Polish city displays two faces to its few Jews
One side of Poland is educating about Jewish history, while another still demonize them, along with gays.
By The Forward and Donald Snyder Tags: Jewish World Israel news Poland anti-SemitismA crucifix hangs on the back wall of the classroom at the Franciscan school. Beneath it stands a menorah - an unusual sight in devoutly Catholic Poland.
The Higher School of Hebrew Philology, located in Torun, Poland, is a new three-year private college that opened last October. It?s making history, offering a program of study that is unique in Poland.
Founded by a Franciscan monk, the school?s purpose is to instruct Poles in Jewish subjects that include Hebrew, Yiddish and the history of Judaism. There are no Jewish students in the school, as there are few left in the country. But its Polish students are brimming with enthusiasm for their subject.
Two miles away, a starkly different message is broadcast daily throughout Poland. On the other side of the Vistula River, which runs through this north-central city halfway between Warsaw and Gdansk, is Radio Maryja, an ultra-conservative Catholic radio station listened to, according to one survey, by an estimated 15% of the country's adults.
Other researchers put the number lower, but large enough to have a major effect on national elections. Its broadcasts demonize Jews and gay men and lesbians, and oppose Poland's membership in the European Union. The radio station, which is run by the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Redemptorist priest, has been broadcasting its signal across Poland for 17 years.
Torun, it seems, is a city of two tales. A medieval town of 200,000 and the birthplace of the astronomer Copernicus, it exemplifies in many ways the juncture at which the country as a whole stands today: poised between an identity that is xenophobic and defensive about its past, and another that is more open to the world and willing to explore some of its own most difficult and sensitive historical corners.
It is in Torun that both of Poland?s political faces are most vividly on display.
Radio Maryja appeals to older Poles, the rural and less educated, and others who feel left behind by Poland?s rapid post-communist transformation.
Its programs exploit listeners? fears that Poland's new capitalist democracy undermines their traditional Catholic way of life. Jews and Masons are demonized as threatening outside forces.
In 2007, Polish president Lech Kaczynski considered a potential government compensation deal on confiscated property that would benefit, among others, Jews and their heirs who lost property during the Holocaust. Rydzyk swiftly denounced the president as a "fraudster who is in the pockets of the Jewish lobby," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
"Having an enemy unifies them," said Szymon Spandouski, a reporter for the Torun newspaper Nowosci.
Despite its claim to uphold traditional Catholic values, Pope Benedict XVI has criticized Radio Maryja for meddling in politics. Stanislaw Dziwisz, the cardinal of Krakow, has called on the nation's bishops to replace Rydzik with a new governing board for the station to avert ?a dangerous crisis in the church.? But the badly divided Polish bishops have failed to act. Many support Rydzik.
Antisemitism continues to exist in Poland. Yet for all that, in Torun there is little support for Radio Maryja, especially among the 40,000 predominantly liberal students at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Jacek Holub, a reporter who covers Torun for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest newspaper, told me that some graffiti inscriptions in town read, "Torun apologizes for Radio Maryja."
Some see the establishment of the Higher School of Hebrew Philology as countering this negative image. But Father Maksymin Tandek, its founder and director, says that was not his intention. He emphasizes instead the positive impact he hopes his school will have in Poland.
Tandek, 43, explained that the school had its genesis in 2000 when, in realization of a lifelong dream, he received permission to study at a Franciscan school in Jerusalem for three years.
"When I stood on the rooftop of our school in the Old City, I fell in love with Israel and did not want to leave it," he told me as we sat next to a fireplace on a cold, rainy day. "I felt honored that I could touch the roots of our religion and our cultural identity when I was in the Holy Land."
Tandek returned to Poland, determined to find a way to share his love for Israel with young Poles. He wanted to teach them the importance of dialogue between Christians and Jews in the hope that this would prevent bigotry in Poland.
Most of the students at the school have had minimal contact with Jews, mainly because there are so few, only 15,000 left today in this Catholic country with a population of 38.5 million.
Before the Holocaust, there were 3.3 million Jews in Poland. Some 3 million perished in the Holocaust, and most of the survivors left. Many fled after the postwar pogrom in Kielce on July 4, 1946, when Poles murdered more than 40 Jews. Others emigrated when the Communist Party pressured them to leave in 1968. Only two Jews remain in Torun.
