Jews mixed on new Polish leader

By Chris Burdick · November 30, 1999

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PRAGUE, Nov. 30 (JTA) — The new president of Poland was elected with the backing of anti-Semitic supporters. But not all Polish Jewish officials believe Lech Kaczynski, who will take office in December, should be criticized for his extremist bedfellows, especially considering his record on Jewish issues. Kaczynski, the former mayor of Warsaw, was elected last month to replace President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Barred from running again under Poland electoral law, Kwasniewski is popular with Jews inside and outside Poland. The incoming president’s Catholic-oriented Law and Justice Party governs Poland in coalition with two extremist parties, Self-Defense and the League of Polish Families, “whose members have frequently expressed anti-Semitic sentiments,” according to Tel Aviv University’s Stephen Roth Institute, which monitors attitudes toward Jews around the world. When he became Warsaw mayor in 2002, Kaczynski accepted the LPF’s demand to build a monument to Roman Dmowski — chief ideologue of the nationalist, anti-Semitic movement Endecja in the 1920s and 1930s — in the Warsaw city center, according to the institute. The LPF is closely connected to Radio Maryja, a station that espouses anti-Semitism and is popular among conservative Catholics who rejected the late Pope John Paul II’s message of reconciliation with the Jewish people. Andrzej Lepper, leader of Self-Defense, repeatedly has made positive references to Goebbels’ “propaganda skills” and Hitler’s “economic policy,” according to the institute. But some Jewish officials in Poland say they have no reason to believe Kaczynski will be unfair toward the country’s 8,000-strong Jewish community. “President Kaczynski in all of his dealings has been forthcoming, fair and respective of the needs of local Jews and their role in Poland. Any rumors about him being anti-Semitic are unfair. I think he will actually be a very strong ally against anti-Semitism,” said Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, who has lived in the country for more than a decade. The rabbi interacted with Kaczynski when the latter was justice minister, responsible for investigating the case of Jedwabne, where hundreds of Jews were massacred in 1941 by their Polish neighbors. The case was hushed up until a book published in 2000 put the blame squarely on local residents, not the Nazis. As the Cabinet minister in charge of the case, Kaczynski had the unenviable job of organizing the exhumation of victims’ bodies, which is against Jewish law. He eventually reached an agreement with Jewish leaders in which the dead were not disturbed. “I met with him several times and he was a man of his word, even though he had far more reason to placate the rightists than to stick to Jewish law,” Schudrich said. Others who have worked with Kaczynski also praise his record on Jewish issues, especially his support for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, slated to open in 2008 on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. As Warsaw mayor, Kaczynski not only gave the land and $13 million in municipal money for the project, but convinced the federal government to give an additional $13 million, said Eva Junczyk-Ziomecka, the museum’s deputy director. “If not for him, we would be still struggling for support from the city and from the government,” said Junczyk-Ziomecka, who has known Kaczynski since they were law students together several decades ago. Kaczynski had been deeply affected by anti-Semitic pressures that forced some of their law school colleagues and professors to flee the country, Junczyk-Ziomecka said, noting several acts of solidarity with the Jewish community on Kaczynski’s part. “All of us who are Jewish who are working with this man see him as a friend,” agreed Stephen Solender, a former national and New York federation leader who is chairman of the North American council supporting the Polish Jewish museum. “The Polish government is making possible a museum that will probably be the size of the Holocaust museum in Washington to portray the thousand-year history of Polish and Central European Jewry. If it hadn’t been for this gentleman, we probably wouldn’t have gotten the public money,” he said. But others aren’t convinced, citing what they see as Kaczynski’s homophobia. Kataryna Ober, a member of the Polish Union of Jewish Students, recalled that as Warsaw mayor Kaczynski prevented a gay-rights group from marching last year, but allowed a “march of the normal” — made up of anti-gay and -lesbian groups — to proceed. The Polish Union of Jewish Students formally protested the mayor’s action. “He is against gays. Gays are different. So why not gypsies and Jews as well?” Ober said. “I think we should all be afraid of him." But Ober did note Kaczynski’s pledge to continue Poland’s political and commercial cooperation with Israel. Stanislaw Krajewski, co-chairman for the Council of Christians and Jews, took a wait-and-see attitude. “I hope this man, the president, will keep up the work of the last president,” he said. Kwasniewski was held in high esteem by Jews because of his warmth toward Israel and because of his willingness to admit that Poles had their share of guilt when it came to wartime atrocities against Jews.

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Jews mixed on new Polish leader

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