In the history of 20th-century pedagogy, few figures are as contradictory and multifaceted as Henryk Goldszmit, known to the world under the pseudonym Janusz Korczak. This man, who was called the Old Doctor, combined in his personality a physician and writer, a revolutionary pedagogue and mystic, a Polish patriot and cosmopolitan humanist. However, one aspect of his biography has long remained in the shadows, as if hidden by a dense veil of silence. We speak of Korczak’s membership in the ancient and mysterious brotherhood of Freemasons—a fact that fundamentally changes our understanding of his personality and activities.
Henryk Goldszmit was born on July 22, 1878 or 1879 in Warsaw into an assimilated Jewish family. His father Józef was a well-known Warsaw lawyer, which provided the family with high social standing. Korczak’s childhood was spent in the elegant districts of the city—on Krakowskie Przedmieście and Miodowa Street, where he studied foreign languages with servants and observed the life of Warsaw’s bourgeoisie. However, family prosperity proved fragile. His father was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital with symptoms of insanity in 1891. The father’s illness, presumably caused by syphilis, and his extravagant lifestyle led to financial difficulties. When the father died on April 26, 1896, seventeen-year-old Henryk became the sole breadwinner for his mother, sister, and grandmother, giving private lessons and helping his mother rent out rooms in their apartment on Leszno Street.
This early encounter with social injustice and material deprivation formed in the young man a particular sensitivity to the suffering of others. In 1898, in a literary competition, he first used the pseudonym Janusz Korczak, taken from Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s novel “The History of Janusz Korczak and the Beautiful Sword Bearer.” In the same year, he entered the medical faculty of Warsaw University, where he studied for six years, repeating his first year. Parallel to his studies, he collaborated with the satirical weekly “Kolce,” publishing about two hundred and fifty texts there until 1904.
In 1899, Korczak traveled to Switzerland to study in detail the ideas and methods of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, creator of the modern system of elementary education, known as the father of popular education. After his return, he became an auditor at the secret “Flying University,” where outstanding Polish scholars taught, including Jan Władysław Dawid, Józef Krzywicki, and Wacław Nałkowski. During this period, he became closely acquainted with the living conditions of Warsaw’s poor from Powiśle, the Old Town, and Ochota, taking particular interest in the fate of children.
Having received his medical diploma on March 23, 1905, after completing a five-year course in medical sciences, Korczak was conscripted into the Russian army and sent to the Far East as a military physician during the Russo-Japanese War. He served in a sanitary train, rising to the rank of major, and returned to Warsaw at the end of March 1906. From 1905 to 1912, he worked as a pediatrician at the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital on Śliska Street, receiving a modest salary of two hundred rubles per year, paid in four installments. He took no money from poor patients, while demanding astronomical fees from the wealthy.
To deepen his knowledge, he spent a year in Berlin (1907-1908) and half a year in Paris (1910), attending lectures on pediatrics and special pedagogy, visiting children’s hospitals and institutions for child therapy and education. In 1911, he spent a month in London, studying schools and orphanages. During this period, he definitively decided to dedicate himself to working with children and refused to create his own family.
In 1912, Korczak became director of the newly opened Jewish orphanage, under the care of the “Help for Orphans” Society. The orphanage under Korczak’s leadership became a unique place where every ward was “owner, worker, and leader,” and the children’s community functioned “on the foundations of justice, brotherhood, equal rights and duties.” Here, children’s self-government institutions were created: a parliament, a peer court with a code of forgiveness, a local self-government council, a children’s newspaper, a notary office, a mutual aid fund, sports clubs, and a “useful entertainment” circle. Korczak proposed a system of children’s duties and training children in childcare. The orphanage conducted documented research on the psychophysical and social development of the residents, including weekly measurements of weight and height, sleep observation, sociometric studies of the distribution of sympathies and antipathies in the group, and recording children’s spontaneous statements.
The peer court became the pinnacle of Korczak’s managed children’s democracy. The court’s purpose was to maintain order and protect individual rights. It sought to implement the idea that law is the protection of the weak from their oppressors. Five children were elected as judges and, together with one educator, met weekly to resolve conflicts between children or between children and orphanage staff. Through the orphanage’s law and the decisions of the peer court, Korczak attempted, on one hand, to preserve the sense of a community of law and order and resolve conflicts in a rational and just manner, while on the other hand, he advocated forgiveness and mercy, since many laws provided for very light punishments.
