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

The Return of the Jew: Identity Narratives of the Third Post-Holocaust Generation of Jews in Poland, by Katka Reszke. 2013. Academic Press, Boston

Jewish Poles? Yes, Virginia. It is Fair to Question if Poland’s Jews Are Really Poles

The author is a Polish Jew who discovered her Jewish roots in her teens or twenties, developing a de novo Jewish identification ever since, and that after a complete dormancy of her Jewishness for a few decades. She interviews several like-minded recently self-discovered Jews, all of whom had thoroughly been Polonized, and who had previously lived as Catholics or atheists.

This work touches on Jewish essentialism. In the past, some non-Jews and also Jews had suggested that Jews are a race, if only a spiritual race. For just one example of Jews thinking this way, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jews-transform-societies-samuel/

Reszke’s work is priceless in showing how even long-assimilated Polish Jews can “feel the call of blood” as Jews. Moreover, while professing to remain Poles, they admittedly do not “feel any call of blood” towards Poland.

PRIMORDIALISM: JEWISHNESS IS INNATE IN SOME WAY

Among academics, quasi-racial views about Jews not only exist but are still taken seriously today. Reszke writes, “Primary kinship is associated with common biological descent, race, language, region, and religion (Geertz 1963; see also McKay 1982). Hence, the basic assumption of primordialism is that individuals are born as involuntary members of a given ethnic community. Therefore, belonging is secured by birth (or blood). One cannot choose to belong; ethnicity is a fixed role ascribed to a passive individual. In this view, to be a Jew is to be born into a Jewish family, to have a Jewish blood link, and to possess the irrevocable ‘racial’ trait.” (pp. 54-55).

She adds that, “What I want to present now are various types of references made by my interviewees, which I have identified as primordialist. They include statements about identity understood in a particular way, which renders it something we are born with–something that is ascribed, and not chosen, something we cannot reject because it is already set by our personal history, our heritage, our genes, or–more bluntly–our blood. This entails ideas about the nature of belonging to the Jewish people, about the perceived common features of Jews, and about the boundaries of Jewish identity. Furthermore, the primordialist approach is related to notions of perceived essence of Jewishness.” (p. 154).

JEWISH POLES? THE “CALL OF BLOOD” AS EXPERIENCED BY POLAND’S NEWFOUND JEWS

The author comments,

“While blood secures one’s connection with his or her ancestors, according to Odelia, it also secures one’s bond with other Jews in general.” (p. 155). That is where the ideas of Jewish tribalism and Jewish clannishness come from.

“Danuta describes the very same idea of a bond, which she believes Jews share. However, she does not associate it with the physical attributes of blood but rather–as she calls it–with ‘something metaphysical.’. . . That Jewish spark . . . It is something that draws you to other Jews and something that makes you want your life to be bound with Jews and with Jewishness.” (p. 155). That is where the idea of Jews as a spiritual race comes from.

THE “CALL OF BLOOD” IN POLAND’S NEWFOUND JEWS–TO JEWISHNESS, NOT TO POLISHNESS!

Reszke makes these priceless statements, “…the participants in this study all declare being Polish. Nevertheless, none of them declares having ‘Polish blood.’ More strikingly yet, none of the participants mentions feeling a special bond with all other Poles. Importantly, the initiation of Jewish identity elements in their lives does not result in a rejection of Polishness.” (p. 197. Emphasis added).

That settles it. Poland’s Jews can be outwardly Polish. No big deal. But it is obvious that, in their hearts, Poland’s Jews are not Poles. They do not have a special bond with Poles or Poland. In other words, the Jews are in Poland but they are not of Poland. They are rightly considered the perpetual “other”.

Let us analyze this more closely. It does not matter if Jews really are a race: What matters is that Jews think and act as though they are a race. And if Jews can think and act this way, then so can their peers. So, stop berating those Poles that question the authentic Polishness of Polish Jews!

All this validates Roman Dmowski and the other Endeks, who had suggested (and took a lot of flak for saying this) that Jews can seldom become Poles, even if they become assimilated. As we have vividly seen, even complete assimilation does not transform a Jew into a Pole, at least not necessarily.

In recent years especially, the media has promoted the newfangled Orwellian fiction of “Jewish Poles” and “non-Jewish Poles”. Poles who question or disagree with this have not exactly been treated with kindness. As is often the case, the Poles are right.

ANTISEMITISM NO EXCUSE FOR JEWISH ALOOFNESS TO POLAND

The canned excuse for Jews acting the way they do is always (what else?) antisemitism. In contrast, the interviewed Jews strongly affirm the fact that antisemitism in Poland is negligible. (pp. 175-176). Furthermore, they strongly rebuff the common accusation made by foreign Jews that Poland is too anti-Semitic a place for Jews to feel safe and to openly identify as Jews. (p. 125).

THE CONNECTION OF POLAND’S JEWS WITH THE LGBTQ AGENDA

Those “paranoid” Poles who suspect that Jews are driving the expansion of special rights for LGBT in Poland may be on to something. Reszke comments,

“The growing visibility of the Polish lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBT&Q) community has led young Polish Jews to rather poignant expressions of a sense of solidarity and a willingness to join in the struggle for equal civil rights. In the past years, a growing number of Jews, often identified by an Israeli flag, joined the LGBT&Q activists at demonstrations, protest marches, and equality parades organized every year in several large Polish cities. Common workshops are organized by the two communities, and more and more frequently they join each other’s efforts in everyday protests or appeals against discrimination, racism, antisemitism, or homophobia. Many young people, among them Jews, in fact argue that–from a legal point of view–the situation of gays and lesbians in Poland is inferior to that of the Jews.” (p. 32).

THE MYTH OF JEWS EXPELLED IN 1968

Reszke tells it like it is, moreover, including Jewish sources, “More than 20,000 Jews were forced to leave Poland as a result of the purge of 1968, leaving between 5,000 and 10,000 Jews in the country (Gebert 1994; Irwin-Zarecka 1990).” (p. 24). Clearly, a large fraction of Poland’s Jews remained in Poland after the presumed horrors of 1968.  So, if the Communist authorities had sought to purge Poland of its “Jewish Poles”, as is taught by the current Judeocentric spin, they did an atrociously poor job of it.