In Ben-Gurion’s Polish hometown, residents dance the hora ahead of Israel’s 70th
Hundreds of citizens of Plonsk, the birthplace of the first Israeli prime minister, gather with Jewish leaders in a show of solidarity and support for the Jewish state
PLONSK, Poland – Hundreds of townsfolk, local dignitaries, young dancers dressed in traditional brightly-colored peasant garb, and a marching band assembled Sunday to celebrate the life of Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion in his Polish birthplace, Plonsk, ahead of the Jewish state’s 70th birthday.
The event was organized by Limmud FSU, the March of the Living, and the municipality of Plonsk, and included a long list of notable attendees, including Israel’s ambassador to Poland Anna Azari, Plonsk city mayor Andrzej Pietrasik, and Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Beginning at the town hall, the crowd marched through the narrow streets of Plonsk first to David Ben-Gurion Square, where they laid wreaths at the spot where the prime minister was born in 1886.
The home is no longer standing, as it was made of wood and deteriorated naturally over time.
The assembly then continued on past several memorable spots in Ben-Gurion’s life, ending up in front of the home that once belonged to his uncle, and where the prime minister lived for 20 years before emigrating to Israel.
Ben-Gurion is a source of great pride to the people of Plonsk, a small town of 22,000 situated 67 kilometers (41 miles) northwest of Warsaw. Since 1996, the city has been twinned with Ramat Hanegev, the region in Israel’s south where Israel’s first prime minister quietly spent his last years.
“He has an important role in Polish history, as in Israeli history,” mayor Pietrasik told The Times of Israel. “David Ben-Gurion’s establishment of the State of Israel makes him a very important figure here for us.”
The march culminated in a ceremony at which dozens of local children decked out in full costume danced the polka, as well as the hora, before inviting everyone to join in.
Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari compared Ben-Gurion to the father of modern Poland, Józef Piłsudski, who picked up the pieces of a shattered kingdom after World War I. Azari said that the event marked her first celebration of Israel’s independence this year, and that there was no more appropriate place to do so than in front of Ben-Gurion’s old stomping grounds.
The event fell between Yom Hashoah, or Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the Jewish state’s Independence Day, which begins on Wednesday evening and continues through Thursday night.
Plonsk was once the home of a vibrant Jewish community, which was devastated during the Holocaust.
“Before World War II, half of the residents of Plonsk were Jews. By the end of the war, there remained only a few. Plonsk, in which Jews and Poles had been living together for hundreds of years, and accepted this town as their home, had become evidence of our most brutal history,” said Pietrasik.
The mayor said the city of Plonsk honors the memory of its Jewish citizens by maintaining the few institutions that remain and celebrating the legacy of Ben-Gurion.
He said Plonsk continues to back initiatives to foster warm relations with the Jewish community around the world and in Israel.
“Coming from the March of the Living, where we visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, to Plonsk, where we dance the hora in the streets together with the mayor, the Israeli ambassador, the chief rabbi, and the chief priest, couldn’t be more symbolic,” said Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chessler.
Israeli-born Chessler added, “From the Holocaust to revival.”
Clouded celebrations
The celebration came amid strained relations between Poland and the greater Jewish world – including both the Israeli government as well as communities across the Diaspora – due to vague language in newly-passed legislation that appears to impose restrictions on speaking or teaching about Polish complicity during the Holocaust.
The language of the bill is currently being examined by the Polish constitutional court. Its original formulation could be read to mean jail time for people who use the term “Polish death camps,” or accuse Poland of participating in the Holocaust.
Academics and Jews around the world are concerned that this could open the doors for a whitewashing of history in which Poles could soon divest themselves of any responsibility during the decimation of 90 percent of Polish Jewry in the Holocaust.
Since the pushback, long-dormant anti-Semitic voices have made themselves heard in mainstream Polish politics and media, causing the issue to snowball.
Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told the crowd that on the whole, however, relations between Poland and Israel, and Poland and the Jewish people, remain strong despite this setback.
“With everything going on in the media, you might not get the full picture,” Schudrich said in his public speech. “Here in Plonsk, we can celebrate Israel openly, without worrying about anti-Semitism or protests. Such a thing is almost impossible today in Britain, Austria, France.”
“This event really reflects what Polish-Jewish relations should be about,” Schudrich said. “There are problems, we have to deal with the problems, but we also have to keep it in the context that while there are problems today, there are also solutions. Today is part of the solution.”
The writer was a guest of Limmud FSU’s Global Leadership Summit.