From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: On Polish Anti-semitism
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 15:39:00 GMT

In article <matthew.717472103@munna> matthew@.cs.mu.oz (Maciek Blasikiewicz) writes:
>d89-mor@nada.kth.se (Monika Orski) writes:

[lines deleted]

>>However, there is still anti-semitism in Poland. Just look at some of the things
>>said by people running for president of Poland, or by people representing the
>>catholic church of Poland. This does not mean that all poles are anti-semits
>>(such a statement is ridiculous). But the anti-semitism is still widely spread.
>>As there are almost no jews this is highly interesting from a histirical /
>>antropological point of view.

>>An example : I spent a weekend in Warsaw in march 1992. I happened to live in a
>>hotel next to a church. The church had a bookshop. In the window of this bookshop
>>I noticed "The Protocols of the Elders of Sion" (correct english name?) in polish.

Correct indeed.  (Spell Zion with a Z, though...) 

>>Polish friends told me the local priest of this church is known to be extremely
>>anti-semitic. I saw quite a lot of people coming out of this church after mass on
>>Sunday...

[lines deleted]

>What does "a lot of people coming out of this church after mass on
>Sunday" prove, except that most Poles are catholic, and that there are
>too few churches in Poland for the number of People who want to use
>them? Did you hear the priest talk at mass, even once? What did he
>say?

He didn't have to say anything.  Unless he didn't sanction the book being sold
in his church, which is bloody unlikely , imho, we know that he approves
of the distribution to his parish of one of the most disgusting
anti-Semitic slanders ever published.  And we know that his parish is
large, and that therefore many people hear what he has to say.  And that 
there are substantial numbers of people whom the presence of that
particular piece of filth in their church doesn't bother enough to make
them go somewhere else.

>What was the content of the book you mention? Did you read it? Or do
>you habitually judge books by their covers?

Thanks, we know that particular cover, and the book inside.  It was 
published first around the turn of the century, and is the work of a
Russian monk.  (Parts of it are plagiarized from two German and French
sources of the 1870's; neither one originally had to do with Jews, btw.)
It purports to be the secret protocols of the Zionist Congress in Vienna,
at which Jewish plans for world domination were supposedly made.

Anyone who offers this book for sale is, at very best, a dupe, and is
almost certainly a virulent anti-Semite.  Its status as a forgery is
easily demosntrated, and has been generally known for about 85 years.

>Have you ever talked with the priest who you say "is known to be
>extremely anti-semitic", based merely on second-hand reports? Is he

Nope, sorry, the presence of the book in his church is first-hand
evidence -- circumstantial ,but pretty strong, like the trout in the
milk.  Besides, the charge of anti-Semitism isn't made lightly in Poland.,
now, is it?


>really?  Maybe he is, but I'd like some evidence before I put him in
>this category.

What *I* want to know is, what has the diocese done about it?  They
are, after all, his boss.

Roger