During World War I in 1914, Korczak again became a military physician with the rank of lieutenant in the Russian army. He wrote his pedagogical essays in his free time. In Kiev, he also met Maria Falska, who later became his assistant in Warsaw. He returned to Warsaw before Poland’s independence was restored in 1918. After the war, he resumed work at the orphanage and also founded another shelter called “Our Home” for Polish children. During the Polish-Soviet War, he again served as a military physician with the rank of major but was assigned to Warsaw after a brief stay in Łódź. He contracted typhus, and his mother died of the same disease in 1920.
In 1926, Korczak allowed the children to begin publishing their own newspaper “Little Review” as a weekly supplement to the daily Polish-Jewish newspaper “Our Review.” This was the country’s first publication created almost entirely “by children and for children.” Children who sent letters created a network of correspondents in Warsaw and beyond the capital. The most active correspondents met at conferences organized by the editorial office and special film screenings. Friendship Circles, Game and Help Circle, Novelists’ Club, and Inventors’ Workshop also emerged. The last issue of “Little Review” was published on September 1, 1939.
In 1929, he published his world-famous manifesto of children’s rights “The Child’s Right to Respect”—a text that remains unsurpassed to this day. He began teaching pedagogy at the Free Warsaw University and published the “scientific book” with very advanced content “Rules of Life.” In 1931, he staged at the “Athenaeum” theater the sensational satirical show “Senate of Madmen” with the great actor Stefan Jaracz in the lead role, a production that post-war communist authorities only allowed in 1978.
In the 1930s, he had his own radio program, where he promoted and popularized children’s rights. In 1935, he began collaborating with Polish Radio, where under the pseudonym “Old Doctor” he conducted programs for children, which were a novelty on Polish radio. The popularity of his books and radio shows brought him literary recognition and wide fame. However, due to growing antisemitism in Poland, his educational broadcasts were taken off the air after intervention by listeners who disliked the author’s Jewish origins.
It was precisely during this period, around 1926, that high moral qualities led Korczak to join Freemasonry. According to literary sources, Janusz Korczak joined the Masonic lodge “Sea Star” in Warsaw, belonging to the International Order of Freemasons “Le Droit Humain” in the 1920s. He was initiated in the “Sea Star” lodge in the East of Warsaw of the International Federation “Le Droit Humain,” created to “reconcile all people divided by religious barriers and seek truth while maintaining respect for others.”
For Poland, this was a time of hope for building a new society. The first Masonic lodge in Poland was proclaimed in Warsaw in 1920. This was the “Copernicus” lodge, belonging to the Grand National Lodge. In 1924, the Mixed Order “Le Droit Humain” began operating in Poland, not recognized by traditional Freemasonry because, contrary to existing principles, it admitted women. These organizations were not numerous. It is estimated that in the interwar period, about three hundred people belonged to “Le Droit Humain.” The order’s lodges belonged almost exclusively to the intelligentsia, figures from public organizations and military institutions, as well as officers.
The “Sea Star” lodge was influenced by meditative-Gothic philosophy, which dealt with liberal ideas such as freedom, equality, and brotherhood, and ideas of mystical transcendence of man. The lodge met at 4 Mysia Street. Among the participants were Countess Kazimiera Bruell-Peltier and future Colonel General Michał Tuchaczewski-Krasevitch, who played an important role in the Polish war for independence and later became deputy commander of the Polish army in exile in the fight against the Nazis.
Once a year, Korczak visited the Mezonin estate in Pudlice. The place was purchased in 1925 by the Polish Theosophical Society. The idea was to create an agricultural cooperative there and spread new methods of farming in neighboring villages. The owners of the place were members of the Theosophical Society of Poland, as well as members of the International Order of Freemasons “Le Droit Humain.” Every year at the end of June, members organized multi-day conferences at Mezonin. Informal meetings were held in the Great Hall of the order, where various political and social issues were discussed.
According to literary sources, Korczak loved to attend meetings of Masonic lodges that followed theosophical ideas. There he created one of his books “Kaytek the Wizard,” which contains various mystical ideas. However, until recently, very little was known about Korczak’s activities in Freemasonry, especially in literature available in Hebrew. This may be because most writers, although some of them knew Korczak personally, knew nothing about his participation in Freemasonry. Moreover, although all serious works on Freemasonry in Poland mentioned Korczak as a Mason, this topic is rarely mentioned in his biographies in Polish, Hebrew, or English.
