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Polish Jews we are (Poles) proud of


derek trotter 10 | 203  
25 Apr 2009 /  #1
Lets just start the thread
Who in Polish history is worth of that name?
Crow 155 | 9,025  
25 Apr 2009 /  #2
Polish Jews we are (Poles) proud of

your Slavic heritage?
Polonius3 994 | 12,367  
25 Apr 2009 /  #3
Artur Rubinstein, piano virtuoso
Bronisław Wildstein, revealer of commie agents in post Poland
Julian Tuwin, writer (but had a pro-Stalin episode)
Two Jewish socialists, one was Alterman (the other name has slipped my mind) who despite Soviet torture refused to squeal on their Polish party comrades

Władysław Szpilman, composer (hero of Polański's "Pianist")
Poet Bolesław Leśmian (originally Lessmann or soemthign like that)
Bruno Jasieński, poet killed by Soviets
Casimir the Great's Jewish mistress and confidante
These are off the cuff without checking...I'm sure others will have many more examples.
Miru 1 | 24  
25 Apr 2009 /  #4
Don't forget Korczak.
Torq  
25 Apr 2009 /  #5
What about Adam Mickiewicz? Didn't he have a Jewish mother?

Edit: Hmmm... Szopen, Przerwa-Tetmajer, Boy-Żeleński... polonica.net/przechrzty-neofici_Polska.htm
McCoy 27 | 1,269  
25 Apr 2009 /  #6
Lem, Baczyński, Petersburski, Kopaliński, Ford, Hoffman, Kiepura, Holland, Polański, Skrzynecki. Lec, Szewińska and many more

Szopen

His mother was polish. Even his french father felt more polish than french. He came here when he was 16 and never left Poland. He fought for Poland in Kościuszko Uprising.

Ojciec Fryderyka przyjechał do Polski w 1787 w wieku 16 lat w interesach Adama Weydlicha – wielkorządcy Michała Jana Paca i spędził tu resztę swojego życia. Dość szybko związał się ze swoją nową ojczyzną; już w 1794 r. wziął udział w insurekcji kościuszkowskiej i nigdy z Polski nie wyjechał. Nie utrzymywał też już kontaktu z rodziną we Francji. Swoje dzieci wychował na Polaków. Znany był także z nieufności, a wręcz nienawiści do Napoleona

Torq  
25 Apr 2009 /  #7
Lem, Baczyński, Petersburski, Kopaliński, Ford, Hoffman, Kiepura, Holland, Polański, Skrzynecki. Lec, Szewińska and many more

Olbrychski, Holoubek, Fronczewski - just off the top of my head.

However, I would dispute considering anyone of Jewish origin a Jew.
If someone lives in Poland, speaks Polish as a first language and
considers himself a Pole, then I don't give a toss where his ancestors
were from. I said it a hundred times and I will say it again - your
nationality is in your heart and in your soul.
McCoy 27 | 1,269  
25 Apr 2009 /  #8
If someone lives in Poland, speaks Polish as a first language andconsiders himself a Pole, then I don't give a toss where his ancestorswere from. I said it a hundred times and I will say it again - yournationality is in your heart and in your soul.

exactly my thoughts. cheers
Torq  
25 Apr 2009 /  #9
Just telling it like it is, mate. I know there's more people in our country
thinking like you and me so the future's looks bright :-)
Seanus 15 | 19,674  
25 Apr 2009 /  #10
Szymon Peres, LOL. Hardly the frontrunner for any awards here :)
Polonius3 994 | 12,367  
26 Apr 2009 /  #11
I have heard it said if you removed those of Jewish descent from pre-war Poland's literary and cultural scene between the two world wars, there wouldn't be much Polish culture left.
Sokrates 8 | 3,345  
26 Apr 2009 /  #12
You heard it wrong :)
Salomon 2 | 436  
26 Apr 2009 /  #13
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Hurwicz

Hurwicz shared the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson for their work on mechanism design.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berek_Joselewicz

Berek Joselewicz (1764-1809) was a Jewish-Polish merchant and a colonel of the Polish Army during the Kościuszko Uprising. Joselewicz commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history

/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Charpak

Georges Charpak (born August 1, 1924) is a Polish-French physicist and Nobel Prize in Physics winner.

Sokrates 8 | 3,345  
27 Apr 2009 /  #14
/wiki/Berek_Joselewicz

He was Polish, i dont give a crap about his genes, that guy was as Polish as the best of us throught history.
Salomon 2 | 436  
27 Apr 2009 /  #15
This story came to my mind

latteisland.blogspot.com/2009/01/hitler-i-decide-who-is-jewish.html

In the same way as the work of Wagner was used to promulgate Nazi views, the music of Strauss and of Franz Lehar, composer of The Merry Widow, was closely associated with the vast cultural pageants Hitler staged to shore up his regime. Lehar, like Strauss, was of Jewish descent, although this again was never acknowledged by Hitler, who is believed to have said: 'I decide who is Jewish.'

