to find new markets as Poland
slowly adjusts to capitalism.
Two years ago, Frank Lieber-
man, a man large enough to play
center on most winning football
teams, decided to expand his New
York-based beverage distribution
business to Poland. He chose
Poland, he said, "because there
was less ethnic diversity and
therefore less chance of internal
conflict." Now his firm has 17
stores and he is busy planning for
more.
The aging Polish Jews are very
poor and not involved in this
slowly emerging private sector.
Formerly, they were "government
officials." Now they try to get by
on small pensions.
There is, interestingly, no gen-
eral euphoria with democracy.
While Western management
techniques have helped greatly
to increase the availability of food,
there is no longer a Communist
safety net to provide jobs and ed-
ucation.
Unfortunately, according to
Michael Kleczewski, the consul
at the American Embassy, the
Jews "are still somewhat scape-
goats — not everyone is benefit-
ing from the new capitalism."
And some of those who aren't,
blame the Jews. With this new,
once-only-dreamed-of freedom of
expression — and free press —
came the many "crazy" anti-
Semites who had not previously
been able to speak out.
Under the former restrictive
Communist regime, Mrs. Niez-
abitowska, who is not Jewish,
would meet in secret to discuss
Jewish issues in different people's
apartments, which she referred
to several times as the "Flying
Jewish University." She said, "We
were not afraid of the police; it
was just not something you would
want your colleague to know
about. To learn, we had to study
on our own."
If Jews are to remain in Poland
and not just wither away, to be
remembered here simply by hun-
dreds of large and small monu-
ments to the horror of the
Holocaust, it may be the result of
the effective work of the charis-
matic Rabbi Michael Schudrich,
of the Ronald S. Lauder Institute.
A transplanted New Yorker, Rab-

bi Schudrich spent the previous
six years as a rabbi in Japan, a
country of 600 Jews.
Rabbi Schudrich looks weary
and can barely hold his head up.
But for 20 minutes or so he lays
out a carefully worded explana-
tion of the institute's work. Each
day there are several special ac-
tivities, a meeting of teens, a He-
brew class, a dinner, services.
There are two-week camps in the
summer and retreats in the win-
ter. And slowly, the number of
Jews who attend increases.
Unfortunately, many of the
older Jewish leaders resent the
work being done by those at the
Lauder Institute. Previously, the
community elders would receive
the charity from abroad and there
was little accountability. Now,
there are some Jewish guidelines,
and projects at the foundation re-
ceive part of this money.
Jews who remained in Poland
after the Holo-
A tour guide
caust recog-
nized they
holds a photo of
could not live what a prominent
Jewishly under square in Warsaw
the oppressive
Communists. looked like before
the Nazis
Some did not
even tell their
destroyed 84
children that
percent of the
they were Jew-
town. Although
ish. Many were
rebuilt, the
raised as
Catholics and square now has a
baptized. With
Walt Disney
the fall of Com-
theme park
munism, peo-
appearance.
ple began to
discover their
ethnic roots.
At first, it was hundreds and
now there are thought to be thou-
sands of people, many of whom
have been baptized Catholic, who
are discovering their Jewish ori-
gin.
Enthusiastically, Rabbi Schu-
drich tells us he and an associate
had planned to have 50 over for
Passover and were pleasantly
surprised when almost three
times that number showed up.
He feels "this is what it would
have been like to go into Spain in
1542" after the Inquisition.
At dinner, Father Stanislaw
Musial talks to our small group

POLAND page 36

r

Keepers of the faith: Two
members of a Krakow
synagogue are among the
estimated 5,000 Jews
who maintain an active
religious life in Poland.