A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation - Jewish Renewal in Poland

THE POLISH TRANSLATION

Beit Polska is proud of the publication of Louise Steinman’s path-breaking book, The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation. The Polish publisher KARTA released this important memoir in 2021. The translator is Dorota Golebiewska. The narrative of the book forces us to recognize the many levels of complexity in the relationships of Polish Jews and Polish Christians.

Praise for the Polish Translation of The Crooked Mirror

"“You need a trip to Poland like a hole in your head” - this is how the author's grandmother summed up Louise Steinman's willingness to discover her family history, to follow in its footsteps - also in the material ones, which was associated with a visit to the country of her ancestors."

Read the 12-28-21 review here:
FORUM OF POLISH JEWS
FŻP is a laureate of the European Citizens' Prize awarded by the EU Parliament

“For my family - as for so many other American Jews of Polish descent - Poland was a black hole, a gnawing void”, writes Louise Steinman, a California-based writer and cultural animator. Let us add that the only thing they associated this “black hole” with was the death of many of their ancestors, and the fear of its inhabitants.

READ MORE FROM WYBORCZA’S 06-26-21 BOOK REVIEW HERE

"LOUISE STEINMAN: It’s a small miracle that The Crooked Mirror will finally be published this spring in Polish (in a translation by Dorota Gołębiewska). Perhaps the mystery rabbi of Radomsko weighed in. It feels counterintuitive to release the book into the tense, divided social-cultural-political climate of present-day Poland."

Read the 02-09-21 article here: Los Angeles Review of Books

A Way Forward:
Louise Steinman's "The Crooked Mirror" A Review by Piotr Florczyk

November 2, 2013

To call the Polish-Jewish relationship complicated would be an understatement, and to label it uneasy or acrimonious seems both inadequate and unfair. But we must use words — aside from “long” — to describe the common history of the two peoples, which goes back to at least the 12th century. There was a time when Polish royals welcomed and encouraged Jews to settle in their land, which is one reason why Poland had been home to the largest and most vital Jewish community in all of Europe as recently as 100 years ago. What remains of that rich culture is of course paltry; the Nazis destroyed an 800-year-old community in six years. World War II spelled the end for 90 percent of Poland’s prewar Jewish community, among them some of humanity’s best and[…] FULL REVIEW HERE: Los Angeles Review of Books