Feeling Communists: Communism, emotions, and gender in interwar Polish Jewry

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Abstract

Bina Garncarska-Kadary and Esther Rosenthal-Schneiderman, two young female Jewish-communist activists during interwar Poland, published their autobiographies in Israel. Their life stories had much in common, but also some differences. This article focuses on the emotions that these two women expressed in their autobiographies, with an emphasis on those related to their political activities. In this way, I aim to shed new light on these women’s motivations for joining and engaging in activity within the Communist movement. A better understanding of the emotions they expressed provides us insight into the dynamics of political affiliation and the driving factors in extreme conditions. I argue that political parties, encouraged and used emotions as a working tool to recruit and to motivate activists.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)38-56
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Modern Jewish Studies
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • Communist Party
  • Emotions
  • Jewish life
  • Poland
  • gender
  • interwar years

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • History
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Political Science and International Relations

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