World Jewish News

Polish party leader denounces anti-Semitism

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's governing Conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, has denounced anti-Semitism and hailed Israel during a ceremony honoring Poles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

He condemned anti-Semitism as being "very dangerous" and called Israel "a great state".

"We see the proof somewhere above us where there is a supreme force, a divine force, which decides everything and without it, Israel could not exist, it is a kind of miracle of our time," he added.

Jaczynski made the comment after the European Jewish Congress (EJC) voiced "grave concerns" over an increase in anti-Semitic acts under the government of Kaczynski's party.

During the ceremony, he met with members of Poland's small Jewish community but several Jewish organizations in Poland insisted they did not represent the entire community.

Organizing the ceremony, the From the Depths group, which seeks out Poles who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis, said its new "Zabinski Prize" is meant to honor those who "were not recognized as Righteous among the nations of the world" by Israel's Yad Vashem Institute.

Poland was once home to Europe's largest Jewish population, numbering around three million people, or 10 percent of the Polish population in 1939. Only about 300,000 survived World War II after Nazi Germany occupied Poland and set up the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on its territory.

EJP