I co-worker went on one of those "tour" she said, they asked her if she was Jewish, she said yes; then gave her a look, as if to say... We didn't get you this time... wait... Next Time. I will never go to any of those countries, nor buy a car from one of the countries.

HOW CAN I GET IN TOUCH WITH THE RAV AVINER. I RESPECT HIM AND MOST OF HIS OPINIONS. BUT AS AN AMERICAN 19 YR OLD I STOOD OUTSIDE AUSHWITZ AND DECIDED TO MAKE ALIYAH. I REALIZED THEN THAT ALL JEWS MUST LIVE IN ISRAEL. THIS WAS 30YEARS AGO AND I STILL REMEMBER THAT TRIP, AM STILL MOVED BY IT AND WAS THRILLED THAT MY 2 SONS HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO WITH THEIR SCHOOL.THEY WERE PUMPED WITH ZIONISM THRU OUT THE JOURNEY AND CAME BACK THAT MUCH MORE AMBITIOUS ABOUT SERVING IN THE I.D.F. I WOULD LIKE THE CHANCE TO RELATE THIS ALL TO THE RAV

Galia... i'm speechless... Belarus is not Poland ;/

How do you remember something when you dont see it ? Judaisim is a religion & a belief, it has not been replaced by Holocaustism. The Holocaust happened, & the more we as Jews know about it, the more we are able to prevent it from ever happening again.

No Jew should provide a livelihood to any Pole or Ukrainian anti-semite,to do so desecrates the millions of victims of the Holocaust and the many Pogroms.Let the Polish starve to death,there is no reason,other than a sick and perverted fascination for death,to visit these places.Today the Poles and Ukrainians could eat a Jew for breakfast..nothing has changed.There are plenty of graves in the land of Israel to visit for those with a morbid fascination.

Good post Laville, thanks.

"One person was enough to blow up the railroad tracks" This person could have been a Polish Jew, too, right?

and also I am positively moved that still the majority of talkbackers are not narrow-minded and they know how really many-dimensional was the history of that horrible war. For the people defending that populist basing arguments on Halakha - remember, we are all first human beings, and only then worshippers of specific religions. Read the passages twice "we shouldn't provide livelihood to people who allowed death camps to be built on their land" and think how can a human being distort the well-documented history to such an extent that what remains is a pure example of bias and racism...

Thank you for making a difference. Thank you for your compassion. Thank you for your moving words. Members of my family were murdered in Jedwabne. There were a lot of Polish collaborators. There are also more Poles honored as Righteous Among the Nations than people from any other country. We should build bridges between Poles and Israel and the Jewish people. There are many wonderful Poles like you, and many wonderful Jews. This rabbi's misguided and misinformed comments are aberrations.

if there is no god. if this is all a big bang. THEN WHO ARE YOU TO OASS JUDGMENT ON ANYONE!!!???????? I laugh every time i see somene deny god and in the same breath call those who do crazy. YOUR LIFE IS MEANINGLESS. YOU ARE WORTHLESS. ashes to ashes dust to dust, 10 years after your body dies, so will the memories of you. At least those who believe in god believe in something greater then themselfs. And to those who used words like : crazy, nutjob, freak etc.... wow you are soooo pathetic. really really pathetic. my 12 year old brother would destroy you in a real discussion about values and morals. You truly sicken me LOL. at least be consistant.

You have missed the point.It is not about visiting the graves.There are no seperate graves, just huge communal graves. Its about seeing where our ancestors were murdered, how they were murdered & how they suffered. No Rabbi has the right to tell us to go there or not to go there.Its up to us as individuals to decide for ourselves.

Judaism.Maybe you are the pathetic one.The Rabbi is right.

Well. what does "mitzvah" means for most of the rabbis? Whether it's to feed rabbis? Maybe to give more money to rabbis? Sure, it does. People, look around. Look at your leaders. They are using you.

so you used to be jew, but you miss us,what are you doing checking up the Jewish World section of an israeli site, eeeh???

It should be permitted to visit the righteous gentiles in poland or say kaddish at their grave sites. There were five thousand or more that research has confirmed .

I remember well the day when the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger came to Warsaw and paid tribute to the very famous Polish gentile heroine Irena Sendler z''l just couple of weeks before she passed away. She risked her life and saved 2.500 Jewish children during the Shoah. Aviner doesn't represent judaism or even zionist judaism, only himself. Not only rav Metzger has a warm attidute towards Poland but also his famous predecessor rav Israel Meir Lau. There are many good and bad pages of the Jewish-Polish history. I truly believe that these relations which are constantly getting better shouldn't be destroyed with such cruel and stupid remarks.

