Polish Primate Cardinal Hlond rejected three requests to take a stand against violence and anti-Semitism during the six weeks previous to the Kielce program, one of which was made on June 8 by Rabbi David Kahane, chief Jewish chaplain of the Polish Army, it was learned here. The Cardinal refused to see Rabbi Kahane when he attempted to make a personal appeal.
Last week Cardinal Hlond told reporters that only one such request had been received before the pogrom, which took the lives of 41 Jews and four Poles, and said that appeal had been turned down because it was felt that the situation had not deteriorated sufficiently to warrant the issuance of a pastoral letter.
The Primate was apparently confused as to where this request originated. At first he said that it was from “some Jewish group.” When it was called to his attention that the semi-official non-Jewish League to Combat Racism had sent him an appeal on May 18, the Cardinal said: “That is the one to which I referred. It is the only one received.”
It was learned, however, that two other pleas–both from Jewish sources–were made to him. Beside Rabbi Kahane’s letter asking him, as the highest Catholic authority in Poland, to act before the growing anti-Jewish feeling reached serious proportions, there was the request for a pastoral letter made by Dr. Joseph Tenebaum, president of the World and American Federations for Polish Jews, during a private interview with the Cardinal on June 3.
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