POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 2013 www.polamjournal.com 1 JANUARY 2013 • VOL. 102, NO. 1 $2.00 PERIOdICAL POSTAGE PAId AT BOSTON, NEW YORK NEW BOSTON, AT PAId PERIOdICAL POSTAGE POLISH AMERICAN OFFICES ANd AddITIONAL ENTRY JOURNALESTABLISHED 1911 www.polamjournal.com CAdETS RISE AGAINST RUSSIA IN “THE WARSAW dEdICATEd TO THE PROMOTION ANd CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE CONSPIRACY” — PAGE 18 EVIdENCE POINTS TO EARLY POLES AS INVENTORS OF CHEESE • SCHOLARSHIP TO REMEMBER NEWTOWN VICTIM GALAZKA ON POLISH-INTEREST BOOKS • POLANd ANd POLONIA – STILL “SEMPER FIdELIS”? WIN A POLISH COOKBOOK IN ENGLISH • KUBIAK’S POLISH-TEXAN ROOTS • SUGGESTEd EARLY-YEAR ACTIVITIES NEWSmARk Olivia Smoliga: A Guards Foil Attack on Poland’s Sacred Icon Splashing Success SIx mORE POLES NAmED “RIGHTEOuS.” Israeli am- Attacker hurled black bassador to Poland posthumously honored six more Poles paint at Częstochowa’s who helped Jews during World War II Nazi-occupied Po- Black Madonna land. The awards, given by the Yad Vashem institute in Je- by Robert Strybel rusalem since 1963, are presented to “righteous gentiles” WARSAW–Monastery who helped save the lives of Jews. guards foiled a rare attempted Over 6,000 Poles have been awarded the Righteous attack on Poland’s most sa- Among the Nations honor out of a total of 24,000 medals. cred icon of the Black Ma- The ceremony at the Prime Minister’s offi ce in Warsaw donna and Infant in the south- was attended by Ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner and former Pol- ern city of Częstochowa, ish foreign minister and inmate of the German Nazi Aus- causing widespread outrage chwitz death camp, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. among the faithful of this Poles posthumously awarded included Princess Woro- SMOLIGA. Chicago high staunchly Catholic country. school senior broke her own niecka-Czartoryski, Stanislawa Olewnik, Helena and Leon The attack occurred during national swim record. Godlewski, Maria and Micha Golba and Leokadia and An- Sunday morning mass, when toni Jastrzab. by Geraldine a 58-year-old man hurled The icon of the Black Madonna and Infant, Poland’s most The award ceremony coincided with the 70th anniver- Balut-Coleman light bulbs fi lled with black sacred icon, was attacked when a man threw light bulbs sary of Zegota, an underground organization formed in GLENVIEW, Ill. —Talk paint at the elaborately gilt- filled with black paint at the framed holy picture. Shielded Warsaw during World War II, and aimed at helping Jews. about Olympic-bound! framed holy picture. by a protective plate of glass, it was not ruined. Zegota was established in December 1942 as part of the This Glenbrook South High “The man was immedi- Polish resistance against Nazi occupation. The council sup- School senior celebrated as ately restrained by the Jasna ties which under Polish law ther Robert Jasiulewicz said plied hidden Jews with funds, found them apartments and she broke her own national Góra monastery guard and carries a maximum two-year the monastery was swamped hiding places, and supplied them with false documents. high school record in the 50- turned over to police for prison sentence. with phone calls from people yard freestyle. During the Il- questioning,” Częstochowa The police version was who sobbed and asked in AN “uNImAGINABLy BARBARIC ACT.” A painting by linois High School Associa- police spokeswoman Joanna corroborated by the Jasna shuddering voices whether a Swedish artist which he says was made with ashes from tion (IHSA) state swimming Lazar told this reporter. “The Góra website which said: it was true. “They felt some- a former Nazi concentration camp has been displayed in a meet, this past November 18, icon, which is shielded by a “Today an attempt to destroy what relieved when I told gallery in Sweden. Olivia Smoliga, broke na- protective plate of glass, was the miraculous Painting of the them the black Madonna Artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff said that he stole tional records in the 50-yard undamaged.” If declared to Queen of Poland was made icon had not been harmed,” the ashes from the Majdanek camp during a visit in 1989. freestyle (21.99) and the 100- be sound of mind, the assail- by defacing it with a black he said on Polish television. The camp, now a museum in Poland, has called the al- yard backstroke (51.43). ant, who lives in the south- substance. Thanks to special Bishops rushed to the scene leged theft an “unimaginably barbaric act.” Smoliga, a Glenview na- western town of Świdnica, safeguards the painting was and together with the mon- The artist said the ashes were mixed with water and tive and a University of could be charged with of- not harmed in any way.” astery’s Pauline monks held used to paint a series of grey streaks in the small painting. See “Smoliga,” page 4 fending religious sensibili- Jasna Góra spokesman Fa- See “Icon ...,” page 4 Museum offi