The American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies (AAPJS) is a sister organization of the Institute for Polish -Jewish Studies in Oxford, England. Their origins go back to the International Conference on Polish-Jewish Studies held in Oxford in 1984. They were established to:

• Preserve the history of Polish Jewry on an international basis;
• Disseminate the results of this research by means of publications, lectures, conferences, seminars and documentary films
• Focus attention of the American and world public on what is most significant and precious in this legacy of Polish Jewry

For centuries, the Jews of Poland formed one of the largest and most creative communities in the world. By the middle of the eighteenth century, before Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, over a third of world Jewry lived within its borders. From this community descend not only Polish but also Russian, Belorussian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian Jews. Part of the community emigrated en masse to the “new continent” forming the core of American Jewry. The majority, however, continued their lives in the “old country” giving rise to such diverse intellectual movements as hasidic and mitnagdic (anti-hasidic) Judaism, Jewish secularism, socialism and Zionism.

Because the 3.5 million strong Jewish community of Poland was almost entirely annihilated by German Nazis between 1939 and 1945, all of us have an obligation to study and preserve its history and achievements. In the words of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, “Forgetting leads to exile, remembering is the path to salvation”.

We invite you to explore our site and resources we post here. We also invite you to join our association as a member, or to subscribe to our publication Gazeta or attend our informal gatherings in Cambridge, Mass.