Stanisław Krajewski

Title: Poland and the Jews:

Reflections of a Polish Polish Jew

© Copyright by Stanisław Krajewski

© Copyright for this edition by Wydawnictwo Austeria

Editing manager by Małgorzata Ornat

Text editing by Jaime Ashworth Photography on page 244 by Monika Krajewska

Cover design by Magdalena Koziak Compose by Irek Lipko

ISBN: 978-83-61978-90-9

Wydawnictwo Austeria

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Wydanie I 

Kraków 2011

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Stanisław Krajewski, PhD, teaches at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Warsaw.

One of the leaders of Jewish renewal in Poland, he is a member of the board of the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland. He has been co-chairman of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, and in the mid-1990s served on the board of the International Council of Christians and Jews. Member of the International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial from its creation, since 1992 he has been the American Jewish Committee’s Poland consultant.

Krajewski is the author of articles in the field of logic, philosophy, Judaism, and Christian-Jewish dialogue. Among his recent publications are the books (in Polish): Godel’s Theorem and Its Philosophical Interpretations: from Mechanism to Post-modernism (Warsaw, 2003), and 54 Commentaries to the Torah for Even the Least Religious Among Us (Austeria, Cracow, 2004).

To Monika Miriam, my Wife

Foreword

This book is on Jews and Poland, and the relations between the two both today and in the past. I speak not only as an observer, but above all as a participant in Polish and Polish-Jewish life. I present an account of problems from my personal perspective, that of a Polish Polish Jew. This puzzling phrase means that I am a Polish Jew from Poland, or a Polish Jew who is a Pole. To make it clear to the reader where I come from, my personal development is presented in the introduction.

The introduction as well as the other eight essays are adapted from papers published in the past decade (with the exception of one printed in 1989), mostly after the year 2000. They are not uniform in character but taken together they give, I hope, a picture of contemporary Poland’s Jewish dimension, together with the historical background of the issues.

Each chapter is preceded with a short note explaining the circumstances in which the original paper was written. The main themes of the essays are as follows.

Chapter 1 presents the challenge of Auschwitz. This is put at the beginning because the topic seems to be of supreme interest for non-Polish readers. I do not give the history of Auschwitz; I present some problems, their roots, meaning and significance. The same remark – that this is not a history book – applies to all the essays in this book.

Chapter 2 summarizes the whole history of Jews in Poland from the present point of view, dealing with the facts, images and stereotypes that are essential for the contemporary perception of Poland and Polish Jews.

Chapter 3 reviews the main controversial points appearing in the relations between Poles and Jews.

Chapter 4 deals with a problem that is still the subject of great interest in Eastern and East-Central Europe, and is virtually unknown in the West, the story of Jewish communists. They used to be relatively numerous and influential, and, in my opinion, this fact implies a moral challenge for Jews. My approach is, I admit, rather controversial.

Chapter 5 is essentially a reprint of a text from the 1980s, published in the USA under my penname Abel Kainer. It is about the Jewish dimension of the justly famous “Solidarność”, or Solidarity, movement. Unlike the other chapters, it is not modified (though some footnotes have been added) so that the flavour of that era can hopefully be perceived by the reader.

Chapter 6 is about the influence of the Shoah, particularly its indirect influence, on Jews in post-World War II Poland, and especially in the free Poland of 1989 and afterwards.

Chapter 7 is about the changes in the Roman Catholic teachings on Jews and Judaism in the last decades. I deal with the Church in general and the Polish Catholic Church in particular.

Chapter 8 is about Christian-Jewish relations and, more specifically, the Christian-Jewish dialogue in contemporary Poland.

The last two chapters concern the area that is of special interest to me, the Christian-Jewish dialogue. I am writing these words in the first week after the passing of John Paul II. The whole world seems to have been affected. In Poland, the dying and the death of the Polish pope has prompted unprecedented national mourning. The country has virtually stopped functioning for the week between his death and the funeral. It has brought to the light of the day the best qualities in the people around. Conflicts have been put on hold, even the football (soccer) fans have stopped fighting among themselves. Among many unprecedented occurrences it is worthwhile to mention the special prayer services that Polish Jews organized in synagogues. Asked to describe my feelings, which are, I guess, identical or similar to those of many Polish Jews, I would emphasize warm gratitude to that remarkable man, and deep solidarity with the Polish Catholics most of whom seem to feel themselves to be “orphans.” At the same time I feel neither orphaned nor left without guidance.

