News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

??? Come again?
LOL

To paraphrase: "We Slavs should expect that the Christian churches pay heed to our wishes and return........" (I think)

Am I getting warm?:-)

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]

A difference here, granted.

Thanks, gregy!

Language / Short Polish<->English translations [1050]

"Taka sobie" can sometimes substitute for simply "nieźle" or "not bad" and "wszystko po staremu" = same old, same old.

:-)

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

My Polish is probably on a par with Crow's English, but neither knows German as well as I or Jolly:-)

A mute point, as I'm clearly right in this instance!

As far as the clear split in opinion between what Francis preaches and the points of view I've read thus far, hard times are always the acid test for what unites strong faith vs. recurring fad.

The mean-spirited hypocrisy which supports "Jesus wasn't no creampuff!" and other bilge one hears throughout the broad country of the US, justifying bullying etc. instead of the really tough love of true compassion (even when it strains) is a sharp contrast between those who merely call themselves Christians and those who ARE Christians, and needn't go to Church every Sunday to prove it!!

Europe's center is indeed being challenged nowadays, more probably than at any other time in recent history, at least since WWII and immediately after. It is precisely in times such as these that the resolve and love of Pope Francis is relished as never before.

Dirty shame on those who justify attacks on Muslims (including those who errantly attack Christians Europe in the mistaken belief they are doing Allah's work), when Christianity itself has taught "Hate the sin but not the sinner!"

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

@Nothanks, the analogy with Nazi Germany and the Jews is perhaps well-meaning, but faulty and easily misunderstood as "historical relativism"!

The Muslims are non-German speaking, recent and unwelcome arrivals to Germany, brought in by boatload (potential future voting block, don't forget) with one momma of time required to integrate...if they ever can:-) A number have steadfastly and openly REFUSED to do so.

The Jews had been living, working and contributing to the host culture for nearly two-thousand years, practically since the fall of the Roman Empire, a people who assimilated to the point of nearly losing their own identity, JUST to do their host culture proud because they grew to love Germany. Furthermore, the German-Jewish symbiosis was as nearly complete as any other in history; they displayed Christmas trees in their homes, they joined the army to fight against England, gave their lives for THEIR Fatherland and some received the Iron Cross, while many became some of the leading scholars of Goethe, Lessing, Schiller and other Enlightenment figures with a love of the German language second to none, perhaps even the gentile Germans themselves. Mendelssohn, Mahler and others remain staples of our concert repertoire and until Hiler's lunacy, Jews were on the surface as "German" as any German Christian. And that's how it should be, as the Jews truly earned their "place in the sun", merely to paraphrase out of context.

You should reconsider your comparison, as some of us might easily get the wrong ideaLOL

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

@Szalawa, you seem not to recognize certain facts of history, namely, that not all homogeneous ethnicities can physically remain, for reasons of either food shortages or lowering birth rates, in their country of origin aka their "own" country:-) Therefore, it is incumbent upon us on certain occasions to extend a helping hand as WE would want such in our case, let's not rationlize: NO man's an island.

The problem in Europe right now is merely that the EU has bitten off far more than it can possible chew, thus giving herself particularly and her member states in general, a permanent case of indigestionLOL

@Wulkan,

Birds of a feather flock together. What you meant to say was that my German and Polish are better than Crow's truly broken English, but you've too much pride to admit it. I know your type all too well.

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

Stop projecting, Ironside, your ADFs are showing, and BADLY, I must say:-)

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

??? I'm afraid you've lost me there, Crow! Sounds like your rambling......AGAIN:-)
lol

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

Times have changed, Crow, but if you mean that there should be a call for broader tolerance, I completely agree:-)

Unfortunately, the serious missteps of among others the Merkel have made tolerance challenging for far too many to adapt comfortably.
The fault therefore doesn't lie with the poor migrants, unwitting pawns in a game of global glory, but with those in gov't aka the EU which ought to have known and acted better!