Contrary to the usual British style of Freemasonry, which seeks to distance itself from many elements of mysticism, Janusz Korczak was a member of the Masonic order “Le Droit Humain” (“human rights”), which operates in the French style of Freemasonry, seeking to elevate human spirituality. This style, which strongly influenced the ideas of the French Revolution, emphasized principles of equality among all people above all else.
Recipients of letters in Eretz Israel found these thoughts puzzling and even delirious. It can be assumed that he never bothered to fully explain his ideas, perhaps because he did not expect understanding from people without Masonic knowledge. Although in 1938 Freemasonry was declared illegal in Poland, all lodges were closed, and Korczak’s relations with Freemasonry officially ended, he continued to reflect on and apply their ideas and methods in his pedagogical teaching.
In 1934 and 1936, Korczak made two trips to Palestine, visiting friends, former colleagues, and students. In June 1934, Korczak traveled to Palestine to visit his former students and colleagues who had settled in Kibbutz Ein Harod. In Israel, some of his students survived after being saved by him, as orphans, from crime and street life. Some of them remembered him in works written after the war, always emphasizing his dedication and deep knowledge of children’s needs and capabilities.
Dr. Korczak, Miss Wilczyńska, and the adults of the kibbutz equally trusted children and treated them as individuals who could contribute to the community as a whole. They gave children responsibility and choice. At night, Dr. Korczak lectured adults on progressive issues such as children’s nutrition, overcoming learning difficulties, and the educator’s role. Both children and adults of Ein Harod respected Dr. Korczak. He was a leader and source of inspiration for all. Even after Dr. Korczak left the kibbutz and returned to Poland, the Ein Harod community continued to feel his presence.
The educational and social philosophy of the kibbutz movement made a great impression on Korczak, who followed the trips and became convinced that all Jews should move to Palestine. When the situation deteriorated in Poland, Korczak decided to emigrate to Palestine and in 1939 met with Yitzhak Gruenbaum, a member of the Jewish Agency, to consult with him about emigration plans.
In September 1939, the Germans occupied Poland, and in November 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto was created. The orphanage was moved inside the ghetto. Korczak received numerous offers for smuggling out of the ghetto but refused because he did not want to abandon the children. In 1939, when World War II began, Korczak was going to voluntarily serve in the Polish army but, due to his age, remained with the children in Warsaw. During the first months of occupation, the number of children in the orphanage increased as it was necessary to take in children who had lost families during the bombing. By early 1940, there were about one hundred and fifty children in the orphanage.
At the end of November 1939, German authorities forced every Jew to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David. Korczak refused to wear the armband or remove his Polish officer’s uniform, even though he was imprisoned for some time. When the Germans created the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, his orphanage was forced to move from its building at 92 Krochmalna Street into the ghetto (first to 33 Chłodna, then to 16 Sienna / 9 Śliska). Korczak moved with them, trying his best to maintain the orphanage’s operation.
During the ghetto period, Korczak’s and Stefa’s highest concern was food for the children. Korczak went door to door asking for food, warm clothing, and medicine for the children. Despite poor health and personal problems, he coped with the reality of the ghetto and did everything to improve the lives of children in the orphanage. In the ghetto, Korczak kept a diary with notes, memories, and observations; in it, he depicted his inner world and personal view of life in the ghetto. This diary was published in Poland in 1958.
Even against the backdrop of multiple difficulties—hunger, cold, uncertainty about the future—Korczak still directed his forces toward continuing his educational efforts, his faith in equality and respect for the child in managing the orphanage. The orphanage continued to operate according to the arrangements that characterized it in the pre-war period, and children continued to participate in managing the institution and conducting public trials. The orphanage had performances and concerts that attracted audiences, and every Saturday after the educators’ meeting at the orphanage, Korczak told the children a story they chose for themselves. Moreover, in the harsh reality and sometimes loss of values outside, Korczak tried his best to educate children in honesty and truth.
Korczak’s diary in the ghetto records his constant struggle to provide food and medicine for the growing number of children under his care. Although he himself was beginning to struggle with his health, Korczak spent most of his time seeking donations and delivering food back to the children’s home. His diary also describes how he tried to preserve the children’s mental and emotional well-being. The small staff tried to maintain the semblance of a normal daily routine at home even in the terrible conditions of the ghetto. They kept children focused on learning and organized lectures, concerts, and theatrical performances.
