Dr Magda Sara Szwabowicz from the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow won the first place in the 4th Józef A. Gierowski and Chony Shmeruk Award for the best scientific book publication on the history and culture of Jews in Poland. 

She received the award for the book “Hebrew Literary Life in Interwar Poland”, which was published by the Publishing House of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The winning monograph consists of 2 parts. In the first part, the author reconstructs the Hebrew cultural activity of Warsaw, Vilnius, Lviv and Krakow. The second is a reconstruction of the image of Hebrew cultural and literary life in the Polish diaspora.

Dr. Magdalena Ruta, the Jagiellonian University, emphasized in her laudation, that the work was based on an extensive bibliographic query both in terms of sources and studies from numerous libraries and archives of Poland and Israel. The author also referred to the interwar Hebrew-language press published in Poland.