Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

A Citizen of Yiddishland: Dovid Sfard and the Jewish Communist Milieu in Poland, by Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov. 2020. Peter Lang GmBH, Berlin

Jewish Privileges Post-WWII Poland. Jewish Pogroms; Overall Lack of Jewish Support for 1918 Poland; Crypto-Jews Among Jewish Communists

This book raises many relevant topics. I focus on a few of them.

JEWISH VIOLENCE: JEWS DID VIOLENCE TO OTHER JEWS, BUT WE NEVER HEAR ABOUT THAT

Author Nalewajko-Kunikov comments, “Life in the shtetls centered around the market square and the synagogue, which was a place not only for prayer but for socializing as well. In Ozeryany, ‘Sabbath battles’ often broke out on Saturday mornings between the carpenters and the stablemen, most often because of a quarrel over who would get an aliyah to the Torah. [aliyah–being called up for a portion of Torah reading during prayer services, considered an honor. (p. 34)]. These were frequently fistfights, which ended only at nightfall, and were confined to the synagogue itself so as not to turn into a spectacle for the local non-Jews.” (p. 34).

WHY JEWS WERE NOT INTERESTED IN BREAKING UP THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE FOR THE SAKE OF A RESURRECTED POLAND IN 1918

The Yiddish-speaking Jews formed a vast nation-within nation in tsarist Russia. The resurrection of the Polish state geographically fragmented this Jewish “nation”. The author writes, “It meant separation instead of unification, for ‘the territorial unity of the OSTJUDEN was destroyed. The newly-defined borders divided one heretofore-single community, the Jews of the Russian Empire, among several different states. Although they maintained their religious and linguistic commonalities, each of these partitions of the Eastern-European Jewish community would now pursue its own path.” (p. 42). For more on this, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/antiassimilation-jewish-real-reason-karlip/

AN HONEST RABBI: TWO SIDES TO JEWISH-CHRISTIAN ANTAGONISMS

Nowadays, everything negative in Jewish-Christian relations is automatically blamed on the Christians. In refreshing contrast, the author discusses the teaching of Rabbi Yehude Leyb. She writes, “Later, he [Rabbi Leyb] frequently spoke with his adult son about worldly injustice: ‘When I would return home years later from the big city […], many times, my father would point out the injustice prevailing in the world, not only on the part of Christians towards Jews, but also among Christians themselves, among Jews themselves and on the part of Jews toward Christians.'” (p. 35).

JEWISH COMMUNISTS WERE CERTAINLY JEWS

Zydokomuna denialists would have us believe that Jewish Communists are “not really Jews”. The author blows away this silly argument. She writes, “They also–perhaps even first and foremost–considered themselves Jews. They were Jews not only by birth, but also by upbringing, education, culture, and–of course–language. They certainly cannot be described by Polish-Jewish writer Julian Stryjkowski’s oft-cited statement that a Jew who is as Communist has ceased to be a Jew. The members of this group never ceased to be Jews. Many of them undoubtedly never ceased to be Communists either.” (pp. 13-14).

WHY THE ZYDOKOMUNA?

An insight to this question is provided by the author, who quotes a voivode as follows, “‘Jews will […] always go where they feel that their own interests and profits lie. This originates from their statelessness, connections to world Jewry and extremely materialistic attitude,’ in the view of voivode Henryk Ostaszewski in April 1939.” (p. 110).

THE 1939 ZYDOKOMUNA: AN ESTIMATE OF SCALE

The author cites Andrzej Zbikowski, who estimates that 7%–10% of local Jews “truly collaborated” with the new Soviet regime. D. Boczkowski’s estimates are comparable, at 6%-8%. (pp. 112-113). Of course, even if the percentages are valid, the reader can decide whether 6%–10% are small or large percentages. Of course, nobody said that all Jews are Communists or that most Jews are Communists!

CRYPTO-JEWS: POSTWAR JEWISH COMMUNISTS CHANGED THEIR NAMES TO POLISH ONES

Julian Yankel frowned on this practice, as changing one’s name can be a mere gimmick or triviality that covers up the Jewish name-changers’ lack of substantial familiarity with Polish-ness. (p. 159).  Dovid Sfard, obviously adhering to his Jewish nationalism, was “…stating that Polonizing one’s last name and hiding one’s Jewish origin ‘is not in keeping with Communist dignity,’ and is even offensive to national pride and proof of ‘an almost racist point of view.’ He remarked that such behavior certainly would not increase the respect that Jewish Communists commanded among their Polish comrades or in the Polish milieu in general.” (p. 160). He was certainly correct! As a matter of fact, the practice backfired, “In fact, however, the name-change maneuver did not always help, and Polish public opinion even tended to ascribe Jewish origin to many prominent Party officials, regardless of whether or not they truly were of Jewish descent.” (p. 169).

For a definitive work on crypto-Jews in the Soviet-imposed Communist government of Poland, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/08/20/abundant-cryto-jews-in-the-soviet-imposed-communist-puppet-government-of-poland-definitive-work-zaorska/

JEWISH PRIVILEGES POST-WWII POLAND

Nowadays, we hear the curious argument that the new Soviet-imposed Communist Polish government just wanted to forget about the Jews as much as possible, and to put the Holocaust in the rearview mirror. This is far from the truth.

A monument was unveiled to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and there was a commemoration of the fifth anniversary of this Uprising in 1948. (p. 198).

The fact of Jewish privileges can be generalized. Nalewajko-Kunikov writes, “The attitude of the authorities towards TSKZ [Socio-Cultural Association of Jews in Poland] was nothing if not favorable. It is worth stressing that in spite of the political conditions elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc (the trials of Communists of Jewish origin, the liquidation of Yiddish culture in the USSR), Jewish Communists in Poland had practically carte blanche in their activities within their own circles; and as mentioned above, until 1956 the Jewish community was the only ethnic minority in the Polish People’s Republic to possess cultural institutions of its own such as theaters and a publishing house.” (p. 214).

JEWS UP TO AND INCLUDING THE EVENTS OF 1968

In 1954, there were still 75,000 Jews left in Poland. (p. 207).

Nalewajko-Kunikow writes, “Historians estimate that as a result of the ‘anti-Zionist campaign’ from 1967 to 1971, 12,000–15,000 Jews emigrated from Poland. (p. 305). Thus, the popular notion, that 1968 was a massive exodus of the Jews in Poland, is not correct.