Known at home as the farmer’s fanatical friend and known abroad for praising Hitler’s economic policies, Andrzej Lepper says he has been misquoted, misunderstood and misused. Yes, Poland’s deputy prime minister is a permanently tanned populist, former pig farmer and agricultural union chief who blockaded roads in 1990s protests, poured manure on local officials and… More ▸
Anyone who thinks the planned $58 million Museum of the History of Polish Jews doesn’t have the support of general Polish society might have to reconsider. Eleven leaders from the country’s top business and employer associations joined forces recently to announce their endorsement of the museum and to urge members to contribute financially. “For all… More ▸
Eleven years ago, at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, misunderstandings between Poles and Jews ran so deep that even a rabbi’s desire to say the Mourner’s Kaddish reportedly disturbed some Polish politicians. In fact, there were so many debates over the tenor of the event that two separate ceremonies were… More ▸
Poland, the last country in the former Eastern Bloc to address restitution for individuals whose land, businesses and homes were confiscated by the Nazis and then the Communists, is coming closer to passing a long-awaited restitution law. A draft resolution that will be introduced to a parliamentary committee in June would, for the first time,… More ▸
Monika Krawczyk has been haggling for several years with the municipal government of Brzeziny in central Poland. The town council, she says, includes several members who grew up next to a synagogue that they now pretend never existed. “They tell me to show them more papers that the synagogue was there, even though as children… More ▸
The American son of Holocaust survivors is creating Kielce’s first permanent public memorial to Poland’s most infamous episode of postwar violence against Jews. The monument, designed by New York-born artist Jack Sal, is to be unveiled July 4, the 60th anniversary of the so-called Kielce pogrom, an attack by a Polish mob that killed 42… More ▸
Luboml was a shtetl in Poland. People worked there, had families, went to synagogue, fell in love, even ate ice cream. Its inhabitants were among the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Now imagine that shtetl coming to life again, in the hearts and minds of teenagers at a Florida high school. Since February,… More ▸
A Polish radio station previously censured for its anti-Semitic content has landed in fresh controversy. Nine years ago, after repeatedly airing anti-Semitic broadcasts, Catholic-run Radio Maryja was told by the head of the Polish Church to clean up its act. Even Polish-born Pope John Paul II expressed his displeasure with the station, run by the… More ▸
The newly elected president of a European country, in his first interview for that country’s largest newspaper, compared himself to Ariel Sharon to explain the policies he intends to pursue. His country has troops on the ground in Iraq, close military ties with Israel and a voting pattern on Middle Eastern issues in the United… More ▸
A well-known Polish politician’s call for the demolition of the New Synagogue in the city of Poznan has drawn fierce criticism from Polish Jewish leaders, as well as an anti-racism group. A leader of the 12-member Jewish community of Poznan, Alicja Kobus, described Marcin Libicki’s statements as “shocking.” Another senior member of the community described… More ▸
