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

Bury your poor little head further in the sand and sooner or later you won't be able to breathe at all:-)

We didn't create this stinking brew called "humanity", but at least come clean as to its foibles, dolnośląsk!

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear and none so blind as those who will not see!

@MODS, just bear in mind apropos my earlier post: CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT!!!
:-)

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

You're indeed an incurable optimist, dolno! In ignorance there must be bliss, i.e. what you don't know or care to know, can't hurt you, is that right? Seems friend, you're not only an incurable optimist, but an incurable IGNORAMUS as wellLOL

Incredible:-)

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

While I can't recall chapter and verse, I recollect reading in the New Testament something along the lines of "Anyone, be he heathen or Jew, can still enter the Kingdom of Heaven so long as he takes Christ into his heart."

The implication here is that if one is not a Christian, one is therefore condemned to an afterlife of everlasting damnation amid the hellfires of Satan, ergo, to be a valid/valuable human being, is to be or become a Christian:-)

Dolno, you and Iwonka should try to stay awake during service or you guys'll miss all the important stuff!!
lol

@Iwonka, as long as there are folks out there who yell epithets such as "Dirty Jew!", "Filthy kike!" etc., it's time to take off the rose-colored glasses there, sweetie pie and take a look at the real world around you!

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

Ahemm, do you honestly believe the good gentile folk of Europe awoke one fine morning and decided to become (often vicious and bloodthirsty) anti-Semites just for the kick of it, burning Jews at the stake, burning them out of their homes (as in 13th cent. Lincolnshire in England) and trying to excise them from Christian society??!

Maybe y'all DID go to church on Sunday and sit through the sermons, readings and lessons, but perhaps you were ASLEEP through it all:-)

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

Iwonko,

The Catholic Church had been spreading lies for centuries concerning the Jews as "Christ killers"! This was of course the primary, if not the very foundation, of anti-Semitism worldwide, at least among Christians:-) It was ironically one of your own, that veritable patron saint of a pope, the late Karol Wojtyła, who finally (and long overdue, I might add!) exonerated the Jews by saying that the Jews did not murder Christ.

When unknowing people innocently inquire "Why was there anti-Semitism?" The answer lies therein. That the Jews were later demonized as harbingers of evil, conspirators bent on world domination ad nauseum, all stems from that mistaken notion that the Jews killed Christ.

The Church then, in cooperation with local aristocracy, made life unbearable for the Jews, preventing them from owning property, joining the army, professional guilds etc..., thus ostracizing them from the society which was forced to take them in in the first place. Herein lies the tragic irony of the Jews throughout history.

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

Neither were you, Grzegorz, which is what makes your comments so meaningless!! You obviously are aware as well that the Catholic Church purposely fomented anti-Semitism through its propagation of the lie that the JEWS, rather than the Romans, crucified Christ:-)

Anything else you'd care to know, smarty?
lol

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]

Outside the States, perhaps Australia or Canada would seem to me to be the safest "havens" for sufficiently English-speaking Poles, fed up with post-Brexit Britain:-)

Germany?? Once more, sheer madness, unless one's either well-off, already has a firm job offer with a fixed salary, has been called in as a super specialist aka gov't translator, I T specialist or someone with a special skill set, and/or speaks HONESTLY fluent German! Apart from that, it's a waste of time, yours as well as theirs!

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]

Not so sure about that, jon! Normally, I'd agree, but after reading about the strong Brexit response as well as PM May's critical immigration stance, Panna Misiuk may not be far from wrong:-)

Certainly hopping over to Germany right now, would to my mind be going from the frying pan right into the fire!!

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]

Spot on!

UK, Ireland / Time for Polish Leaving England [15]

Germans dislike foreigners on the whole even worse than the English:-)

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

You know the US vulgar slang, but scarcely the higher level of English required in order to debate with a native English speaker!

I stand by the facts, not opinions.

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

Apparently once again, we've a sever failure to communicate, the fault of which lies either with your English (more than likely), or merely the fact that I'm attempting to discuss matters rationally:-)

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

"No, I don't understand."

Then clearly you don't understand much, my friend! Let's put your name next to the rest of the Polish "Lumpenproletariat" who'd start the pogroms all over again if it meant a few more złoty in their pockets or bread on the table.

