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Jews emerge from the shadows in a land that is haunted by history “Across Poland, long-buried Jewish roots are poking above the surface. And in the shadow of Auschwitz concentration camp a remarkable social experiment is under way: a small, dedicated group of rabbis is trying to rekindle Judaism in a country that many Jews worldwide see as cursed terrain. “After the Holocaust, many Poles had either left Poland or left Judaism,” Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, says. Nervous of anti-Semitism, most of the remaining Jews went under cover….. Slowly the huge investment since the end of communism is beginning to pay off: Jews are returning or coming out, breaking their silence, gaining confidence. Every time the ultra-nationalist and often provocative station Radio Maryja snipes at Jewish “profiteering” or peddles ancient stereotypes, the fledgeling Jewish community retreats an inch or two back under its shell. But anti-Semitism is not remotely comparable to its prewar or immediate postwar levels. It is a backdrop to extreme rightwing politics. “It makes me queasy sometimes,” a participant in the Jewish summer camp says, “but it doesn’t make me rush to pack my suitcase. That is progress.” The Mayor of Lodz - site of one of the biggest Nazi-run ghettos - recently invited a group of teenagers from northern Israel to shield them from the bombing of Hezbollah -— unthinkable a decade ago. Local councils, once an engine of vitriolic anti-Semitism as they fought off Jewish restitution claims, are becoming open and engaged…..”
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Anti-Semitism