Katka Reszke
Author, Filmmaker, Independent Scholar, Translator, Photographer.
Author of Return of the Jew: Identity Narratives of the Third
Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland
Sep, 2024
Big News! The first draft of "The Meshugene Effect" is complete!
I am seeking representation for my second book, “The Meshugene Effect” - a 100000-word epistolary hybrid memoir of loss, remembering, and hunches.
When I was little, my great grandmother used to call me meshugene*. I knew that it meant crazy, or rather a “crazy person”. I was also fully aware of the fact that she used it as a term of endearment and I was proud to be the sole proprietor of the title in our family. Of course, I had no idea at the time that it was a word in Yiddish or that Yiddish was a language spoken by Jews. This unusual nickname of mine was organic to our family vernacular – we all knew what it meant and it never occurred to anyone to question its linguistic or cultural provenance.
When, as a teenager, I developed a completely irrational conviction, a hunch really, that I was Jewish, everyone in the family thought it was absurd.
Still, for the next two decades, I pursued a Jewish life based on nothing but that hunch. So it was, until the secret was finally revealed to me about a shocking deathbed confession my great grandma had made twenty years earlier. It proved my hunch to be a good one all along.
But the biggest revelation came when I discovered that there were other people out there who had inklings about having Jewish ancestry and who were eager to share their stories with me. Together, we began to try to make sense of all of the silences we had inherited.
It was then that I realized that I had been harboring another silence. Having failed to deal with the death of my brother, I had managed to spiral into post-traumatic stress and neatly suppress the fact that I was gay.
But I finally knew what I needed to do. In a somewhat transgressive act, I decided to address the book in its entirety to my dead brother, ruffling the feathers of my family’s unprocessed grief and making some noise against all of the silence.
The Meshugene Effect is an unconventional genre-bending book of absolutely no fiction that should resonate with anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. It will be particularly relevant for readers interested in the complexities of Jewish identity. It should appeal to anyone engaged in Polish-Jewish history and relations. I imagine it will also be intriguing for folks with an affinity for road trips and those as obsessed as I am with the White Sands Desert in New Mexico.
* The title of the book contains a Yiddish word that translates to the no doubt fraught English word “crazy”. However, “meshugene” is used here in a non-stigmatizing way. It's a direct quote within a contextualized frame of reference.
When I was little, my great grandmother used to call me meshugene*. I knew that it meant crazy, or rather a “crazy person”. I was also fully aware of the fact that she used it as a term of endearment and I was proud to be the sole proprietor of the title in our family. Of course, I had no idea at the time that it was a word in Yiddish or that Yiddish was a language spoken by Jews. This unusual nickname of mine was organic to our family vernacular – we all knew what it meant and it never occurred to anyone to question its linguistic or cultural provenance.
When, as a teenager, I developed a completely irrational conviction, a hunch really, that I was Jewish, everyone in the family thought it was absurd.
Still, for the next two decades, I pursued a Jewish life based on nothing but that hunch. So it was, until the secret was finally revealed to me about a shocking deathbed confession my great grandma had made twenty years earlier. It proved my hunch to be a good one all along.
But the biggest revelation came when I discovered that there were other people out there who had inklings about having Jewish ancestry and who were eager to share their stories with me. Together, we began to try to make sense of all of the silences we had inherited.
It was then that I realized that I had been harboring another silence. Having failed to deal with the death of my brother, I had managed to spiral into post-traumatic stress and neatly suppress the fact that I was gay.
But I finally knew what I needed to do. In a somewhat transgressive act, I decided to address the book in its entirety to my dead brother, ruffling the feathers of my family’s unprocessed grief and making some noise against all of the silence.
The Meshugene Effect is an unconventional genre-bending book of absolutely no fiction that should resonate with anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. It will be particularly relevant for readers interested in the complexities of Jewish identity. It should appeal to anyone engaged in Polish-Jewish history and relations. I imagine it will also be intriguing for folks with an affinity for road trips and those as obsessed as I am with the White Sands Desert in New Mexico.
* The title of the book contains a Yiddish word that translates to the no doubt fraught English word “crazy”. However, “meshugene” is used here in a non-stigmatizing way. It's a direct quote within a contextualized frame of reference.
Nov 30, 2023
Very humbled to be included as one of six Jewish female voices in 20th century Eastern Europe in this piece by the ever-brilliant Magdalena Waligórska. #kvelling
Dec 10, 2021
A long overdue update:
July 11, 2019
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May, 2019
"Return of the Jew" - Open Access - FREE download
Click here to download an Open Access copy of "Return of the Jew"!
http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=1004140
November 17, 2018
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November 16, 2018
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October 12, 2018
Jamaica Plain Gazette writes about Ride for the Living!
For full article, click here:
http://jamaicaplaingazette.com/2018/10/12/two-jp-residents-participate-in-ride-for-the-living/#disqus_thread
June 29, 2018On June 29, Jacqueline Nicholls and I will join an international group of bikers to ride from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Krakow! Please join our cause and support us on this 55-mile Ride for the Living! Click here to support: https://jcckrakow.kindful.com/ride-for-the-living-2018/katka-jacqueline |
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"We Keep Coming Back" plays Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, March 2018
We Keep Coming Back
Poland Tour - Summer 2017
it's a wrap!
A mother and son, both descendants of Polish Holocaust survivors, decide to return to Poland in the hopes of finding their lost identity and a way to reconnect with each other. The plot takes an unexpected turn when Michael and Mary discover a vibrant contemporary world of Jewish life in Poland. Their journey will reveal a parallel narrative among Poles seeking a reconnection with lost Jewish identities. A new story unravels.
We Keep Coming Back is performed by real-life mother and son, Mary Berchard and Michael Rubenfeld, as well as Katka Reszke, author of “Return of the Jew”. It is presented in a media rich environment, incorporating video footage, archival material, and music.
We Keep Coming Back is performed by real-life mother and son, Mary Berchard and Michael Rubenfeld, as well as Katka Reszke, author of “Return of the Jew”. It is presented in a media rich environment, incorporating video footage, archival material, and music.
Facebook Event links and ticket information:
July 1, 6PM - Kraków
July 4, 6PM - Lublin
July 5, 7PM - Lublin
July 8, 7PM - Warsaw
July 9, 7PM - Warsaw
July 12, 6PM - Wrocław
July 15, 6PM - Białystok
For more information, go to the EVENTS tab
November 2016
Katka Reszke featured in POLcast, Episode 30
Read here:
http://www.mypolcast.com/2016/10/when-a-hunch-gets-confirmed-identity-episode-30/
Listen here:
https://www.mypolcast.com/2016/10/episode-30/
September 3, 2016, 8:30PM
Ashkenaz Festival, Toronto, Canada
Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre
www.ashkenaz.ca/dt_portfolio/we-keep-coming-back/
"We Keep Coming Back" - Canadian Premiere
June 2016
"We Keep Coming Back" is in rehearsals leading up to its World Premiere during the Kraków Jewish Culture Festival
for more info and tickets go to www.wekeepcomingback.com
November 19, 2015
"We are all in this sukkah together" - new piece by Katka Reszke for the 614ezine is now LIVE at: http://614ezine.com/we-are-all-in-this-sukkah-together/
October 23, 2015
Breaking news! Oscar Buzz.
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The film I spent 7 years working on as chief Screenwriter and Co-Editor is now 'long-listed' among 124 feature documentaries submitted this year for Academy Awards consideration. Karski & The Lords of Humanity directed by Slawomir Grünberg opens next month in theaters in Los Angeles and New York, preceded by a special screening at Georgetown University on November 5th 2015. http://variety.com/2015/film/news/academy-awards-documentaries-submitted-1201625122/ |
September 2015
Katka Reszke begins her term as Helen Gartner Hammer Scholar-in-Residence at Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
http://www.brandeis.edu/hbi/residencies/currentscholars.html
June 2015
Katka Reszke curates debates accompanying the "Vot ken you mach?" exhibit at the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum
Many of the pieces shown at the first (Dresden) and second (Wrocław) version of the „Vot ken you mach?“ exhibition refer to the complicated relations between the past and the present, and also – to the future, which seems understandable in the context of the history of Europe as such, and Poland and Germany in particular. The thematic focuses include strategies of identity shifts in pop culture, new scenes of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe, family secrets and the silence between generations, remembrance as obligation, the unwritten cultural history of Jewish revenge and the search for a ‘normal’ Jewish everyday life. - See more at:
http://muzeumwspolczesne.pl/mww/kalendarium/wystawa/vot-ken-you-mach/?lang=en#sthash.tZ7ZkdFB.dpuf
http://muzeumwspolczesne.pl/mww/kalendarium/wystawa/vot-ken-you-mach/?lang=en#sthash.tZ7ZkdFB.dpuf
June 2015
"Karski & The Lords of Humanity" - Special Screening at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem
Decades after Karski rang alarm, unheeded Shoah warnings brought to life | The Times of Israel
BY RENEE GHERT-ZAND June 14, 2015, 1:53 pm
--The film, written by Katka Reszke, premiered on April 24 (the 101st anniversary of Karski’s birth) at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It will be screened Sunday in Jerusalem at a special event at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center celebrating the 25th anniversary of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland.--http://www.timesofisrael.com/decades-after-karski-rang-alarm-unheeded-shoah-warnings-brought-to-life/
BY RENEE GHERT-ZAND June 14, 2015, 1:53 pm
--The film, written by Katka Reszke, premiered on April 24 (the 101st anniversary of Karski’s birth) at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. It will be screened Sunday in Jerusalem at a special event at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center celebrating the 25th anniversary of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland.--http://www.timesofisrael.com/decades-after-karski-rang-alarm-unheeded-shoah-warnings-brought-to-life/
June 2015
Westchester Jewish Life:
"Katka Reszke to Attend 2015 ROI Community Summit in Jerusalem"
Westchester Jewish Life:
"Katka Reszke to Attend 2015 ROI Community Summit in Jerusalem"
One-hundred fifty of the Jewish world’s leading change makers from 32 countries will convene in Jerusalem on June 7-11 for the 2015 ROI Summit, ROI Community’s flagship program. ROI Community is an initiative of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
Over the five-day gathering, these change makers will embark on a journey of pausing, experimenting with new forms of expression and shifting perspectives, ultimately leaving them with renewed motivation, ideas and professional skills and connections to bring back to their communities.
This year’s participants bring a diverse set of skills and talent -- including app developers, crusading journalists and toy designers -- to their efforts to build a thriving Jewish future and a better world.
Among the ROI participants will be Katka Reszke of Yonkers, who is a writer, documentary filmmaker, photographer, and researcher on Jewish history, culture, and identity. She is the author of the acclaimed “Return of the Jew” and her recent films include Shimon’s Returns, Coming Out Polish Style, and Magda.
Over the five-day gathering, these change makers will embark on a journey of pausing, experimenting with new forms of expression and shifting perspectives, ultimately leaving them with renewed motivation, ideas and professional skills and connections to bring back to their communities.
This year’s participants bring a diverse set of skills and talent -- including app developers, crusading journalists and toy designers -- to their efforts to build a thriving Jewish future and a better world.
Among the ROI participants will be Katka Reszke of Yonkers, who is a writer, documentary filmmaker, photographer, and researcher on Jewish history, culture, and identity. She is the author of the acclaimed “Return of the Jew” and her recent films include Shimon’s Returns, Coming Out Polish Style, and Magda.
Beyond Jewish Identity: Rethinking Concepts and Imagining Alternatives
forthcoming book (eds. Ari Y. Kelman and Jon A. Levisohn)
Katka Reszke will be contributing a chapter on authenticity anxieties
in contemporary Polish-Jewish identity narratives.
in contemporary Polish-Jewish identity narratives.
Times of Israel
"Poland's 'Unexpected' Generation" by Sheldon Kirshner
- "Reszke, who divides her time between the United States and Poland,
Read more: Poland's "Unexpected" Generation
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/polands-unexpected-generation/
Haaretz
"An unexpected generation of Polish Jews is coming out of the closet" by Anshel Pfeffer
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-features/.premium-1.640795
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-features/.premium-1.640795
"We Keep Coming Back"
We Keep Coming Back is a performance work exploring how the disconnect from family both parallels and is informed by the disconnect from place.
Michael Rubenfeld is a theatre artist living in Toronto. He has a complicated relationship with his mother, Mary. Mary was born in Sweden to Jewish refugees from Poland. Yet no one in his family identifies as Polish, or Swedish. In his early 30s, Michael starts to question his feelings of detachment from his mother, from being Jewish, from Poland. Are these feelings of disconnection all connected? Can a mother and son find a way back to each other by going back to their family roots and by making a play about it? How does modern-day Poland play into their personal quest? They set off to Poland and Sweden with director Sarah Garton Stanley and hire a Polish videographer, Katka Reszke, who happens to be on an identity quest of her own. In a multimedia, sonically-driven presentation, Michael comes together on stage with Mary, Sarah and Katka to tell and retell the story of their trip replete with serendipitous discoveries, faulty memory, charged interactions, unexpected humour, the shadows of war, and the promise of writing a new narrative.
Michael Rubenfeld is a theatre artist living in Toronto. He has a complicated relationship with his mother, Mary. Mary was born in Sweden to Jewish refugees from Poland. Yet no one in his family identifies as Polish, or Swedish. In his early 30s, Michael starts to question his feelings of detachment from his mother, from being Jewish, from Poland. Are these feelings of disconnection all connected? Can a mother and son find a way back to each other by going back to their family roots and by making a play about it? How does modern-day Poland play into their personal quest? They set off to Poland and Sweden with director Sarah Garton Stanley and hire a Polish videographer, Katka Reszke, who happens to be on an identity quest of her own. In a multimedia, sonically-driven presentation, Michael comes together on stage with Mary, Sarah and Katka to tell and retell the story of their trip replete with serendipitous discoveries, faulty memory, charged interactions, unexpected humour, the shadows of war, and the promise of writing a new narrative.
Rethinking Jewish Identity and Jewish Education - PODCAST
The way many in the Jewish community talk about "identity" does not capture the complex ways in which people understand their Jewish commitments, engage with Jewish communities, and enact Jewish practices. If Jewish education is to respond to the needs of American Jews and their communities in the 21st century, we need to rethink the assumption that Jewish identity is the goal of Jewish education. This podcast captures the conversation at a recent Brandeis University conference to "rethink" Jewish identity.
TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST VISIT:
http://www.prx.org/pieces/118439-rethinking-jewish-identity-and-jewish-education
The way many in the Jewish community talk about "identity" does not capture the complex ways in which people understand their Jewish commitments, engage with Jewish communities, and enact Jewish practices. If Jewish education is to respond to the needs of American Jews and their communities in the 21st century, we need to rethink the assumption that Jewish identity is the goal of Jewish education. This podcast captures the conversation at a recent Brandeis University conference to "rethink" Jewish identity.
TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST VISIT:
http://www.prx.org/pieces/118439-rethinking-jewish-identity-and-jewish-education
Nov 20, 2014
Towards Life: Reviving Jewish Life in Contemporary Poland
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, NYC, Live Panel Debate
December, 2013
2-minute music clip from Limmud Poland 2013
October 26, 2013
Ruth Ellen Gruber's Hadassah Magazine cover story on the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with a quote from Return of the Jew
Excerpt:
>>The museum is a shared responsibility of both Jewish and non-Jewish Poles, said Katka Reszke, author of Return of the Jew (Academic Studies Press), a book exploring identity issues among young Jews in Poland today.
