Kalman Sultanik, co-president of the World Confederation of United Zionists and a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, voiced “deep distress that members of our own people, well-meaning and well-intentioned, should succumb to the ruse of drawing a line between the enemies of Israel and anti-Semites.”
Sultanik, himself a member of the underground in Poland which fought against the Nazis and a concentration comp survivor, was referring to a report that on her recent visit to Israel Simone Veil, president of the European Parliament, made such kind of distinction and “went out of her way to emphasize that her visit to Jerusalem as the head of European parliamentarians should not be construed as an endorsement of Israel’s concept of a united Jerusalem.”
Sultanik, who was addressing the annual convention of the Federation of Polish Jews of America, where he was elected president of the organization, succeeding Rabbi Alexander Schindler who completed four one-year terms, added that “it is painful to note that as a survivor of a concentration camp, Madame Veil ignores the irrevocable bond between Israel and the Jewish people.”
Sultanik also took issue with Boron Guy de Rothschild who in a press conference in New York last week sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee, attributed the French government’s pro-Palestine Liberation Organization policy to being “anti-Israel government policy but it is not anti-Israel.” Sultanik pointed out that in its surrender to Arab oil pressure, the French government had opposed Israel even in the years when Israel was ruled by a Labor government.”
“It is dangerous and a fallacy to draw a line between anti-Israel and anti-Semitism lest such a distinction gradually fuse into outright anti-Jewish colors,” Sultanik said, pointing to the anti-Jewish diatribe last week by the Jordanian Ambassador to the United Nations when he quoted from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the context of his attack against Israel in his address to the General Assembly.
DANGER BY LEFT, RIGHT EXTREMISTS CITED
Schindler, in his address to the annual convention of the Federation, warned against the danger posed by extremists on the left as well as the right. He urged a coalition of center and progressive forces to counteract these extremists who pose a threat to democratic institutions and to the Jewish people.
Calling for Jewish unity, Schindler said: “We Jews should remember the past lest we be compelled to re-experience the tribulations and sufferings. When we speak of the past, the past comes to life. We have to remember the past because the memory has the ability to bridge the chasm between the living and the dead.” He made this point by way of emphasizing the importance of the Center for the Study of Polish Jewry which is being established in Israel by the Federation.
Among the highlights of the Federation’s convention was a report by M. Tenenblatt, editor of the Yiddish weekly, “Unzer Folkstimme,” which is published in Warsaw. He said that Poland will be represented by an official delegation to the world Jewish conference in Jerusalem next month.
There were also reports on the progress of the negotiations regarding social security for Polish Jewish emigrants and the successful efforts to gain access to the Polish government archives dealing with the history of Polish Jewry since the Ninth Century, particularly during World War II.
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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.
