Life / Are there many crypto-Jews in Poland? [67]

You need to understand journalism a bit more, that's all, and I'm sorry but I dont have the time to write you an essay on the media, which I've worked in for my entire professional career. In short, editors tend not to make such huge public attacks , because it alienates people. For example presumably Michnik hates Rydzyk but he doesn't bother to say it very much.

It is conspicuous that Michnik made this extremely bold attack on the French Left in the name of Poland, and against a false and anti-Polish charge of anti-Semitism. That is clear evidence that he is a Polish patriot first, before he is a liberal and a Jew.

Life / Are there many crypto-Jews in Poland? [67]

@gumishi

That was my comment, not Harry's, so pick on me, not on him.

As editor of GW, Michnik (i) made a full-frontal attack against Le Monde, and (ii) attacked the abusive accusation of anti-Semitism by Jews against Poles. If you know anything about the media you will know that both were considerable risks he took, in the name of Poland, Wajda and Katyn.

Thanks anyway for clarifying that you don't think all Polish Jews are unable to be Polish patriots.

Life / Are there many crypto-Jews in Poland? [67]

@gumishu

That's bullshit. Michnik has risked his own career to defend Poland's good name against false accusations of Anti-Semitism. To take just one of many examples, here he telling the self-righteous, finger-pointing, 'all Poles are antisemites' French Left what idiots they are on the subject of Katyn.

GW columnist Stanislaw Krajewski, a devout practising Jew, is one of very few Jews in the world who are loudly condemning Jewish crimes against Poles. He deserves a medal, not for Polish patriotism, but for telling the truth and being empirical about it.

That there are several prominent Jews in Poland's most important news outlet merely disproves the anti-Polish stereotype that Polish society is especially anti-Semitic, and for that I treat it as a very good thing.

As to Cichy, one should never take the grumblings of ex-employees at face value.

By the way PiS foreign minister Stefan Meller was Jewish. Why would a 'true patriot' like Jaroslaw Kaczynski have tolerated him if he wasn't a patriot? Then there is foreign policy advisor Adam Rotfeld, the Smolar brothers, and several other great Polish Jewish minds who have admirably served the Polish cause for a generation.

Life / Are there many crypto-Jews in Poland? [67]

Well, Jewish identity is unusual in that it can be either (i) ethnic or (ii) religious or (iii) both.

One can also be Vietnamese and Polish at the same time, or Muslim and Polish at the same time - by law. Because contrary to racist anti-Polish stereotypes, Poland is a standard western liberal democracy.

Roca's theory was that one is either a Pole or a Jew, and that Jews in Poland are 'pretending' to be Polish while they devote their entire lives to their conspiracy to cause the inefficiencies Polish bureaucracy. I'm not sure why Roca chose the bureaucracy, given he hasn't provided any evidence he could have picked any other of Poland's failings to blame on a Jewish conspiracy.

Whether an ethnic Jew is secular like the late PiS foreign minister Stefan Meller, or religious like Rabbi Michael Schudrich, and has a Polish passport, he is Polish.

Roca's idea that secret Jews in Poland are not Poles but are pretending to be Polish is therefore impossible. A Jew with a Polish passport, whether he is religious or secular, is also a Pole.

On that point, by the way, Polish law states that anyone born outside Poland who has a single grandparent was was a Polish citizen, as defined, is Polish according to Polish law. That includes about half the current population of Israel.

Law / Public holidays: Good Friday / January 2 / Sundays - do companies work in Poland? [9]

Merged: Is January 2 really not a public holiday in Poland?

I ask because since we have New Year's Day landing on Sunday, in most countries I've lived in, an official public holiday then immediately follows on the Monday. But this appears not to happen in Poland. May I check if this is correct? Shops and other businesses will all be open in principle on Monday?

Life / Are there many crypto-Jews in Poland? [67]

@roca

Get an education. The constitution of Poland, and Polish law, states that one can be Jewish and Polish at the same time, just as one can be Jewish and American, or Polish and American for that matter. There's no evidence of a Jewish conspiracy to make Poland less efficient. If you have evidence, show me.

Otherwise, you're just making a fool of yourself by making up stories without presenting evidence.

I happen to have both Jewish and Polish blood by the way, and happen to think that Poles are unfairly stereotyped as being especially more anti-Semitic than other non-Jewish nations. Unfortunately, doing what you have just done makes it harder for good Poles to shrug off the unfair stereotype that defames the Polish nation. And that means you're a traitor to Poland.