools came into contact with Polish folklore on various occasions by participating in the town or city's cultural life or observing the still traditional village society during trips and summer holidays.
The official syllabuses constituted a point of departure for state-run schools. Prepared by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education, they defined in much detail the scope of knowledge and skills that needed to be acquired at the successive stages of education in state-run primary schools and in those secondary schools that implemented the state's educational system. In primary schools, Polish folk music played a major role in the broadly conceived educational process. Learning dance songs from various regions was recommended. These were typical song forms derived from dances characteristic of the given region, such as cracoviennes, kuyaviaks, mazurkas and obereks, Yes, this has been a very beautiful dream, after which one has to return to one's old way of living. And once again one is forced to sing the humiliating song ‘Little Jew's A-Walking down the Street’ at school.
It is not certain which song the author had in mind. In the Grodzka Gate Centre's Oral History Archive in Lublin we find an interview with Zofia Mazurek (b. 1926, speaking in 2000), who recalls a mocking song that started with the words ‘An old Jew's walking down the street and singing’. Cf. Z. Mazurek ‘Przedwojenne piosenki żydowskie’ [‘Pre-WWII Jewish Songs’], Archive of the programme: Historia Mówiona Ośrodek Brama Grodzka, K. Jehudit, ‘Mój sen’ [‘My Dream’],
The Jędrzejewicz reform
The reform prepared by Janusz Jędrzejewicz (of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education) and implemented from 1932 onwards; its directives were binding till 1948. Its aim was to create a unified system of education in the three former territories of partitioned Poland, and to adjust syllabuses to all the stages of education. Cf. Mauersberg, Regionalism was often interpreted rather broadly, as in the case of soldiers’ songs, which were incorporated into the repertoires of regional folksongs ‘for the sake of their non-Polish, foreign original melodies. […] A soldiers’ song becomes a traditional one on the very next day after it has been sung for the first time. Since in its lyrics it only speaks the truth, its melody never lies, either.’ This peculiar type of ideological ‘regionalism’ most likely ‘derived not from any given stretch of land and its geographic qualities, not from human ethnic qualities, but from the time of the land and its history.’ Cf. T. Mayzner, ‘Pieśń żołnierska i patriotyczna’ [‘Soldiers’ and Patriotic Songs’], Mayzner, ‘Pieśń żołnierska…’, p. 7. ‘A Silesian night’ is to be held at our school in May, and Morcinek has been invited! The folk's chosen ones, who will get the chance to distinguish themselves with their songs, dances, or exceptionally good memory in presenting papers, work without a moment's rest. It's rehearsal time all the time, excitedly reported a Polish primary school pupil from Sosnowiec, one of three Jewish girls attending that school in that period.
Lesia z Sosnowca, Menasza z Radomia, ‘Dwie uroczystości. Koncert górali’ [‘Two Celebrations. A Highlander Concert’],
Folksongs and dances were also part of school theatricals, which could take the form of short song-based spectacles or stage productions of entire folk rituals such us the harvest festival or a wedding. Such rituals were presented, for instance, in Lucjusz Komarnicki's ‘Muza’ theatre at Ewa Szlezynger's Jewish Girls’ High School in Warsaw.
L. Komarnicki,
Apart from teaching songs and dances in class, the syllabuses afforded space for founding instrumental ensembles and for extracurricular, facultative music lessons catering for those interested. Such projects called for dedicated and experienced teachers, required the purchase of instruments for the school ensemble and, most importantly, acquiring members from among gifted pupils, preferably ones who were already learning music privately and could thus become the mainstay of the orchestra. A string quintet or an all-violins ensemble was the most desirable line-up. While folksongs were strongly represented in the school vocal repertoires, folk material was avoided in instrumental music, except possibly for stylised adaptations and arrangements. While commenting on the Jędrzejewicz reform, Bogusław Sidorowicz rejected the possibility of including in school ensembles such plucked chordophones as ‘mandolins, balalaikas, or the Yugoslav B. Sidorowicz, ‘Problemy orkiestrowe w szkole’ [‘Issues Related to School Orchestras’],
School education was supplemented by listening sessions familiarising students with instrumental music. In such programmes, folk repertoire mainly served the task of gradually developing in pupils the ability to listen to classical music.