On July 18, 1942, a performance of Rabindranath Tagore’s play “The Post Office” was held at the orphanage, prepared and performed by the children. Korczak justified the choice of theme by the need to prepare children for a dignified and conscious death. At the end of July 1942, German authorities began mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to death at the Treblinka killing center. Polish friends of Korczak outside the ghetto offered to help him avoid deportation by hiding him or providing him with false documents. However, Korczak did not consider the possibility of leaving. He and his staff decided not to try to save themselves but to continue caring for the children as long as they could.
On the morning of August 5 or 6, 1942, German authorities deported residents of all children’s homes in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the morning, German police suddenly arrived and ordered Korczak’s staff to evacuate their building. Korczak, Wilczyńska, and the rest of the small staff quickly gathered the children outside. With the help of their devoted caregivers, nearly two hundred children walked through the crowded streets of the ghetto to the Umschlagplatz (deportation site). Korczak and the staff tried not to let the children panic. Eyewitness accounts describe the group’s march through the ghetto as orderly and dignified.
According to some eyewitnesses, when the group of orphans finally reached the Umschlagplatz, a German officer recognized Korczak as the author of one of his favorite children’s books (“King Matt the First”) and offered to help him escape, but Korczak refused his offer. The story has several variants, for example, that he received an official deferment from German authorities; its authenticity has also been questioned. Whatever the offer was, Korczak again refused. He boarded the trains with the children, about two hundred of them, and about twelve staff members, including Stefania Wilczyńska.
Witnesses described this last march as something incredible. Joshua Perle, an eyewitness whose wartime records were preserved in the Ringelblum Archive, described the procession of Korczak and the children through the ghetto to the Umschlagplatz: “Janusz Korczak walked with his head bowed forward, holding a child’s hand, without a hat, with a leather belt around his waist and in high boots. Behind several nurses followed two hundred children, dressed in clean and carefully maintained clothing, as if they were being carried to an altar.”
After arriving at the Umschlagplatz, Korczak and his staff boarded the cars with the children. These trains carried the deportees to the Treblinka killing center, which was about sixty miles northeast of Warsaw. Conditions in these hot and overcrowded cattle cars were extremely dangerous for exhausted and sick people packed tightly inside. Many people died on these deportation trains. Virtually all Jews who survived the deadly journey from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka in the summer of 1942 were killed shortly after arrival. The children and their caregivers were almost certainly all killed on the day of arrival at Treblinka.
The connection between Masonic principles and Korczak’s pedagogical system becomes particularly evident in detailed analysis of his methods. His pedagogical vision and educational philosophy were based on the conviction that all teachers should form their identity, striving to educate the child in a way devoid of any national, religious, or political influence. The pursuit of equality, democracy, justice, and truth was a moral educational goal.
The first idea is his understanding of the child as a complete human being at every stage of his life. “There is no pedagogy,” he said, “there is only anthropology.” Korczak saw before him not a child, but only a human being. In education, we deal with people, not with another species. Children are people, not in the future, not in coming days, but here and now. As such, they deserve our respect, love, and support.
Korczak expressed his trust in the child’s forces and his ability to grow and gain increasing control over his life. Korczak believed in democracy and in children’s ability to learn to master a rational way of life. Korczak tried in his orphanages to build a unique system of growing children’s democracy, including a parliament, a code of laws, a peer court, and a public newspaper. Children in the orphanage were citizens of a democratic community and had a voice in many aspects of their lives. Conflicts were to be resolved through dialogue and in a rational manner showing respect for children and their genuine sense of justice.
However, Korczak had no romantic illusions about the nature of children, their ability to solve all life’s problems, and their democratic virtues. Democracy is something people must gradually learn to master.
Three basic rights of children are mentioned in Korczak’s work “How to Love a Child”: the right to death, the right to today, and the right to be who he is. The first right is unclear: the child has the right to live, but why does he have the right to die? This can be understood against the background of Korczak’s writings and the dramatic social setting in which a child’s death was common. Korczak says that fear of death prevents us from enjoying life and living a full life. Fear of death can overshadow life. Life is always risky. Therefore, if we are constantly afraid of what will happen, we will not allow our children to live a full life. So, Korczak’s teaching is that we must trust life and accept the risks it entails. The individuality of each child is the cornerstone of Korczak’s education. Each child is a unique personality with unique needs that we must respect.
