Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future (Paperback)

~ Robert Cherry (Author), Annamaria Orla-Bukowska (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

These probing essays make a profound contribution to enhanced understanding between today's democratic Poland and the Jewish people. -- David A. Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee

Unfortunately, Jewish-Polish relationships are full of stereotypes. If you want your opinions on the relations between these two ethnic groups to be based on facts, Rethinking Poles and Jews is a must. The authors precisely distinguish truth from misconceptions. -- Zbigniew Nosowski, Editor-in-chief of the Warsaw Catholic monthly review WIEZ

Product Description

Rethinking Poles and Jews focuses on the role of Holocaust-related material in perpetuating anti-Polish images and describes organizational efforts to combat them. Without minimizing contemporary Polish anti-Semitism, it also presents more positive material on contemporary Polish-American organizations and Jewish life in Poland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742546667
• ISBN-13: 978-0742546660
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,601,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Holocaust-Related Polonophobia Measured; Limited Rethinking of Poles and Jews, January 8, 2008

By	Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Anyone who questions the severity of anti-Polonism is in for a rude awakening upon reading this book. Robert Cherry's surveys of Holocaust academicians and others prompt him to conclude that: "The evidence presented strongly suggests that complaints in the Polish American community about the anti-Polish stereotypes found among non-Polish faculty who teach Holocaust-related courses are well-founded; not surprisingly, these stereotypes are strongest among non-historians." (p. 76).

Cherry is candid about the marginalization of the PolAm voice: "Jewish faculty teach Holocaust courses throughout the country, courses that enroll tens of thousands of students annually...By contrast, Polish academicians do not have a significant forum to promote their views to the general public...It is only within Polish American communities that their views dominate." (p. 77)

What about the American media? Biskupski's systematic analysis of Hollywood's decades-old portrayal of Poles relative to Jews is damning.

The quality of this book is variable; hence my 3-star rating. Novel features, besides the surveys, include the repudiation of the phrase "Polish concentration camps" by the American Jewish Committee (pp. 65-66). More-of-the-same aspects of this book include its transparent Judeocentrism. Poles are praised insofar as some of them agree with Jewish attacks on Poland (e. g., p. 57).

Although some Jewish authors are candid about Jewish prejudices against Poles, they don't seem to show the same degree of moral urgency that Poles do (or are supposed to do) relative to Polish prejudices against Jews. And many of Cherry's survey questions are clearly of the "Have you stopped beating your wife?" type.

There is the customary preoccupation with unequal victimhood (e. g., Pawlikowski, who misrepresents Lukas as teaching that Poles and Jews were equal victims: pp. 116-117). Why can't we just recognize each other as victims of the Nazis, and leave it at that? (Among cancer-victims organizations, we don't see month-terminal patients complain that they are unequal victims with year-terminal patients).

There are also the usual ruminations about past Christian teachings on Jews, but not a hint of the reverse. How many Poles felt hostility to Jews because they knew that Jews saw them as idolatrous worshippers of the Bastard Son of an adulteress, and of three gods?

Throughout this book, Jan T. Gross is lionized ad nauseam, with no hint of the fraudulence of most of his claims (see, for instance, the Peczkis review of Sto klamstw J.T. Grossa o Jedwabnem i zydowskich sasiadach).

And if "coming to terms with the past" is a mark of maturity, then why won't the Jewish side freely admit its crimes (instead of the usual dismissive attitude--e. g. Polonsky, p. 131, 133)? Jewish crimes against Poles are undeniable and considerable (see, for instance, the Peczkis review of Przemilczane zbrodnie: Zydzi i Polacy na Kresach w latach 1939-1941).

Pawlikowski defends the U. S. Holocaust Museum's inclusion of the Kielce Pogrom (p. 117). It doesn't matter that Kielce wasn't part of the Holocaust, was trivial next to the same, and was probably a Soviet provocation. Talk about relativizing the Holocaust!

Joanna B. Michlic takes cheap shots at RADIO MARYJA, and name-calls several careful scholars with whom she disagrees, actually going as far as expressing concern that they are taken seriously! (p. 163). Along these lines, she dismisses Chodakiewicz's detailed research on the Jedwabne massacre (p. 168). Evidently, facts don't matter to her. And whom does Krajewski think that he is fooling in his implicit denial (p. 148) that certain Jewish groups are trying to extort money from Poland?

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening discussion of a difficult issue, June 16, 2008

By	Richard M. Tavan (Truckee, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This collection of essays ranges from highly academic to deeply personal. It explores the difficult relationships among Jews and Poles, not only since World War II but also during the centuries prior when Poland was the largest, most vibrant part of the Jewish world. The authors make no attempt to gloss over the problems but they illustrate potential solutions and present evidence that new approaches are working. Co-editor and contributor Annamaria Orla-Bukowska is an American born professor of Polish parentage who lives in Poland and knows more about Jews and Poles than most Jews and Poles know about themselves and each other. After meeting and being impressed by her in Poland I bought the book and it further opened my eyes to the possibilities of creating new and stronger connections between these two peoples. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in post-Holocaust studies in particular or the sociology of strained inter-national relationships in general.