Life / Are Polish traditions dissapearing [93]

If culture is a way of living according to a set of certain values important to particular community or society, I think the more religious the group is, the more their traditions are connected to religion. When it's no longer about the values but the ceremony itself (like, let's say, Dyngus - personally I don't know anyone who would consider throwing water at people as a sort of part national identity or something) just because it's fun to keep it, then it is more a custom than tradition really... don't you think?

Travel / Intriguing piece of sculpture in Wroclaw [7]

It's called Transition. It is a copy of a sculpture by Jerzy Kalina from 1977. The original can be seen in the Wroclaw National Museum.

Life / Antisemitism in Poland; is it safe for a Jew to live in Poland? [193]

I just thought I could answer a few questions asked in the original post.

Not being Jewish myself I have a lot of friends who are. I even used to live in a dormitory owned by the Jewish community a few years ago thanks to them (a great apartment by the way). There used to be a very strong Jewish community in Wroclaw but it fell apart after some internal problems that I don't know much about.

Of course there exist antisemitic organisations in Poland, yet none of my friends have ever been attacked by their members nor experienced acts of hostility from the local Polish community against them.

I don't know what it's like in smaller towns though, where the communities are smaller and less organized. In Wroclaw we have a few festivals of Jewish culture and music, the best Jewish kindergarten where Polish Catholic children are sent because its level of education is very high, there is a beautiful synagogue we are all proud of, Institute of Jewish Studies as a part of the Philology Department and an active discussion group basing on the Jewish leftist tradition.

It seems to me that as long as people are familiar with the culture and co-exist on the same territory on similar terms it is unlikely that Poles will consider the Jewish as strangers, aliens or any sort of evil power that they should isolate from.

Law / Street performing (music) in Poland... permit needed? [14]

You actually need a permission - you can receive it from the Cultural Division of the Municipal Office. As far as I know it should be pretty easy. You basically have to fill in this application form:

wrosystem.um.wroc.pl/beta_4/webdisk/71ffe4eb-9e18-4da3-8be1-1319f4f20a 6f/rynek_wniosek.pdf

I don't know if there is an English version of this document, though.