History / History of Poland in 10 minutes. Really worth seeing! [134]

Nice little film. I'm no scholar of Polish history, but wasn't there a cossack invasion in 1648? What about the Swedish invasion after that? Is it my imagination or was there a Warsaw ghetto uprising? And what about the Polish uprising after that? Was the holocaust not part of Polish history?

History / History of Poland in 10 minutes. Really worth seeing! [134]


Yes. All we care about is money. Maybe the holocaust was all a jewish idea. What a genius theory you came up with. Go crawl back under a rock.

History / History of Poland in 10 minutes. Really worth seeing! [134]


I assume you're referring to things that occured in the Bible more than 3000 years ago. Whatever we did then I can't deny or comment about. But I don't see where we've taken pride in that. Where do you see that?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

Doing a simple google of the name I see a lot of instances where its a woman's first name. So my guess is that the name Szejwa (pronounced "Sheiva"?) is a shortened version of the name Bas-sheiva which is the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the biblical name Bathsheba. I never heard of it as a Jewish family name. But many family names come from first names.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


1. Racism has nothing to do with this conflict. We Jews and Arabs are of the same race. Most israelis have middle-eastern backgrounds and a racially indistinguishable from arabs. There are Arabs whiter than a Pole and Jews darker than Obama.

2. Since when is the idea of a nation state based on racial hatred? Poland is about 95% ethnic Poles and Israel is about 80% jewish. So does that mean Poland needs recognize "the folly of racism" too?

Every nation is allowed to have their own country, but when Jews do it's called "racism". How do you figure that?

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


I don't know the specific incident you're talking about, but it was probably Wagner and not Bach. Wagner was adopted by the Nazis as the musical inspiration of their ideology, and they played it in some of the death camps as background music, and also at nazi rallies. That's why the sensitivity. The incident was probably in Israel and not in Europe. Jews have a right to protest an Israeli festival playing Wagner.


True. Not every victim was a Jew. But every Jew was a victim.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]




I notice that no matter what I say and explain, there are always clowns among you who keep spouting nonsense slogans that are based on fantasies, using made-up terminology like "Judaists" as opposed to the evil Zionists, and equating Israelis with Nazis. Do you just copy and paste this stuff from some website?

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]


There is a town in Ukraine called Skwyra, which is pronounced "Skver" in Yiddish. Maybe your family was from there. It was the seat of a well-known hassidic dynasty, the Twersky family. They relocated to New York State after the war and established a town called New Square. Here's a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skvyra

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]


So Kaizerski is either a scion of the hassidic Twerskys or he is eating crunchy pork. Hmmm...

Genealogy / Polish surname Gil. My ancestors were from the town of Widelka. [74]


Not quite right. Most Jews expelled from Spain settled in Mediterranean countries like Turkey, Italy and North Africa. Some, but not many, did go to Poland, to Zamość in particular. IL Peretz, the author, was a descendent of Spanish Jews.

But the name Gil might have a Jewish connection anyway. Gil is a relatively common name in Israel. In Hebrew it means "joy". On the other hand, it's not particularly common among Jews from Poland. So you should probably go with one of the other theories.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]


That's really interesting! I have two acquaintances (both Jews) with those names. One, Lopata, is a lawyer in New York, and Wrubel (which I assume comes from Wróbel) is a teacher and a rabbi in Israel. I guess their ancestors lived in small villages.

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]


No it doesn't. It just looks a bit like "Haifa" but it's not related.

History / What Was Happening in Poland around 1905? [73]


And emphysema was a Jewish invention? I thought we just created the bubonic plague.

Food / Do you call it kiszka or kaszanka? [55]

Just for general knowledge: Jews think kishka is a Jewish food. (I had no idea that Poles eat it.) But Jewish kishka is different because we don't eat blood. Our kishka is intestine (or a manmade substitute) stuffed with chopped meat, potato and fat. It's usually cooked together with Tsholent, which is a stew made of potatoes, chunks of meat, beans, barley, beef bones, and when we're lucky... kishka.

Genealogy / Looking for a Polish Jew "Nina" saved in the war [10]

There's a radio show in Israel, where people call or write in to look for missing relatives from the Shoah or from wars. You can write to them by email at this address: mador2@gmail

Their fax number is: +972-2-5313315

Let me know what they answer you.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]

If only you people would be indifferent to jews, this would be a better world, (and this would be a better forum.)

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


That was Yitzchak Shamir, who probably said it more than 20 years ago. I don't think that one statement from 20 years ago should be brought up over and over again as if it's an official policy of Israel. (In his defense, he was born and grew up in Poland so who am I to tell him he's wrong. He spoke from his own experience, and you must admit that Poland in the 1920s-30s was quite hostile to Jews.) On the other hand, I admit that many Jews assume that Poles hate Jews without looking into it and without considering that this generalization insults many Poles.


I read israeli newspapers every day and I have never come across a comment like that.


