Jerzy Tomaszewski

Abstract

JERZY TOMASZEWSKI, who died on 4 November 2014 at the age of 84, was one of the principal figures in the revival of the study of the history of the Jews in Poland. He was born in Radomsko, a town between Łódź and Częstochowa which, before the war, was the home of a large Jewish community and the court of the Radomsker rebbe. Tomaszewski often remarked that it was the constant presence during his childhood years of hasidim in traditional Jewish dress which made him aware of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional character of Poland. He was for many years professor and director of the Mordechai Anielewicz Centre for the Study and Teaching of the History and Culture of the Jews in Poland at Warsaw University. After his retirement in 2002 he took the post of professor at the Academy of National Economy in Kutno....