The leader of the Jewish community in Krakow, Jonathan Ornstein, finds clear similarities between the Holocaust period and the wave of anti-Semitism on a global scale since the Hamas attacks on October 7, and deplores the acceptance of violence.
“I think the two stories have a lot of parallels,” says in an interview with the agency Lusa, the director of the Center for the Jewish Community of Krakow, in southern Poland, recalling that the genocide of the Jewish people took place on that scale eight decades ago when “the world was practically silent.”
Israel has launched a large-scale military offensive in the Gaza Strip that includes ground operations in response to the unprecedented attacks carried out by the Islamist movement on October 7, which massacred around 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 240, according to data from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities point out the extreme brutality and inhumanity of the Palestinian militias.
In turn, authorities in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the autocratic Hamas regime since 2007, are responsible for more than 9,000 deaths, including many women and children, in the bombings carried out by Israeli forces, which have been accused of disproportionality in the way they hit civilian targets.
Since October 7, the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has immediately led to radicalization in the form of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic demonstrations around the world, which have become increasingly common, including verbal and physical attacks, insults or threats online.” , ‘graffiti’ with messages of hatred and damage to property, businesses or places of religious importance.
In southern Russia, an angry mob invaded the airport in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim area, looking for passengers of Jewish descent who had arrived from Tel Aviv and told to hide in the facilities.
“Now terrible things are happening to the Jews and Israel is reacting again. I’m so sorry for the innocent Palestinians who got caught up in this, but it’s their leadership. [Hamas] and the world is not only silent, but also supporting those who have the mission, the public mission – and they don’t hide it – to kill Jews.”
In this sense he sees similarities with the Holocaust: “Even the Germans were not as direct about killing Jews as Hamas was eighty years ago,” explains the leader of the Jewish center closest to Aushwitz, which focuses on memory and trauma. from the extermination camp built by the Nazi regime near the town of Oswiecim, in southern Poland.
The difference now is that the Jews “have a strong state, which would completely change the history of eighty years ago, and “if they have to fight, they will fight, they will not be defeated and they will defend themselves” against attacks like those of October 7 or the anti-Semitic speech that is sweeping the world.
“Israel doesn’t exist because of the Holocaust, but the Holocaust may have helped the world understand the need for a state for the Jewish people,” said Jonathan Ornstein, who was born 53 years ago in New York but lived in Israel for seven years. , two of whom served in the army, and who established a love affair with a Polish woman in Krakow twenty years ago.
The community leader points to the existence of dozens of predominantly Muslim countries and wonders what difference “a small state for the Jews” will make to the world, at a time when many fear being targeted by Muslim populations , as observed in Dagestan and elsewhere in the world.
“I don’t see Muslims being afraid of Jews around the world and I don’t think it’s fair to say that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, which is an equally terrible crime, happen in the same way,” he said. .
What you mainly see or know, he continues, are Stars of David painted in the houses of Jews in France or Germany – ‘and a lot of this is done by Muslims – but you don’t see a single Jew around the world. asking for the killing of Muslims,” meaning that the two crimes are currently out of balance and that we are witnessing “a terrible increase in anti-Semitism.”
Ornstein ignores the motivations for this outbreak, pointing out that “the Jewish people have historically been very peaceful” and that global terror is not his signature: “If someone blows up the subway in London, Madrid or Paris, it is not the Jews who do that and there is an acceptance of violence in the Islamic world on the part of Europe, which is very surprising to me.”
Despite this, the director of the Jewish Center separates leaders in many countries from this position, although not equally, which he considers “very positive and fair in his zero tolerance against anti-Semitism, in the same way that he does not feel hostile ‘. climate in Krakow or elsewhere in Poland, despite the dark past of this country, where the community currently estimated at a few thousand lives in a “very safe and hospitable environment”.
The security of Jewish institutions, such as the Jewish Museum of Galicia, has been strengthened, “due to the tensions created by the war in Israel,” but the peaceful environment has not changed since October 7, while some Israelis have moved to Poland , although the reverse movement was much greater.
Around the world, “there are additional flights, charter planes and private planes of people returning to Israel during this situation for all kinds of different reasons,” he says, explaining that the military is keeping many people in reserve, “who are going there, or helping with jobs that didn’t get done because they went to fight and defend their country.”
Regarding anti-Semitism, Jonathan Ornstein has a positive outlook and believes that it will not last forever and that it will slow down after this crisis and this war: “Historically, I see the world in general moving in the right direction, towards knowledge, progress and light, and I hope that all kinds of hatred, including anti-Semitism, will not always continue in a straight line, but in the right direction.”
Source: DN