Research suggests that all of Korczak’s ideas and practices fit into the context of Greek philosophy, and Korczak appears as a modern Stoic. His Stoicism provides the foundation for the idea of children’s dignity and children’s rights as a direct result of this dignity. In the infinity of the cosmos, there is no hierarchy of being. In this context, children have rights, like any other person.
The influence of Masonic ideas on Korczak’s literary work becomes evident when analyzing his works. Korczak left a rich literary legacy. His overall literary work spans the period from 1896 to August 8, 1942. It includes works for both children and adults and includes literary works, social journalism, articles and pedagogical essays, as well as some fragments of unpublished works, totaling more than twenty books, more than fourteen hundred texts published in about one hundred publications, and about three hundred texts in handwritten or typewritten form.
Korczak’s “The Stubborn Boy” was a biography of French scientist Louis Pasteur, adapted for children—as indicated in the preface—from a six hundred and eighty-five-page French biography that Korczak read. The book is clearly aimed at presenting Pasteur as a role model for the young reader. A significant part of the book is devoted to Pasteur’s childhood and adolescence, his relationships with parents, teachers, and classmates. It is emphasized that Pasteur, destined for world fame, began with unfavorable circumstances—born to poor working-class parents in an unknown French provincial town and attending a far from high-quality school. There he was far from a stellar student, his grades often falling below average. As Korczak repeatedly emphasized, Pasteur’s achievements, both in childhood and in his later academic and scientific career, were mainly due to persistence (as hinted in the title), tireless and ultimately successful efforts to overcome his limitations and early failures.
Among his works for children, the most famous are: “Moshes, Joshkes, and Srulis” (1909), “Juziks, Jashkes, and Frankis” (1910), “King Matt the First” (1922), “King Matt on a Desert Island” (1923), “Little Jack’s Bankruptcy” (1924), “When I Am Little Again” (1925). Naturalistic social novels: “Street Children” (1901), “The Child of the Drawing Room” (1906), social satires—”Trinkets” (1905), dramatic works such as “Senate of Madmen” (1931).
His radio work deserves special attention in the context of Masonic influence. Korczak conducted a radio program under the pseudonym “Old Doctor,” where he promoted and popularized children’s rights. His way of speaking, honesty, and ease of expression attracted not only young listeners but also older ones. He was simultaneously a doctor, writer, and educator. The popularity of his books and radio shows brought him literary recognition and wide fame; he participated in various events, sat on the boards of several organizations, and gave public lectures.
Korczak’s connection with theosophy through Masonic channels manifested in his regular visits to the Mezonin estate in Pudlice. There he spent time with Tokarżewski and had lengthy discussions with him. He, an ardent pacifist, allegedly made an exception for Tokarżewski, whom he loved and valued. Korczak remained in Freemasonry until the time of its decline in Poland. In November 1938, Polish Freemasonry, anticipating the authorities’ decision on the illegality of Masonic lodges, itself decided to dissolve. Nine months later, the war began.
The influence of Masonic principles on the Israeli educational system through Korczak’s legacy represents a unique case of transformation of esoteric ideas into practical pedagogical methods. In 1934 and 1936, Korczak made trips to Mandatory Palestine and visited its kibbutzim. The educational and social philosophy of the kibbutz movement made a great impression on Korczak. Kibbutzim perceive education as an important component of their way of life, focusing their educational goals on holistic connection with the community. They present children’s education as a microcosm of the entire adult society of the kibbutz.
Collective child-rearing was an educational method that prevailed in collective communities in Israel (kibbutz; plural: kibbutzim), approximately until the end of the 1980s. Collective education began from birth and continued until adulthood. At that time, this was considered a natural result of the principle of equality, which was an integral part of kibbutz life. The educational authority of the kibbutz was responsible for raising and welfare of all children born in the kibbutz, caring for their food, clothing, and medical treatment. Everyone received the same share of everything. Parents did not participate economically in raising their children.
Non-selectivity was a fundamental principle of collective education; every child received twelve years of education, they took no tests at all, and no grades were recorded. The founders of the kibbutz actually sought to create a “new man” of a utopian society. The kibbutz was a collective community, and so was its educational system. The kibbutz authorities provided equally for all children born to its members, and they shared everything equally.
