Interdisciplinary Centre for Polish Studies at Haifa University - summary of the first year of activity.
HIUPS (Interdisciplinary Unit for Polish Studies at University of Haifa) is the first such large-scale Polish studies initiative co-financed by NAWA. The Centre for Polish Studies was established thanks to an agreement signed by Haifa University and the National Academic Exchange Agency on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science with the support of the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv.
With the funding received, HIUPS organises conferences, workshops and seminars. In May 2022, the conference Lost or Found? Polish-Jewish Culture in Translation, showing the role of translation in transmitting and shaping identity in intercultural areas and in defining, expressing and understanding the processes occurring when two cultures, Polish and Jewish, meet. There was also an international online conference on new directions in researching the life of Stanisław Vincenz and his literary and intellectual legacy, entitled: Stanisław Vincenz's - Homo Agens.
As part of the Dybuk research project, the Centre co-organised the intercultural workshop Yiddish, Jewish-Polish, and Polish Theatre: Transnational Perspectives, during which scholars from Israel and Poland discussed the intermingling of Polish and Yiddish cultures and languages in time and stage space.
HIUPS, also hosted many esteemed scholars, including: Slawomir J. Zurek, head of the Polish-Jewish Literature Research Centre and director of the International Research Centre for the History and Cultural Heritage of Central and Eastern European Jews at the Catholic University of Lublin; Dr. Jan Rybak of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (University of London) or Prof. Adam Teller (Brown University). Another interesting event was the international virtual premiere of Yechiel Weizmann's book Unsettled Heritage: Living next to Poland's Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2022).
In the rich programme offer of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Polish Studies, there was no shortage of cultural events, both in the historical context and those resulting directly from the current geopolitical situation in Central and Eastern Europe. In the spring, there was a public seminar entitled Solidarity Among Nations, during which the inaugural lecture on Polish efforts to help Ukraine was given by Ms Katarzyna Rybka-Iwańska, then Head of the Communication and Public Diplomacy Department of the Polish Embassy in Israel. Last December, however, an exhibition entitled Jewish Soldiers in the Anders Army was organised in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, with the support of the Educational Projects Association, the opening of which was honoured by a lecture by Prof. Em. Sara Bender Jews and Poles in the Anders Army. The event coincided with the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of this extraordinary military unit, composed of citizens of the Second Polish Republic, former soldiers of the Polish Army, prisoners of gulags and civilians, among whom were also many Jews.
The centre is also a vibrant teaching centre, promoting knowledge of Poland: its history, culture, economy, politics and society, both historically and in contemporary terms in the context of links with Jewish history and culture. An interdisciplinary curriculum has been developed for graduates in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies, and Polish language courses at levels from A1 to B1 are also provided on-site and online. These activities are a continuation of the programme that, prior to November 2021, was implemented at the University of Haifa's humanities faculty, which organised Polish language and Polish history classes through cooperation with the Polish Institute and the Department of Jewish History, as well as developing academic cooperation with Polish institutions.
Looking back on this intensive year of collaboration between the National Academic Exchange Agency and HIUPS, we can not only rejoice in the programme implemented so far, but also look forward to further interdisciplinary projects that are part of this extremely broad scope of scientific, teaching and popularisation work.
For more information we invite to read the detailed HIUPS report.