Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles by Mark Paul

October 2008 Traditional Jewish Attitudes Toward Poles by Mark Paul Mutual prejudices and stereotypes have been harboured by both Poles and Jews, in relation to one another, for long centuries. However, few authors writing about this topic in the West have detected that Jews, no less than Poles, succumbed to a similar view of the other group, and fewer still have analyzed the impact of Jewish attitudes on mutual relations with Poles. A patently obvious yet much overworked theme in studies of Polish-Jewish relations is that of “Otherness,” with its exclusive focus on Polish attitudes toward Jews. In a multi-ethnic setting such as prewar Poland, however, where Poles were themselves in a minority in many towns and areas, in a country that had reemerged after more than a century of foreign, colonial-like rule, that focus is skewed as it provides little understanding of the dynamics of inter-ethnic relations in the context of the dramatic social, political and economic upheavals that befell Poland. The truth of the matter is that all ethnic and religious groups traditionally viewed members of other groups as outsiders and treated them with suspicion, if not hostility.1 “Otherness” was in fact a mainstay of traditional Judaism, no less than of Christian society, and the separateness of the Jews was accentuated by the claim that they were God’s “Chosen People.” The Jewish community was the repository of longstanding religious-based biases that instilled far greater affinity and solidarity with co-religionists from other regions and even other lands than with their Christian neighbours.2 In Poland, Jews lived in closed, tightly knit, isolated communities largely of their own making. Unlike, the Armenian and Muslim Tatar minorities, who did not shy away from cultural polonization and gained acceptance by Polish society despite their religious differences, Jews wanted to have as few dealings with the outside world as possible, except for those necessary to sustain their economic livelihood. Originally, the basis for separation was dictated by the tenets of their religion. The rise of Jewish nationalism in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century fostered the expression of a distinctive ethnic and national identity, separate from that of the Poles, and thus exacerbated the situation. It was inevitable that the 1 The jump from viewing “others” as simply “enemies” is often made in recent scholarship in relation to the Poles’ attitude toward Jews, but not the converse, even though theoretically that approach should be equally valid for all inter- group relations. See, for example, Katherine R. Jolluck, “Gender and Antisemitism in Wartime Soviet Exile,” in Robert Blobaum, ed., Antisemitism and Its Opponents in Modern Poland (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005), 210–32, where the author suggests that any unfavourable description of Jewish conduct by Poles is imbued with antisemtism, and even attributes to Polish anti-Semitism (sic) the frequently encountered critical statements about Poles made by Jews. It goes without saying, though this is scarcely noticed by those who dwell on conditions in Poland, that similar attitudes prevailed in Western Europe as well. A Dutch rescuer from Amsterdam, a Lutheran, recalled that Catholic and Lutheran children generally played apart, that there was animosity between Catholics and Protestants (his grandmother “detested” Catholics), that Calvinists (even schoolteachers) belittled Lutherans, and that Lutherans harboured resentments toward Calvinists. He also had ill feelings toward Jews and Gypsies. See Pearl M. Oliner, Saving the Forsaken: Religious Culture and the Rescue of Jews in Nazi Europe (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), 104. 2 This is not say that Jews, among themselves, were a cohesive entity. On the contrary, even in Poland, there was considerable rivalry and bad faith among various groups, especially the so-called Litvaks. See Edward Gigilewicz, “Litwacy,” in Encyklopedia “Białych plam” (Radom: Polskie Wydawnictwo Encyklopedyczne, 2005), vol. 19, 262– cultural and socioeconomic distinctions of Polish and Jewish society would translate into different political interests. The political agenda of the mainstream Jewish community during the First World War and the early stages of Poland’s rebirth was a form of national autonomy. They wanted to live as a separate nation within a nation, among their own kind, with their own language, schools and institutions, and even their own government. Contacts with Poles (Christians) would be kept to a minimum, mainly on the economic plane. However, in addition to exclusivist schools for the Jewish community which were to be funded by the state, Jews wanted to have it both ways: they also demanded full