‘While taking into account teenagers’ degree of interest, musical works ought to be graded from the most accessible to the most demanding ones, in the following order: dance music and marches, folk and artistic songs, dance poems, operatic arias, works from the Romantic period, from the Classical era, polyphony, and contemporary music. The broadcasts ought to present, first and foremost, Polish music, primarily by F. Chopin and S. Moniuszko.’ Cf. B. Rutkowski, ‘Muzyczne audycje w szkole’ [‘Listening to Music at Schools’], Considerable role in promoting classical music in provincial towns and villages was played by ORMUZ (an organisation founded by TWMP Polish Music Publishing Society). Cf. M. Kosińska, ‘Tadeusz Ochlewski’, Culture.pl, 2007, Our class attended a musical matinee. It was for the first time in my life that I had seen such a huge and beautiful hall. In the beginning, a gentleman talked about music and how humans learned to sing. Then the orchestra played several dances. After the interval, there were Polish folksongs, and an academic choir sang Polish Christmas carols. A gentleman with a violin was applauded as he entered. He played so beautifully that everyone had tears in their eyes.
Efraim, ‘Rozrywki: poranek w Filharmonii’ [‘Entertainment. A Matinee at the Philharmonic’],
Dorka from Warsaw proudly reported:
At the Philharmonic we also listened to folksongs performed by the orchestra, and here the matinee ended. Professor Mayzner announced which school was to leave the hall first, to avoid jams on the way out. For those schools that still stayed in the concert hall, the professor played the piano. And he was just about to play the song ‘Close by the Lake’, which our school knows, so he told us to sing. We did, and the other schools applauded us. Then Mr Mayzner said, ‘now let that school leave the hall that sang so nicely’. And he pointed at us. We felt proud. I came back home warmed up with the song, with my head full of impressions.
Dorka z Grzybowskiej, ‘Co u nas słychać? W Filharmonii’ [‘How We Are Faring: At the Philharmonic’],
One of the instruments for developing the love of music in schoolchildren was the radio and its educational programme, with a varied offer. There were weekly singing lessons (addressed alternately to older and younger kids) and music broadcasts (once a month for two-year senior colleges, once for four-year junior high schools, and on the remaining Thursdays – for primary schools). The programme featured Polish folk and artistic music.
M. Dzierzbicka, P. Dahlig,
Both the radio and the gramophone had the potential to play roles that were not merely ideological or purely educational (i.e. serving as an introduction to the world of music). In the press, children frequently recall school parties at which music was played back from records, or even spontaneous dance events held during school breaks to music coming from the gramophone or the radio. This was particularly common where the school had a day-care room or a playroom. Though the radio remained a luxury until the end of the 1930s and was not available in many of the relatively poorer schools as well as some private homes, children welcomed the new medium with enthusiasm. ‘Now we have a five-valve radio set at school, a gift from the town hall, and we listen to concerts every week,’ wrote enthusiastically Lejb, the only Jewish pupil in a Polish school where a radio set appeared as early as in 1928, just two years after the Warsaw broadcasting station presented its first broadcasts.
Lejb, ‘Kronika szkolna. Dwa lata w chrześcijańskiej szkole wieczorowej’ [‘A School Chronicle. Two Years in a Christian Evening School’], Lusia z Częstochowy, ‘Audycje dla młodzieży’ [‘Broadcasts for Teenagers’], Jewish folk music was sometimes presented on the radio in artistic solo or choral arrangements, such as those for the then extremely popular Mosze Szneur Choir. Cf. M. Fuks, While sitting by the radio set and listening to Polish Radio broadcasts presenting Christmas carols and Nativity scenes, I thought how pleasant it must be for Christian radio fans to listen to [their] religious festival songs. The songs of Hanukkah candles are also sung to the same shared tunes, but everyone only sings them for themselves and their family, while the community of these songs is little known to the general population. If these songs were broadcast on the radio during the candle lighting ceremony, it would be a pleasant experience to us Jews, and possibly an interesting one to the others.