The founders of collective education believed that providing children with independence from their family liberates the family from the economic and social burden that might otherwise distort children’s development. The family was neither the sole nor the main focus in children’s education, as they had educators and the entire kibbutz for support. While the child’s emotional needs were met by his family, physical well-being, healthcare, and education in general were entrusted to the expertise of educators.
Contemporary Israeli pedagogy continues to bear the imprint of Korczakian, and through them—Masonic principles. In 1987, the Hadera Democratic School was founded in Israel, the first school in the world to call itself democratic. Thanks to the school’s success, many democratic schools were created throughout Israel. Schools that operated on democratic principles existed throughout the last century (Janusz Korczak’s children’s home, Summerhill, and Sudbury School—a few examples) under different names (alternative, open, free schools, etc.).
Most democratic schools maintain the following principles: democratic community—the school is governed by democratic institutions. Decision-making and implementation is carried out by the entire school community. Choice—each student chooses what, how, when, and where to study. Dialogical self-assessment—without tests and grades. Age mixing—life and learning in school occur in multi-age settings. Egalitarian and dialogue-based discourse—between staff and students. Curricula are taught from a human rights perspective.
The Israeli Educational Institute of Janusz Korczak plays a key role in preserving and developing his legacy. The “Israel Reads Korczak” project was created to transmit to the young generation in Israel the values of human dignity, democracy, humanism, pluralism, and much more—values that Janusz Korczak believed in and that were the foundation of his work. The educational project, led by the Israeli Educational Institute of Janusz Korczak, the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, the Moreshet Center, the Israeli Ministry of Education, and others, aims to transmit the agenda, values, and ideas of Janusz Korczak to the young generation in Israel.
The Civic Education and Coexistence Headquarters is a partner in the volunteer project “Israel Reads Korczak,” initiated by the Korczak Educational Institute in Israel in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Israel. The project aims to promote the same values according to which Korczak lived and worked, and which are the essence of the Civic Education and Coexistence Headquarters. The project is based on short videos in which people from all corners of Israeli society read short stories written by Janusz Korczak. The role of the Civic Education and Coexistence Headquarters in the project is to develop lesson plans that combine democratic and civic values and open a window into Korczak’s educational doctrine from a civic perspective.
In 2017, the Early Childhood Education Department of the Israeli Ministry of Education developed the “kindergarten of the future” approach, which emphasizes the importance of socio-cultural relationships and meaningful learning through knowledge construction. Key elements of this approach are based on Haas pedagogy, which demonstrates the influence of Korczakian principles. Malka Haas was a key pioneer in founding Israeli kibbutz kindergartens, and she profoundly influenced both the curriculum and practice of early childhood education for the entire country.
Contemporary research in Israeli universities continues to study Korczak’s influence. Results show that the freer a teacher feels able to work in the educational system, the greater the satisfaction. This trend was evident across all three criteria of satisfaction: decision-making, general satisfaction, and satisfaction with students. Results show that teachers and principals see their role as depicted in works of art that perpetuate Korczak and his educational work. This teacher, educational leader, and visionary remains relevant to this day, and perhaps now more than ever.
Academic research in Israeli universities includes doctoral dissertations devoted to Korczak. A doctoral student in the Philosophy Department of Bar-Ilan University with a master’s degree in history and philosophy of education from Tel Aviv University devotes his doctoral dissertation to Korczak through the prism of the concept of childhood. Former chairman of the International Janusz Korczak Association (2005-2018), academic consultant of the “Avichail” experimental school, founder of the “Israeli Educational Institute of Janusz Korczak,” founder and active member of the “Educational Spirit of Janusz Korczak” initiative in Israel continue to develop his legacy.
The European dimension of Korczak’s Masonic heritage also deserves attention. The European Academy of Janusz Korczak has been a Jewish foundation since 2009, open to broader society. Its goal is to strengthen the Jewish community by transmitting knowledge, opening it up and reducing fear of contact in all directions. The academy has earned a reputation as an experienced and competent partner for young and old in educational work, with a special focus on Jewish cultural education and interfaith or intercultural dialogue. The academy has three educational centers, so-called Janusz Korczak Houses, in Munich, Berlin, and Duisburg.
The Dutch Janusz Korczak Association works to promote the respectful, democratic education proposed by Janusz Korczak, demonstrating the global spread of his ideas through Masonic networks and educational institutions.
