News

prof. Daniel Grinberg, dr hab. Joanna Lisek

The Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Award Committee, consisting of: Paweł Śpiewak (director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute), Jonathan Brent (Executive Director of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research), Joachim S. Russek, Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota and Marcin Wodziński, has awarded the prize:

for 2019 to prof. dr. hab. Daniel Grinberg and for 2020 to dr hab. Joanna Lisek.

Prof. Daniel Grinberg is a historian, former director of the Jewish Historical Institute (1990–1995), since 1991 a professor at the Faculty of History at the University of Białystok. Among his interests are modern anarchist movement and general history of the 19th century, history of ideas, historical sociology, history of social movements and emancipation of European Jews. He translated into Polish works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (with Mariola Szawiel).

Dr hab. Joanna Lisek is a literary scholar, translator, faculty member of the Tadeusz Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław. Among her interests is Jewish poetry and participation of women in Yiddish culture. She belongs to the Board of the Polish Society for Yiddish Studies. Editor and co-editor of works such as Silent Souls? Women in Yiddish Culture and anthology of translations from Yiddish women’s poetry, Moja dzika koza (My Wild Goat).

This year, taking into account the recommendations of the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate regarding the coronavirus epidemic, the presentation of both Awards will be held online on December 17 at 18:00 CET.

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The Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award is a distinction endowed by the war courier of the Polish Government-in-Exile Jan Karski to honor his wife, Pola Nireńska, a dancer, who was the only survivor of a Jewish family during the war.

The award is administered by the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research in New York and is awarded solemnly at the Jewish Historical Institute to authors of published works documenting Polish-Jewish relations and Jewish contributions to Polish culture.

Since the establishment of The Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award, it has been awarded to: Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, Jerzy Ficowski, Michał Friedman, Marek Rostworowski, Henryk Grynberg, Ruta Sakowska, Jerzy Tomaszewski, Hanna Krall, Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Stanisław Musiał, Leszek Hońdo, Michał Jagiełło, Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Jan Jagielski, Joachim S. Russek, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Szymon Rudnicki, Aleksander B. Skotnicki, Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Marcin Wodziński, Alina Skibińska i Barbara Engelking, Piotr Matywiecki, Jerzy Malinowski, Ewa Geller, Eleonora Bergman, Tadeusz Epsztein, Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota.