Roots, Resilience, Renewal

Polish Jews, 1975 to the Present: A portrait of generations lost and found A photo-presentation by photographer Chuck Fishman This event is jointly sponsored by Fordham University’s Jewish Studies program; the Derfner Judaica Museum in Riverdale, New York; and YIVO Admission: Free

Location: Fordham School of Law | Rm. 1-01 | Lincoln Center Campus, 150 West 62nd Street | New York City

From 1975 to 1983 Chuck Fishman traveled to Poland to photograph what was then a dwindling remnant of a once-vibrant Jewish community, a thousand years of history on the brink of extinction. After a 30-year hiatus, he has returned to witness and document a stunning reversal of history—a Jewish cultural renaissance emerging and expanding into the mainstream of 21st century society.

Roots, Resilience, Renewal draws upon Chuck Fishman's first monograph, Polish Jews: The Final Chapter, published in 1977, and represents a project spanning 40 years—from the near-demise to the transformative rebirth of Polish Jewry. Considered rare and historically unique, Fishman’s early images chronicle an era long left to memory, and serve as notable counterpoints to his latest work as it illuminates and defines the myriad faces and facets of Jewish ‘return’ to identity today. This is a story that offers us a rare perspective into an exceptional moment in time, one that the passing of four decades has radically changed.

For more information, contact Magda Teter, Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies at (347) 364-3472 or jewishstudies@fordham.edu.

For additional information, please visit fordham.edu/jewishstudies.

About the Artist

Chuck Fishman is a freelance photographer who has focused on social and political issues with a strong humanistic concern. His work has earned him the prestigious World Press Photo Foundation Medal four times.

His photographs have appeared on the covers of Time, Life, Fortune, Newsweek, The London Sunday Times, The Economist and numerous others, and have been selected for publication in the American Photography and Communication Arts juried annuals.

Fishman's work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Center for Creative Photography, Hogan Jazz Archive, Studio Museum in Harlem, POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the United Nations, as well as private and corporate collections.