Poland and Israel

From Radio Polonia

Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005

By Lucyna Artymiuk

Poland has taken over a decade to rebuild relations with Israel, broken off under communism. Now it's hoped that the country is coming to be seen as Israel's gateway into the European Union.

When ordinary Polish citizens think about Jews, they usually think about the culture of East European Jewry, wiped out by the Nazi Holocaust machine, such as klezmer music. Jews, including the Holocaust survivors and their families who left Poland for Israel after the second world war, may now listen to a different kind of music and live quite a different life. But few Poles and Israelis realize how deep the ties between their two countries are. Since the Berlin Wall fell, Poles and Israelis have been making up for the time the two nations had lost under
communism, when under Moscow's orders all relations were broken off. As these young people interviewed in the streets of Warsaw say, now it's a different story.

'I'm a student of Warsaw's School of Economics and we have a really active relationship between our school and students in Israel. And each year we organize a big meeting in Israel just to learn more about history, about our relations. After that the students from Israel come to Warsaw, to Krakow, to Auschwitz just to get closer to the history'.

'For me every Jew, before the Second World War in Poland, was a Polish citizen. It's a big loss also for us, also for our culture, because the Jews in Poland were a very important part of Polish culture, and not also Jewish, but also Polish culture.'

'West Europe is anti-Israel.'

'Poland is a country where we have normal relations. That Poland is in the European Union is important for us too, because of the connection, because of the common history which was between the Jewish and Polish people, maybe to bring more knowledge about Israel through the connection with Poland.'

Israelis of different generations, especially Polish Jews and their families, are now eyeing Poland with a renewed interest, especially since the country joined the European Union in 2004. They welcome what the media describe as `exemplary' relations between Poland and Israel.

Each year, about 20,000 young Israelis travel to Poland to visit the Nazi Holocaust sites. The highlight of this pilgrimage is what is known as the March of the Living. Held in Auschwitz Birkenau, the most notorious Nazi death camp, it takes its participants from the railway ramp, where the Jews were unloaded from cattle wagons, to the gas chambers where they were put to death. Idele Ross is an Israeli journalist with roots in Poland. She says she has always had a problem coming to Poland, which to her was nothing but a Jewish graveyard. This year she's decided to take a course organized by the Israeli Yad Vashem emembrance organization to become a March of the Living guide. The trip took her to Warsaw's former Jewish ghetto, razed to the ground by the Nazis.

'There are these new high rise apartment buildings and they're built up on mounds. And it was a dark, a very dark starless night, very cold and the chill was inside many of us as well, because we really, some of us had this almost out of body experience where we felt the Jewish souls that were buried underneath these new apartment buildings. And it was an overwhelming feeling that you cannot put into words, because none of us were expecting that. But again the history, the facts and the figures are no match for being there and getting this real sense of the tragedy and the just overwhelming paralysis that you feel when you're there.'
'
The Holocaust happened in Poland. What did you find out how Poles feel, about how Poles feel about that, how Poles relate to that?

'This is, if anything, the flaw or the shortcoming of the 4 or 5 days that we had in Poland, because the days and nights were so jam packed with touring and learning that we really didn't meet any Poles, which is a shame really because dialogue is really the best way to rapprochement and understanding.'

Since Poland joined the EU in May 2004, the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv, situated in a leafy suburb, has been experiencing something of a siege. More and more Israelis, young and old, are digging into the past to discover their Polish roots. They are asking for Polish passports. Some say they are trying to re-establish a link that was severed under communism, when successive waves of Holocaust survivors were driven out of Poland on the wave of state-sponsored
anti-Semitism, and their Polish passports were taken away from them.

'I felt that I needed it. I needed it psychologically because my parents had to go from Poland. I needed it to be connected with this land. I don't know why. It's no use for this passport that I needed it.'

Meet Zvi Nagler, an Israeli lawyer in his 50s, who left Poland at the age of two with his family. He now runs a thriving law firm in Tel Aviv, offering assistance to Israelis applying for Polish citizenship.

'Some of the Israelis for economical reasons because when Poland
became a member of the EU, they could study and work in every place in Europe, in one of the 25 members of the Union. And some of them
are buying apartments, but I didn't meet anyone that wants to live in Poland till now. Well, it's a very good business and it has a very big potential. There are in Israel, there were about 300,000 people that came directly from Poland. And their children and grand children together that's more than a million people that can one day have Polish citizenship. So, it's a very good potential for making good money.'

But considering the size of Israel's expatriate East European community, Zvi Nagler has been wondering why queues of passport seekers are forming in front of the Polish, and not Czech, Slovak or Romanian embassies.

