A Jewish King of Poland for One Night: On the Polish-Jewish Royal Dynasty that Never Was

Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture The Workers Circle/Dr. Emanuel Patt Visiting Professorship in Eastern European Jewish Studies Admission: Free Listen to the audio

In 2014, in an official visit to Poland, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin shared a curious personal anecdote: that he was the heir of the Polish throne. According to a family tradition, one of his ancestors, Saul Wahl, was elected King of Poland for one night.

Rivlin’s speech is just one example of an oft repeated legend, which has persisted since the 18th century among the descendants of Saul Wahl (d. 1617). To date, most scholarship has focused on locating a “grain of truth” in the legend, but, as historians have established, Wahl was never appointed king, but as a wealthy merchant, he did enjoy official court status and personal privileges granted by Polish kings.

This presentation goes in a different direction, the aim of which is to take the legend seriously, and to examine how it informed the perspectives of those who considered themselves part of this Polish-Jewish royal dynasty. What, for example, can we glean from the legend’s political insights? How did Jews make sense of their place in the Polish political landscape? How did they imagine the possibilities and complexities of a Jew becoming the king of Poland? Second, on the basis of archival evidence, Dynes will reconstruct what the legend meant for Saul Wahl’s descendants, the prominent Katzenellenbogen rabbinic family, who considered themselves claimants for the Polish throne. Finally, Dynes will explore what it means – for both Poland and Israel – that the current Israeli President considers himself as a legitimate heir of a Polish royal dynasty.

About the Speaker

Ofer Dynes is an Assistant Professor in the Program of Yiddish Studies as well as in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. Prior to his appointment at the Hebrew University, he was the Ethel Flegg Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Jewish Studies at McGill University. In September 2016, he earned a PhD with distinction from Harvard University and he is currently completing a book manuscript, entitled The Fiction of the State: The Polish Partitions and the Beginning of Modern Jewish Literature (1772–1848). Ofer Dynes is the 2018-19 recipient of the Workmen’s Circle/Dr. Emanuel Patt Visiting Professorship in Eastern European Jewish Studies at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.