You give Poles a bad name. Luckily, I and other enlightened European Jews can manage to look beyond such prejudice and content ourselves with the illusion that it's only a handfull, a minority of wrong-thinking people in Poland or elsewhere who really blame the victim entirely for what happened instead of perhaps looking for the root causes of modern anti-Semitism aka THE CHURCH!!!

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

Hatred of Poles among large numbers of Jews, both Polish and foreign is easily, if tragically, equatable with the even more deep seated hatred of Germans as well of Germany by many not even directly affected by the Holocaust:-)

Surely even you yourself would admit to there being an understandable reason why a country, which like Germany or Lithuania as well, served as a killing ground for so many of one's own people, would continue to evoke emnity, yes, even hatred for several generations at least!!

There's still NO "statute of limitations" on guilt....and/or of forgiveness.

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

"only seen a Jew on TV..." and then promptly switched channels, no doubt:-)

Sounds to me as though you're simply both rationalizing as well as justifying the latent anti-Semitism among your fellow countrymen, Ironside!

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

"Jew haters"?? I thought we were talking about "Polaphobes" a moment ago!
Ooops, brain glitch again, sorryLOL

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

One needn't have "resided" in Nazi Germany to know that it was hell on earth for Jews as well as gentiles of conscience, dolno!!

Just because "Lucky" Lindy reported in glowing terms how marvelous Hitler had gotten the country moving again, because the Red Cross sent back reports that anti-Jewish propaganda was greatly exaggerated etc... did that make any of it true??!

Often, internal reports can be faked, doctored or altered and the foreign press gets the real scoop:-)

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

Although there is something to what you say, Poland finds herself in a similar position to Germany, in terms of the need for a massive PR boost effort to improve the country's image abroad!

A great deal of this negative advertising is perhaps justified, although for every Polish anti-Semite, there was that one or two lone wolf Nazi resistance people, such as the kindly farmers who took in Jews during the Occupation years etc....

No tree can be judged solely by its rotten fruit; for every weed, there grows a blossom.

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

Doubtless NOT in the major urban areas though.

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

The Chief Rabbi of Warsaw, Schudrich, or of London?

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

We more or less catch your drift, dolno!

back to the topic please

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

See, what did I tell you?

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

Your occasionally "mixed metaphors" notwithstanding, I too hope and pray for a more enlightened as well as open society in Poland....up to a point, of course:-)

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

Couldn't agree more, Iwonko! As here in the States, the more conservative the environment, the more primitive the inhabitants:-)

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

To be sure, when I was in Szczecin, round about 1995 or so, while I felt ZERO anti-Jewish feeling, I'm tall, light-eyed and spoke more or less comprehensible Polish, thus, was not identified as Jewish, merely as foreign (possibly GermanLOL).

This makes a tremendous difference, in my opinion:-)

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

Were the busloads of Jewish visitors on an escorted or private excursion, then I believe you. Apart from that, I've heard both from gentile Poles as well as Jews from Poland that outwardly "Jewish" symbolism aka wearing a kipa outdoors, being seen in a schreimel and paeis in public (once again, as Iwonka noted, save for Kraków or the capital) while traveling through Polish villages might well yield stares, occasional cat calls or unwanted comment!

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

Fine, Iwonka! Kraków, Warszawa, Wrocław or Poznań etc. are NOT the countryside!! A black might well be considered "exotic" there, whereas a Jew might indeed have cause to be fearful, perhaps not as during the War years (or immediately thereafter aka Kielce, Jedwabne..), but instead run the risk of having their car tires slashed etc...

The latter I have on good authority from Polish Jews returning to their parents' villages during the late '80's, early '90's, and being identifiably Jewish, had less than positive experiences:-)

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [595]

About what, pray? Your question sounds more as though you're a blank Czech (chequeLOL) to me:-)

Genealogy / Typical Polish Eye Color [77]

Eye colour alone, however, does scarcely a Pole make:-) Usually, the facial or bone structure (along with height) may indicate a particular nationality. I know for instance any number of Italians and Spaniards with lightish eyes, and yet their build, apparent hair texture/facial hair for men, and general stature show them to be Southerners.

Study / American school of Wroclaw for expats [5]

The question really should be, for which type of English is said salary to be paid, Indlish or Amlish, he-he!

When Polish people speak English, I've found their accent "Englishesque", not really English and not really American either:-)
More "Poglish", I'd say.