2018 Jan Karski & Pola Nirenska Award

The Jury of the Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Award is pleased to announce that Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota was named the recipient of the Karski Award for the year 2018. This annual award was endowed by Prof. Jan Karski in 1992 for an author of published works documenting Polish-Jewish relations and Jewish contributions to Polish culture.

The winner was chosen by the Award Jury whose members are Prof. Pawel Spiewak (Director, Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw), Dr. Jonathan Brent (Executive Director, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research), Dr. Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Prof. Szymon Rudnicki, and Dr. Joachim S. Russek.

Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota received a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from Warsaw University and completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of Applied Linguistics. She worked at a publishing house, as well as at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Since 1997, Szwarcman-Czarnota has worked as a columnist and Associate Editor of the Jewish magazine Midrasz. She has translated approximately forty books (French, Russian, Yiddish) and published five books of her own: Mocą przepasały swe biodra: portrety kobiet żydowskich (They Girded Their Loins with Strength: Portraits of Jewish Women, 2006), Znalazłam wczorajszy dzień: moja osobista tradycja żydowska (Found my Yesterday: My Personal Jewish Tradition, 2009), Cenniejsze niż perły: portrety kobiet żydowskich (More Precious than Pearls: Portraits of Jewish Women, 2010), and Księga kobiet - kobiety księgi: komentarze do Tory (The Book of Women – The Women of the Book. Torah Commentaries, 2014). The fifth book W poszukiwaniu złotego jabłka (In Search of the Golden Apple, 2016), was written and edited in conjunction with her daughter Róża Ziątek-Czarnota, as well as her sister Dorota Szwarcman; W poszukiwaniu złotego jabłka includes a CD with Yiddish family songs. Her most recent project is an anthology of translations from Yiddish women’s poetry, Moja dzika koza (My Wild Goat, forthcoming 2018), which is being co-edited by Joanna Lisek and Karolina Szymaniak.

Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota’s books uniquely combine a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the Jewish tradition, while also maintaining a deep and personal relationship to Yiddish language and culture. She has published a number of articles on various aspects of Yiddish literature, and was crucial in familiarizing Polish audiences with various Yiddish authors (including Y. L. Peretz and Menachem Kipnis). In 2011-2012 Szwarcman-Czarnota held the Rachel and Abraham Melezin Fellowship at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and in 2016, she was awarded the Rev. Stanislaw Musial Award in appreciation for her contribution to the Christian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish dialogue.