Ireneusz Socha

My life’s project. It took a long time before I finished it, found an editor and publisher, but this was just a halfway success. I needed to obtain funds for printing the book. I received support from my friends in the US and those in Irgun Yotsey Debica be-Yisrael, but for the most part I had to bear the brunt of the investment. “Book of Dębica” was finally published in September 2014 by Scholar Publishing House of the Science Appreciation Society in Przemyśl (Wydawnictwo Naukowe Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk w Przemyślu.) This is the first edition of the book in Polish. I prepared it with the help of a professional historian, Mr.Arkadiusz S.Więch.

The editing work took us two years to complete. The volume contains all original chapters from the original Yizkorbuch (in my translation) and a historic essay by Arkadiusz. The book also included extrememly rare interesting prewar photographs by Stefania Gurdowa and a dictionary of terms connected to Jewish religion and culture. My translation is based on the English version of the book, which was originally written in Hebrew and Yiddish. English translation from Hebrew was done by Jerrold Landau and from Yiddish by Roberta Newman and Ronald M. Miller.