"Now, after the Holocaust, Jews and Poles know even less about each other," said Spandouski, who often writes about Jewish-Christian relations.
Tandek?s school is helping to close this gap for the generation of young Poles that has come of age since the collapse of communism in 1989. This generation is the first in the postwar period to learn about Poland?s rich Jewish history and to learn the unvarnished truth about the decimation of this population during the Holocaust.
The former communist government fed the Polish people a distorted version of this history.
Upon his return from Israel, Tandek launched a campaign to establish the school he envisioned. His project had the blessing of the both the Vatican and the Polish Catholic Church. He also secured the support of the Torun City Council. The school receives funding from the city of Torun, the EU and private contributors.
Rivka Halperin, a middle-aged Israeli scholar, is the school's director of Hebrew language and literature studies. A petite woman who moves around the classroom with the same vigor as her much younger students, Halperin easily switches back and forth between Hebrew and Polish, the language she spoke as a child with her Polish parents, who immigrated to Israel.
Halperin is motivated to teach at the school because a Catholic family in Warsaw hid her mother during the Holocaust. She has kept in touch with the family that saved her mother's life. She hopes her work will help young Poles learn more about Poland's Jewish past.
"This renewal of interest in Jewish culture is close to my heart," Halperin said, noting the widespread interest in Poland?s Jewish history among young people. She said that they keep asking: 'If there is a Jewish history, what happened? Where are the Jews'"
Her students spoke with me about their Jewish education when I visited their classroom.
"I felt that I was missing something in Christianity, and I wanted to go back to its roots," said Anna Turczanik. "Now I am beginning to understand Christianity?s connection to Judaism, and I am finally seeing my religion's beginnings in Judaism."
Veronika Klimova, a student from neighboring Ukraine, said that learning about Judaism has better equipped her to respond to the antisemitism rife in her homeland. "Much bigotry is based on ignorance," she explained.Paulina Przyziolkowska wants to be able to translate Yiddish stories that were written during the Holocaust into Polish.
"A whole Jewish culture disappeared from this country during the Holocaust," a male student observed. "It is our obligation to find out why."
At the moment, makeshift quarters in the monastery can accommodate only 20 students. The school will soon move into a newly constructed building that is on the same property and able to accommodate many more students interested in Christianity's Jewish roots and the rich 1,000-year history of Jews in Poland.
"Tandek shows that some Polish churches offer progressive ideas that differ from those that come from the other side of the Vistula," said Jan Wyrowinski, who is a friend of the monk and is also a senator who represents the region in the Polish Sejm, or Parliament, in a nod toward the neighboring broadcast signal sending its message across Poland.
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Dear Donna, We have definitely different experience from Poland. You observed anti-Semitism. I did not noticed it until I came to Canada. I had Jewish friends at school and on universities. I have not treat them differently from other Poles. I never heard any negative meaning of word Zyd. I watched Jewish theatre, I enjoyed Jewish actors, musicians, writers. Definitely I was not along and my relation to Jews of my age were shared but all my friends and people close to me. The question is why was so different perception by you and some Jews I am meeting now? Why people has changed on both sites? What caused the change? Why we are going further and further apart? Is it any way to stop that spiral? My opinion is that we need to read our grievances. Exchange the views. Try to understand the other site. This is why am on this site.
Dear Winsor I'm so very happy and excited to observe so many positive and promissing changes in polish mentality regarding Jewish people,history and culture. But please dont lecture me about meaning of word "antisemitism." I sensed, felt,experience antisemitism every day all my life growing up in Poland. To this day I avoid word "Zyd "beacause the meaning is terribly offensive and insulting to me.
Yad Vashen, the US Holocaust museum and others attest to the role of the Poles and their fight against German Nazism. Even though Hitler's Germany targeted Poles for slave labor or death, they continued to resist and help Jews escape. Hitler had indicated the German army should kill ".....without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language." Two million ethnic, non-Jewish Poles and three million Jewish Poles were killed. There were Poles that cooperated with the Germans as there were some Jews that did so also. But neither represented the majority. Bitter prejudice based on emotions is not and should not be the heritage we pass on to survivors and their children.
