Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 35Antony PolonskyLabel: Liverpool University PressDescription: An in-depth and multifaceted investigation of how Polish Jews Polish Zionism and Polish culture influenced Israel’s cultural and political development as well as of how the Zionist project influenced Jewish life in Poland. From its inception as a political movement Zionism had as its main goal the creation of a ‘New Jew’ who could contribute to building a Jewish state preferably in the historic homeland of the Jewish people where Jews would free themselves from the negative characteristics which in the view of the ideologues of Zionism had developed in the diaspora. Yet inevitably those who settled in Palestine brought with them considerable cultural baggage. A substantial proportion of them came from the Polish lands and their presence significantly affected the political and cultural life of the Yishuv and later the State of Israel. In this volume scholars from Israel Poland and elsewhere in Europe and North America explore different aspects of this influence as well as the continuing relationship between Israel and Poland up to the present day.