Polsko-żydowskie gry kabaretowe, czyli Juliana Tuwima próba akulturacji (przeł. Magdalena i Michał Lachman)

The sketch is a fragment of an initial study on ‘Jewish elements’ in Polish popular culture in the interwar period. I start off with an experience describable as entrapment of a Polish-Jewish outsider in ambivalence as he does not completely belong to any of the ethnic-cultural communities. The discussion’s focal point is ‘Jewishness’ in cabaret texts of those artistic writers who considered themselves to be Jews as well as of those perceived as Jews (regardless of their status in light of the Jewish law), Julian Tuwim coming to the fore among them. My focus is to analyse what use this Polish-Jewish author makes of such ‘Jewishness staged’ in order to express his need to belong, or the sense of his own ‘I’.