One of the fascinating questions that irked me while I was working on my dissertation was how dictators justified their rule. In the case of Poland, but not just Poland, the authoritarians who took power after the 1926 coup d'etat were obsessed with legality, or at least the appearance of legality. You might say then that they were also obsessed with appearing legitimate. Despite the obviously criminal act of overthrowing the government, everything they did was according to t

The Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) – despite its clumsy name – is the most important professional organization in my field. I've been going to their conferences since 2021 and reading their journal, Slavic Review – since forever. Recently they asked me to give an interview about my life so far and about my work at POLIN Museum in Warsaw. I was a little uncertain about how much of my past I should share with them (and thus with anyone who r

My journey with the Polish language began more than 17 years ago, but just recently I actually published something in Polish. "Unknown Jewish Poland" appeared as a history supplement of Newsweek magazine, just in time for the long weekend in Poland. The topic of the issue is all about pre-war Poland's Jewish community and features a ton of interesting pieces from my colleagues covering the issues of migration, crime, prostitution, Hasidism and many other fun things. The piec