Polish American Journal Foundation
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • NOVEMBER 2019 www.polamjournal.com 1 PAHA AWARDS SKALNY PRIZE TO POLISH ARCHITECT RESEARCHERS — PAGE 8 AND ADDITIONAL OFFICES ENTRY NEW YORK BOSTON, AT PAID POSTAGE PERIODICAL POLISH AMERICAN JOURNALDEDICATED TO THE PROMOTION AND CONTINUANCE OF POLISH AMERICAN CULTURE TWO YASTRZEMSKIS TAKE THE FIELD ESTABLISHED 1911 NOVEMBER 2019 • VOL. 108, NO. 11 • $2.25 www.polamjournal.com PAGE 18 POLES TIRED OF BEING BRANDED • TIME TO START PLANNING YOUR WIGILIA MENU • WARRIOR GRAVE SURPRISE AIRBNB CO-FOUNDER DONATES $1M • “STO LAT” HITS THE STREET • BONDAREWSKA’S LATEST DEBUT 80 YEARS OF WOMEN WITH A CAUSE • POLISH CLOTHING DESIGNERS • PARADES MEMORIALIZE PULASKI Poland Re-elects Honor Bound NEWSMARK Conservatives Poland Nominated for Visa Waiver Law and Justice Party President Donald Trump announced the Department of State has Loses majority in the formally nominated Poland for entry into the Visa Waiver Program, an 100-member Senate important step in continuing to increase economic, security, cultural, and people-to-people connections. by Robert Strybel Now that Poland has been nominated, the Department of Homeland Security will take necessary action to assess Poland’s entry into the WARSAW — Poland’s ruling program. If Poland is designated as a Visa Waiver Program country, its conservative Law and Justice (Pra- nationals would be authorized for visa-free travel to the United States wo i Sprawiedliwość) party won the for business and tourism. October 13 general election by cap- During a September meeting with Trump in New York, Polish Presi- turing 43.6 percent of the vote. That dent Andrzej Duda said that Poles had been waiting for 30 years to be outcome gave it a 235-seat majority able to travel to the United States visa-free. in the 460-member Sejm, parlia- The threshold for a country to enter the program is a three-percent ment’s main law-making chamber. refusal rate. The rate for Polish nationals for the fiscal year ending Sep- PiS will again be able to govern in- tember 30, 2018 was 3.99 percent, down from 5.92 percent a year ear- dependently without seeking a co- lier, according to the U.S. embassy in Poland. alition partner. That was the highest Meanwhile, in recent months a growing proportion of Polish appli- support won by any political party cants have been issued U.S. visas, causing the denial rate to drop below since the collapse of communist 2.8 percent for the first time in history, Poland’s onet.pl news website rule in 1989 as well as the highest reported in September. voter turnout – 61.1 percent. The Civic Coalition, the main Cardinal Wyszyński to be Beatified in June 2020 opposition bloc led by the liberal Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, who served as the Primate of Poland Civic Platform (PO) party and in- form 1948 until his death in 1981, is to be beatified in Warsaw next cluding the ultra-liberal Modern June. The announcement came after Pope Francis signed a decree rec- party and Greens, won 27.4 percent ognizing a miracle that occurred through the Polish religious leader’s of the vote, which translates into intercession, a prerequisite for beatification. Beatification is the penul- 134 seats. After a four-year absence, timate stage leading to Catholic sainthood. the post-communist Democratic The Polish Primate shepherded his nation through 33 years of So- Left Alliance (SLD) teamed up with viet-imposed communist rule, and was imprisoned for three years by the pro-LGBT Spring party, ran as the Stalinist regime. Upon his release in 1956, he launched a nine-year the Left (Lewica) and attracted 12.6 Novena leading to the 1966 national celebration of Poland’s Christian percent of the vote giving it 49 seats Re-enactors (l. to r.) Russell Dobson and Edward Krolikowski portray Lt. Millennium. The communists replied with a costly counter-celebration in the Sejm. Litomski and Gen. Pulaski at ceremonies marking the 240th anniversary honoring Polish statehood. After Cardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected The rural-based Polish People’s of the Battle of Savannah. This year, four new commemorative tablets Pope John Paul II in 1979, he went on record as saying: “There would Party (formerly known in English were dedicated, including one for Capt. Feliks Miklaszewicz, a Polish have been no Polish pope’’ without Primate Wyszyński’s faith, heroic as the Polish Peasant Party) or PSL Lithuanian nobleman, who aided the American Revolution as a privateer. hope and limitless confidence in the Mother of God.” He died of cancer Another was dedicated to Capt. Fryderyk Paschke, an officer in the Pulaski at the age of 79 amidst the ongoing Solidarity revolution His beatifica- see “Election,” page 2 Legion. Story on back cover. tion ceremony will be carried out in Warsaw on June 7, 2020 by papal envoy Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. Olga Tokarczuk Receives “Poland First to Fight” LOT Airlines Launch Warsaw to San Francisco flights 2018 Literary Nobel Prize Conference Nov. 18-20 After President Donald Trump announced that Poles could travel WASHINGTON, D.C. — An to America without visas, Poland’s LOT Airlines unveiled plans for by Robert Strybel international historical conference, its direct Warsaw-to-San Francisco flights. The new connection, to “Poland First to Fight,” will take be launched on August 5, 2020, will be LOT’s ninth direct Poland- WARSAW — Olga Tokarczuk, place on November 18-20, 2019 at U.S. flight. The flights will leave Warsaw’s Chopin Airport four times 57, was awarded the 2018 Nobel the prestigious National Press Club. a week, with passengers traveling aboard state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Prize for Literature. The 2018 prize The conference is organized in con- Dreamliners. The 6,200-mile flight is expected to take about 12 hours. was delayed by a year after a sexual nection with the 80th anniversary This year, the airlines hope to serve a record ten million customers. assault scandal rocked the Swedish of the outbreak of World War II this Academy which awards the prize. year. Poland elected to UN Human Rights Council Tokarczuk has honored “for a It will not only be an anniversary Poland has been elected to the United Nations 47-member Human narrative imagination that, with en- event, but also an opportunity to re- Rights Council that oversees human rights worldwide. During the vote, cyclopedic passion, represents the call those pages from the history of 124 countries cast their ballots for Poland to be part of the council for a crossing of boundaries as a form of Poland that are distorted and forgot- three-year term. Last summer, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputo- life,” said the Academy. ten. It will be a response to nega- wicz informed reporters of Poland’s desire to join the United Nations She began writing at the age of tive stereotypes, narratives, myths body for the 2020-2022 term. He added that his country’s priorities 17 while in high school. A gradu- and accusations against Poland and include “advancing the rights of children and people with disabilities ate psychologist, she has said her Poles that appear in the public space in armed conflicts.” Poland also plans to focus on helping religious mi- educational background and work of the United States and Western norities and on strengthening civil society. as a psychotherapist with the men- countries. During the conference, tally impaired have influenced her guests will have the opportunity to literature. She has been an essayist, Tokarczuk. Fifth Pole to receive Orliński named Young Artist of the Year the Noble Prize for Literature. learn the real situation in which Po- poet, novelist, short-story author, land found itself during the last war, Polish countertenor Jakub Orliński, 29, won the Young Artist of the and screenwriter. claimed to be the reincarnation of a the extraordinary heroism and trag- Year award granted by Britain’s prestigious Gramophone magazine. Tokarczuk’s biggest work is her self-styled Messiah. Lejbowicz ul- edy of Poles (Polish Underground Orliński is one of the world’s most sought-after countertenors. He stud- nearly 1,000-page novel titled “The timately got excommunicated as a State, Warsaw Uprising, forced ied at the Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin University of Music before re- Books of Jacob.” It focuses on the heretic by Poland’s mainline Jewry. labor system in Germany, Gene- ceiving postgraduate training at New York’s renowned Julliard School. vicissitudes of 18th-century Jewish Orliński has won numerous singing competitions on both sides of the mystic Jakub Lejbowicz Frank who see “Tokarczuk,” page 2 see “Conference,” page 3 Atlantic. He is also into break-dancing and modeling. 2 www.polamjournal.com POLISH AMERICAN JOURNAL • NOVEMBER 2019 ALMANAC Election. Presidential race to be held in May 2020 Tokarczuk continued from cover efits to children, the elderly, continued from cover November Q Listopad and young businessmen just ran with the anti-establishment Kukiz’15 movement getting started. Whereas PO Tokarczuk, a declared feminist Deszcz w połowie listopada, to garner 8.6 percent of the ballots, winning 30 par- catered mainly to big-city and backer of left-wing causes, is tęgi mróz w styczniu zapowiada. liamentary seats. The controversial Confederation led elites, PiS has focused on often criticized by Poland’s ruling Rain in mid-November announces Poland’s have-nots, those January’s frosty trounces. by eccentric libertarian Janusz Korwin-Mikke (and in- right. Still, the conservative gov- cluding ultra-right nationalists) won the support of 6.8 who lost out on the country’s ernment’s Culture Minister Piotr 1 ALL SAINTS DAY percent of voters, snaring an 11-member parliamentary transformation following the Gliński (who is rumored to have collapse of communist rule.