'Then new countries became members of the EU like Czech and Hungary and we see that most of the demand for passports it's really Poland. Not because there are most people from Poland, it's because we see Poland as really now a friend of Israel and people like Poland. When I started this work I was afraid that people would say – OK my parents were killed and on the earth of Poland. And the Germans killed them, but most of the Jews were killed on the earth of Poland. What would my father say if he heard that I'm going to ask for Polish citizenship. I didn't know how many Polish people helped Jews and saved them, and I hear it at work, I hear it almost every day.'

This modest secondary school building in downtown Tel Aviv is the venue of regular meetings of an organization bringing together Israel's Polish Jewish community. Lili Haber is the president of an association that groups Israelis whose family roots lie in the Polish city of Krakow.

'I think that in the past the role of this organization was more something they used to be like a huge family for the people who survived the Holocaust and they didn't want to hear a thing about Poland and things like that. They were proud that they survived and came to Israel. And, I think, that our generation, our, I mean in Israel and in Poland, we have to build this bridge. I'm very new in this field. It's only 5 years since my parents died and then I felt that I must go back. Groups from Israel who are going to Poland we are organizing for them to meet from other schools in Krakow. And then last summer we had a group of students from the University, the Jagiellonian University, they were here. We were eeting with professors and journalists and authors, people like this at least twice a year, they are coming here, we are going there.'

Miriam Akavia, the acclaimed Israeli writer, whose books about her Holocaust experiences have appeared in a number of languages, reading her favourite poem by another famous Jewish emigree from Poland, the late Natan Gross. Miriam Akavia is president of the Israel Poland Friendship Society, which promotes Polish culture in her country. This year's activities focus around Jan Karski, the Pole who first informed the Allies about the Nazi death camps on
occupied Polish territories.

`This year we announced the Year of Jan Karski and we made a Hebrew translation of the film the Polish television made, and we are sending these cassettes to Israeli schools because no one knows who Karski was and what he made and I find this very important. Next year 2006, we decided to make a Year of Soldiers, Jewish soldiers who served in Polish armies, also is an issue. Another year will be a year of something else, of the Righteous about Nations, what is now more known in Poland. It was now I see young people in Poland
are making works about the righteous and adopted the people that are still alive. And this is a beautiful page in Polish history. I think we are working also here to bring the Polish history more to the Israeli young people because they don't know. They know the Holocaust, the terrible camps in Poland. We are terribly against this calling this Polish camps. They are not Polish camps. I always said till 1939 there were no camps in Poland. But also in Poland it's also important to know a little more about our history, about the State of Israel, because it's now a trend, I think, a fashion to remember the Jewish culture which was in Poland till the war – the Chasidim, the Tzadikim and all the complex of this culture. But from Poland came the pioneers to Eretz Israel. They were Polish- Jewish people. They wanted to change the Jewish faith before the terrible war. And it is also important to know this part of history. So, there's lots to do.

`So, first of all I would like to tell you that this is a presentation and we shall see some pictures. The most important thing we shall remember in the beginning that we cannot follow into a trap that is easy to get into when we are starting to think about something that's very emotional, as the history of our past."

In recent years, a number of non-governmental organizations have been set up in both countries, to protect what's left of the Jewish heritage in Poland. This foundation is taking care of Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, raising money for conservation projects, increasingly funded by private business. In fact, profits stemming from Polish-Israeli trade and Israeli investment in Poland are rising steadily, as banker Marcel Goldman explains.

`There are 2 or 3 main areas of Israeli capital flowing into Poland. One is cinemas, building of especially in Malls. The second point is construction. In construction the Israelis are very, very active in Poland. The third, I would say, it's the building of Malls. Almost in every big Polish city there are Malls built by Israelis and sometimes operated by Israelis. You don't see everything in the statistics because a huge part of the Israeli investments in Poland goes through the channels of off shore companies because of fiscal purposes.'

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, Poland and Israel had no diplomatic relations. This was ironic, because the state of Israel was actually set up by émigrés from Poland. According to Israeli anecdotes, until the 1970s, MPs in the Knesset argued in Polish rather than in Hebrew. Observers say it's a sad loss for Poland, which for decades could have benefited from links with its expatriate Polish Jewish community in Israel, also in business terms. The democratic changes in Poland brought about by Solidarity led to a reappraisal of foreign policy. Relations with Israel became a high priority, which does wonders to two-way trade.