Colin Wright wrote: "five out of six Italian Jews survived the war". That's outrageous. How you can compare those two countries. 1.Only in Poland when a Jew was found hiding the whole family was shot. 2.The whole Poland was like a concentration camp. People were randomly shot on streets. In Warsaw alone some days thousands were executed. 3.Poles were sent to concentration camps even before Hitler started its final solution. 4.Poland was the only country without collaborated national government and without army cooperating with Germans. (as it was in other countries: France, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Ukraine, and so on) 5.Polish Army was the forth army in anti-Nazi coalition (before France). 6.During the WWII 6mln Polish citizens lost their lives (including 3mln Polish Jews). I can go on and on to proof that your accusation is outrageous. Your comparison confirms your lack of knowledge of sufferings of Poles during WWII. Probably yourhistory of J-P relation is also distorte
Dear Donna, I agree with you that in order to understand complicated history of relations between Jews and Christians you need to read documents and take into considerations facts. Unfortunately many facts are not published or published with distortion. Based on those distorted information you assume that a small number of Jews took part in UB. In fact look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urz%C4%85d_Bezpiecze%C5%84stwa for list of most notable MBP personnel. Also, you as well as many other Jews use the word "anti-Semitism" defining any person presenting a point of view different from yours. I read many books about anti-Semitism. All of them blamed gentiles. However, as always, both parties should take responsibilities. Polish Government in the name of Polish people apologized for small group of Poles. We,Poles, haven't heard anything from the other site. Just opposite, everywhere I can find false accusations and generalization, and insults. This happens 3 generations later. See #28
Number of diccent Poles helped Jews , but majority of Poles killed, raped and helped Germans to kill 3 million Polish Jews. Even Jews who escaped from getto's, or concentration camps had no chance to survive. The were killed by Polish peasants. Ukrainians,Latvians are the same criminal nations as Poles.
Dear Donna, I agree with you that in order to understand complicated history of relations between Jews and Christinas you need to read documents and take into cosiderations facts. Unfortunatly many facts are not poblished or published with distortion. Based on those distorted information you assume that a small number of Jews took part in UB. In fact look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urz%C4%85d_Bezpiecze%C5%84stwa for list of most notable MBP personnel. Also, you as well as many Jews use the word "anti-Semitism" defining any person presenting a point of view different from yours. I read many books about anti-Semitism all of them blaimed gentails. However, as always, both parties should take responsibilites. Polish Government in the name of Polish people apologized for small group of Poles. We have'nt heard anything from the other site. If you read documents and check facts there are also some sins of the same scale on the other site.
what anyone can realize from saying "they were prepetrators of heinous crimes". Mr Curious, in this special logics of "they", Poles were too the perpetrators of heinous crimes. And your attempts to explain hundreds of years of antisemitic instigation done by the clerics of the church (which I belong to too...) by the fact that _some_ Jews were communist... let me collect this as a good joke. Mr Curious, if you brand the hawkish part of PZPR under the wings of Gomulka and Moczar - who instigated this purge - as someone who has a shred of moral credence to cleanse an ethnic group from the country, then let me only hope that the young generation will not be poisoned by such blindness. Not only they were worse and should be prosecuted themselves.Did you realize mr Curious,that the escapees were also spouses,children?University professors?clerks?writers?Was the antisemitic atmosphere directed against commies or against a r.a.c.e., mr. Curiosity ?
Dear Courius I advise you to go back to history documents: this is another well orchestraded antisemitic propaganda: only small precentage of Jews were members of communist organizations and UB,compare to others ( Poles and Russian)
" ...why not speaking about the antisemitic campaign in 68,where some 10000+ of remaining Jews were pushed out?" Were they ordinary Jewish Poles still living in Poland? No, the purge was inflicted on only Jewish communist functionaries and the PZPR (Polish communist party) had a "good" reason to purge themselves in an attempt to regain the remains of the public trust, if any, after the UB excesses in years 1945-1956. You qouted a large number +10000 yourself. If most of the Jews perished in Poland, were did they spring up from and all occupying high government positions to boot? Jedwane, Kielce are only a few examples of Jewish polonophobia propangandized by the likes of Gross. Anyway, without an honest review of complex Jewish-Polish relations, there will continue (so incorrectly called) anti-semitism. Jews were not the victims only. They were perpetrators of heinous crimes and do not cry foul that people, Radio Maryja 2010, the Catholic church are not silent about the hist
Dear Walter, I am docked there for 4 months already, and it is precisely the freedom of opinions, their variety, and (as I think) some decent average level of discourse which appears to me so attractive. I think, despite the main language is Polish, anyone speaking English who might be interested in the topic, would like to just ask some questions or share some thoughts, will be welcome (that's what I guess and hope). Most should speak English, some may speak Hebrew. Best regards btw. I tried to answer to Mr. Curious' remarks two times but was blocked. No idea why.
