Karolina Przewrocka-Aderet, "Polanim: From Poland to Israel" (Academic Studies Press, 2026)

About this episode

Rabbi Marc Katz interviews Katarzyna Przewrocka-Aderet about her book Polanim, exploring the experiences of Jews migrating from Poland to Israel and the impact of memory across generations.

What does it mean to leave one's homeland behind—and how do memories of that place shape the next generation? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with journalist and author Katarzyna Przewrocka-Aderet to discuss her book Polanim: From Poland to Israel, a sweeping portrait of Jews whose lives stretched between Poland and Israel. Blending literary journalism with oral history, Polanim draws on extensive interviews with Israelis of Polish origin and their children. Each chapter centers on a different experience—memories of prewar antisemitism, the devastation of postwar Poland, or the political expulsions of 1968—and the difficult journeys that carried families from Poland to Palestine and later Israel. Through these individual stories, Przewrocka-Aderet captures nearly a century of Jewish life, from the 1920s through the 1990s. The people she profiles left at different moments and under different circumstances: some fleeing hostility, some escaping unbearable loss, others forced out by political pressure. They arrived with different languages, classes, politics, and hopes—but their lives reveal how identity is shaped not only by history, but by the unpredictable paths of…

People in this episode

Host: Rabbi Marc Katz

Guest: Katarzyna Przewrocka-Aderet

Topics covered

• migration
• Jewish identity
• oral history
• Polish Jews
• memory
• cultural history

Keywords

• migration
• Jewish history
• Poland
• Israel
• oral history
• identity
• antisemitism
• cultural memory

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Polanim: From Poland to Israel

Places: Poland, Israel

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