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Photo: Gil Yohanan
Rabbi Aviner. Partial apology
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Jewish youths in Auschwitz
Photo: AP

Polish rabbis: Aviner's words could trigger anti-Semitism

Jewish leaders in Poland concerned rabbi's remarks that Israelis should not visit Poland because Poles collaborated with Nazis, might jeopardize Jews in country

Statements made by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner in a recent interview to Ynet, in which he urged schools not to take their students to the Nazi death camps in Poland, continued to trigger heated controversy in Israel and abroad this week.

 

Rabbis in Poland are now concerned that Aviner's words could stir anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic responses in the country that would be directed against local Jews. They approached Aviner on the matter, and he agreed to publish a statement stressing that not all Poles should be accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II.  

 

However, Aviner refused to recant on his stance that there is a halachic, moral and educational ban against visiting Auschwitz.

 

Aviner's words made it to the Polish press, and prompted officials in Warsaw to protest the comments to Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich. Schudrich asked Krakow's Israeli rabbi, Boaz Pash, to sort the matter vis-à-vis Aviner.

 

'Poles suffered too'

"With his remarks Rabbi Aviner essentially strengthens the same anti-Semitic trends that still exist in Poland and that we're fighting against," Pash told Ynet. "His words obviously aren’t helping the Jewish communities here. They contained sweeping generalizations that are taken lightly in Israel, but that are met with high sensitivity in Poland; he's put us in a very difficult spot."

 

According to Pash, this was not the first time that Aviner has made such comments. "These are inaccurate statements that could backfire and hurt the Jewish communities. Rabbi Schudrich has already received very agitated appeals on the matter, and I know he's very hurt by this."

 

Pash said that the relations between the Poles and the Jewish people are complex, and that not all Poles collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. "Most of the Righteous among the Nations were from Poland," he stated.

 

"Let's not forget that they suffered a lot as well. It was the Nazis who murdered the Jews. The Poles perhaps didn't want the Jews, but the same can be said about the Ukrainians, the Latvians, the French, the Dutch, and all the other nice ones from Europe."

 

Aviner: There were Poles who saved Jews

The harsh criticism against him prompted Rabbi Aviner to publish a statement saying that generalizations should not be made on such issues. "You can't say that the Poles were lovers of Israel, but there were many Righteous among the Nations in their midst. There were Poles who saved Jews and Poles who risked their lives to save Jews… and they should be commended."

 

However, Aviner stressed that he still maintained his position against the trips to Poland, for halachic and educational concerns.

 

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yossi Levy told Ynet in response to the affair: "The Foreign Ministry wholeheartedly rejects any sweeping remark claiming that the Polish people were allegedly party to the horrible crimes committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish people in Poland.

 

"The historical and moral responsibility for the Holocaust does not lie with the Polish people, and this should be stated clearly. Israel values and cherishes the open and brave dialogue it has with her friends in Poland, including on painful issues of the past."

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.01.09, 14:44
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