“In fact, it should probably also be the responsibility of those Jews outside of Poland who are committed to the idea of preserving Polish Jewish heritage,” she added. “The museum represents both Polish history and Jewish history but it also epitomizes Polish-Jewish relations, and with the ambition of presenting an open-ended narrative it is and will continue to be a process.” <<
>>The museum is a shared responsibility of both Jewish and non-Jewish Poles, said Katka Reszke, author of Return of the Jew (Academic Studies Press), a book exploring identity issues among young Jews in Poland today.
“In fact, it should probably also be the responsibility of those Jews outside of Poland who are committed to the idea of preserving Polish Jewish heritage,” she added. “The museum represents both Polish history and Jewish history but it also epitomizes Polish-Jewish relations, and with the ambition of presenting an open-ended narrative it is and will continue to be a process.” <<
August, 2013
Krakow/New York City Book Launch Video
August 7, 2013
Dziennik Gazeta Prawna - Dodatek "KULTURA" - in Polish
Katka Reszke: Odkrywane Pokolenie
wywiad
http://kultura.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/723956,katka-reszke-odkrywane-pokolenie.html
wywiad
http://kultura.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/723956,katka-reszke-odkrywane-pokolenie.html
July, 2013
Konstanty Gebert on Katka Reszke's book "Return of the Jew".
Radio interview by Hagay HaCohen
JULY 24, 2013 7:30 PM
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 W. 16th St., New York, NY
YIVO presents Katka Reszke’s book Return of the Jew: Identity Narratives of the Third Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland, published by Academic Studies Press. Author’s presentation and Q&A session was followed by a reception and book signing.
The event was presented by YIVO in partnership with the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Link to the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/243182159139659/
June 5, 2013
THE GUARDIAN:
Sounds Jewish PODCAST: the Jewish revival in PolandWriter Denise Grollmus goes on a personal journey of Jewish discovery in Poland, the country where 3 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the second world war.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/audio/2013/jun/05/sounds-jewish-podcast-poland
- Featuring Katka Reszke, Slawomir Grünberg, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Jonathan Ornstein, Slawek Pastuszka and more!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/audio/2013/jun/05/sounds-jewish-podcast-poland
- Presented by Denise Grollmus and produced by Sarah Peters with music by Iain Chambers
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 5 June 2013 06.45 EDT
May 8, 2013
"Castaways" wins Grand Prix in Pittsburgh
LOGTV, Ltd is proud to announce that our recent documentary film "Castaways"received the Grand Prix – “Zahav (Gold) Award” of the 2013 Robinson International Short Film Competition
"Castaways"
Directed by Sławomir Grünberg and Tomasz Wiśniewski, Edited by Katka Reszke, with Music by Beate Schützmann-Krebs, Cinematography by Tomasz Wiśniewski, and Drawings by Stanisław Żywolewski
More on Castaways here
April 20, 2013
THE GUARDIAN:
Poland's young Jews pick up the threads of history
March 2013
March 2013
RETURN OF THE JEW is published!
RETURN OF THE JEW:
Identity Narratives of the Third Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland
by Katka Reszke
A new 'unexpected' generation of Jews made an appearance in Poland following the fall of the communist regime. Once home to the greatest Jewish community in the world and then site of the biggest tragedy in Jewish history, today Poland experiences what some have called a 'renaissance of Jewish culture'. Simultaneously, more and more Poles discover their Jewish roots and begin seeking forms of Jewish affiliation. Can there be 'authentic' Jewish life in Poland after fifty years of oppression? Return of the Jew offers the first in-depth study of identity narratives of the third post-Holocaust generation of Jews in Poland. It provides a revealing account of the experience of being or rather becoming Jewish vis-à-vis uniquely compelling circumstances.
9781618112460
230 pp. cloth
Publication Date: March, 2013
January 2013
Academic Studies Press now has "Return of the Jew"
listed as one of it's Fall-Winter Highlights!