Thats an issue that has not been dealt with properly, among Jews, for obvious reasons. However, if Jews don't eventually write an accurate history book, they may eventually not write any history books. Ignoring Israeli (and anti-semitic) propaganda, there is no such thing as a crime committed "by a Jew", nor "by a nazi" either. A crime is committed by a person, and when you gather a bunch of criminals together, some will turn out better than bad, others worse than good.
#7, (your link forumfzp.net can be typed in google (english) then on the right side is "translate this page"). The linked site the614thcs.com has a respectable "practical" tone that is lacking in mainstream English sites that are politically neutral. From all appearances, the current Jewish community of Poland is closer to the name Israel than the country that uses that name. It is ironic that some people consider the Israeli settlers, who are willing to use violence and authority to get land, as defending some higher value.
there really are few Jews left of Europe - even in France, most are sephardic from North Africa -
To Dan, This is the first time I hear such opinion about Polish antisemitism. My proffessor and other Jewish friends go to Poland at least once a year and never faced this situation, I know from my experiance that my Jewish brothers and sister are tought from early years to hate Poles which acually raises anisemitism. The fact is that there are so many of us who truerly love thair Jewish brothers but get very angry with similiar opinions as yours Dan. All my best to you Dan and my Jewish brothers.
It is surely joke, official research (Millward Brown SMG/KRC) give to the radio 1,9 the market share. ONE point NINE!!
Mr Curious,from your 1st talkback you seem not to notice,that this article talks about Torun as of 2010,and not Polish-Jewish interactions as of 1945-56.I am just _curious_,why your narrative of 800-years long relations focused explicitly on those 10 years?If even I bow to your special logic,what about widening the scope to 40 years,to discuss the massive campaign of antisemitism instigated by some of catholic church (and I confess catholicism,let me say this),universities witnessed Numerus Clausus,bench ghetto and about 100 Jewish deaths in 37-39,then let's move to pogroms of Jedwabne and surroundings,and the post-war killing of some 1000+ Jews in actions including Kielce pogrom and the "train action"?Not avoiding your legitimate reproaches,why not speaking about the antisemitic campaign in 68,where some 10000+ of remaining Jews were pushed out? And the last question, just out of curiosity: what the heck drives you to rehash 60-years stories when the article was about Torun of 2010?
Denial is not a river in Egypt. To give one example, the Germans occupied Italy in 1943 -- and five out of six Italian Jews survived the war.
from the clutches of postwar Polish UB Jewish henchmen (Berman, Rozanski, Feijgin, Bristiger, Wolinska, Minc etc, etc) ? All seem to empathize with martyred Jews. Many even say martyred by Polish Nazi's. What about the forgotten holocaust of Poles? Just curious.
If I published an article talking about how Jews in Poland were two-faced when interacting with the goyish population, I'm pretty sure most of you could recognize that as being problematic. Why then is it acceptable to write this about the Poles?
Over 25% of the Righteous of the Nations identified in Yad Vashen are Poles. Hitler had indicated the German army should kill ".....without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language." In doing this, the "living space" would be provided for the Germans which they needed. Despite this threat, gentile Poles risked their lives to save Jews. The Poles never cooperated with the German Nazis nor did they set up a puppet government like all the other European nations.
having visited Lodz a few month back and stayed there for a weekend , we where all shocked at the amount of shouting and sneering that were directed at us while walking the streets , i must say i travel in Europe a lot and have never seen such open anti antisemitism in any other city .the police though where helpful and even nice .
In thousand years history, Poland usually got in trouble with Jews.
