Original comic art of “Golden Bees” by Monika Powalisz and Zosia Dzierżawska Museum of the history of Polish Jews

Złote pszczoły [Golden Bees] is a comic about Ita Kalisz (1903-1994), the daughter of tzadik Mendel Kalisz (1860 - 1919) from Otwock. Writer, Monika Powalisz, adapted bits of her memories published in Polish in 2009 by the Jewish Community of Warsaw [Polish: Gmina Wyznaniowa Żydowską w Warszawie] Cadykowy dwór niegdyś w Polsce. The story focuses on the death of Ita’s father who, in his final days, had a dream about the end of Judaism, which, for him, meant Hasidism.

The following events – the decisions – of his three daughters confirmed his symbolic vision. Ita broke her ties with orthodox Judaism, and she left her husband (the marriage was arranged by her father). She devoted herself to working for a secular organisation (one very important for the Jewish history – the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [Polish: Hebrajskie Stowarzyszenie Pomocy Emigrantom]. As a Zionist activist she eventually moved to Palestine in 1933 (Zionism was a movement aiming to establish a Jewish state in the Middle East). Ita’s future is shortly foreshadowed on the last page of the story.

The comic was drawn by Zosia Dzierżawska. Judyta Nekanda-Trepka, who coordinated the publishing processes on behalf of the Jewish Community, was the one to propose Zosia’s and Monika’s partnership. It is worth mentioning that Zosia – the future author of the comics A testa in giù’ (2014) and Eileen Gray. Dom pod słońcem (2019; writer Charlotte Malterre-Barthes) – was, around this time, at the beginning of her artistic career. During her four year stay in Bologna (she previously worked as a translator), she decided on changing careers. She drew Golden Bees during her time in Italy. The title of the story was adopted as the name for the trade paperback about Warsaw Jews, scripted by Monika Powalisz and published by the Jewish Community of Warsaw in 2011.

Museum POLIN is in possession not only of the final original art work by Dzierżawska (pencilled or inked – colouring was done digitally), but also all the WIP (work in progress) art – the preliminaries, layouts and storyboards with side notes, initial drafts and lettering options (two variants).

PK