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

Nothanks, you'd likely be a Trump supporter if you lived in the States:-)

You're positing easy answers to complex problems! The solution is for the wealthier countries aka Northern Europe to build up or grow the economies of these poorer typically Muslim countries so that their arduous trecks to Poland, Germany etc. become unnecessary and the need for their arrival superfluous.

Furthermore, who says that ethnic Europeans, particularly in Scandinavia, only sit behind a desk as managers or become engineers?? Someone's got to remove the refuse, clean the streets etc... We all know why they'd rather die than denegrate themselves, but as there become fewer and fewer births from the rich nations, it looks like they'll have to start re-thinking the outdated myths of their current strategy.

Here in the States, things are similar but the workplace a bit more porous than in Europe and even W.A.S.P college kids (and a good deal older) from Mayflower pedigrees will often be seen as baristas in Starbucks, hair stylists, nail salon assistants and so forth.

Just maybe Europe might draw a lesson, huh?

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

They probably meant "The Pope can't be BOUGHT!" (Except if your name happens to be Pius)
:-)

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

"The boot is full!", is that the idea, nothanks?

While I can accept the fed-up feeling which has been slowly blanketing Europe for some time, I can't help but wish that Mis. Merkel and Szydło oughtn't figure out how their respective governments can use their largesse to fund anti-poverty programs respectively in Syria and elsewhere instead of having to ship boatloads of refugees to the teeming shores of countries such as England, Poland, and Germany which can barely handle their own, let alone unneeded surplus:-)

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

Partially agree, but you can't re-interpret Christian doctrine to fit today's ill-suited fashions, remember that:-)

News / "A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants" Pope Francis [89]

However, Benedict had made sever missteps in his early life aka joining the Hitler Youth (either under duress or not), whereas luckily for the Vatican, Francis hasn't been burdened by such weighty baggage:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

??? Translation into English, Iwonko:-)

Not surprised you haven't answered my private Polish-language posts to you; you might be forced to make sense in your own languageLOL

Look at history and you'll see that no group chooses to be victims; sometimes though, it just happens sadly to work out that way.

While I've never lived for long in Poland, (enjoyable as my stay was!), I'd surely be conscious of my Jewishness every minute of my time there.

Imagine for instance, an African-American returning South, to say, Mississippi, Georgia, or Alabama and trying to integrate again; they'd be conscious of their skin color all the time, don't tell me!!!

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

I'm as Jewish as the next Jew or do I have to "prove" I've been circumcised or leave a sperm sample too?

Maybe I doubt you're a Polish Catholic, how about that? Maybe you're a renegade Jew and you're just faking!! ANd maybe you really know perfect English.

lol

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

As you have no question which requires such an answer, I scarcely see the point in continuing in the present vein.

You STILL haven't addressed the problem of church-sanctioned anti-Jewish hostility throughout the centuries! Are you honestly going to have intelligent people believe that it was/is the JEWS' fault???

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

Who's crying? I'm just imploring for more mature discussion of which I hope you and your partner in crime are both infinitely capable!

lol

Now that's the pot calling the kettle black:-) I'm hardly the one to use teenage vulgarity when correctly-written English would suffice!
What's the matter, Grzegorz? Aren't you capable or do you prefer vulgarity.

The point I was making the the obvious point that the Catholic Church fomented anti-Semitism, in Poland as elsewhere throughout Europe.
If you choose to "spit out" the unpleasant, anti-Semitic part of Catholicism, go right ahead. It doesn't mean I have to bury my head in the sand as well:-)

Tough to breath down there, manLOL

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

@Grzegorz and Ironside, I'm not impressed by your sophomoric, teen "American"-sounding vulgarities!!!\

If you're not willing to post on a high level of communicative debate, you shouldn't be allowed to post, period.

(Mods, duly make a note of that!)

:-)

Genealogy / Do I look Polish? (my picture) [376]

Gosh, with intermarriage, mixed-marriage etc., it's darn tough to nail it every time, "YOU look Polish!" While the photos seem to indicate perhaps Central or Eastern European extraction, there has been so much cross-pollination of races and peoples throughout Europe, it's not at all easy for me to say!

