19-year-old Asa Yitzhak Beich, from Anarbour, near Detroit, US, arrived in Poland two weeks ago and was visiting the “Ohel” of Rav Yitzhak Kalish ZY”A, a well-known Chassidic rabbi, at the local Jewish cemetery.
Beich told the EJP news agency: “I was by myself when I arrived at the cemetery. There, I met a group of twenty teenagers – aged between 11 and 16- to whom I asked the direction of the Ohel. When I arrived at the Ohel, located on the top of a hill, the teenagers started laughing at me, asking me for money and shouting “Jew” in Polish before they punched me in the face.”
The young man, who was lightly wounded, managed to escape and was later helped by Polish policemen who tried to identify the teenagers.
The police are searching for the attackers.
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5 Responses
#1- Not sure what is worse your remark or the article!!
I am not arguing I am just saying your remarks offer no comfort, sulotion or otherwise productive! Not sure why you wrote at all it seems you were the only one that had a remark at all about the aritcle!
The name of the city is ANN ARBOR. It is important for your credibility that you do not have spelling errors.
As I am Polish I feel I have to say how all this is sad for me. I really admire Jewish people, your culture and way you live. It is really awful that some group of stupid village racists can influent or even create the image of Poles’ relation to Jews today. Please belive that there is a real majority of people in my country who is friendy to Jewish people. I feel really sad.
The frum community’s current affluence and spohistication has made travelling to Europe to visit kever avos fashionable.
While I am sympathetic to this desire, I think it’s importanbt to ponder a couple of thoughts
1) I understand why the 50-something year old is curious to vist the alte heim. But have they asked their 80-something european born parents or grandparents how they feel about them travelling to europe and putting spending money in the pockets of these europeans?
2) While visiting kever avos has value, it’s important that we remmember just how anti-semitic that sewer of a continent is. Precious little has chnaged in 60 years. Let us take a moment to have appropriate Hakaros Hatov to Hashem for establishing such a wonderful haven for us her in the U.S. and let us express the appropriate Hakaras Hatov to our US hosts by being model citizens in every way we can.
And , no, I am not suggesting that the US is a Jewish utopia and that things could not change (as much of 1920’s German jewry thought). We are of course in Golus. It’s just that Judaism calls upon us to make judgments based on the facts at hand (“Basaher Hu Sham”)
For the moment, the facts at hand are this. The US has, by and large, been a kind and just host to the Jewish people and retains it’s “chezkas kashtus”. Europe has not, and contiues to be a festering boil of anti-semitism.
All other things being equal I’d rather pay my US taxes, then spend my money in Europe.