Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Muslim Girls Studying Holocaust Turned Away From Lublin Synagogue

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A group of Muslim girls from Germany was prevented from entering a synagogue in Lublin while on a visit to Poland to study the Holocaust.

The girls claim that they were refused entrance to the synagogue in Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva because they were wearing traditional Muslim headgear. The Jewish community of Lublin has denied this and said in a statement that the group was turned away because the hotel where the synagogue is located had been rented.

According to the Polish media, upon arriving at the synagogue, the group was forbidden to enter. Instead the group received the keys to the gate of the 16th century Jewish cemetery in Lublin, which it visited.

On June 21, the group of Muslim girls visited the state museum of Majdanek in Lublin. One of the Muslim girls said she was spit on by a local resident, insults were shouted at others, and they also were turned away when they tried to buy bottles of water in a local shop.

The girls, children of Muslim immigrant families living in Berlin, were visiting Poland to learn about the Holocaust.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.