Israel, ‘Chanuka na prowincji. Konin’ [‘Hanukkah in a Provincial Town: Konin’],
As we can see, some children noticed the insufficient representation of Jewish cultural symbols in their phonosphere; this could in many cases aggravate their inferiority complex. The author of the above-quoted account, however, demonstrates a positive attitude to the Jewish repertoire and considers it worthy of attracting the interest of other national groups.
Nevertheless, a large proportion of Jewish youth attending publicly owned schools and thus regularly coming in contact with Polish folklore adapted, at least in part, both the symbolic and the practical dimensions of the Polish national discourse. The press accounts show that many Jewish children knew Polish dances and songs very well and liked them. They spontaneously drew on them at play or during trips and approached them as a natural element of their own soundscapes. Child correspondents writing for We very solemnly celebrated the tenth anniversary of Poland regaining independence at our school. The building was beautifully decorated. We sang various folksongs, recited poems, and our teachers talked about Poland. Then we walked in pairs to the synagogue. Red-and-white bows were distributed in front of the school. The synagogue was full of people.
Zosia, ‘Prowincja: Otwock’ [‘From the Provinces: Otwock’],
Artistically arranged folksongs and dances also accompanied school celebrations marking such events as Marshal Józef Piłsudski's and Polish President Ignacy Mościcki's name days. It was to the latter that a school event was dedicated with dances prepared by the children featuring in the programme: ‘We celebrated Mr President's name day at our day-care room. We recited poems and sang songs. At the end we danced a cracovienne.’
Sala i Henia, ‘Co u nas słychać. Uroczystości imienin Pana Prezydenta’ [‘How We Are Faring: Mr President's Name Day Celebrations’],
Some of the Jewish students exhibited a more in-depth interest in the broadly conceived Polish folklore. One of them, Józef of Nowogródek (now Navahrudak), wrote an article on the Polish folk's death-related beliefs for Józef z Nowogródka, ‘Śmierć w wierzeniach ludu polskiego’ [‘Death in Polish Folk Beliefs’], In yon pasture amid the nettles / stands a rather rickety schoolboy While a lass as sweet as an apple / is carrying a pile of books. ‘Stop, wait, my little one, / you are surely playing truant.’ ‘Poor me, the school's so stringent / so I’ve bunked off school today [...].
Lusia z Częstochowy, ‘“Tam na błoniu” w mojej przeróbce’ [‘My Remake of “In Yon Pasture”’],
Excellent knowledge of Polish songs, even those from faraway regions, was also common among the Zionist youth, who had their own Hebrew-language repertoire, elevated to the status of ‘new Jewish folksongs’ and introduced as an element of cultural ideology in Zionist organisations. These young people most likely became acquainted with Polish folk music at publicly owned Polish schools as well as on the radio:
Noise and clatter can be heard from the room next door. The broad-shouldered carpenter Lumek, owner of a beautiful bass voice, and the dainty shoemaker Róźka, a ‘sopranist’, two great lovers of Polish folklore, sing vigorously to the beat of the plane and the hammer: ‘Hey, for I am a highlander fine…’
J. Recher, ‘Fragmenty’ [‘Fragments’],
It should be stressed, though, that for the Zionist youth societies the Polish repertoire, if performed at all, played a markedly secondary and auxiliary role in relation to Hebrew songs, which were of primary ideological importance. There are no mentions of Polish music to be found in official documents, and only a few – in articles written by young people for the periodicals run by those organisations. These scanty mentions, as well as the surviving handwritten songbooks, demonstrate, however, that Polish folk and popular songs were well known also among the Zionist youth, and served them mostly as entertainment or an element of integration (especially in circles where Hebraization was not sufficiently advanced yet).
Even, however, the best assimilated individuals sometimes found it hard to identify with Polish culture. What usually stood in their way were the hostile attitudes of their Polish peers, reflected for instance in being excluded from participation in school spectacles on the grounds of nationality, as one reader reported in Why is it that I haven’t been able to take part in any spectacles so far? So many of my schoolmates have appeared in different plays, so why not me, even on a single occasion? Those schoolmates of mine did not wish it, so I had to stand aside and just watch. What an irony! And all this because I’m a Jew. At our school, Jews do not appear in spectacles.
