I was curious to know how common Polish - Jewish intermariage was in pre 1939 Poland.
How common was Polish-Jewish intermarriage?
Not too common, but also not too rare, judging from pre-war Polish literature.
That's a misleading question. One can be both Jewish and Polish.
I think my grandmothers uncle in Pinsk was married to a Catholic Polish women. He was a middle class doctor, it was frowned upon by the family, but in my grandfathers poor religios family in Biyalstok it was completely unheard of to not marry a Jew. I wonder how common it was in other parts of Poland? I know it was quite common in Pre 1933 Germany.
It happened. Not that often, but it did.
Des Essientes 7 | 1288
14 Sep 2011 #6
Czesław Milosz's uncle Oscar Miłosz, a renown French Catholic poet, had a Jewish mother owing to his father having seen a pretty girl in a shop window's clothing advertisement and deciding on the spot to marry her. He went into the shop and demanded know who the model was and undeterred by her religion he followed through with his plan.
It makes sense that it happened rarely. Thats why the Jewish population is what only ~15 million (im assuming both religious and race)
Today though the mixing is happening more often.
I heard that 50 percent of Jews today marry with non-Jews.
Today though the mixing is happening more often.
I heard that 50 percent of Jews today marry with non-Jews.
Most Polish origin (and other Ashkenazi) Jews do not look Middle Eastern, many of them look medditeranean, but not middle eastern, I'm sure somwhere along the line there was some European admixture.
The reason the Jews dont look like middle easterner is because they arent.
They are Khazars a Turkic people.
They are Khazars a Turkic people.
They are Khazars a Turkic people.
niether do they look Turkic, that is a theory that hs been disproven. yes a small percenetage of Khazar DNA would have gone into the Jews of small parts of Russia sotherun Russia just North of the caucuses and south of the black sea, but thats a long way from Poland
niether do they look Turkic, that is a theory that hs been disproven.
Actually, even among intellectuals (including Jews) to this day there is still debate about it.
I have heard many Jews even claiming it makes sense and that they are descendants of Khazaria.
In fact other groups were heading west at that same time period. This includes Magyars and smaller tribes.
When the Khazar 'empire' disappeared a large movement off its citizens travelled west to other Eastern European Countries including Poland, Ukraine, Baltic States.
The possibility certainly exists and it wasnt just a small percentage.
To deny that possibility is narrow minded.
The main reason Jews deny that is because they have this thing stuck in their heads that they are ALL descendants of semites and are Chosen Ones. This is simply not true. Many adopted the religion during that time period.
This is used by zionists to further their goals to this day. Thats why hardly anyway mentions it.
The zionists have went to so far that today they have a label for just about everything and everyone: anti-semite, holocaust denier, nazi, supremacist, etc, etc, etc.
ADL and such garbage organizations have done things such as:
Anyone who thinks Israel was involved in 9/11 is an anti-semite.
Anyone who thinks they descended from khazars is an anti-semite.
Anyone who thinks Israel kills people in Palestine is an anti-semite.
And on and on it goes. The list is endless.
In the mean time its okay for people in America to say 9/11 was done by Muslim(s), or it was done by the American government, or
it was done by insert_group_here.
Its a joke. Americans can criticize themselves and other peoples but not the Jews?
Now go ahead and call me an anti-semite, naziwhokills6millionjews :)
You seriosly believe jews did 9/11? lol you must have some screws loose?
Again if you can't contribute other than ridiclous Jewish consipracy bollocks then be gone, this is about Jewish intermarriage in pre war Poland.
Again if you can't contribute other than ridiclous Jewish consipracy bollocks then be gone, this is about Jewish intermarriage in pre war Poland.
Hey idiot. Where did I say I believe Jews did 9/11?
There was a poll done: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:911worldopinionpoll_Sep2008_pie.png
I am speaking of these people.
In prozionist countries if you say that as AN OPINION you are label anti-semite.
Some of you morons are just too sensitive and whine all day long.
There was a poll done: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:911worldopinionpoll_Sep2008_pie.png
I am speaking of these people.
In prozionist countries if you say that as AN OPINION you are label anti-semite.
Some of you morons are just too sensitive and whine all day long.
