Correspondence with Yad Vashem (October 2009)
Alla Dvorkin from the Yad Vashem Institute
Hi Rafal,
I saw your pictures and showed them to my friend who is
Jewish-Polish. Here is her reaction in Polish, which express her
feeling while watching this slogan written in Polish on the wall.
Po
rozmowie z Alla, rozumiem co doprowadzilo Pana, zeby sfotografowac
sciane z tym napisem. Niestety, ale ten napis wywoluje we mnie przykre
asocjacje (dalekie od wspolczucia, ktore ma Pan na mysli) poniewaz Zyd
jako slowo bylo zawsze uzywane w negatywnym sensie i tak to pozostalo
do dzisiaj w moich uczuciach. Czytajac ten slogan po angielsku odbiera
sie zupelnie cos innego, wlasnie to co Pan ma na mysli. Ciekawa jestem
czy tak mysla tez inni Zydzi z Polski. Trzeba zrobic duzy wysilek
umyslowy, zeby zrozumiec to na odwrot, ale to juz nie jest reakcja
spontaniczna.
I also would like to know what was the reaction
of other Polish jews to that picture. I was thinking, if you would
write the same sentence in Russian, it would be sound to me exactly
like for my polish friend , very cynical, because the word zyd or evrej
in Russian, written on the wall has a very negative meaning. Any way
it's interesting from psychological point of view, why we, those who
came from these countries perceive it differently , not like american
jews seeing the same. It's just my hypothesis. I have an idea to make
kind of sociological survey asking jews from different countries what
do they think about this sentence.
Best,
Alla
Rafał's responce
Thank you for your reply and for the comment from your friend. I
forwarded it to my Jewish curator for the project and let her reply to
it, ok? She works for the Jewish Commuinty in Warsaw and was working
for the Jewish Museum so her input may be valuable for you. Me, as an
artist, I really appreciate all comments and opinions, but I guess my
thing is to act and my curator will speak for me.
Rafal
Judyta's responce
Dear Alla,
I would agree with your Polish friend, that emotions hidden behind the sign are not to be automatically discovered.
From the artistic perspective I would say that's positive value of the
piece.
The whole strength of the project is situated in it’s ambiguity – the longing was so strong it made the writer scream…
The
author is not escaping from the sour and dangerous past…. On the
contrary, he sees it, uses it and turns those old, painful, dirty set of
words into something gentle and affective.
I am happy to share
with you my attitude from a standpoint of a Jewish woman from Poland.
The
meaning of the words are how we conceive them. There not good nor bad –
it’s us, who give them sense. But at the same time we may change their
meaning. I strongly believe that language is on of the strongest
carriers of the Polish anti-Semitism.
What I find interesting
in Rafal’s project, as a Polish Jew, is what brought him to write this?
What is the story of our generations? What lies have we been nourished with,
while being brought up? What fantasies do we have about the world? Why
more and more young Poles are – often against their grandparents will –
active with Jewish culture and education. Why do they organize a Jewish
culture festival in a town with 8.000 citizens? Where is this coming
from and where is it going to?
Can you miss someone you didn’t know?
Another thing, which gives me a lot of to think about, are reactions of my Jewish and
non-Jewish friends in Poland to the signs and the photos. The're
different, they’re strong, emotional – this concept makes them discuss
and peer at the 'Zyd' word again.
By the way, I have never in my
life perceived the “Zyd” word in a pejorative sense. Even when kids
called me bad names with usage of ‘Zyd’ or when I was expelled from my
kinder garden because of my culture. Or when my neighbor used to tell
his friend, while standing next to me “We have to bit her up, because
‘jest Zydowka’”. It still has only positive associations to me. Maybe
it’s because I haven’t experience massive aggression and fear?
Nevertheless,
in my opinion admitting that a “Zyd” means “other, wrong” is like
agreeing to anti-Semitic discourse. Being ashamed, afraid to call
ourselves Jews is something we should not indulge to. “Never again”. It
is Polish and Russian anti-Semitism, that thought us that
‘Zyd' and 'Jewriej’ are insults.
My best regards,
Judyta
Komentarz:1 , pon luty 08, 2010, 22:45:19