Although the Wailing Wall is sacred to the Moslems the Jews must have full freedom of access to it for worship, declared Dr. M. Szynkiewicz, chief of the Union of Mohammedan Communities in Wilna, Poland, and known as the Polish Grand Mufti, in an interview today with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Dr. Szynkiewicz has just arrived here from a pilgrimage to Mecca where he was the guest of Ibn Saud.
Expressing deep grief at the differences between the Moslems and Jews in Palestine, Dr. Szynkiewicz, a native of Liachoviczi, recalled that in his home town the many Jews living there never had any difficulties with the Moslems. Recalling that Mohammed said “it is man’s highest duty to bring about an understanding between two persons,” the Moslem dignitary from Poland asked, “how much more is this true of two peoples?”
Dr. Szynkiewicz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and other Arabs who admitted that the Jews had done much for Palestine but said that some day they would be forced out of the country. The Polish Grand Mufti said that if he were not anxious to return to Poland he would be happy to help bring about a reconciliation. He stated that an Egyptian member of the Moslem legal delegation attending the Wailing Wall Commission’s hearings had told him that a solution could and must be found for the difficulties between the Jews and the Arabs but that concessions on both sides were essential.
Dr. Szynkiewicz is the chief of the Polish Mohammedans who embraced Islam in the seventeenth century during the Polish-Turkish wars.
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.