That's a misleading question. One can be both Jewish and Polish.
Yes but. Judaism is an ethnicity and a religion- Polish is a nationality- slavic is the ethnicity, Catholicism is the majority religion. So one can be a Polish Jew- but typically Jewish is used to describe the religion.
Jews and Poles were defined based on their religion pre war- many jews assimilated but most didn't.
Jewish intermarriage was more common between Poles and truly assimilated jews- Poles didn't typically convert to the hasidic lifestyle
Marina 1989
22 Feb 2014 #15
What about Polish-Jews marrying in the say 1920's. Could a Catholic man say marry a Jewish girl, without maybe knowing she was Jewish, because maybe they had assimilated themselves so well? Just asking, as this could be the case of what happened in our family.
Countess Krystyna Skarbek/Christine Granville, a famous british agent - her father was a polish count, her mother - the daughter of a wealthy assimilated Jewish family. Her mother and her older brother were killed by Germans.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystyna_Skarbek
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krystyna_Skarbek
rangelso
16 Jul 2014 #17
He would have probably still went on for marriage even knowing she was jew but I think that tradition could sometimes step in and prevent it
Example of it in a well known movie "Fiddler on the Roof" where Chava one of the Tevye's daughters falls in love with Christian man Fyedka and choose to stay together
despite her father's lack of consent for inter-community marriage. At the end Tevye kinda blesses them anyways. Story based in Russian village of Anatevka but
I am sure for many Polish-Jewish families it would look the same. In Poland we say "heart not a servant" (serce nie sługa) which means whoever you fall in love you fall in love
be it jewish, polish, black, red, white etc. As both communities lived close to each other at that time one can assume it wasn't uncommon among young people to do so.
Example of it in a well known movie "Fiddler on the Roof" where Chava one of the Tevye's daughters falls in love with Christian man Fyedka and choose to stay together
despite her father's lack of consent for inter-community marriage. At the end Tevye kinda blesses them anyways. Story based in Russian village of Anatevka but
I am sure for many Polish-Jewish families it would look the same. In Poland we say "heart not a servant" (serce nie sługa) which means whoever you fall in love you fall in love
be it jewish, polish, black, red, white etc. As both communities lived close to each other at that time one can assume it wasn't uncommon among young people to do so.
KevinBrook - | 3
15 Dec 2022 #18
As I wrote in my book The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews, the mitochondrial haplogroups H11a2a2 and W3a1a1 are shared between Ashkenazic Jews and Polish Catholics so I think it is likely that Ashkenazim inherited these from Polish women.
According to pages 5-6 of the study "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century", the majority of the Slavic DNA in Ashkenazim was incorporated by the 14th century and intermarriages in later centuries only affected the Ashkenazic genome to the extent of about 2 to 4 percent at most. Some of the Jews living in Erfurt in the 14th century already had a huge proportion of Slavic DNA, making up as much as about 40 percent of their individual genomes.
But some of the earlier Slavic elements appear to have been Czech rather than Polish. Their study's admixture models in Figure 3 only use Russians as a proxy population to represent the concept of what they call Eastern European ancestry. Russian ancestry doesn't exist in Jews.
According to pages 5-6 of the study "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century", the majority of the Slavic DNA in Ashkenazim was incorporated by the 14th century and intermarriages in later centuries only affected the Ashkenazic genome to the extent of about 2 to 4 percent at most. Some of the Jews living in Erfurt in the 14th century already had a huge proportion of Slavic DNA, making up as much as about 40 percent of their individual genomes.
But some of the earlier Slavic elements appear to have been Czech rather than Polish. Their study's admixture models in Figure 3 only use Russians as a proxy population to represent the concept of what they call Eastern European ancestry. Russian ancestry doesn't exist in Jews.
The number of assimilated half-Jews in pre-War Poland was indeed small, yet produced some renowned poets, writers and musicians, such as Jan Brzechwa, Jan Kiepura, Jozef Hofmann, along with many others:-)
The number of assimilated
A person born in Poland should not need to assimilate. My kids didn't need to assimilate into the US. Quoting:
Imported from Latin, assimilate has the word similar within it and in fact, means "to become like something else." If someone moves to another country, he or she will need to assimilate by adapting to and taking in the language, culture and customs of the new place.
