the jewish community today in Poland

the jewish community There are some 5,000-10,000 Jews in Poland out of a total population of close to 40 million. The majority live in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow and Lodz, but there are smaller communities in several other cities. There are virtually no Jews in the eastern part of Poland where once large, important communities existed, such as those of Lublin and Bialystok. The Union of Jewish Religious Communities (Zwiazek Kongregacji Wyznania Mojzeszowego), or Kehilla, and the secular Jewish Socio-Cultural Society (Towarsztwo Spoleczno-Kulturalne Zydowskie), or Ferband, are the two leading communal organizations and these, together with other Jewish groups, are linked by membership in the KKOZRP, which acts as a roof organization. There is a Jewish primary school in Warsaw maintained by the Lauder Foundation, which has been active in rehabilitating Jewish life in Poland, especially through youth projects. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is also active in Poland, particularly in social welfare activities. The leading Jewish publications are the monthly Midrasz, Dos Jidische Wort, Jidele for youth and Sztendlach for primary school children. Significantly, all of these publications appear in Polish, except for Dos Jidische Wort which is published in a bi-lingual Yiddish-Polish edition. Important institutions are the Jewish Historical Institute, with its revamped museum, the E.R. Kaminska State Yiddish Theater in Warsaw and the Jewish Cultural Center in Krakow. There are centers for Jewish studies in Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The Polish government supports plans to erect a hi-tech interactive Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The institution is to be built opposite the Ghetto Monument in Warsaw and funds are being raised to advance this project.

 

responses to racism and antisemitism

The activity of non-governmental organizations has been an important antidote to antisemitism in Poland. For instance, the Never Again Association has run a successful campaign against antisemitism and racism in football stadiums (in the framework of Football against Racism in Europe) as well as on the Internet (in the framework of the International Network against Cyber Hate). As part of this campaign, 32 Polish football teams took part in a tournament at the Przystanek Woodstock rock festival in August 2003, with 300,000 participants. Anti-fascist booths distributed literature and collected signatures asking the Polish Football Association to take steps against racism in football stadia. The festival was held again in July 2004 with 250,000 participants.

In March 2004 the Council of Ministers approved a National Action Program against Racism. It is hoped the Program will strengthen the implementation of existing legal provisions against hate speech and organized racist activity.

In January 2003 a Day of Judaism was inaugurated by the Polish Catholic Church at the Nozyk Synagogue, attended by many clergy. Material promoting the need for respect and cooperation between the Church and Judaism was distributed among 7,000 churches.

The state prosecutor has demanded prison terms in the case of two Poles charged with libel in a Bialystok court for shouting antisemitic remarks at Shevach Weiss, former Israeli ambassador to Poland, who appeared at a book-signing ceremony in September 2002.

An investigation of four men trained by the Nazis at Trawniki was begun in January 2003. The men, of Ukrainian origin (including John Demjanjuk who was tried in Israel in the late 1980s), who live outside Poland, are suspected of having been involved in the murder of many Jews in Sobibor, Treblinka and Belzec and in the liquidation of the ghettos at Lublin and Bialystok between 1942 and July 1944.