Prof. Dr. hab. Szymon Rudnicki is this year’s winner of the Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize. Endowed by Professor Jan Karski at YIVO in 1992, the $5,000 prize goes to authors of published works documenting Polish-Jewish relations and Jewish contributions to Polish culture. The award ceremony will be held in October at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Szymon Rudnicki was born in Vilna in 1938. He is Professor of History at the Warsaw University. He has taught for many years and occupied administrative positions at Warsaw University’s History Institute, serving as Deputy Director from 1973-1987. He has written monographs and published widely in scholarly and popular journals in Poland, Israel, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

Prof. Rudnicki’s main focus is history and ideology of the Polish Right-wing movements in the 20th century. He has written extensively on Roman Dmowski’s National Democracy (Endecja), the ultra-rightist National Radical Camp (Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny, ONR), and its extremist offshoot the ONR-Falanga - all known for their radically anti-Semitic stance. His major monographs on this subject are: Narodowa Demokracja w Warszawie, 1918-1939 (The National Democracy in Warsaw), 1973, and Geneza i Dzialalnosc Obozu Narodowo-Radykalnego (The National-Radical Camp, Its Origins and Activity), 1985. Another social group on the Polish Right that elicited Prof. Rudnicki’s interest were Polish Conservatives, about whom he has written books and essays.

A major topic in Prof. Rudnicki’s output is the Jewish question in Poland and Polish-Jewish relations. His writings include essays on the national minorities, extremist antisemitism (antysemityzm totalny) as represented by the Falanga, numerus clausus, ritual slaughter, Jewish parliamentarians in Poland. The last topic recieived an in-depth treatment in the award-winning book Zydzi w Sejmie II Rzeczypospolitej, 1918-1939 (Jews in the Parliament of the Second Republic), published in 2003.

Prof. Rudnicki is member of the Scientific Council of the Jewish Historical Institute and of the Editorial Council of the "Jewish History Quarterly".

Professor Jan Karski, the founder of the prize at YIVO, was the envoy of the Polish government-in-exile during World War II who brought to the West firsthand testimony about the conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto and in German death camps. The prize is also named in memory of Professor Karski's late wife, choreographer Pola Nirenska.