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

The latest issue of The Polish Review features two book reviews by yours truly. I wrote reviews of Malte Rolf's Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1915 and of Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabkowski's edited volume Night without End . Both of these are English translations of books that appeared in German and Polish respectively. Night without End caused a lot of controversy in Poland over its highlighting the role of Poles in the Holocaust in rural areas. Tho