Mayors of Polish cities, attending an American Jewish
Committee Central Europe conference on combating hate, have
issued a joint statement urging implementation of a policy
of "zero tolerance for prejudice, xenophobia and
anti-Semitism."
The statement, signed by the mayors of Bialystok, Gdańsk,
Poznań, and Warsaw, prioritizes
"promoting democratic values and acting for our civil rights,"
vows to "use available legal instruments to ensure that crimes
motivated by racial or religious hatred are not underestimated,"
pledges to "raise public awareness among city citizens, employees
of municipal institutions and municipal law enforcement bodies,"
and encourages other Polish mayors to join in the statement.
The AJC conference, "No to Hatred; Cities Facing Ethnic and
Religious Prejudice," explored "specific actions taken by the
authorities of several largest Polish cities to build tolerance,
solidarity and respect among their residents and how they
counteract the attitudes and acts of hatred motivated by
prejudice," said AJC Central Europe Director Agnieszka Markiewicz.
Warsaw Mayor Hanna
Gronkiewicz-Waltz, addressing the opening session,
emphasized that the biggest challenge to combating hatred is the
widespread insensitivity to aggressive behavior that results from
prejudice: "We all got used to it," said Gronkiewicz-Waltz,
adding that while Europe is not yet
in a situation akin to the 1930s, "that is exactly why it is
necessary to respond to even small signs of hatred in order to
prevent the return of the time of ovens."
Bialystok Mayor Tadeusz Truskolaski,
Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz, Poznań Mayor Jacek Jaśkowiak,
and Warsaw Deputy Mayor
Włodzimierz Paszyński participated in a panel discussion about
their experiences combating anti-Semitism and other forms of hate
in their communities.
The conference took place at the POLIN Museum of the History of
Polish Jews and was co-sponsored by the City of Warsaw. The 100
attendees included diplomats, members of Poland's Parliament
and city councils, and representatives of the Jewish community
and other ethnic and religious minorities.
During the conference, Rabbi Andrew Baker, AJC Director
of International Jewish Affairs, attributed the growing sense of
insecurity among Central European Jews to a rising crescendo of
public hate speech and the still-unmastered trauma arising from
the difficult history of the Holocaust.
Other speakers at the conference included POLIN
Director Dariusz
Stolaand Israeli Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari.
