Aleksandra Jakubczak Lectures on Between Entrepreneurship and Reliance on Welfare: Jewish Women Facing the Great War on the Eastern Home Front

In her February 10, 2025, lecture, Aleksandra Jakubczak examines the impact of World War I on women on the Eastern home front. Using sources from the JDC Archives, memoirs, autobiographies, local press, and Jewish communal reports, she explores how Jewish women endured displacement, violence, and economic devastation. The talk highlights their struggle for survival and the limited options available to them, from peddling and sex work to seeking charity.

This is the fourth program in the JDC Archives webinar series “Exploring the Jewish Experience in Poland from WWI to the Holocaust: Insights from the JDC Archives.”

This lecture is made possible thanks to the Miriam “Mimi” Pasternak Toubin (z”l) Public Educational Programming from the JDC Archives.

Aleksandra Jakubczak is a chief historian at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She is the recipient of the 2024 Sorrell and Lorraine Chesin/ JDC Archives Fellowship.