"Despite the problems that beset our nation, our Jewish community does not suffer extra hardship," averred Shmuel Tenenblatt, the youngish, pleasant-faced editor of the Folks-Sztyme, a Jewish newspaper that has been published here week in and week out through the years.
"The attitude of the government toward our Jewish people is quite benevolent and positive," Tenenblatt claimed. Indeed, government policies appear to be most constructive in a literal sense. Governmental agencies, including the Historical Landmark Commission, are busy reconstructing the large Nossek Synagogue, located in the former ghetto, and destroyed by the Nazis on May 17, 1943. They are also restoring the Jewish Historical Institute, which was left in a shambles under prior governments.
The Ida Kaminska theater, now housed in a handsome, well-equipped building in the center of town and performing brilliantly the plays of Peretz, Sholem Aleichem and others, is supported by public funds. The Joint Distribution Committee is permitted to bring in kosher food for consumption in homes and in one or two restaurants.
Despite the lack of formal relations between the governments of Poland and Israel, the Hebrew language may be studied at the University of Warsaw. Cultural and other educational ties between the two countries are quietly fostered.
SEEKING JEWISH APPROVAL
It seems apparent that the Polish government seeks Jewish approbation, and various departments, including ORBIS, the Polish National Tourist Agency, are making all kinds of plans in anticipation of April 9, 1983 — the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising — when it expects an outpouring of thousands of Jews from abroad to comment orate the most terrifying chapter in the history of the city.
An international committee has been busily engaged in arranging events, not only in Poland, but throughout the world, recalling the martyrs who defied the Nazi occupation of Warsaw.
REMNANT OF A GREAT JEWISH PEOPLE
Of the 3.5 million Jews in Poland before the war, three million were exterminated. Jews had lived in Poland for 1,000 years and had played a major role in the formation of Poland. Today, according to Tenenblatt, there are only some 10,000 or 11,000 Jews left, mainly elderly, since the younger Jews emigrated in 1968-69 during the era of Wladyslaw Gomulka when a campaign was waged against "Zionists" and "revisionists."
Tenenblatt felt there were actually a somewhat larger number of Jews in the country, but that many preferred to live without Jewish identity. "It’s so strange," he told this reporter, "to see so many people whom one would not have thought to be Jewish coming to shul on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They emerge on those days and disappear for the rest of the year."
He estimated that there were 3,000 Jews in Warsaw, about 1,000 in Cracow and the rest in Lodz, Stettin, Wroclaw, and Katowice. In 14 cities and towns, Jews come together under the auspices of the Kultur Gesell schaftliche Verband to enjoy an occasional evening of Yiddish and Israeli interest.
Tenenblatt insisted that his Folks-Sztyme was the leading unifying cultural force among Jews. With a staff of 15, he turns out a large-format, well-illustrated paper with nine pages in Yiddish – including a regular column entitled "Jews in the World" — and three pages in Polish and its 3,000 copies are eagerly devoured by the news-hungry remnant of a great Jewish people.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
