Jews who fled Poland after '68 anti-Semitic purge may now reclaim citizenship

[bemildred]

The Polish Interior Ministry announced this week that all Jews who left Poland in the wake of the anti-Semitic purge that began in 1968, and were consequently forced to forfeit their citizenship, will now be able to have it reinstated.

---

Since the communist regime collapsed and democracy was introduced in Poland, Polish leaders have on several occasions condemned the oppressive campaign. A decade ago the Sejm even passed a decision that anyone who was forced to emigrate during that period is entitled to get back his or her citizenship.

Despite that decision, most Israelis who applied to the Polish Interior Ministry or consulates to reinstate their citizenship were rejected on bureaucratic grounds, stemming from specific regulations dating from the 1950s regarding Poles who asked to immigrate to Israel.

Following repeated requests from the federation of Jewish communities in Poland and organizations that combat anti-Semitism and racism, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday that the regulations have been suitably revised, and that Israelis could now also regain their original Polish citizenship.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961304.html

[nemo137]

1. Huh. I wonder how many will take that up

From what I've heard from the professor who taught the class I had on anti-Semitism last year (and we talked a lot about Poland), it's a deeply fucked up place, between not existing as an entity for 200-odd years, then having a republic for a while, then then Nazi's, then the Soviets destroying what was left of the AK.

Still, it's a hopeful sign.

[Vegasaurus]

2. Most Jews who were viciously persecuted or expelled from their countries

are not seeking to return (although they would like compensation for their losses).

It will be interesting to see how many people wish to go back. I'd assume not many.

[LeftishBrit]

14. I suspect not many

Even if they made this retroactive to the 1920s, I still wouldn't consider moving there.

[oberliner]

3. In 1968, there were only about 40,000 Jews left in Poland to "purge"

Just 30 years prior, there were about 3,500,000 Jews living in Poland.

By 1968, there were about 40,000.

[rockymountaindem]

4. Well, 35 years prior n/t

[oberliner]

5. Wasn't that the population in 1938?

I thought that was the peak for the Jewish population in Poland.

[rockymountaindem]

6. Ah yes, sorry

Can't seem to add today.

[bemildred]

7. Theo for Jews in Poland, Italian seder, HIBM awareness

Theodore Bikel Plugs Jewish Life in Poland

Passionately devoted to the resurgence of Jewish life in Poland, entertainer Theodore Bikel, accompanied by Tamara Brooks, performed an hour-long private concert of Yiddish, English and Hebrew songs to benefit the nonprofit Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland.

More than 70 people attended the fundraiser, held in the Brentwood home of art collectors Elyse and Stanley Grinstein. They included Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev and Barbara Yaroslavsky; Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California; professor David Myers, director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies; Polish Consul General Paulina Kapuscinska; and Jewish Federation COO Ken Krug and Andrea Scharf.

Hosting the event was Severyn Ashkenazy, Friends of Jewish Renewal board member and co-founder of Beit Warszawa, Warsaw's first progressive synagogue since World War II, headed by American Reform rabbi Burt Schuman and assisted by Russian-born Israeli Reform rabbi Tanya Segal.

"Don't let anybody tell you Poland is a graveyard," Bikel said. "It's a place of living, breathing Jews today."

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=19223

[oberliner]

8. Found two photos of the Beit Warszawa synagogue online

One of the exterior and one of the interior.

They can be viewed here:

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoga_Towarzystwa_Beit_Warszawa_w_Warszawie

I believe the current Jewish population of Poland is 25,000.

[bemildred]

9. Thanks, those are interesting.

Even though I don't know Polish. I've always been fond of Theo Bikel, since my college days. I don't know what the numbers are, I'm not sure anybody really does, but I'd like to see European Jewish culture restored to its former glory, and some headway seems to be occurring in that direction. It would be the final thumb in the eye for the Nazis and historical European anti-semitism. Sort of like what is slowly occurring WRT slavery and racism in this country.

[subsuelo]

10. How about Palestinians who were purged from their homes in '48?

Hypocrite Olmert: “I’ll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number.”

[Shaktimaan]

11. Why a hypocrite? np

[Boojatta]

12. Perhaps he was pretending to provide a homeland

for Jewish people persecuted in other parts of the world at a time when 40,000 Jewish people in Israel (roughly the entire population?) could have returned to Poland if the Israeli government had merely done the right thing and offered bribes to judges in Poland.

Can there be any excuse for not re-admitting 40,000 Palestinians into Israel? Israel is frequently in the news, so it probably has a big area and lots of room for more people. It's a preferred destination for many Palestinian refugees and their children and grand-children. Unlike Jewish people who used to live in Poland, the Palestinian people don't hold grudges or lose their temper.

[BunkerHill24]

13. Don't be silly.....

There were no Palestinians living in Palestine prior to 1948...haven't you heard? :sarcasm:

[azurnoir]

15. To be honest given Polands

rather nasty history of antiSemitism, I must ask why would Jews want to move back?

[Boojatta]

16. Given some of the judgments expressed in the I/P forum

about the Israeli government's overall treatment of Palestinians, the same question arises for Palestinians: why would they want to move back?

[azurnoir]

17. That is a point I have made in the past

add to that a good many Palestinians under 40 have never lived in Israel, and the it is a valid question, "right of return" leads to also right to compensation for Palestinians, just as "right to exist" leads to we had a right to the land for Israeli's

[msmcghee]

18. Why not ask why it is . .

. . that almost all Arabs in E. Jerusalem when asked if they'd rather remain as part of Israel or part of a new Palestinian state - say they want to remain Israelis by very large margins? Sometimes the answers to these hypothetical questions are available to those whose eyes are sufficiently open.

[azurnoir]

19. Yes it does

anyone who in their right mind would rather be a citizen of Israel at present, then have questionable status as a citizen of an occupied territory or in the case of Gaza an "enemy entity". Ask again when and if there is ever a viable Palestinian state, in fact then it could be interesting to ask Israeli Arabs who do not reside in E. Jerusalem.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

20. Arabs from East Jerusalem do not consider themselves Israelis.

They have a different huwwiya, and have access to a difference set of services, are subject to fewer restrictions of movement and travel, but they are not considered Israeli.

Do they want to stop being Jerusalemites? Of course not!