Polish Former Priest Indicted For Inciting Hatred Against Jews
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — The prosecutor’s office in the western Poland city of Wroclaw issued an indictment against former priest Jacek Międlar for “public incitement to hatred based on religious and national differences.”
He could face up to 2 years in prison.
On Nov. 11, 2016, during Polish Independence Day, Wroclaw hosted the “March of Patriots.” According to the prosecutor’s office, Międlar’s speech there publicly called for hatred against Jews and Ukrainians.
“He used expressions intended to inspire others to feelings of contempt, strong dislike, anger, disapproval and hostility towards them, imputing them hostility towards Polish people and transgressive intentions and encouraging the participants of the march to fight against them,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Międlar did not plead guilty. In his statement he stated that he defended the good name of Poles, whom he said the Jews call “worms.”
“We must be strong in spirit, body, in our mentality and knowledge, because only we will be able to win with the left, with Jewry, and with communism, which is still in our homeland,” said Międlar during the march. “Only we will win the fight against evil!” He also shouted: “Poland for Poles. Poles for Poland.”
In April 2016, Miedlar referred to Jews in a sermon as a “cancer which swept Poland.” The Prosecutor’s Office in Bialystok later found that no hate crime had been committed. He has twice this year been banned from entering the United Kingdom to take part in anti-immigrant marches.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
