UK, Ireland /
Is moving to UK now a good idea? - antipolish prejudice of the Brits [231]
SeanusIf you are interested how polish people treated milions of foreigners, read about Casimir the Great and about Jews, which were hated in all over the Europe and had to flee, in Poland they have found a safe home . That is the way that Poles treated milions of foreigners.
The first extensive Jewish emigration from Western Europe to Poland occurred at the time of the First Crusade (1098). Under Boleslaw III Krzywousty (1102–1139), the Jews, encouraged by the tolerant régime of this ruler, settled throughout Poland, including over the border into Lithuanian territory as far as Kiev. At the same time Poland saw possible immigration of Khazars, a Turkic tribe that had converted to Judaism.
King Casimir was favorably disposed toward Jews. On 9 October 1334, he confirmed the privileges granted to Jewish Poles in 1264 by Bolesław V the Chaste. Under penalty of death, he prohibited the kidnapping of Jewish children for the purpose of enforced Christian baptism. He inflicted heavy punishment for the desecration of Jewish cemeteries.
Although Jews had lived in Poland since before the reign of King Casimir,
he allowed them to settle in Poland in great numbers and protected them as people of the king.[4]Some Jewish historians say the Hebrew word for 'Poland' is pronounced as Polania or Polin in Hebrew. As transliterated into Hebrew, these names for Poland were interpreted as "good omens" because Polania can be broken down into three Hebrew words: po ("here"), lan ("dwells"), ya ("God"), and Polin into two words of: po ("here") lin ("[you should] dwell"). The "message" was that Poland was meant to be a good place for the Jews.
In later centuries up to 80% of the Jewish world population lived in Poland. 