Research on community influence on education shows the uniqueness of community aspects in kibbutz education. Michaeli (2012) identified social pedagogy as a distinctive feature of kibbutz education, in which educational efforts positively influence social reality. Recognition of the centrality of community emphasizes the importance of developing educational models that are sensitive to local cultural contexts rather than applying universal global standards.
Research data showed the uniqueness of community aspects in kibbutz education. Research results showed that Israeli educators from all three ecologies were characterized as viewing community as child-centered but extending beyond the kindergarten itself, contrasting with what is common among teachers in other parts of the world, where community participation is limited to parents helping their children with academic tasks.
Korczak’s legacy continues to inspire contemporary educators and researchers. Despite growing recognition, this renewed interest in Korczak has often not included Polish research; increasingly leaving Polish scholarship and even Korczak’s texts themselves isolated from discourse. Therefore, to reveal the problem of Korczak’s absence in contemporary academic environment and discourse on children’s rights, it is necessary to consider the positive and negative influence of Lifton’s biography on Korczak scholarship as a causal mechanism.
The aim of research is to place Korczak back by historically situating his ideas in his city of Warsaw and the intelligentsia of that time. This demonstrates that Korczak’s critical pedagogy and work outside state power position him today as a radical pedagogue. Historically, he can be aligned with the ideas of specific social movements, particularly anarchist theories. Instead of uniformity of ideas, Warsaw intelligentsia at the turn of the twentieth century, both Polish and Jewish, was a democratic network with different people united in tactical cooperation for the struggle to build a nation.
Korczak’s legacy remains relevant to the contemporary world. When UNESCO declared 1979 the “Year of the Child,” it also called it the “Year of Janusz Korczak” in commemoration of the centenary of his birth. He has been compared to Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Socrates. Books have been written about his life and educational theories. Korczak was an innovator of the educational system, the first to conclude that a child has the same rights as an adult. He saw the child not as a being needing help, but as a personality in itself.
Korczak’s influence on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was significant. In 1959, the United Nations adopted the second Declaration of the Rights of the Child, but it was not legally binding and did not provide procedures for ensuring its implementation. Notably, during the Year of the Child (1979), it was Poland that proposed developing a convention based on a text clearly inspired by Korczak’s teaching. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. It took countries more than fifty years to develop “rights” that Korczak had already outlined in his books.
Korczak’s thinking had a profound impact on the development of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and continues to influence Council of Europe programs friendly to children. Korczak’s message was about respect for children, respect for their inherent value as human beings, as well as for their abilities and competence. Although he constantly practiced as a physician and helped in children’s homes, he was also a writer.
The story of Janusz Korczak the Freemason is a story of how ancient esoteric teachings can find practical embodiment in concrete human activity. It is a tale of the courage to be true to one’s principles even when the entire world plunges into chaos and madness. It is testimony that true brotherhood knows no boundaries of race, nation, or religion, uniting people in their striving for truth, beauty, and goodness. His pedagogical principles, inspired by Masonic ideals of equality, brotherhood, and spiritual perfection, continue to influence educational systems around the world, from Israeli kibbutzim to European democratic schools, creating a living legacy of a man who managed to unite in his personality mystic and practitioner, thinker and activist, cosmopolitan and patriot.
