Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Similar explanation for kashruth!

In those times, eating pork or shellfish could indeed bring certain death. It was then explained as such for religious reasons.
Today however, such danger has largely passed, yet orthodox or observant Jews resolutely continue to keep kosher:-)

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Dmowski though, including Paderewski while acting premier, was known to be both an ultra-nationalist as well as an anti-Semite. Lest we forget!

Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Of course it was rationalized as a religious reason, but again, the ancient Israelites weren't dumb and realized that there were also clearly hygienic benefits to circumcision.

History / Did NATO help in retrival of heads of Poland's King Władysław III and Zawisza Czarny [16]

Why open old wounds

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

The Bolshies did though try to spread their influence throughout Europe, among other countries, England.

Life / Why is circumcision not practiced in Poland? [701]

Circumcision was meant historically as a means of keeping the male organ clean from any number of impurities in the body, much as keeping kosher according to kashruth, was an early attempt by the ancient Hebrews of an early health code.

Don't let's blame the Jews merely for following one of the basic tenets of their faith. Having said that, I don't believe one can be a "bad Jew" by being a basically "good" person aka a "mensch", albeit not subscribing to often outdated dietary restrictions, particularly nowadays that the danger's passed and eating pork is no longer necessarily fatal, same for shell fish. I know many Catholics who typically will swear like a sailor on Sunday, criticize the Pope roundly, eat beef on Fridays and are still good people, even if in the eyes of the Church, they are considered lapsed Catholics-)

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Gotta admit though, Bobko, the broadness of your thread question does lend itself conveniently to a bit of digression at best.

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Well, Western Civilization did move upward from South to North rather than the opposite way:-)
While the ancients in the Fertile Crescent, for example, were building great, impressive nearly full-service metopoli for their time, Mesopotamia etc. you Northern Europeans were often still sitting around in loin cloth, eating mead, and throwing bones at one another.LOL

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Ironside,

YOU just slow down! I was merely responding to Maf's post:-)

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

The European Enlightenment as promulgated by Lessing, Voltaire, Moses Mendelssohn, also Goethe, was the attempt to instill the values of democracy wedded to a respect for scientific research as a means to complement, not necessarily replace, traditional Christian teachings:-)

In Germany however, as well all know too well, owing to the peculiar nature of her early deviation from Occidental Christianity, back to pre-Christian paganism in many cases (later seized upon for all it was worth by Hitler and the Nazis), the Enlightenment essentially withered on the vine, never quite taking root as was hoped by her proponents, thus rejecting Judeo-Christian values of love/respect one's neighbor, "the meek shall inherit the earth", opting instead for perverted Darwinism and to put it bluntly, caveman tactics and rampant anti-intellectualism!

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Szczelecki,

Learn English properly before you decide to post:-)

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Perhaps you don't grasp the meaning of the the word "Westernized", Szczelecki! The West or "Zachod" is the place from which Poland adopted much of what is currently considered Polish and the Poles always have seen themselves, almost as much as the Czech people, as a bridge between East and West.

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Agreed. Poland certainly "Westernized" far more readily than Russia, her adaptation of the Latin over the Cyrillic alphabet, Roman Catholicism as opposed to Russian Orthodoxy, to name several examples.

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Russia nearly did absorb most of her neighbors, much as "Czar Vladimir" is trying to do same these days.

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Don't underestimate the power either of the US army or the British navy at that time. Likely the Russians wouldn't have had a prayer:-)

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

True, although my initial surmise would be that Russia might well have "gobbled up", so to speak, as much Polish territory as she could, therein reducing Poland's

geographic size, not to mention any possible geopolitical influence she might either have had or towards which she could have hoped to aspire.

Hitler would have attacked Poland, not matter what!

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Not exactly transparent from your thread post which war you meant, bobko old man!

History / Would Poland be better off if it had lost in the Polish-Soviet War? [44]

Hmmm, a titillating proposition. However, as with most all "What if..." scenarios, the background to the war, seen within the broader context of WWII itself, cannot alter the fact that it was principally the German invasion of Poland in '39 which turned the course of things, from merely a Polish-Soviet matter, into a continental issue which ended up embroiling nearly every nation of Europe, in one way or other:-)

At the time, Poland was neither well off nor badly off, having been under Russian control up till 1918 when she was finally liberated by Pilsudski, later dominated by the Nazis, after that, by the Soviets as one of many other satelites until '89.

The Germans saw the so-called "Polish Corridor" as a means by which Hitler could eventually claim military victory over Poland. Stalin though remained Hitler's chief nemesis, whom the Fuehrer saw as his life's mission to finally defeat, thereby laying claim to historical dreams of "deutscher Lebensraum", in the end, over the entire territory of Russia!

Travel / From Krakow to Auschwitz (transportation) [29]

That nearly happened to me during my one and only pilgrimage ("GRIM" indeed) to the Dachau Camp in the early '90's. Saw the sign "ZU DEN KREMATORIEN", turned tail and headed back to the hotel, luckily a bit of a distance away by U-Bahn in downtown Munich. The stones in front of the now sanitized barracks were plenty for me!

Travel / From Krakow to Auschwitz (transportation) [29]

I've not been privileged as yet to take the plunge, but if ever we do decide to make such a pilgrimage, I promised my wife to bring along plenty of smelling salts, perhaps a barf bag too wouldn't hurt either.

Travel / From Krakow to Auschwitz (transportation) [29]

Wouldn't ya need at least a day or so to "recover" after visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau??
Talk about iron-cast constitutions! Hey, and then it's off to Krakow...on a shopping trip, no doubt.
Charming.

Life / Popular Polish blog and chat sites [65]

Not if I and others like me can help it, NoToForeigners:-)

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Quite, Vlad!

Olive complexion in my years of having lived and traveled throughout Germany pre-globalization indicates possible admixture with Southern Europeans.
"Ethnic" Germans often may have dark to blue-black hair, occasionally brown or dark-brown eye color, but the features remain typically straight rather than rounded, and the skin usually is fair. When I've encountered German natives with a touch of swarthy or olive complexion, in nearly every case, they were of at least part Italian, Spanish or Greek heritage:-)

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Like I say, ethnically German.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

With little difficulty on my end might be (mis-)taken for ethnic Germans.

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

Obviously of partially German origin:-)

Genealogy / The typical Polish look, or all Eastern Europeans [676]

The right picture might well be of two highly assimilated Polish urban Jews, most likely from the upper-middle classes. The one on the left could be German as well:-) German males often tend to have less oval-shaped and slightly squarer-looking faces, broader jawline.

The photograph even looks a little like the composer Hindemith:-)

Language / Maria, what is the Polish form? [30]

And interestingly enough, gang, "Marijke" (with a final "e" however) is Dutch, "Marika", Hungarian.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [402]

Rather the opposite I'd say. Like 'Smolarz' and others, 'Pacharz' looks pretty much Slavic to me.

Language / Polish slang phrases - most popular. [630]

I thought I'd come across "blyat" in Russian meaning "bribery" of some sort or other:-) Although I'm sure there must be a slang expression as well, could have sworn I either read or heard this word.