Katka Reszke
is a Polish-American author, documentary filmmaker, photographer, and researcher specializing in Jewish history, culture, and identity. She earned a PhD in Jewish Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the author of Return of the Jew: Identity Narratives of the Third Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland (2013). She also served as the chief screenwriter of the award-winning documentary Karski & The Lords of Humanity (2015).
Katka’s films explore various aspects of the Polish Jewish experience, as well as LGBTQ+ themes and human rights. Her directing credits include Shimon’s Returns (2014), Coming Out Polish Style (2011), This is Not a Fairy Tale (2015), and Magda (2012). She was also Second Director & Editor of HBO’s Trans-Action (2010) and Editor of The Peretzniks (2009) and the award-winning Castaways (2013).
Katka lectures internationally on Jewish life and culture in post-communist Poland and has been a fellow of both the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Mandel Foundation. She contributed to the core exhibition of POLIN – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and was Director of the Boston ReelAbilities Film Festival from 2019 to 2021.
Katka Reszke currently resides on Nipmuc and Massachusett land with her partner Noelle and their dog Olive.
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Katka Reszke's upcoming book, The Meshugene Effect: A Memoir of Loss, Remembering, and Hunches, is an irreverent exploration of grief, Jewish identity, and the uncanny hunches that lead people to rediscover their heritage—hunches that, more often than not, turn out to be right.
Katka’s films explore various aspects of the Polish Jewish experience, as well as LGBTQ+ themes and human rights. Her directing credits include Shimon’s Returns (2014), Coming Out Polish Style (2011), This is Not a Fairy Tale (2015), and Magda (2012). She was also Second Director & Editor of HBO’s Trans-Action (2010) and Editor of The Peretzniks (2009) and the award-winning Castaways (2013).
Katka lectures internationally on Jewish life and culture in post-communist Poland and has been a fellow of both the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and the Mandel Foundation. She contributed to the core exhibition of POLIN – The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and was Director of the Boston ReelAbilities Film Festival from 2019 to 2021.
Katka Reszke currently resides on Nipmuc and Massachusett land with her partner Noelle and their dog Olive.
* * *
Katka Reszke's upcoming book, The Meshugene Effect: A Memoir of Loss, Remembering, and Hunches, is an irreverent exploration of grief, Jewish identity, and the uncanny hunches that lead people to rediscover their heritage—hunches that, more often than not, turn out to be right.
August 9, 2013

Return of the Jew: Interview with Katka Reszke
Yedies editor Roberta Newman sat down with Katka Reszke to discuss her book and her thoughts on Jews in Poland today.
www.yivo.org/return-of-the-jew-interview-with-katka-reszke
Yedies editor Roberta Newman sat down with Katka Reszke to discuss her book and her thoughts on Jews in Poland today.
www.yivo.org/return-of-the-jew-interview-with-katka-reszke