Three weeks ago, on the first day of the current hostilities,mainstream European newspaper headlines across the continent screamed “Israel bombards Gaza” and “Gaza under attack”. Here in Poland, where I’ve been living for 13 years,the main Polish newspaper announced “Tel Aviv under rocket attack from Gaza”.
By Jonathan Ornstein
The question of why Europe has got it so wrong is a larger question than I care to deal with here, but what about the other question: Why is Poland getting it right?
There’s something very special going on in today’s Poland and it is in the Jewish world’s interest to take notice.
Poland in the Jewish sense is mostly seen as a place of tragedy and loss; a place defined by the Holocaust; a place that the Jewish people escaped from and visit in order to mourn the loss of a once great community.
But in Krakow, the city that I live in, barely an hour’s drive from Auschwitz, Jewish life is thriving in ways that other European cities wouldn’t believe possible.
The Jewish Community Centre of Krakow (JCC Krakow),opened by Prince Charles in 2008, of which I’m the executive director, has 500 Jewish members and 7,000 visitors a month who spend time in a beautiful, modern, colorful space dedicated to building a Jewish future in Krakow. Alongside the 35 staff, Jewish and non-Jewish, there are 50 non-Jewish volunteers – dedicated young people who want to see Krakow’s Jewish community prosper and give their time every day to help achieve that goal.
The center is open and welcoming in a way that you cannot find in a Europe today whose Jewish buildings, sadly, are often fortress like.
Krakow’s Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364 is home to a large Jewish Studies Department where 150 students, 95% of whom aren’t Jewish are getting a master’s degree in Jewish studies.
The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Europe’s largest Jewish festival was founded 26 years ago by two non-Jews who felt the void created by the Holocaust and 45 years of communist oppression and wanted to fill it with Jewish culture. Over 30,00 visitors a year now participate in hundreds of events culminating in a huge, open air, free concert in one of Krakow’s Jewish squares. 20,000 Jews and non-Jews, Poles and visitors dancing and singing together, celebrating a culture that they understand was not lost.
Why is all this going on?
A generation of non-Jewish Poles is seeking to understand Polish history and realizes that in order to understand Poland,you must understand the role the Jews played during the thousand year common history.
Jewish Poles coming of age after communism ended 25 years ago, are finding out about their Jewish roots as Jewish life has emerged from the deep freeze of communism and the devastation of the Holocaust. They are coming to institutions like our JCC and the brand new JCC in Warsaw and asking us to teach them what it means to be Jewish.
It is easier, safer, and better to be Jewish every day in Krakow. I do not know of any other community leader in Europe who can say the same about his or her community.
Poland is also Israel’s best friend in Europe today. Not a friend like Germany, whose government supports Israel as her citizens call for her destruction, but a true friend, one whose government support mirrors the will of the people.
Why?
I think there are two reasons for Poles’ strong pro-Israel sentiment.
First, Poland is located between Germany and Russia, which is historically a very tough neighborhood to be in and therefore identifies with Israel, which has a pretty rough neighborhood as well.
Second, in the Polish collective memory, Jews are studious, intelligent, and bookish. 60% of the lawyers and 40% of the doctors in pre-war Poland were Jewish. The idea that the same Jews who lived in Poland for 1,000 years went to Israel and became bloodthirsty killers doesn’t add up to Poles.
So as we sit frustrated and watch as Israel struggles to defend her citizens and the world rushes to condemn her for doing so, remember there’s a country in Europe with 38 million citizens, with a thousand year Jewish presence, that is a friend to Israel and a safe, welcoming place for Jews.
The Jewish revival in Poland is one of the most important and uplifting stories in the Jewish world today. Help tell it and by doing so, help Israel and the Jewish world.
Jonathan Ornstein has served as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow since its opening in April 2008. He is a founding member of “Przymierze,” the Krakow Association of Christians and Jews where he serves on the board. Prior to the JCC’s opening in 2008, he lectured in Modern Hebrew at the Jagiellonian University Department of Jewish Studies for six years and founded the “Gesher” association for Polish-Israeli dialogue. A native of New York City, Jonathan moved to Israel in 1994, living for seven years on a kibbutz in the Negev desert and serving for two years in a combat unit in the I.D.F. before making his way to Poland in 2001.
