Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Join thousands of readers who support our workDONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Polish Anti-Refugee Demonstrators Burn Jew in Effigy

A Polish demonstration against taking in Muslim refugees ended with the burning of an effigy of a haredi Orthodox Jew holding the flag of the European Union.

Dozens protested Wednesday evening in front of the city hall in the western Poland city of Wroclaw.

The protest comes in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks on multiple sites in Paris that left at least 129 dead. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks and police believe that one the terrorists entered the European Union with the flood of Syrian refugees.

The crown shouted: “United Catholic Poland! National radicalism! Down with the European Union!” The demonstration was organized by the National Radical Camp and All-Polish Youth.

“Our duty, the duty of lawmakers and the government, is to say that we won’t take a single Islamist in to Poland because Poland is for Poles,” proclaimed one of the demonstration’s speakers. .

At the end of the demonstration one of the participants set fire to a previously prepared effigy of a haredi Orthodox Jew. “God, Honor and Fatherland,” the crowd then chanted.

“Recalling anti-Jewish stereotypes proves that we are still divided and that cooperation is not possible,” Piotr Kadlcik, a Polish-Jewish activist, told JTA.

Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief

You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.

And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.

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

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 comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag 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.