THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
18 Friday, December 25, 1981
Poland's Jews Continue to Be a .Post-War Communist Target
American Jewish Committee
NEW YORK — There are
today but 6,000 Jews in all
of Poland, which had the
largest Jewish population
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in Europe before World War
II and the Nazi Holocaust,
3.25 million. About 2,000
live in Warsaw, 1,000 in
Wroclaw (Breslau), 500-600
each in Cracow and Lodz,
with handfuls in other cities
around the country.
Most Polish Jews are
aged; the occasional Bar
Mitzva or wedding is a rare
event. There is no rabbi in
Poland. For the High Holi-
days, one comes in from an-
other country, often Hun-
gary.
Jewish communal life is
organized around two
organizations. One is the
Communist-affiliated So-
cial and Cultural Associa-
tion. This issues the one
Yiddish language news-
paper in Poland, "Folks-
szytme," and operates the
Yiddish theater and a
number of cultural clubs.
The other, is the Mosaic
Religious Association,
which runs a dozen can-
teens throughout the coun-
try as well as carrying on
religious activity.
Contacts between the
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religious and secular _ Kuberski met with repre-
organizations are sparse, sentatives of the American
though their Warsaw Joint Distribution - Commit-
headquarters are but a tee in New York concerning
block or so apart. The one welfare work in Poland.
other major Jewish
Israeli scholars have
organization in the coun- come to Poland to work on
try is the Jewish Histori- Polish historical material
cal Institute, which does and, only recently, the
scholarly research. This Jewish Historical Institute
houses a museum, library in Poland and the Union of
and archives, and pub- American Hebrew Congre-
lishes a quarterly bulle- gations reached an agree-
tin and annual report.
ment that will result in
The past few years have making more of the insti-
seen gradual improvement tute's material available
in the situation of Polish abroad. After many years of
Jews, taking a variety of promises, work began last
forms. Poland,.has no dip- summer on restoration of
lomatic relations with Is- the Warsaw synagogue.
rael, but in 1980 a European
The idea that-the small
Congress for Hebrew and Jewish community can
Hebrew Culture was held in affect events in Poland is
Warsaw University, with a a farcical one. However,
delegation from Israel. Con- if past experience is any
tact between the Polish guide, one certainly can-
Jewish organizationsnd not rule out that various
outside groups like 'the elements in the country
European Council for will seek to make Jews
Jewish Communal Services the scapegoat for Po-
and the World Jewish Con- land's problems in the
gress has become more ac- current crisis.
cepted.
Something similar oc-
The Polish authorities curred when the Polish
have been discussing with authorities and the Solidar-
outside organizations such ity movement were at odds
as the World Federation of last March. A Polish vete-
Jewish Fighters the con- rans group organized a rally
cerns of Jews of Polish oil. : in Warsaw that charged
gin, and with rabbis and Jews with being the tortur-
others from abroad the up- ers and murderers of Polish
keep of Jewish cemeteries patriots during the Stalin
in the country. Only a few era, and it called on Poles to
weeks ago Polish Minister "block the way to power of
of Religious Affairs Jerzy the next generation of
,
Patently anti-Jewish
elements such as Grun-
wald Union have continued
to operate and publish this
year. The union, which has
official status as a cultural
and social body, describes
itself as fighting "interna-
tional Zionists and German
militarists." Such anti-
Semitism was strong
enough that the presidium
of the Central Board of the
Social and Cultural Asso-
ciation of Jews in Poland is-
sued a resolution attacking
it.
Numerous Polish in-
tellectuals and organ-
izations such as the Pen
Club denounced anti-
Semitism following the
March events. Months
prior to this, many of
them had publicly called
on the Polish nation to
examine. "the painful
question of anti-
Semitism" and to make
amends to those Jews
N,EW YORK — The
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.
hounded from public life
in 1968. The Gomulka re-
gime had then
scapegoated "Zionists"
for a Polish crisis, driving
some 9,000 from posts in
the government, party
and, indeed, from the
country.
This was the last of four
major Jewish emigrations
from post-war Poland. Im-
mediately after the war,
Jews who survived in Po-
land and those repatriated
from the Soviet Union to-
taled nearly 250,000. Mar
simply did not wish to sta.,
others decided to leave after
the Kielce pogrom of 1946.
The Jewish population
dropped to about 100,000 by
1947. In subsequent years,
the doors to emigration
were at times closed, at
other times open.
By the end of the Stalinist
era and Gomulka's acces-
sion to power in 1956, still
another 50,000 had left. So,
too, had almost all of a sec-
ond group of Jews, some
25,000 repitriated from the
USSR.
The 1968 ousting of Jews
from any post of influence as
"rootless cosmopolitans,"
and their subsequent
exodus and demographic at-
trition have left Poland a
land of Jewish history and
cemeteries, with but a rem-
nant Jewish populatiori
barely holding its own.
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Zionists." A clear purpose of
the attack was to try and tag
a "Zionist" label on Solidar-
ity, in the hopes that this
would diminish support for
the movement.
Posters - and leaflets scat-
tered throughout Warsaw
at the time identified a
couple of Solidarity leaders
as being of Jewish origin
and attacked "Jewish
nationalists."
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