Follow the Forward’s latest news, stories and historical posts about Poland
Poland
The Latest
-
Fast Forward Polish Film Stirs Debate on Shoah Complicity
A film about a Polish village whose residents help massacre their Jewish neighbours in World War Two has forced Poles to confront one of the most troubling episodes of their past. Most historians take the view that during the war the vast majority of Christian Poles were victims of the Nazi aggression that killed millions…
-
Fast Forward It’s #Catholic as Pope Benedict Joins Twitter
It’s official. Pope Benedict’s handle on Twitter will be @pontifex. He already has 1.2 billion “followers” in the standard sense of the word but next week he will have another type when he enters what for any 85-year old is the brave new world of Twitter. The Vatican said on Monday that the pope will…
-
News Kosher Controversy Catches Pole Off Guard
News that ritual slaughter could be banned in Poland caught Jakub Lopinski at a critical moment in his career. Lopinski, a non-Jewish entrepreneur from Krakow, was preparing to open a new kosher slaughterhouse in an attempt to carve out a niche for himself in Poland’s large export industry for halal and kosher meat. But the…
-
Fast Forward Little East Europe Progress on Nazi-Looted Property
In 1988, Yehuda Evron received a memorable letter from Lech Walesa, the first post-communist president of Poland, on the eve of the country’s transition to democracy. “He wrote that within a few months we would get my wife’s property back,” recalled Evron, now 80. His wife was the only Holocaust survivor of a family that…
-
Fast Forward Poland: Animal Welfare Laws Bar Kosher Slaughter
Poland may need to changes its laws on animal welfare to preserve ritual slaughter there, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture said. The ministry statement on Friday came three days after a Polish court ruled that a 2004 government directive enshrining ritual slaughter was unconstitutional. “Immediately after the announcement of the decision, the Minister of Agriculture…
-
Fast Forward Polish Ruling May End Kosher Meat Production
Jewish groups said on Wednesday a Polish court ruling on methods used to slaughter livestock could halt the production of kosher meat, threatening their religious freedom in a country where Nazi Germany massacred millions of Jews in World War Two. Poland’s Constitutional court this week reinforced a law that states livestock has to be stunned…
-
Food Polish Court Outlaws Kosher Slaughter
A constitutional court in Poland reportedly has ruled against allowing Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter in the country. The Warsaw court’s ruling, which was made known on Tuesday, said the government had acted unconstitutionally when it exempted Jews and Muslims from stunning animals before slaughtering them as their faiths require, according to Piotr Kadlcik, president…
-
News Orthodox and Reform Jews Feud in Poland
On the surface, it appears to be a historic gain for Reform Jewry in Europe. Ec Chaim, a congregation identified as Progressive – the European term for Conservative or Reform – is set to join the Orthodox-led umbrella organization of Warsaw’s Jewish community. Poland’s chief Orthodox rabbi is hailing the move as a potential model…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
- 2
Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
- 3
Fast Forward Illinois primary pits Jewish candidate with deep Israel ties against AIPAC spending
- 4
Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Through missile strikes and sleepless nights, the persistent hope of being an Iranian Jew in Israel
-
News Meet the TikToker trying to revive Judeo-Arabic, the nearly extinct language Jews once spoke across the Arab world
-
Fast Forward ‘Buffer zones’ come to California, as a lawmaker proposes limiting protests near houses of worship
-
Fast Forward The first and second Jewish mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, just had a shared bar mitzvah
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism