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Szymon Aszkenazy
(1866-1935) A historian, diplomat and
member of the assimilationist movement. Born in Zawichost to an Orthodox
family, he was the descendant of Rabbi Tsvi ben Yaakov Ashkenazy
(1660-1718). Known as Chacham Tsvi, Ashkenazy's ancestor had been a
respected Talmudist who held religious posts in Berlin, Alton, Hamburg,
Amsterdam and Lwow.
Askenazy graduated with degrees in law from the University of Warsaw
and history from the University of Goettingen, where he was also
granted the title of professor. As a Jew, he was not able to find work
at the University of Warsaw, however, which prompted him to move to
Lwow. During the years 1898-1914, he taught Polish and modern history at
Jan Kazimierz University in Lwow. He was also active in the
assimilationist movement, and was the co-founder (together with H.
Wawelberg) of a foundation assisting poor Jewish students at all levels,
as well as an assimilationist party.
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Ashkenazy was primarily interested in
eighteenth and nineteenth century Polish political history. In
Kwartalnik Poswiecony Badaniu Przeszlosci Zydow w Polsce (Polish,
Quarterly Dedicated to the Research of Jewish History in Poland) (1912),
which he co-founded, he published a series of articles on the history
of the Jews in the Duchy of Warsaw and the Congress Kingdom. He created
his own school of historical analysis, emphasizing diplomatic sources
and international relations. In 1909, he was made a member of the
Academy of Sciences. He spent the First World War in Switzerland, where
he actively agitated on behalf of Polish independence. Among other
things, he published a periodical titled Moniteur Polonais, for example,
and worked for the Committee for Aid to War Victims in the Polish
Lands.
In 1920-23, Ashkenazy was the Polish minister plenipotentiary with
the League of Nations in Geneva; in 1923, he was dismissed from that
post. In 1924, he was once again refused a post at the University of
Warsaw, where he only gave guest lectures from 1927 to 1935. He died in
Warsaw.
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