Rabbi Avi Weiss was successful Wednesday in serving court papers for defamation and libel on Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Poland.
The papers were served in Albany by a court officer as the Polish primate left a cathedral in the New York state capital.
The suit will be filed in the next couple of days in Supreme Court, which in New York state is a trial court, not the highest appellate court.
The charges against Glemp are based on a homily he gave in August 1989, in which he accused Weiss and accompanying Jewish activists of trying to kill nuns living at a Carmelite convent situated on the site of the Auschwitz death camp.
The cardinal also accused the activists of trying to destroy the convent, and his speech was laced with references to Jews getting Polish peasants drunk, introducing communism to Poland and controlling the world news media.
Weiss’s attorney, Alan Dershowitz, called the suit “really quite historical.”
In a telephone conversation from his office at Harvard Law School, Dershowitz said it was “the first time ever that a cardinal has been sued by a rabbi for defamation relating to anti-Semitic statements.”
He said the suit has “an airtight jurisdictional base,” particularly because on Sept. 18, Glemp gave an interview to the Polish press in which he reiterated his 1989 remarks, claiming his statements were supported by literature and sociological research.
“Now he has an opportunity to summon those historians and sociologists, to see if they will back up his statements. He also has to explain to the American court why he falsely accused Rabbi Weiss, when he knew they were coming for a peaceful prayer vigil,” said Dershowitz.
COMPLETE RETRACTION SOUGHT
He said Glemp has “no immunity whatsoever,” despite his high clerical office and citizenship of another country.
The summons gives Glemp 20 days to answer the charges in an American court.
“In case of failure to answer, judgment will be taken by default for the relief demanded,” said Dershowitz. “If we get the default, we will then enforce it in a Polish court,” he said.
Weiss is not seeking monetary award. Money awarded in the case would be donated to charity, the rabbi said.
“We would be satisfied if he issued a full and complete retraction that was widely circulated in Poland, as his original remarks were circulated in Poland and throughout the world,” said Dershowitz.
“And while he is at it,” he added, “it would be nice for him to retract his statements about Jews causing alcoholism and communism. It’s one thing for him to say he is not an anti-Semite, but to in the same breath blame all of Poland’s ills on Jews certainly incites anti-Semitism.”
The lawsuit in a U.S. court was enabled by the distribution by Glemp’s office of copies of his offensive speech.
“He knowingly made it in front of the world press. So under New York law, he knew, or should have known, that his statements would be published in New York,” Dershowitz said.
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