Pierrot, ‘Marzenia. O czem ja marzę’ [‘Dreams: What I Dream Of’],
There are more examples of social exclusion due to nationality. Jewish children were sometimes even refused participation in school parties:
At our school jewish [sic!] girls learn with Christian kids. The school once held a party, but jewish [sic!] girls were not invited. You can imagine the envy it aroused in our hearts. We attend the same school, sit at the same desks, and yet we can’t attend a school party.
Hela, ‘Kronika szkolna. W miasteczku’ [‘School Chronicle. In a Small Town’],
Even where Jewish children were invited to such events, they could meet with an ostracism in such contexts. ‘At Sara's school ball there were two snack bars: one for the Jews, one for Christians. Teachers did not buy anything at the Jewish one, nor did they ask jewish [sic!] girls to dance,’ wrote a pupil from Krasnystaw
‘Z kraju. Krasnystaw’ [‘Domestic News. Krasnystaw’],
Naturally, this was not the only possible scenario of relations at publicly owned schools. Many of the accounts written by children for A Nativity play was being prepared at our school. Roles were assigned to Catholic kids who, oblivious of our comradeship, started quoting some insulting lines. At one moment, as soon as we opened the door, they greeted us with this hymn: ‘Hey, Jewish tribe, you wicked tribe, teaming like a hornets’ nest, filled with venom and malice; you should be skinned with no mercy.’ I shivered. I had no idea what this was about. I had to turn my head away to hide my blushed cheeks. My spirit suffered greatly. I knew I should not be angry with anyone because my classmates only showed their ignorance in this case. We conferred about it and decided to complain to the class tutor. He did scold them, but what can it help? Now the situation has calmed down, but the very memory of that sad incident stands in our way and constitutes a gap that prevents us from harmonious coexistence.
Hania, ‘W polskiej szkole. Smutne zajście’ [‘At a Polish School; A Sad Incident’],
This example shows how the figure of the ‘alien’ rooted in traditional folklore and frequently identified with the Jew became the subject of a vulgar ‘joke’, testifying, if not to hostility, then at least to the fact that the Nativity play team perceptibly alienated themselves from their Jewish classmates.
At the same time, the children frequently felt that their own folk culture was neglected and out of favour. Only present in a limited circle, it was frequently rejected not only by the Polish neighbours, but by the Jews themselves. In Madzia, ‘Wieczór pieśni ludowych w gimnazjum’ [‘A Folksong Evening at the Junior High’],
This does not mean that Jewish folklore was invariably neglected. While visiting Warsaw Philharmonic with their class, children sometimes had the opportunity to listen to Jewish folksongs:
Afterwards [Mr Małkowski
Most likely the theatre and film actor Henryk Małkowski (1881–1959), who acted here as an MC. B.a., ‘Występ Musi’ [‘A Performance by Musia’],
At the same concert, the Jewish child dancer Musia Dajches
Musia Dajches (1921–1980), born Miriam Dajches – an actress, dancer, and poet, one of the ‘child prodigies’ of the Polish stage during the interwar period. She also appeared in the 1928 film B.a., ‘Występ Musi’, p. 3.
Children seem to have sensed the Polish society's lack of interest in, or even depreciation of Jewish music. Their culture thus only belonged to the private world of the family and the Jewish community, whereas the universally present Polish folklore was viewed as a tool of integration with the Polish society and a chance to improve their social status, to which some of those children certainly aspired. In this situation, they adopted an attitude of resignation, which led to a crisis described in the 1930s by researcher Max Weinreich.
M. Weinreich, 1935, ‘Studium o młodzieży żydowskiej. Program i metoda Wydziału Badania Młodzieży Żydowskiego Instytutu Naukowego’ [‘A Study of Jewish Youth. The Programme and Methodology of the Youth Studies Department at the Jewish Scientific Institute’],