In 2014, the Polish Nobel-prizewinning author Olga Tokarczuk published her epic novel The Books
of Jacob about Jacob Frank, a real-life messianic leader in eighteenth-century Poland. Tokarczuk’s
novelistic imagination of Frank and his followers brings us into the landscapes of eighteenthcentury
Poland, Ukraine, and Turkey, and the fears and hopes of dozens of characters that
resonate unsettlingly today. Pawel Maciejko is an internationally recognized authority on the history
of Jacob Frank. Join us for Prof. Maciejko’s scholarly response to the question: How does history
inform Tokarczuk’s novel and our reading of it?

Held online via Zoom. Register free:
https://www.pdx.edu/judaic-studies/2022-lorry-i-lokey-program-portland-state-university