Sorry for waffling:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

Those who ignore the past, will be condemned to repeat it, Ironside! Santayana was quite right in his simple and oft-quoted statement. Those who ignore the truth will sooner rather than later be forced by circumstances to fess up to it:-) You choose not to admit the truth until it confronts you. Well, it's already confronted you....in Oświęcim, Belżec, Majdanek, Treblinka, and Sobibór. How much more evidence do you need?

Six-million or more murdered was hardly an act of "love" now, was it?

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

True, but they can't hurt either:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

Hear, hear Dolno! Right on, boy, good speech. Let's continue to pray for enlightenment:-)

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

In the end, I've yet to find ONE "typically" Polish look, rather, an admixture of various neighboring influences, i.e. more "Germanic" nearing the former Silesian/German border, more stock "Slavic" tending towards Ukraine etc...

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

Are your trolling too, perchance? You merely reiterate the nonsense of "Jewish parasites" feeding off the unwitting gentile. That's so much malarky, I'm scarcely going to defend it:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

@Wish all Poles felt as you, Crow:-)

@Dolno, now you're finally talking sense, and good sense at that! Spot on, pal:-) Education is the key in so many areas. In ignorance isn't actually bliss, but a false paradise!

@Ironside,
With your nasty anti-Jewish vitriol, not so sure you understand the Christian spirit either, except nominally aka Say a few Hail Mary's and call it a (Sun-)dayLOL You, like many other Christians remind me more of "Sunday Christian", a hypocrite three-hundred-sixty FOUR days out of the year, except for Christmas (which celebrates Jesus' birth, who was a Jew!).

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

The long of it is that only when Pope John Paul aka Karol Wojtyła publically "apologized" for more than a millennium of Catholic anti-Semitism and indeed Church-sponsored hostility towards Jews simply for being Jews (read "different") was there any movement in a direction roughly amounting to conciliation between the two groups.

Jews were all too willing to build bridges, however, conversion to Christianity was and always will be something quite apart; it's fine to be a conciliator, so long as you don't become a doormat upon which others feel it is their G-d-given right to trample freely:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

The "future", as with Millenial types in Scandinavia, Germany and other Northern European countries, tend indeed more towards the exotic, scarcely European-looking New York Jewish intellectuals, but rather, African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics. Adventurous, empowered, educated, and multilingual younger Polish women usually prefer brown-skinned hubbies to procreate "future" brown-skinned babies to catapulty stodgy old-world Europe (finally!!!) into the 21st century:-)

The LAST thing they'd want is to be mired in a Chopin-loving, hand-kissing, fossilized existence of a museum-like and outdated (HORRORS!!!) "European" identityLOL

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

While you're probably right in what you say, I contend that modern-day Poles, much as with contemporary Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, Balts and others, are merely on "good behavior", having gotten their arses reamed back in WWII. Most older gentile Europeans whom I've met and spoken to at length are in my estimation "de-fanged" anti-Semites, scarcely raving racists, but ever so suspicious of whom they perceive as outsiders!

I too hope to extend the proverbial olive branch to a stranger, on the other hand, there's an old saying in English: "A leopard doesn't change its spots!" People change their surface behavior, rarely (if ever) their basic character:-)

@Ironside, it is namely YOU who are trolling, sir, not I! How many times have I posted about my wonderful, if all too short, sojourn to Szczecin?? At least ten, counting now. As to the rest of the claptrap you've posted, I wouldn't dignify the half of it with a reply:-)

Life / Being a Jew in modern-day Poland; Israeli Jew who is of Polish descent [279]

When last in Poland, round about '95, I received odd glances from people when I began speaking Polish. While naturally, I was doing THEM the favor in this case, there seemed a perceptible chill in the air.

When we went back to the hotel, my buddy Boguś confessed that they were a little floored because they didn't expect an American-born Jew with NO Polish background to speak even basic Polish. He continued that they suspected I was Jewish.

"How did they know"?, I inquired. "Oh, don't worry Marku! They know, believe me!
:-)