A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF HEBREW STUDIES AT THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY IN CRACOW: A COURSE IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE AT THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY (1926-1939) (Polish title - below)

(Title in Polish -'Przyczynek do dziejów studiów hebraistycznych na Uniwersytecie Jagiellonskim. Lektorat hebrajskiego na Wydziale Filozoficznym (1926-1939)'). The aim of the paper is to present the course in the Hebrew language, offered in the years 1926-1939 at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The paper is based on information obtained from an inquiry into the university's archival material and official publications. As intended by its originators, the course was supposed to enable young Poles to get acquainted with the language and culture of the Jews. In order to meet this goal, the syllabus of the course was oriented towards the modern forms of the Hebrew language. The instructors at the course, supervised by a renowned specialist in oriental studies, Prof. Tadeusz Kowalski, included dr Dawid Rosenman, dr Edmund Stein and dr Bencjon Katz. The launching of the course in Hebrew was quite an innovative initiative in Poland at that time, but it is hard to ascertain whether it was actually successful in its popularizing role.