Jewish Culture and Urban Form: A Case Study of Central Poland before the Holocaust

Description

Across a range of disciplines, urban morphology has offered lenses through which we can read the city. Reading the urban form, when conflated with ethnographic studies, enables us to return to past situations and recreate the long-gone everyday life. Urbanscapes – the artefacts of urban life – have left us the story portrayed in the pages of this book. The notions of time and space contribute to depicting the Jewish-Polish culture in central Poland before the Holocaust. The research proves that Jewish society in pre-Holocaust Poland was an example of self-organising complexity. Through bottom-up activities, it had a significant impact on the unique character of the spaces left behind. Several features confirm this influence. Not only do the edifices, both public and private, convey meanings related to the Jewish culture, but public and semi-private space also tell the story of long-gone social situations. The specific atmosphere that still lingers there recalls the long-gone Jewish culture, with the unique settlement patterns indicating a separate spatial order. The Author reveals to the international cast of practitioners and theorists of urban and Jewish studies a vivid and comprehensive account. This book will appeal to researchers and students alike studying Jewish communities in Poland and Jewish-Polish society and urbanisation, as well as all those interested in Jewish-Polish Culture. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Culture-specific urban structures analyses 2. Methodology 2.1. Epistemological perspective – complexity 2.2. Space, place and body 2.3. Situation and habitus 2.4. Culture as an everyday experience, culture and the built environment 2.5. Meaning 2.5.1. Pragmatics 2.6. Spatial order 2.7. Perception – aesthetics 2.8. Cues 2.8.1. Artefacts 2.8.2. Urban morphology and outdoor space 2.8.3. Role of enclosure 2.9. Rhythms 2.9.1. Theory of seeing – the index keys concept 2.10. Geometrical description – urban design perspective 2.10.1. Central angle 2.10.2. Corrugation 2.10.3. Regularity 2.10.4. Variations 2.10.5. Concluding remarks – rhythms as a key feature 3. Depicting the complexity of Jewish settlements in central Poland 3.1. Presentation of the sources 3.2. Thesis and ontological framework 3.2.1. Thesis – shift of focus 3.2.2. The ontological framework 3.3. Everyday Jewish culture in pre-war central Poland and its transformations – research background 3.3.1. Demographic issues 3.3.2. Professional structure and social status 3.3.3. Community organisation and religious life in traditional Judaism 3.3.4. Jewish Enlightenment and acculturation processes 3.3.5. Secularisation, politicisation, migrations 3.4. Diachronic facets of complexity – bottom-up practices versus formal planning of Jewish settlements 3.4.1. From the eleventh century – to the end of the fifteenth century 3.4.2. Sixteenth century – until the Partitions of Poland 3.4.3. The interwar period 3.5. Neighbourhoods inhabited by Jews in pre-war central Poland – three typological levels 3.5.1. Method of analysis 3.5.2. The regional level 3.5.3. The town level 3.5.4. The neighbourhood level 4. Case studies 4.1. Łódź (Lodz) 4.1.1. History of Łódź Jewry 4.1.2. Physical structures 4.1.3. Community institutions – religion and education 4.1.4. Healthcare and charity institutions 4.1.5. Jewish business and housing typology and distribution 4.1.6. Characteristics of the urban structure 4.1.7. Qualitative analysis – the case study 4.2. Brzeziny 4.2.1. Jewish settlement in Brzeziny 4.2.2. Chronological stratification and characteristics of built structures 4.2.3. Religious edifices. Other activities 4.2.4. Analysis of the sociometric layout, proxemics 4.2.5. A case study – index key analysis 4.3. Góra Kalwaria (Ger) 4.3.1. Góra Kalwaria – a Baroque town 4.3.2. Jewish presence in Góra Kalwaria 4.3.3. Sociometric network and spatial layout 4.4. Otwock 4.4.1. The beginnings of a town 4.4.2. Jewish life in Otwock 4.4.3. Physical development 5. Conclusions 5.1. Complexity 5.2. Neighbourhoods – main features 5.2.1. Types of culture: high context versus low context cultures 5.2.2. Character of urban settings 5.3. Spatial order and meaning 5.3.1. Sociometric layout 5.3.2. Meaning – pragmatics 5.4. Proxemics 5.5. Enclosure, geometrical analyses 5.5.1. Aesthetics 5.5.2. Analyses – summary 5.6. Transformations 5.7. Final remarks Bibliography Index