It is hard to believe that a Rabbi would comment based on such ignorance. He shows incredible ignorance - holding himself out as being some type of expert on human psychology and saying that the effect of such a visit wears off after six months or even three weeks. Many of us know many of our children and their friends who have gone on these trips and have developed a permanent and far-reaching appreciation and understanding of Jewish life over the last thousand years. Doesn't he think it is worthwhile for Jewish children to try to have an understanding of where their families have lived and where their culture has developed over the centuries? He seems to believe in the ahistorical and anti-Jewish worship of stressing one mitzvah, that of Yeshivat Eretz Yisrael. over and in exclusion of all others. And his knowledge of the Poles is ignorant and biased. To label present-day Poles as murderers is of course absurd as the War ended 64 years ago. The issue of Polish complicity in the Holocaust is a complicated one and the Rabbi seems to have no knowledge of the issues. Perhaps the Rabbi would be better advised to ask that these trips to Poland should be revised to increase their Jewish educational impact by lessening their emphasis on the Holocaust and rather stress the beautiful and multi-faceted Jewish culture that was Ashkenazic Jewry. But perhaps to acknowledge the amazingness of Jewish culture in the Diaspora would be against the Rabbi's idealogy. It is sad that he would so distort Judaism. Why would a community in Israel have such a biased and ignorant person as their Rabbi?

and I do not care about you, halacha or sharia. I care about freedom and to keep alive memory of the Shoah. Because the main fear of the people that survived it was summed up in the question: "who will believe me?". Ultraortodox idea of halacha will be the ruin of Israel, and will turn her into the jewish version of ayatollah Iran.

There is a good reason the Nazis picked your land to exterminate the Jews.

Yes. there were some Poles who saved the Jews but for the most part it is a hateful. anti-Semitic land.

Dan, my father lost 95% of extended family during the Holocaust. So? Does such horrible events entitle me or you to blame Poles for that Nazism ruled these area? Of course Nazis had a good reason to pick Poland. The reason was: in Poland there was a second largest Jewish community in the world after US. That was the reason, and not your offending suggestion. If the number of survivors from that hell was not enough for you, keep in mind please that the Poland was the only occupied area where any act of help to Jews could "legally" result in executing you and all your family. Try to be a hero in such circumstances...

Why don't you ask those who lived during IIWW? Szewach Weiss for example and many many more... Antysemithism in Poland is marginal , not normal, abberational even, but it seems there is something like antypolonism in Israel (which I couldn't belive whe heard from lunatics in Poland) --- this makes me very sad :(

When I wrote this article on polish website I decided to find original page...and OMG! There are some people who agreed with this handicapped Rabbi! Come on, have you ever read any of historic books or talked to witnesses of those horrbile times? If haven't...please, be quiet or do it right now! Poles did everything possible to save Jews from death! Best regards...not for everyone.

57 & 59: Right on! Thanks for saving me typing. 64 And when was the last time you saw ha-Sheim??? Mosheh??? Any of the Neviyim???

"Poles did everything possible to save Jews from death!" Piotr, not everybody did everything. Do not exaggerate in the other side. If Poles did everything, the antisemitic incitements in villages surrounding Jedwabne would not result in a massacre. There would also be no phenomenon of Shmaltzowniks. There would also be no crowds helping to slaughter Jews in Kielce or just standing and doing nothing. 1500 Jews after the WWII would also not be killed by. The problem is that the truth lies somewhere in between. But for sure equating 40 millions of inhabitants of some country to nazi-helpers is something which can happen only in the ultra-racist demagogy.

Stupid guy! Teriblle!! He has to say: sorry to Polish people!!!

This so called rabbi has no point take a look at the list of Righteous Among The Nations see how many Polish people are on that list and shut up. Learn your History than speak up. Only ones who had a gesheft in what had happend in those Nazi camps were Nazis and US jews who knew what was going on but decided not to do enything

I agree look at the list of Righteous Among the Nations prepared by Yad Vashem and see how many Poles are on that list ... 6,066 people (1st on the list) compare to 2,833 in France 455 Germany 124 Russia 9 Sweden. In German-occupied Poland, all household members were punished by death if a Jew were found concealed in their home or property, death was a punishment for providing any aid to Jew etc. giving bread or water to passing Jews. This was the most severe law enforced by the Nazis in occupied Europe.