Not a bad idea.
My interest in this forum is more to see how today's Poles relate to Israel, considering our long history together – not to talk about what happened in the past.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


I've reread some of my posts to see if I've been paranoid. Couldn't find anything. Would you be mixing me up with Harry or would you be lumping me with whatever comments you heard from other Jews? I agree with the second part of your post, that Jewish life in poland is now having a period of rebirth and I'm very happy about that.


You obviously wrote this on an empty stomach. Go eat something.
That you should say this to me is surprising since I did go to Warsaw and many other places in Poland, and spoke to people in towns and villages and visited sites that show the "many-layered pasta bake that was the Polish-Jewish relationship over the centuries" that you referred to. It gave me an appetite for more.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]

What is the point of this discussion?

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


Syria's potential is dependent on Iran. They are a client state. According to newspapers we bombed their nuclear facility before it became operable.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


I personally didn't bomb it. Of that i am sure.
What do you think, that every Israeli is privy to secret military information? I know as much as you do.


I don't think anyone here would say it's not justified, but the question is if it's doable and what the results would be strategically and politically. So I would leave it up to the experts. What is clear is that the US and Europe will not be able to stop Iran through diplomacy and they won't even try a military option. So either we do it or no one does.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


I will repeat for the thousandth time:
Innocent palestinian mothers and kids did nothing to deserve being massacred. It was their brothers, fathers and friends who launched rockets and mortars from their rooftops and booby-trapped their houses and streets that caused their deaths. The Israeli army does what it can to minimize civilian deaths, but in urban combat it is impossible to prevent it. This is something Hamas and the innocent people who voted them into power should have thought of while they were lobbing rockets into civilian targets in Israel.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


Till now, that has only been a rumour. I'm glad you cleared that up.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


Since when do we talk non-stop about being Chosen Ones? Give me a quote of any Israeli leader using that argument.


We are the natives. And we didn't take all the land. The palestinians have Jordan, most of the west bank and Gaza. Many of them also live as Israeli citizens in Israel proper.


No. The Native Americans got decimated till the few that were left were shoved into reservations. The palestinians have increased in population, they have 2 and a half countries, and they are part of an ethnic group that rules from Morocco to Iraq. That's a lot better than being a Native American.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]

Your quote is irrelevant to the Israel-Arab conflict. This person is an American Jew writing about the theological implication of "chosenness". As he points out, Christians and Muslims also say they are chosen. He's discussing how this concept affects our relations with other religions and how different streams of judaism relate to the concept. All very interesting but it has nothing to do with the country of Israel. We are a country, just like Poland or New Zealand. When we are attacked we fight back. It's got nothing to do with religious doctrine. Where do you find Israelis "talking non-stop about being the Chosen Ones"? We don't. And the fact that you think we do just proves that you can't get away from your preconceived image of Israelis.

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]


In this one point I can finally agree with cheehaw.

History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]


Maybe her family was killed in Sobibor. It doesn't say where her Jewish family was originally from.


He says that there is a "broad dislike of Jews" in Poland. I don't see the difference. Do you think he's right?

But the current Polish attitude toward Jews isn't what most people talk about when they say "Polish antisemitism". They are usually thinking about prewar Poland. I get the impression that Polish emigrants in the US are stuck with the attitude of their grandparents about Jews, while in Poland itself things have evolved. (Judging by this forum, there is more anti-Jewish stuff coming from American-Poles than Polish-Poles.) It can also probably be said that Jews tend to think about Poles the way their grandparents thought about them. Our attitudes are frozen in time. We shouldn't confuse what was with what is.

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]


This may not be the place for this comment, but I give it a go:
You equate jesus and god. How did christianity ever get to that conclusion? As I understand it, the first christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one. Then he was referred to as the son of god. What was probably a figurative concept then became taken literally and christians thought that G-d actually fathered a son somehow (an idea the first jewish christians could not possibly have accepted). Then at some point christians began equating Jesus and god, as you do here. You say that jesus is god. How can a person believe in the old testament and believe that jesus, a person, is god?

Since this is a forum about poland, feel free to ignore this post. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

News / Crucifixes to stay in Polish schools [364]


Thanks for the reply. I don't question the authenticity of your experience. But I think your understanding of it is based on your christian upbringing. If you were brought up as a Jew and you would experience this, you would assume that you felt the spirit of G-d Himself.

I hope you continue to experience thing like this, but I just wish you would channel it to good purpose like creating more love between people and not increasing hatred of Jews. You say you respect Torah-observant Jews, yet you have nothing but nasty things to say about Israelis, even though many of us do observe the Torah.

On the topic at hand: The issue of religion in Poland, now a catholic country, is very different than in the US, where the government is not supposed to be involved in religion. America, with the separation of church and state, is a much more religious country than most European countries. So the system is not hurting christians in america.

Genealogy / Looking for a Polish Jew "Nina" saved in the war [10]

Good luck!

I just listened for your radio show, but it was apparently preempted by live coverage of the Nobel prize for chemistry that's being awarded to an israeli scientist. I think you should send them an email asking when the show will be on.