Poland – Yisroel Goldberg, the director of the Israel & Prtners advertising agency, was on a visit last week to Gora Klavaria in Poland — or Gur, as it is better known in Jewish circles.
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When he went to daven at the ohel of the Chiddushei Harim and the Sfas Emes in the local Jewish cemetery, he was shocked to see a swastika and “Jude Raus” (Jews Get Out) on the brick building.
“When we came to the cemetery, the 90-year old Jewish guard opened the door for us with tears in his eyes. He had just found out that someone had defaced the Ohel a few minutes before. When we approached the Ohel, we saw the offensive words. The tent gates and the lock were covered with a foam that had hardened and wouldn’t let us open it. We had to scrape it off to enter.”
Goldberg was visiting the Kevorim of the Gerrer rebbes together with other Gerrer chassidim, some of whom had grandparents who were chassidim of the Chiddushei Harim and Sfas Emes. They broke into tears to see the desecration, but were thankful that the vandals hadn’t managed to break into the ohel.
The Jewish guard said that the kevorim had not been defaced for years, but he was reluctant to report it to the police who are known for their apathy in such matters. “I have no doubt that they deliberately chose the Ohel of the Gerrer rebbes,” said the guard. “They knew where they were going.”
Goldberg’s group visited the house of the Gerrer rebbe, and saw the famous porch where the rebbe used to greet his thousands of chassidim and the oven where he made his own matzos. A Polish family is living there now.
The group also visited the yeshiva building. While it has tables and chairs, there is no aron hakodesh or sifrei Torah. The group brought their own sefer Torah and during the time they were there, they made their own tish and sang famous Gerrer songs.
When the group returned to the lodgings in a Jewish hotel, they discovered a swastika scratched onto the elevator. They covered it up with a sticker.
“In the street, people are always giving looks at you,” said Goldberg. “I wouldn’t advise anyone who looks like a Jew to go there alone.”
The Center of European Rabbis says it is planning an investigation and will demand the authorities take action against the vandalism.
I was there 2 months ago for the Chidushei Harim’s Yartzeit. Poland is a nasty place and there is not much that can be done to curb these type of acts. Hashem yishmor.
If we can have campaigns for pidyon sheuvim for almost anything, then having a campaign to transfer remains out of Poland and other Jew-friendly nations should become a priority.
The Gerrer rebbe deserves better…rather than wasting all the money that goes into the pockets of local rabbonim in EY, the governent might allocate a few shekels to assist the remnants of the yiddeshe communities in Eastern Europe to provide minimal security to the kevorim of these gadolim.
Does anyone know under what circumstances it is mutar to remove the remains from Europe and bury them in EY
Poland is a nasty place you say – then why do a large percentage of frum families employ polish domestic. Do you realize that these are people who hands have spilled yiddishe blood???? Is this a way of telling your ancestors who were killed there HYD that you will never forget? by employing the poles and supporting them?
The gerer rabbi deserves a lot of credit for a lot of the kivre zadikim that were found and taken care for and I’m sure he knew about what happened the same day and he is on top of it you can not imagine the amount of time. And strength the rebbe put in to kivri zadikim before he even became rebbe.
You are making an even bigger Chillul Hashem where’s your Kovod Hatorah and/or Derech Eretz??
Poland is going through a big recession. They are suffering. Instinctually, as soon as bad stuff happens there, they look for a Jew to kick.
Thank G-d, the only Jews left in Poland are long time dead, and can no longer be hurt.
The Lubavitcher said there is no longer any reason for a Jew to live in Poland.
And this from a man who spend half his life promoting Yiddishkeit in all corners of the world!
While I’m saddened by the incident and wish the perpetrator(s) could be found and punished, I’d like to remind that all it takes for this to happen is one moron. The Jewish guard noted that it’s been the first time since a few years. Defacing Jewish-related buildings with svastikas also happens in the US.
why oh why – a couple of my Polish relatives worked for frum families. None is anti-Semitic and one is very philo-Semitic and pro-Israeli. You suggest that people should be discriminated against with nor regards for their individual conduct just based on what some of their compatriots did 60 years ago? Then I believe the frum families you denounce have more humanity and common sense.
“In the street, people are always giving looks at you,” said Goldberg.
That could be because Poland is a very homogeneous white-Catholic country. Moreover, Jewish interest places are often in parts of Poland where no other tourists go. People look because they don’t see foreigners very often.
I was in Poland 8 years ago before there was any recession. While many were quite friendly it was obvious that they only wanted my purchasing power. In Lodz the anti semitism was extremely noticeable. In Lizhensk the shiksa who took care of the place yimach shemoh was very obnoxious. In Auschwitz the guide started telling us how the Poles suffered and how his family suffered. After 5 minutes I told him that if he ever mentions a Pole again, I’ll slam his nose so hard that blood would fly over all of us. He stopped.
Yidden had a saying before WW2. Polish goyim receive their anti semitism in their mother’s milk. They are an intrinsically extremely anti jewish anything nation. And yes we should all start hiring Hispanic people who have no particular anti feelings to Jews. This includes day workers standing on the corners waiting. We should completely boycott Polish workers. Let all these Poles living in Boro Park go back to Poland where it’s still fairly judenrein.
take these animals and grant them a slow painful death!!
leave it be…..see what they are and what they do….remember what they do….they never let go…
I am very disturbed by this.
What a disrespecful thing to do.
Perhaps they should install security cameras.
Shame on the polish governent
re to 26/ frater and to 21 Rippin Pinchas:
The Kielce “pogrom” of 1947 you mention was a Russian provocation designed to blacken Poland’s name in the West and to “justify” the Russian postwar occupation. It was also designed to encourage Jews to move to Palestine. Stalin himself secretly supported the Zionists in Palestine in order to cause trouble for the Brits and to keep a finger in the regional pie.
But of course to slander is much easier than to do a research. Whoever accuses Poland for holokaust is mental and is opposing the historical truth. Jewish scholar, I. Gutman from Yad Vashem, said that Holocaust was commited by German nazis and any other explanation of this fact is a falsifcation.