Sokrates 8 | 3,345  
27 Apr 2009 /  #16
'I decide who is Jewish.'

Which he did:)))
Krzysztof 2 | 973  
27 Apr 2009 /  #17
Bruno Schulz was 100% Jewish, killed for that by Germans, but he was writing in Polish.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (Noble prize winner, writing in Yiddish), I only read one of his books (The Magician of Lublin), but I liked it.

And one interesting fact (details from Wikipedia):

Marek Edelman (born December 31, 1922) is a Polish political and social activist, cardiologist, and last living leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He lives in £ódź.
In the summer of 2007 an Israeli youth group came to £ódź in order to make documentary films with a group of Polish youth. One of the films was made about Marek Edelman, and emphasized the fact that the Israeli youngsters had never heard of Edelman, supposedly because he had been anti-zionist. While the filming, the group met Edelman and interviewed him.

I remember reading that Edelman was often criticized by other Jews for not leaving Poland in 1945 or in 1968.
OP derek trotter 10 | 203  
27 Apr 2009 /  #18
I remember reading that Edelman was often criticized by other Jews for not leaving Poland in 1945 or in 1968.

he should do it...that was the right thing fer the Jews after '45
Krzysztof 2 | 973  
27 Apr 2009 /  #19
Well, I guess everyone was/is entitled to his own decissions and emigration is always a big decision.

Other famous people:
Stefan Kisielewski ("Kisiel") (maybe he was half Jewish, after his mother only, not sure about his father)
Tadeusz Kantor (Jewish father, Catholic mother if I'm not mistaken).
Jan Brzechwa (famous mostly for his books for children)

It's hard to name them all, before WWII about 10% of Polish citizens were Jews, but in big cities it was even close to 30%, so

it's really hard to tell who of the Polish people of culture, politics ect. was/is of Jewish origin, unless it was explicitely underlined - like in case of Polański (if you're not obsessed about ethnicity, you simply don't classify writers, directors etc. by who they are, but by how good their works are)
Lyzko  
27 Apr 2009 /  #20
I just learned two days ago of two, at least half (perhaps full in the case of the second) Jews who were maybe the most popular of all European-American classical performers in the history of recording; pianist Josef (Józef/Joźio Kasimir) Hofmann and the famed tenor Jan Kiepura, both Poles.

Felt a bit proud, I must say.
Sorry for that--:))) LOL

Marek
Salomon 2 | 436  
29 Apr 2009 /  #21
I remember reading that Edelman was often criticized by other Jews for not leaving Poland in 1945 or in 1968.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_Edelman

In 1942, as a youth leader in the Bund, Edelman was among the founders of the underground Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization). In the Warsaw ghetto uprising of April-May 1943

Because this person in prove of huge defraudation made by state of Israel when we talk about compensations payed by for example Germany ... on non-Zionist Jews graveyard.
Trevek 26 | 1,700  
29 Apr 2009 /  #22
Adam Mickiewicz.
Salomon 2 | 436  
29 Apr 2009 /  #23
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZW

Due to its ties with the all-national Armia Krajowa, after the war the Communist authorities of Poland suppressed the publication of books and articles on ŻZW whose role in the uprising in the ghetto was undervalued, as opposed to the Jewish Fighting Organization with less ties to the Polish AK.

Miru 1 | 24  
29 Apr 2009 /  #24
Adam Mickiewicz.

He wasn't a Jew. But he certainly was a philosemite.
Trevek 26 | 1,700  
29 Apr 2009 /  #25
Apparently his mother's family (I think) were Jewish (or had been).
Miru 1 | 24  
29 Apr 2009 /  #26
Historians have big doubts. Plus, he was a Catholic. He called Jews 'our older brothers in faith' which was later picked up by Pope John Paul II.
Mr Grunwald 33 | 2,158  
29 Apr 2009 /  #27
Olbrychski, Holoubek, Fronczewski - just off the top of my head.

True words
Trevek 26 | 1,700  
29 Apr 2009 /  #28
Bruno Schulz was 100% Jewish, killed for that by Germans, but he was writing in Polish.

He converted to Catholicism (if that matters).

How Zamenhof, about the guy who invented Esperanto? He was from Bialystok.

Does Roman Polanski count? His father was a Polish Jew.
Salomon 2 | 436  
30 Apr 2009 /  #29
Tamara de Lempicka


vetala - | 382  
2 Aug 2009 /  #30
Shevah Weiss

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shevah_Weiss

Shevah Weiss (Hebrew: שבח וייס‎, Polish: Szejwach Weiss), is an Israeli political scientist and former politician. Weiss was born on July 5, 1935 in Borysław, Poland (now in Ukraine) in Polish Jewish family to Gienia and Meir Wolf Weiss. As a Holocaust survivor, he migrated to Palestine in 1947. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a BA in International Relations in 1961, before doing an MA in political Science and contemporary Jewish studies and then a PhD. In 1975 he became a professor at the University of Haifa.

Black Madonna of Częstochowa

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