Polish hero discovers Jewish roots

It's a bit of an old story, but a heartwarming one. The Polish hero Magdalena Grodzka-Guzkowska, who took part in teaching Jewish people in wartime Warsaw how to pass off successfully as Catholics among many other heroic acts, discovered her own Jewish roots many years later.

jweekly.com/2012/01/06/after-saving-jews-polish-hero-discovers-own-jewish-roots

As the article says:


The Jewish revival in Poland is supported by all main political parties, and it is clear that the Jewish heritage of Poland should not only be mentioned, but should be considered a key component of Polish history. Many of us support Jewish causes, and the strong Jewish influence on Polish business and political life should not be understated.

A true hero. Reminds me of Irena Sendler, a remarkable person and very modest about what she did at great risk to herself:


theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/15/secondworldwar.poland

Hmmm, let's see now. The Jews have been in Poland since roughly the 11th century or thereabouts and barely since 2017 is there this gradual widespread "Jewish revival" of traditions and cultural symbiosis all over the place, breaking out like nobody's business???! Well, the thousandth year's always a charm:-)

kind of racist, this threat.

Who's threatening anyone?? Oh, you mean "threaD"! There you go, devoicing againLOL

Why is defending Jews "racist", while defending Christians isn't. To be frank as well, your logic really escapes me sometimes.

Indeed. Not that there is logic in there at all. Very hard to see how celebrating a Polish hero is racist.

Well I have the idea that Pole and Jew were never completely discrete categories (unlike Russia and the USSR where Russian and Jewish were separate 'nationalities') I'd say a very large portion of the population has some Jewish roots that they mostly don't know about (conversions and intermarriage, in some order, generations ago).

Right! Even today in Russia, or at least during the Soviet period, Jews had different passport markings than Russian non-Jews:-) Almost similar to Britain, where once certain British subjects had a different status from other citizens, e.g. Pakistani-Brits vs. ethnic, home-born English etc.

Here there's a huge overlap and the distinction has long been very blurred.

Perhaps why until today, Russians will ask someone for their "nationality" as separate and distinct from their "ethnicity":-) And not only in Russia. In Germany up until the past ten years maybe, someone born in Germany of foreign-born parents was not considered of German "nationality"! In the US, the opposite is true.

Actually in Russian there's no real difference (also in Polish). In English 'nationality' is mostly about citizenship while in Polish/Russian it's ethnic group.

Talking about Jewish 'roots' is kind of racist. At least it should be if you're a progressive.


No, delpian is.


You mean you have no idea.

Then why are there so many Jewish looking people running around in Poland? What is their ethnic self identification? The "X is really a Jew" propaganda only works because there's a lot of overlap.

What it mean 'Jewish looking'? There is no Jewish DNA.

In what way?


Quite. In bigger cities this is very much a thing.

Well, you should know from all the people. If i would say that Michnik is an anti-polish Jew and a hypocrite you would call me a racist. Its only fair that someone looking into another person 'roots' for no good reason should be called racist too.

Peronally I don't care. I just don't see why a distant relation to some or other enthnicity has any import at all. Unless you're a crypto-racist.

Are you talking about so called oriental look? Like Chazars, Tatars, Karims, turkmens, turkish people and whatnot? Make sure you don't add to the list Armenians and Georgian. The answer is simple - geography and history. To pressume that all those people must have Jewish roots is either ignorant or racist. Take your pick.

intermariage was not so big until the late 19th and early 20th century - Jews simply kept to themselves - which was helped by the fact that they spoke a different language amongst themselves

A time of huge population incease, as it happens.

I really don't know why the issue would be worth discussing - the important thing is Magdalena Grodzka-Guzkowska.

Not in absolute terms, but there are a lot of things that correlate with (European) jewishness.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews#Y-DNA_of_Ashkenazi_Jews

The distinction, is I believe, whether Jews who converted to Christianity were still considered Jews or not, in Russia I'm pretty sure they were which is why it was a 'nationality' separate from Russian (though most Jews in the USSR only spoke Russian). I've read that in Hungary they weren't and I'm assuming that's also the case in Poland though maybe the more Russian leaning (culturally) don't accept that.

Christianity's roots ARE Jewish, Ironside, remember Jesus?? Therefore, you don't know what you're talking about:-)

Very much so.

Pics of prewar Jewish district in the city of Krakow
onet.pl/informacje/krowoderskapl/przedwojenna-dzielnica-zydowska-na-fenomenalnych-zdjeciach-ruch-na-ulicach-panowal/nm5jf2v,30bc1058

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Kodak color.

Have you seen the film Three Minutes - A Lengthening.

Filmed in Nasielsk in 1938. Well worth watching: imdb.com/title/tt12017738/