Polish Library in Washington
Protests Anti-Semitic Article
The Friends of the Polish Library in Washington, a 12-member board that governs the 10-year-old privately run organization, has withdrawn membership from the Polish American Congress in protest over anti-Semitic remarks by PAC President Edward Moskal. In an article in the Polish newspaper Dziennik Zwiazkowy, Moskal accuses Polish World War II hero Jan Nowak-Jezioranski and the “Jewish lobby” of trying to humiliate Poland by calling for an apology for the recently revealed responsibility of local Poles in the Nazi slaughter of Jews in the town of Jedwabne in 1941.
Library Friends President Tadeusz Walendowski told American Libraries that the group issued an official statement May 1 condemning the “slanderous attack” on “a great Polish patriot and hero, whom we are proud to call a member of our community and a friend of our library.” The withdrawal is intended to send a message, says the statement, that Moskal “cannot claim to be our representative nor leader.” The Polish American Congress is the foremost advocacy organization for the more than 10 million Polish Americans living in the United States.
Moskal’s history of anti-Semitic remarks have been even more controversial in Poland. The May 17 Chicago Tribune reported that Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said of the latest brouhaha, “I expect Edward Moskal and his collaborators to stop making statements which strengthen the worldwide worst stereotype of Poland and Poles.”
Posted May 21, 2001.
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