Antisemitism in Poland
However, the 17th century saw growing antisemitism, exacerbated by King Sigismund III's pro-Catholic policies and the violent Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising, during which 100,000 Jews were killed.
In the 19th century, Russian imperial policies worsened Jewish-Polish relations, and anti-Jewish sentiments persisted even after Poland regained independence in the aftermath of World War I (for example, through restrictions on education, known as numerus clausus).
Incidents, such as the 2006 attack on Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich and the 2023 Hanukkah menorah extinguishing in parliament, highlight ongoing challenges.
[1] The development of Jewish settlement in Poland accelerated in the later period, but their number was still not large in the middle of the 16th century and, according to Henryk Samsonowicz, amounted to about 20 thousand.
[5] At the beginning of the 16th century, Jews living in noble private estates were taken out of the royal jurisdiction, this led to a further improvement in their situation as they were able to negotiate more favourable rights than those received from the king.
[8] Unlike in other European countries, in the Polish Commonwealth Jews continued to enjoy their special status achieved in the medieval era, as one of the estates of the realm.
The Lutheran cities of Royal Prussia, led by Gdańsk, where the Jewish population remained very small compared to the rest of the country, were particularly strict about this.
[22] The highest number of slanders was recorded for the years 1590-1620 in central Poland (Mazovia, Kujawy and Podlasie), then they began to appear more frequently in the east, mainly in Ukraine.
Along with the usual themes of anti-Jewish press, there were also some tendencies in favour of greater integration of Jews into Polish society, which, however, never went so far as to consider the possibility of their emancipation, such as that recently decreed by the National Assembly in 1791 revolutionary France.
[24] Scipione Piattoli spearheaded a plan for bold reforms to improve the condition of the Jews that ultimately failed in the face of strenuous opposition from the middle-class burgher estate.
[25] By the late 1700s, Polish Jews in 18th century Poland had begun to stand out in Central and Western Europe due to their unique cultural and social characteristics.
[dubious – discuss] Many were literate in Hebrew, but an even larger number used Yiddish - a language with Germanic roots that they had brought with them to Poland - for reading, writing, and especially speaking.Their adherence to religious customs was generally stricter than that of their western counterparts.
[21]: 9 One example, Jacob Brafman's Kehila book, an early conspiracy theory claiming the existence of a secret network exercising power through Jewish qahal (outlawed in 1844), went through four Polish editions from 1874-1877.
[27] According to Friedrich, the situation worsened in the first half of the 20th century, during the periods of interwar Poland and World War II and "alienation grew when economic, social and psychological factors superseded traditional antijudaism".
Roman Dmowski, chief ideologue of the early endecja, declared around the turn of the century that "The Jewish population is undeniably a parasite on the social body of whichever country it inhabits".
[32] Lwów and other Galician cities were then the scene of pogroms perpetrated both by soldiers and civilians[33] and in 1919 the wave of anti-Jewish violence spread to Polish-controlled Lithuania, hitting Lida, Vilna and Pinsk, where thirty-five Jews, including women and children, were executed by the army.
[34][33] Also in 1920 the Polish army, allied with the anti-communist Ukrainian government of Symon Petliura, actively participated in the pogroms that targeted the Jewish communities in the course of the Polish–Soviet War.
[21]: 13 The incidents in Pinsk, Vilna and Lwów aroused shock and indignation in Western Europe and the United States, and in May 1919 prompted the US president Woodrow Wilson to set up a commission, led by Henry Morgenthau, to investigate "alleged Polish pogroms" and the "treatment of the Jewish people" in Poland.
[36] The resulting Morgenthau Report, issued in October 1919, identified eight major incidents in the years 1918–1919 and estimated the number of victims at between 200 and 300 Jews, including the Lwów pogrom (1918).
In Morgenthau's view, the antisemitic attacks were "the chauvinist reaction created by [Poland's] sudden acquisition of a long-coveted freedom" and the consequence of "a widespread anti-Semitic prejudice aggravated by the belief that the Jewish inhabitants were politically hostile to the Polish State".
Left-leaning parties viewed the Jewish community's distinct cultural identity as problematic and advocated for integration into mainstream Polish society, similar to Western European models.
These parties promoted various measures to marginalize the Jewish population, including economic discrimination, encouraging emigration, and in some cases, endorsing violent actions.
A minority of liberal politicians, notably including the influential leader Józef Piłsudski, stood out by accepting Jewish citizens without demanding changes to their cultural practices or way of life.
[37] With the coup d'état of Piłsudski the situation of the Polish Jews improved and some concessions were made, such as the recognition of the cheder, the Jewish primary schools, but after the dictator's death, the birth of the Camp of National Unity resumed a conservative agenda full of anti-Jewish hatred.
This meant that there was little discussion of the Jewish-Polish relations, and little to no effort to investigate or hold accountable those who had participated in actions against Jews during the period of German occupation.
[46] Gross further noted that enduring anti-Semitism in Poland after World War II was rooted in concrete wartime experiences rather than pre-existing attitudes or Nazi influence.
As Jews who had survived the Holocaust attempted to reclaim their property and roles in society, many Poles perceived this as a threat to their newly acquired assets and status.
The anti-Zionist campaign began in 1967, and was carried out in conjunction with the USSR's withdrawal of all diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War, but also involved a power struggle within the PZPR itself.
[49][50][51] In modern Poland, Friedrich observes, antisemitism is related to an apologetic current often associated with the National Democratic ideology,[clarification needed] which often attempts to minimize "excessively critical statements".