Authoritative Sources:
Archival and Museum Collections:
- Warsaw University Archives — personal file of Henryk Goldszmit, 1898-1905
- Polish Masonic Archives — documents of the “Sea Star” lodge, 1925-1938
- International Order “Le Droit Humain” materials, Poland section, 1920-1938
- Yad Vashem Archives — materials on Janusz Korczak and educational programs
- Ghetto Fighters Museum Archives (Beit Lohamei Hagetaot) — documents on Korczak’s stay in Palestine
- Kibbutz Ein Harod Archives — documents on Korczak’s visits 1934-1936
- Arolsen Archives — correspondence about Dr. Janusz Korczak and 200 children from the orphanage
- Ringelblum Archive — eyewitness testimonies of the last march
Academic Monographs and Biographies:
- Lifton, Betty Jean. “The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak.” New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988
- Olczak-Ronikier, Joanna. “Korczak. An Attempt at Biography.” Warsaw: WAB, 2011
- Shner, Moshe. “Janusz Korczak and Yitzhak Katznelson: Two Educators in the Abysses of History.” Tel Aviv: Mofet Institute, 2022
- Silverman, Marc. “The Child is a Person: Janusz Korczak’s Educational Thought.” Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 2022
- Cohen, Adir. “The Gate of Light: Janusz Korczak: The Educator and Writer Who Overcame the Holocaust.” London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1994
- Bernheim, Mark. “Father of the Orphans: The Story of Janusz Korczak.” New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989
Academic Articles and Research:
- Galily, Daniel. “Janusz Korczak as a Freemason.” Journal NotaBene, 2022
- Wójtowicz, Norbert. “Freemasonry in Poland, formerly and today.” La Heroldo, September 2003
- “Janusz Korczak as perceived in education and art.” Tandfonline, full text article, 2021
- “Why Children have Rights: Children Rights in Janusz Korczak’s Education Philosophy.” The International Journal of Children’s Rights, Volume 26, Issue 4, 2018
- “‘Re-Placing’ Janusz Korczak: Education as a Socio-Political Struggle.” Academia.edu, 2022
- “Our Home: Janusz Korczak’s Experiments in Democracy.” Dr Basia Vucic, Academia.edu, 2022
Museum and Educational Sources:
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia — article on Janusz Korczak
- Treblinka Museum — educational materials and biographical data
- Janusz Korczak Institute, Warsaw — archival materials and research
- Israeli Educational Institute of Janusz Korczak — contemporary programs and research
- Korczak Digital Repository, Warsaw University — documents on Masonic membership
Documents and Primary Sources:
- Korczak, Janusz. “Ghetto Diary.” New York: Holocaust Library, 1978
- Korczak, Janusz. “How to Love a Child and Other Selected Works.” Elstree: Vallentine Mitchell, 2018
- Korczak, Janusz. “The Child’s Right to Respect.” Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1998
- Korczak, Janusz. “Selected Works” (English translations). Includes “How to Love a Child”, “The Child’s Right to Respect”, “Educational Moments”
- Perlis, Y. “Final Chapter: Korczak in the Warsaw Ghetto.” Tel Aviv: Ghetto Fighters Museum, 1980
Specialized Educational Research:
- “Teacher education in Israel: a fifty-year journey (1974–2024).” Journal of Education for Teaching, 2024
- “A Life Full of Meaning: The Lifework and Educational Approach of Malka Haas.” Tandfonline, 2024
- “Attitudes of Israeli Early Childhood Educators.” Children & Society, Wiley Online Library
- “Kibbutz communal child rearing and collective education.” Wikipedia (with academic sources), 2025
- “Education in Israel: An Introduction.” Jewish Virtual Library
Masonic and Theosophical Sources:
- Theosophical Society of Poland — materials on the Mezonin estate in Pudlice, 1925–1938
- Le Droit Humain Federation Poland — documents on the activities of the “Sea Star” lodge
- European Academy of Janusz Korczak — research materials and educational programs
- Grand Orient of Poland — historical documents on Polish Freemasonry
- “Freemasonry in Poland, formerly and today.” Academia.edu, 2015
Contemporary Educational Projects:
- Polish Institute in Tel Aviv — “Israel is Reading Korczak” project, 2021
- Israeli Ministry of Education — civic education programs using Korczak’s ideas
- Israeli Civic Education and Coexistence Headquarters — Korczak lesson plans
- Israeli Education Center — materials on contemporary Israeli education
- Institute for Democratic Education in Israel — research on democratic schools
International Academic Centers:
- Tel Aviv University, School of Education — dissertation research on Korczak
- Hebrew University Jerusalem, School of Education — works on philosophy of education
- Bar-Ilan University, Department of Philosophy — doctoral dissertation on Korczak through the prism of childhood concept
- Levinsky Academic College — research on early childhood education
- Kibbutzim College — research on teacher training
Reference and Encyclopedic Sources:
- Encyclopedia Judaica — article “Korczak, Janusz”
- Jewish Virtual Library — biographical article on Janusz Korczak
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — materials on Korczak and history of education
- Holocaust Memorial Day Trust — educational materials on Korczak
- Culture.pl — articles on Polish culture and history of Freemasonry
Contemporary Research Centers:
- IMPACT-se — research on educational systems and tolerance
- Center for Israeli Studies — materials on contemporary Israeli society
- Institute for the Study of Israel — grants and research on contemporary Israel
- Israel Center for Educational Innovation (ICEI) — school transformation programs
- Alma Research and Education Center — security and education research in northern Israel
