Jewish Interwar Periodical in Poland, Polish language, 1918-1939 | Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust

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Chwila (Moment), Jewish daily edition in Lviv from 1919-1939. Published in Polish.

Chwila, an acclaimed professional publication of moderate Zionist orientation, reported international and domestic affairs with a special emphasis on Jewish political and socio-economic life in Galicia and Poland. It also reflected on Jewish-Polish and Jewish-Ukrainian relations. It was read all over Poland by Jews and non-Jews. A cohort of the talented Jewish writers, journalists, and public figures debuted on its pages.

In comparison with the above listed editions, Chwila is most fully represented in our Archive.

Archive has daily publications from 1919-1928, 1930, 1935, and 1939.

Prominent Jewish-Polish political, public and societal figures were associated with Chwila. The circle comprising the editorial board and permanent contributors include Jewish politicians, literati, public figures and professionals. Chwila gained the reputation of highly professional and well balanced publication oriented to the Jewish National Cause.

Jewish national intelligentsia, largely professionals and men and women of liberal professions made Chwila a high-class Jewish-Polish periodical read not only by Jewish circles but also by Polish and Ukrainian readership.

Devoted protagonist of National Jewish Cause and talented literati constituted the core of the authorship. They were Leon Reich, Henryk Hescheles, Henryk Adler, Leon Weinstock, Fiszel Rotenstreich, Emil Sommerstein, Ignacy Schwarzbart, Adolf Rothfeid, Emil Schmorak, Ludwik Mund, Juliusz Worzel, Bernard Singel and Ezriel Carlebach.

A new generation of Polish-Jewish modernist writers published narratives on the pages of Chwila. Most of these names would later constitute the core of the new Polish literature. Here they are: Debora Vogel, Artur Sandauer, Chaim Loew, Pinchas Kon, Jehuda Warszawiak, Leon Gutman, Rachela Auerbachowna.

Editorial Board and Contributors largely represented the course of the Eastern Galicain Zionist Organization. Its leadership regarded a coperation, if not a political union, with the Ukrainian national movement in Eastern Galicia as one of its priorities.

The East Galician Zionist Organization and Chwila as its official publication were perhaps the only political establishments in Jewish society of Poland that endorsed the neutrality in Polish-Ukrainian military conflict over Eastern Galicia with persistent neutrality. In the Polish-dominated political milieu and under the factual governance of Polish military and civil authority, the Zionist endorsed political and military neutrality definitively translates in to anti-Polish and pro-Ukrainian stand or in other words a commitment to the right of nations to self-determination.

In the course on the interwar period, Chwila was taking an independent position in relation to the existential political and social developments in Eastern Galicia, Poland and international affairs.

The periodical covered extensively and in its own political and journalistic terms the Polish-Ukrainian war over Eastern Galicia, the Steiger Trial (1924 – 1925), the assassination of Simon Petliura (May 1925); the Polish-Jewish Rapprochement known as Uguoda (the Agreement); election campaigns to Polish Sejm (Parliament) and the Senate; the activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists; ethno-national tensions in Poland, the role and perspective of the new course in Polish politics known as Sanation; antisemitic tendencies in the politics of Polish governments, the economic setbacks and the increase of poverty of Jewish population; the rise of National Socialism in Germany and subsequent rise of autheritarism of Polish central and regional authorities and the inevitable advent of the war with Nazi Germany – to name just the major themes in the publications.

Like other Polish Jewish publications, Chwila criticized radical assimilation, supported Jewish national revival, and called for the building of a Jewish state in Palestine. At the same time, it stressed the value of contributions to Polish culture made by assimilated Jews. One of its recurring themes was the situation in higher education, reflecting the concerns of Jewish students at the University of Lwów, and the question of the numerus clausus (enrollment quotas).

The paper devoted more attention than other dailies to local and regional issues (e.g., it had a column titled “Z gminy żydowskiej” [From the Jewish Community]) and featured regular news about communities in the smaller southeastern towns (Chwila Drohobycka and Chwila Tarnopolska [Drohobycz and Tarnopol Chwila, respectively]). This local focus also reflected Chwila’s interest in Galician Jewish culture; it featured articles about the region’s towns, luminaries, and Jewish writers.