Statistically, Polish Jews were foreigners and needed to "assimilate". A good numerical statistic would be (1) how many spoke Polish at home and with Jewish friends, (2) had Polish flags they acquired happily and without pressure, (3) knew and sung the Polish anthem as their own, (4) never said "Poles and us Jews".
Jews certainly did need to assimilate into everyday, gentile life, 'course they did!
Those who simply lived out their remaining days tied to the shtettl were one who lost out in the end.
Adaptation without forgetting, while not unthinkingly clinging to, one's roots is the key to successful integration:-)
Those who simply lived out their remaining days tied to the shtettl were one who lost out in the end.
Adaptation without forgetting, while not unthinkingly clinging to, one's roots is the key to successful integration:-)
Yonek
3 Jun 2026 #22
Was a ethnic Polish person (man or woman) considered 'Jewish' if they married a Jewish person? Did it work the other way around as well? Alternatively, would a Jewish person who married an ethnic Pole not want to be considered 'Polish'?
Rufus
4 Jun 2026 #23
Unlikely he would have been considered Jewish, unless he had more money than them.
Lyzko9bda5804d1feebf
5 Jun 2026 #24
Unlike in the US, birthright citizenship, much less nationality, is by NO means a given in Poland!
Simply because a Somali born of non-Polish speaking Somali parents was born in Poland does NOT automatically guarantee that individual's right to consider themselves Polish, in contrast with the US.
Simply because a Somali born of non-Polish speaking Somali parents was born in Poland does NOT automatically guarantee that individual's right to consider themselves Polish, in contrast with the US.
BloodCitizenship
12 Jun 2026 #25
Unlike in the US, birthright citizenship, much less
Instead, Poland just desperately flings passports at any foreigner with tenuous Polish ancestry, e.g., an American whose great grandparent was born in Poland. So, actually being born in the country isn't enough for citizenship, but the fact that a distant ancestor was seemingly is. People who live and work and pay taxes in Poland must wait years and pass a language exam, all while being demonised by the Polish media and political sphere, and meanwhile some random Joe Americanski from Michigan can just proudly announce their incredibly loose link to the country and get a Pole's welcome.
Is it Polish insecurity that makes them to eager to claim any foreign-born 'son'/'daughter' of Poland? "Wow, they actually want to be Polish!" Or is it the deep ethnocentrism - even a tiny bit of pure, perfect Polish blood is enough for the red carpet and a free no-strings passport?
Ron2
12 Jun 2026 #26
Poland thinks that bringing a "Polish" foreigner into the country will benefit Poland, but in most cases, they want to become Polish citizens to take advantage of the Polish systems (especially free healthcare). Hard to blame them, though, but you are right that they should not be glorified.
It simply makes sense, when considering prospective immigrants, to give priority to those of Polish ancestry, family ties, and knowledge of the language (even if only cursory). Countries should strive for the greatest possible degree of ethnic and cultural cohesion. We need only look across the border to see how multi-kulti has worked out in practice - no, thank you, but no.
Ron2
12 Jun 2026 #28
We need only look across the border
You mean the Eastern border as whatever happens in the other EU countries is already happening in Poland due to the EU's laws trumping Poland's.
whatever happens in the other EU countries is already happening in Poland
Perhaps, but certainly not to the same extent. We are still 25-30 years behind Western Europe, and that's quite enough for me.
Bratwurst Boy 10 | 13082
12 Jun 2026 #30
due to the EU's laws trumping Poland's.
I just read Poland was able to get an exception ruling concerning refugees....it is no longer forced to take in its part!
European asylum reform Geas :
Poland will not accept any more refugees.
The Polish government has negotiated an exemption from the EU migration pact. According to the country, this means it is exempt from the redistribution of refugees.....
Poland will not accept any more refugees.
The Polish government has negotiated an exemption from the EU migration pact. According to the country, this means it is exempt from the redistribution of refugees.....
zeit.de/politik/ausland/2026-06/eu-migrationspakt-polen-fluechtlinge-umverteilung-ausnahme-gxe
So...exceptions from EU laws are possible!