Prof. Marcin Wodziński_fot. Magdalena Wiśniewska-Krasińska_Archiwum FNP

Professor Marcin Wodziński from the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław has received the 2024 FNP Prize in the field of humanities and social sciences for an innovative study of Hasidism that explains the role of culture, politics, and geography in shaping religious identities and interethnic relations.

Marcin Wodziński was born in 1966 in Świdnica. In 1991, he graduated in Polish studies from the Institute of Polish Philology at the University of Wrocław, and in 1995 he defended his doctoral thesis as part of the Doctoral School of Silesian Studies at the Faculty of History of the University of Wrocław. From 1996 to 1998, Wodziński lectured at Beijing Foreign Studies University and headed the Polish School in Beijing. In 2003, he defended his habilitation thesis at the Institute of History of the University of Wrocław and became head of the Jewish Studies Program at the University (in 2016 transformed into the Taube Department of Jewish Studies). He received full professorship in 2010.

Between 2000 and 2014, Wodziński was the historical consultant for the core exhibition of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, while between 2010 and 2012 he was the chief historian of the Museum and later a member of its Historical Council. He was a member of the General Council of the Polish Association for Jewish Studies from 2002 to 2018 and its vice president from 2011 to 2018. He is also a member of the academic council of the doctoral program in Jewish Studies at Charles University in Prague, the Committee for the History and Culture of the Jews of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow, and the steering committee of the Digital Humanities Forum at the European Association for Jewish Studies. He became a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2021 and a member of Academia Europaea in 2022.

Wodziński’s main research interests concern the social history of Jews in the nineteenth century, the history of Jews in Silesia, and Jewish material culture. His research uses both qualitative and geospatial quantitative methods to analyze geographical factors in the development of Hasidism in Poland and Eastern Europe. He is the author of numerous publications, including the books Hebrajskie inskrypcje na Śląsku XIII–XVIII w. (Hebrew Inscriptions in Silesia from Thirteenth to Eighteenth Century; 1996), Bibliography on the History of Silesian Jewry II (2004), Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland: A History of Conflict (2005), Władze Królestwa Polskiego wobec chasydyzmu (Congress Poland Authorities’ Approach to Hasidism; 2008), Hasidism and Politics (2013), and the fundamental trilogy on Hasidism, published in 2018, which consists of Historical Atlas of Hasidism, Hasidism: Key Questions, and Studying Hasidism: Sources, Methods, Perspectives. Historical Atlas of Hasidism earned him the prestigious National Jewish Book Award.

From 2009 to 2018, Wodziński served as editor-in-chief of the semiannual periodical of the Polish Association for Jewish Studies Studia Judaica, and since 2021 he has acted as editor-in-chief of the semiannual journal European Journal of Jewish Studies, published by the European Association for Jewish Studies.

His scholarly work won him numerous awards and distinctions, namely the Professor Łukasz Hirszowicz Award (2008), the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award (2011), the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture (2015), the National Jewish Book Award (2019) for his Historical Atlas of Hasidism, along with a special prize awarded by the weekly Polityka for historical book of the year (2020). In 2023, Professor Wodziński received the Irena Sendler Memorial Award.


Professor Marcin Wodziński has received the 2024 FNP Prize in the field of humanities and social sciences for an innovative study of Hasidism that explains the role of culture, politics, and geography in shaping religious identities and interethnic relations.

Wodziński is an eminent scholar of Hasidism – a charismatic Jewish religious movement that emerged in the eighteenth century in the eastern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, initially arousing strong opposition within traditional Judaism. This mystical movement emphasizes divine presence in the world, affirmation of life, and emotional piety. In the nineteenth century, Hasidism gained numerous followers throughout Eastern Europe, becoming one of the most popular branches of Judaism.

Historians focusing on Hasidism have traditionally treated it as an exclusively religious movement. Wodziński counters this stereotypical approach by depicting Hasidism as a religious and social movement in which ethnic, political, and cultural issues are also of primary importance. Other areas of his focus include the unapparent links between geography and spirituality or territorial expansion and politics.

In earlier studies of Hasidism, as with many other religious movements, researchers turned the spotlight on leaders and official ideologies, underestimating the diverse perceptions and experiences of rank-and-file followers of the movement. Wodziński introduced significant changes to studies of Hasidism by focusing on previously overlooked areas, such as gender issues, everyday life, and the movement’s economic, political, and cultural activities. Initially surprising, this approach quickly gained acceptance and contributed to a paradigm shift in the field.

By transforming the study of Hasidism, Wodziński has reshaped the study of Jewish history in Eastern Europe and of the interactions between Jewish and non-Jewish communities. This avant-garde approach established a new model for studying socioreligious movements and interethnic relations, a model that emphasizes the need to consider a broad range of factors that often go beyond the analyzed matter.

Notably Wodziński’s work is a groundbreaking contribution to the better understanding –  both in Poland and abroad – of the elaborate, complex, and sometimes tragic history of the Jews and of the equally intricate relations between Poles and Jews.

 

Fot. Magdalena Wiśniewska-Krasińska

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