'In the years 2003 to 2004 and this year 2005 the trade increased in volume by 20 to 30 percent. Now the things are improving very much. We have increased, in certain fields of trade, for instance, food. This coming by from frozen food especially, and machinery, electronic appliances, which apparently are now being in a standard which can be bought on the Israeli market and is bought on the Israeli market. So, I hope that with the, let's say, a better consumption level in Poland, the Polish market will absorb more Israeli goods.'

Marcel Goldman believes that the secret of the successful business relationship between Poles and Israelis lies in their very similar mentality.

`Actually they have a very, very similar approach to business. There are many similarities between the mentality of the Polish and the Israeli entrepreneurs and it makes things much easier. On the other side, the people who speak Polish by nature, they are elderly people and we are now talking about the second and third generation. These people don't speak Polish, but surprisingly they find very, very good common language with the Polish partner. I think that the second generation absorbed at home the Polish mentality and part of the Polish culture. And sometimes it even goes to the third generation. For instance, in my family. My daughter, who was born in Israel in Haifa, was called in school - the Polish girl. And now it's the second generation born in Israel, my grand daughter, she's living near Jerusalem in a small place, and they call her, because she's very fair and she has blue eyes, they call her also the Polish girl. So, it continues, I would say, even to the third generation.' Poland has been frequently described as Israel's gateway to the European Union. But analysts say that this is not just limited to trade. Poland has been actively working on Israel's behalf both within the EU and the United Nations. Iris Ambur of the Israeli Foreign Ministry has nothing but praise for Poland's attitude toward her country.

`It's another important country, I have to say, a big country that has a lot of place for influence in the EU. And since the close relationship and the good close relationship Poland supports various ideas that has to do with Israel inside the E.U. Even if it's the idea of how they vote as an EU member in the UN and different international organizations, we hope for cooperation and we do get it from Poland.'

Since the Israeli government hasn't always enjoyed the best publicity internationally, Polish politicians usually play down the close relationship between the two countries. Jacek Saryusz Wolski, who is the vice president of the European Parliament, prefers to talk about historical reasons why Poland supports Israel.

`The Holocaust happened and we, and our nation more than any other, has understood and felt the drama of the Jews in Poland. So, this is the reason of better relations with Israel.'

On her part, Iris Ambur of the Israeli Foreign Ministry stresses the pragmatism of Polish politicians as compared to their colleagues in the old EU countries.

`If we compare to western Europe, in a way, for us this is very pragmatic and for us this is very helpful and it's very, I would say, pleasant to work in an environment like that. That you know that you're being hurt and basically there is a big acceptance of what we want to share with Poland and the Polish government. And I'm sure that it will continue also with the new government. So, it's not only that Israel has a good relationship with a specific government, it's that Israel has a good relationship with Poland. I think that this is the most important part for us.'

But those working behind the scenes like banker Marcel Goldman are aware of many cases in which Poland's influence within the EU has worked in Israel's favour.

`In politics Israel has the best friend in Europe, I would say, was Poland until now. I think that it is an unwritten agreement that the Polish part is expecting of Israel to open the doors in Washington. And the Israeli part expects from Poland to open the doors to the European Union. Because the relationship between the Israeli politicians and the Union politicians were not always very good before the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, Sharon didn't have very many friends in France or even in Germany. But yet always friends in Poland. I think that things which were done on behalf of the Israelis by the Polish politicians were not published. It was done, as you say, under the table. And, I think, it's the effect
that the French, for instance, changed a little bit it's attitude under Polish influence.'

There are those who say that this cozy relationship could come at a cost to Poland. Warsaw has already met with criticism for its readiness to back Israel, especially when it comes to the Middle East conflict. Konstanty Gebert is a leading analyst of Poland's relations with Israel and the Arab countries.

`Poland has been something of Israel's ambassador in the E.U. Although when this term was coined a couple of years ago, it provoked an outrage and the Poles immediately said that they are nobody's ambassadors but Poland there. The fact is Poland seems to understand Israel's quandary better than members of the OBU. If you look, for instance, at Poland's voting pattern in the UN, on the mid-eastern issues, Poland usually takes middle course between the EU and the U.S. It actually takes quite a lot of flak from Brussels from doing that. A former Polish ambassador to Israel once told me that he was roundly denounced of the US ambassadors for taking a pro Israeli position.'

Confronted with such accusations, Poles and Israelis tend to say that their relations are based on pragmatism, as well as on building bridges between the two nations that haven't always seen eye to eye. On its part, Poland seems to be keen to carry on being Israel's best friend, also for the benefit of the European Union, which - analysts say - can count on Poland's experience in dealing with the Israelis on many levels.