Marek, Janusz, and other good souls, there are bad Poles as there are bad Jews. But to most Jewish people who know history, the Poles are heroes! Courageous and long-suffering Poland, you will not be forgotten by the Jewish people.
Yes, mr/ms Curious, it is all true. So what? What does it change? Stalin was Georgian, from the Soviet Republic of Georgia (Gruziya). He killed million of people of many nationalities. Don't go into demonizing national and/or religious groups just because some of them were not as good ppeople as they could have been.
Thank you, Marek. During the first 20 years of life in Poland, I met a lot of people like Maryja Radio. Thank you Marek! The world needs open minded people. Dziekuje.
Jews and Poles relations: - Cooperating w/ Soviet Bolsheviks (most of them Jews) in defeating Poland in 1939. - Terrorizing Poles by the Stalin installed communist Jewish post-war government in Poland. Hundreds of thousands of patriotic Poles martyred. - Kielce, a notorious example of the UB (Security Department) driven provocation enabling/forcing Jewish emmigration of population starved Zionist state in Palestine. and on and on.
The article presents the two waves of emotions in Poland: suspicious/xenophobic and open/tolerant. I think the times see a slow but steady change for better. Not only for Jews, but for anyone 'different' than the bulk. Actually the stated number of 15000 Jews is unclear to me, as much depends on how loose or strict you define a Jew. For an antisemite everyone having a Jewish grandfather is a Jew, even if he(she) had no connection to Jewishness and spoke always Polish. For an orthodox, of course the Halakha is the only roadsign. I think, due to many factors in history, there are many more people identifying themselves as having the "J" inside their hearts, despite they don't have the Jewish mother or e.g. are catholic (like me). Having Jewish roots increasingly becomes something of emotional importance, and internet only helps. And, I'd forget: the Polish Jews are alive and kicking - we have our e-forums, just like forumfzp.net :)
You state,truly "Many fled after the postwar pogrom in Kielce on July 4, 1946, when Poles murdered more than 40 Jews.." and continue, misleadingly "Others emigrated when the Communist Party pressured them to leave in 1968." The biggest single orchestrated emigration wave was, in fact 1957. Approx 120.000 people left about the same number as in 1946-8 -but in a much shorter span of time. "The rest" that left in 1968 amounted to about 30 000, mostly people who could not (high positions)-or would not (ideological committment)leave in 1957.
The world needs more people like you.
Right-wing USA conservatives, Radio Maryja, Israeli West Bank settlers, Iran's Ahmadinejad government and many other groups that label themselves conservative demonstrate some of the worst characteristics. Their zealotry allows them to blame others for their own flaws and sometimes in the name of God. They will never admit to any flaws on their own part. It is better to focus on the positive elements of the majority of the people in each culture. However, it is always easier to develop and cultivate bias. People have fears for their security and there are too many politicians that exploit those fears into hysteria targeted at other groups.
surelz there was a lot of native-language media work on the desk to see the times change. The sole article afterwards would not indicate how new generation interprets the grounds to? view the disadvantaged ,non-integrated poor or economic drivers in perspective.
i don't want to look around and be turned to stone all my darkest days awoken i'm looking for a new way lead me to a place wide open i need a love that takes me higher so high i'm never coming down i don't want to know emptiness take me down to the water wanna be baptized in your love far away from the loneliness take my heart and wash away the fear let me be baptized in your love everybody's going down they end up all alone far too many words unspoken i know i gotta be there i'm ready to be shown the path of righteousness unbroken i would be a fool to let you go with you i'm reborn i'm no longer torn yeah i refuse to lose my heart and soul i have to be strong.
When I worked in Krakow- all my family liked jewish quarter Kazimierz- with special climate and kosher food. We took part in three festivals of jewish culture.We love and we are listening klezmer music in car. My doughter was attending course of jewish cut outs- and they are still hanging on the walls in our house. We bought some menoras, also very old hanukah menora hanging over entrance to the sitting room. And it is not unusual. We love Beshavis Singer- his stories are our stories. My grand parents also lived in the Stettl. We are missing your wisdom and warm smile... Our heart is also heavily wounded by nazism. Rydzyk sometimes proclaims hate - and therefore nobody believs him - even old people listening to prayers in his radiostation. So do not loose hope- there is friendship possible between Poles and Jews.