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Moshe Shner (Ph.D.)
Oranim College of Education, Israel
October 2012
Janusz Korczak: Between the Worlds
not a Pole, not a Jew but a universal humanist
First Given at the Korczak Conference, Jerusalem: October 1994
Polish or Jewish? I would argue that the core of Korczak's identity lies in his alienation from both his Polish and his Jewish background and in his inability to be at home in any national milieu. The cause of children, all children, became his nationality, a universal nationality. This was also the prism through which he saw the Land of Israel, the meeting place of all human prayers. Korczak resembles a Greece tragic hero rather than a Biblical figure. His inspiring dream remained unfulfilled; what is known to all is his last journey to Treblinka.
Korczak: A Man-Jew-Pole
The question of Korczak's nationality occupies the thoughts of many, scholars and those who see themselves as disciples of his legacy, with all of them claiming him as their own (Sadan,1964; Gutterman, 1987 & 1991; Tal, 1990; Cohen, 1989; Yizhak Perlis, 1978 & 1984;). [1] The aim of this presentation is not present a new historical data as we cannot divulge a secret document proving that Friday night candles were lit in his parents' home or other facts of this sort – there doesn't appear to be such a document. We wish to reread and reinterpret the data collected thus far by Korczak's historians, constructing a new picture of Korczak's identity and give a new meaning to the dilemmas he was facing in his whole educational career until his final way to Treblinka.
Much has already been written about the dual national affiliation of Korczak and having his roots in Polish culture along with his Jewish identity. The classic article by Dov Sadan, "The Glazier's Grandson," (Avnei Gvul, 1964, pp. 203-221) Yitzhak Perlis's extensive introductions to the Hebrew edition of Korczak's writings (Ghetto Fighters House, 1974, 1976, 1978), Miriam Sharshavsky's Two Homelands (1990) and other researches and assays try to explore the problem and suggest its solution. Alexander Gutterman in his article "The Jewish roots of Janusz Korczak" makes obvious and often false efforts to "save" Korczak's Jewishness. Even his going to his death is - according to Gutterman – the fruition of a basic idea in Jewish tradition of looking after and caring for fellow man, an idea being alive in Korczak's heart even without his being aware of it. Further proof given to Korczak's Jewishness that always existed – as it would be claimed – is his joining, by himself, the long tradition of Jewish martyrs. It is very compelling to understand the last chapter of Korczak's life in traditional Jewish categories. It is however too artificial as Korczak himself in his diary and other writing hardly explained his educational mission in Jewish terms and usually used ideas taken from other sources.
Miriam Sharshavsky in her Master thesis, a thorough and elaborated work (Two Homelands, 1990), adopted a much more sophisticated , and therefore probably a much more accurate reading of Korczak, emphasizes Korczak double identity and the complication of the human situation that his character represents, being torn between his connection to Polishness and his undeniable link to the Jewish people.
In these matters, I would like to give a different interpretation for known historical materials, letters, Korczak's diary and other documentations and to argue that the core of Korczak's identity lies, not in his belonging to a certain social circle, but in his not belonging to any nationality and in his tragic failure and lack of ability to feel at home in any national milieu. This failure and this sense of homelessness is the thread that runs through the different stages of Korczak / Henrik Goldschmidt's life. It will be argued that this very characteristic of Korczak's life defines his Jewish identity.
If Sharshavsky argues that Korczak belongs to two worlds, the world of the Polish society and the world of the Jewish people, we would claim that Korczak belong to none. We would argue that this sense of belonging to both the Polish circle and the Jewish circle proved again and again to be false and misleading and finally lead Korczak to a dead end in both of his cultural life and professional educational life. Korczak is a tragic hero not only in his death but also in the impossible situation of homelessness and lack of any identity that characterized his whole life. In that sense we see in front ourselves a Greece tragic hero rather than a Biblical figure.
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[1] Dov Sadan "The Galzier's Grandson", Avnei Gvul, (Tel Aviv: Masada, 1964); Alexander Gutterman, "On the problem of Janusz Korczak's national Identity," Yalkut Moreshet, (1991), pp. 61-71; A. Gutterman, "The Jewish Roots of Janusz Korczak," Studies in the Heritage of Janusz Korczak, no 1, 1987, pp. 41-84; Yerach Tal, "Two Hold Possesion on Korczak," (A critique of Sharshavsky's book), Haaretz, May 15, 1990, p. B4; Adir Cohen, "To Be a Jew – Korczak's Relations to Judaisn," Ha-chinuch Ha-meshutaf, no. 131, 1989, pp. 45-61; Yizhak Perlis, "Janusz Korczak – A Jewish Fate by Choice," Me'bifnim 40, 1978, pp. 368-374. Y. Perlis, "Addressing the Question of Janusz Korczak's Nationality," Me'bifnim 46, 1984, pp. 585-590; Miriam Sharshavsky, Two Homelands, (Tel Aviv University, 1990)