While I never called the pope either “Father” or “Holy”, I have sincerely expressed my admiration and praise of his achievements. They are generally known. It is, however, less obvious that his last years, and in even greater intensity his last days, have brought about another accomplishment; he introduced into public life the presence of an old, handicapped, suffering, and even dying man so different from the young, fit, happy media heroes. And yet he remained a venerable media hero. This unexpected expansion of the category of who is counted among accepted celebrities, is moving and significant to me. In addition to being a university professor, an author, and an active Polish Jew, I am also the father of a handicapped child. But this does not belong to this book.

Warszawa, April 10, 2005, Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5765

Stanisław Krajewski

Acknowledgements

In Chapter 2, on Jews in Polish history, most footnotes are due to Mr. William Brand, the translator of my essay for its first English publication. I have slightly expanded or modified some of them, but this makes me no less grateful to him for his contribution.

I am grateful to all the editors of the original versions of the articles used in this volume. They include editors of the books and journals where the texts originally appeared. I would like to mention in particular the following persons whom I have known for a long time: Michał Bron, Elizabeth Cole, Andras Kovacs, Zbigniew Nosowski, Joshua Zimmerman. I am also glad that due to the work on this book I have identified the editor of Chapter 5, Marian J. Krzyzowski.

All the chapters are revised versions, some significantly modified, reduced or expanded of formerly published papers. The consent of the original publishers to use those texts is gratefully acknowledged. I would like to thank the following specifically for permission to reprint the essays. – for the Introduction, the editor of European Judaism where the article “A Polish Polish Jew” appeared in the issue 97/1, pp. 101-107. – for Chapter 1, Palgrave Macmillan; the paper “Auschwitz at the Threshold of the New Millennium” appeared in Rememberingfor the Future; The Holocaust in an Age of Genocides (Eds) John K. Roth, Elisabeth Maxwell, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2001, pp. 322-340. – for Chapter 2, the editors of Więź; the article “‘Jewish problem’ as a Polish problem”, appeared in the special English edition of Więź, “Under One Heaven, Poles and Jews” 1998, pp. 60 – 81 (notes: pp. 338-343). – for Chapter 3, the editors of the monthly Dialogue and Universalism for which the article “Poland and Jews: inescapable issues” was prepared. – for Chapter 4, Central European University’ Nationalism Studies Program; the article “Jews, Communists, and the Jewish Communists” appeared in Jewish Studies at the Central European University, ed… by Andras Kovacs, co-editor Eszter Andor, CEU 2000, pp. 119-133. – for Chapter 5, Marian J. Krzyzowski (Marek Nowak), Director of Business & Industrial Assistance Division, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; the article “Solidarity and Martial Law: the Jewish Dimension” appeared (under the name Abel Kainer) in Studium Papers (a quarterly published by The North American Study Center for Polish Affairs, Ann Arbor, Michigan), vol. XIII, No 2, April 1989, pp. 54-59. – for Chapter 6, Rutgers University Press, the publisher of the article “The Impact of the Shoah on the Thinking of Contemporary Polish Jewry”, in Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath, edited by Joshua D. Zimmerman, copyright 2003, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 2003, pp. 291-303. – for Chapter 7, Michał Bron Jr.; the article “Catholic Church, the Polish Church, and the Jews” appeared in: Michał Bron Jr. (ed.) Jews and Christians in Dialogue II: Identity – Tolerance – Understanding, Sodertorn Academic Studies 5, Almquist & Wiksell International, Stockholm 2001, pp. 188-201. – for Chapter 8, Columbia University Press, 61 West 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023, for the permission to include a revised version of the article “Catholic-Jewish Dialogue in Poland: a Difficult Road to Tolerance”, in Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe edited by Elizabeth Cole and Peter Danchin (pages 490-507). Copyright © 2002 Columbia University Press.

Stanisław Krajewski

Spis treści

Dedykacja

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction: A Polish Polish Jew

Auschwitz As A Challenge

“The Jewish Problem”As A Polish Problem

Poland And The Jews: Inescapable Issues

Jews, Communism And The Jewish Communists

An Insert From Another Era: Solidarity And Martial Law: The Jewish Dimension

Impact Of The Shoah On The Thinking Of Polish Jews After World War II

The Catholic Church, The Polish Church, And The Jews

Catholic-jewish Dialogue In Postwar Poland

Przypisy