Wodzisław Śląski: manifestations of anti-Semitism before the Week of Jewish Culture
Unfortunately, the preparations for the festival were disrupted by anti-Semitic entries on one of the local websites.
At night, a 2,5-metre long banner promoting the Week of Jewish Culture in Wodzisław Śląski has been torched. Both cases seem to have the same sources and to constitute an effect of the same motivations. Experts emphasize the fact that such behavior is often observed in case of people who do not have any contact with Jews – this phenomenon is an example of the so-called “anti-Semitism without Jews”.
According to Włodzimierz Kac, chairman of the Jewish Community of Katowice, this kind of acts in the Śląsk region should be considered as incidental. Michał Sobelman, press spokesman of the Embassy of Israel in Poland, believes that in the last years no anti-Semitic activities have been registered in this area.
Grzegorz Meisel, head of the Association Jerusza-Dziedzictwo admits that he is shocked. It is already the third event of this kind he organizes and for the first time he encountered any kind of anti-Semitic activity.
As Michał Sobelman said, the best reaction to such events is to keep organizing festivals such as the Week of Jewish Culture.
We would like to remind that the screenings of the film “Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” will take place from October 22nd to October 24th. The film is a Polish-American co-production based on the book of Anna Mieszkowska “Mother of the Children of the Holocaust”.
According to the title of the film, its main character is Irena Sendler, Righteous Among the Nations, activist of the underground Council to Aid Jews “Żegota”, who saved 2,500 children during the Second World War. Irena Sendler was awarded with the title of the Righteous Among the Nations in 1965. She passed away on May 12, 2008 in Warsaw, at the age of 98.
