ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on that the quarter in its incarnation is more than an evocative site for the projection and reception of representations of Jarden Jewish heritage, which can then be read as texts – finished surfaces to deconstruct for hidden meanings, ideologies and assertions of power. Yet Jewish tourists are not passive recipients of narratives and information – however conciliatory – provided by Polish guides. In a 'personal seizure and appropriation of the narrative resources made available by tourism', visiting Jews often resist their Polish guides, challenging them openly, whispering disapprovingly to fellow travellers or silently doubting the guides' information. Reconciliation consists, in pursuing 'more inclusive principles of present day affiliation'. The popularity of a narrow, ethno-national understanding of Polishness has been a central problem for Polish–Jewish relations and notions of shared heritage. The possibility of pluralistic publics may depend on nurturing public spaces that draw estranged groups together to do the hard work of practising conciliatory heritage.