access to Polish schools as a vehicle for their own social advancement. (While such separateness or autonomy was championed for Jews and other minorities, those Poles who espoused similar aspirations for themselves were branded as anti-Semites and xenophobes.) Reluctantly, the Jewish community had to settle for the right to separate schools (some were government run and funded but most were private, though they too often received municipal subsidies3) and maintained a broad range of community institutions. Jews enjoyed an unhampered cultural, social and religious life that flourished in interwar period. They also participated in the country’s political life through a host of political parties that won representation both locally and nationally. Nonetheless, separateness was fostered by Jewish community leaders and remained the preferred lifestyle for most Jews. Assimilation into Polish society automatically put one outside the mainstream of the Jewish community, and even led to ostracization. Assimilation on the Western model was vigorously eschewed. Tellingly, during the 1931 census, the Jewish community leaders urged Jews to identify their mother tongue as Hebrew or Yiddish, rather than Polish.4 The separateness of the Jews was clearly discernible at every turn. According to one Jewish researcher, In Poland, … there was little question: Jews were Jews. With some exception, Jews neither considered themselves nor were they regarded by others as Polish or Polish Jews. As is well known, Jews in Poland were allowed to have their own laws and institutions. They were a nation unto themselves and they maintained their nationhood in Poland. From the time of their arrival and through the centuries, they sought to protect their way of life. They were not merely a separate religion but a tightly-knit community, leading life largely separate from Poles. They had their own customs, culture, dress, schools, courts, community government, and language (in the 1930 census almost 80 percent declared Yiddish as their mother tongue). Menachem Begin’s father refused to learn Polish. In a word, the vast majority of Jews were unintegrated socially and culturally in the fabric of the larger society. They shared little or no national sentiment or common allegiance with 64. 3 For example, the Zamość town budget allocated substantial funding for Jewish schools, an old age home, social organizations, and summer colonies for Jewish children. See Mordechai V. Bernstein, ed., The Zamosc Memorial Book: A Memorial Book of a Center of Jewish Life Destroyed by the Nazis (Mahwah, New Jersey: Jacob Solomon Berger, 2004), 283. The same was true in many other localities, such as Wilno. See Jarosław Wołkonowski, Stosunki polsko-żydowskie w Wilnie i na Wileńszczyźnie 1919–1939 (Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, 2004). 4 Sean Martin, Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918–1939 (London and Portland, Oregon: Vallentine Mitchell, 2004), 14, 50, 84; Wierzbieniec, Żydzi w województwie lwowskim w okresie międzywojennym, 41–42. the Poles. They and the Poles were almost strangers. They avoided association with the vast majority of the population, the Polish peasantry, not wanting to live like, or with, them.5 As late as 1940, the famed doctor Janusz Korczak pointed out: A certain nationalist told me: “A Jew, a sincere patriot, is at best a ‘Warszawer’ or ‘Cracower’, but not a Pole.”6 According to historian Regina Renz, Many small country towns … could be described as shtetls—localities dominated by a Jewish community, organized according to their own rules in their own unique manner. The Jews constituted an integral part of the material and spiritual landscape of small towns. Poles and Jews living in the same town formed two separate environments. Rose Price recollects: ‘I was born in a small Polish town. In our district, everyone knew everyone else: grandparents, aunts, friends, neighbours, merchants, and craftsmen. The strangers were the non-Jews—the Poles.’ That there was such fundamental closeness and such great psychological alienation is astounding.7 Both the Polish and Jewish side harboured grievances and prejudices, although these had different sources and disparate natures. The model of bilateral contacts accepted by both sides was one of peaceful isolation, of a life devoid of conflict, but also of closer friendship. The Jews were an ethnic community with a marked consciousness of their cultural distinctiveness, which had been strengthened through the centuries by their common history, and which manifested itself in the cult of tradition and religious ties. Apart from tradition and religion, other important factors binding the Jewish community were the Yiddish language, clothing, customs, and communal institutions.8 5 Ralph Slovenko, “On Polish-Jewish

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