cials have said that the painting may be an artistic provocation but it deserves only condemnation. An estimated 80,000 people were murdered by the Na- Polish Literature Turns 500 zis in Majdanek. by Ray Cavanaugh longing to this last group was standard of Latin into digest- wave. The museum has said it hopes the authorities will quick- Polish Literature has now a pair of Bavarian expatriates, ible Polish prose. He found Though, at this point, de- ly establish whether the remains of the camp’s victims had seen print for exactly half a Florian Ungler and trusty as- his man for the task in one tails of much of his life are been stolen and desecrated and added it was sure the artist millennium. The fi rst pub- sistant Kasper Hochfeld; they Biernat of Lublin. quite scant, it is clear that did not obtain them legally. lication occurred in 1513 in had established a Kraków Born in 1465, Biernat z Biernat had aroused the suspi- In a text on the Lund gallery’s website, the artist is printing business. Lublina was a physician and cions of the Catholic Church. quoted as describing collecting “some ashes from crema- The craft of pub- poet who supplemented his Even before the day of Mar- tion ovens” during a visit to the camp in 1989. lishing books was a income with translations. tin Luther’s famous act of relatively new one; Like many intellectuals of rebellion, he was viewed by POLAND WITHOLDS vOTE ON PALESTINE. Poland Johannes Guten- his day, he had caught the hu- the Church as a “protestant abstained as the United Nations voted to raise Palestinian berg’s world-altering manistic Renaissance ethos writer.” status, stating that while moving Palestine a step closer to- invention had existed that was cascading across Arousing Church indigna- ward recognition as an independent state, giving Palestine barely fi fty years. Europe in an omnidirectional See “Literature ...,” page 4 “non-member observer status ”will not change the situa- There was a rather tion for Palestinians and may “make it more diffi cult to narrow thematic return to direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, thereby halting scope in regard to What’s Old is New Again progress in the peace process.” what was being pub- Poland’s Foreign Ministry elaborates further by stating: lished. Printed ma- “We believe that the only effective way of resolving the terials generally be- Middle East peace process is through direct negotiations longed to one of two between the parties.” categories – religion The UN General Assembly voted to afford Palestine the or government – and new status 138 for to 9 against, with 41 nations (including were typically pub- Poland) abstaining. Germany and the United Kingdom also lished in Latin. abstained. Ungler was look- ing to defy the in- POLAND BANNED THE RELIGIOuS SLAuGHTER OF dustry convention. ANImALS after a constitutional court ruled that killing Hortulus Animae (Eden of the Soul), He harbored dreams animals for kosher and halal meat contradicted animal wel- first published in Latin in 1498, was of branching out into fare laws. The court found that a 2004 amendment which translated into Polish by Biernat of the arena of Polish- permitted the cutting of an animal’s throat without stun- Lublin, and was printed as Raj duszny language materials. ning it fi rst to be in violation of a 1997 Polish animal wel- in Krakow in 1513. The last known A main obstacle to fare law and the constitution. The amendment was added copy disappeared during World War II. attaining this dream, RECULTUREd dESIGNS, a Farmington Hills, Michigan- to bring Polish law closer to that of the European Union. however, was that based clothing line, creates contemporary Polish folk- Although Poland has few Jewish and Muslim com- Kraków, then the capital city there was no Polish literature and military-inspired apparel and accessories. Owned munities and only eighteen slaughter houses registered to and a fervent cultural bastion around to print. Ungler need- by Barbara and Alexandra Lisiecki, this mother-daughter perform religious slaughter, EU regulations permitting re- of scientists, scholars, and en- ed a scholar, someone who team comes from a long line of tailors, folk artists and ligious slaughter become effective this month. terprising businessmen. Be- could translate the literati historians in Poland. Story on page 4. 2 www.polamjournal.com POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • JANUARY 2013 ALMANAC JUST BETWEEN US / Mark Kohan Easter is Early This Follow us on Year, March 31 Facebook or visit us Happy New Year — Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku Easter Greetings on the internet at: We send all our readers wishes for a happy, healthy, fruition some good news for all. These include: Deadline is March 8 www.polamjournal.com and prosperous 2013. • The lifting of the Visa waiver for Poles wanting to January • Styczeñ In Poland, New Year’s Eve (Sylwester) celebrations visit relative in the United States.