UK Jewish leaders convey ‘strong concerns’ to Polish minister over Holocaust law

UK Jewish community leaders yesterday met the Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bartosz Cichocki, and the Polish Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki to convey the strong concerns of the Jewish community regarding the Polish legislation that risks criminalising references to the complicity of Poles in the killing of Jews in the Shoah.

The delegation was led by Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush and included representatives of the Jewish Leadership Council, the Holocaust Educational Trust and B’nai Brith UK.

Speaking on behalf of the delegation,  Jonathan Arkush said: “We set out for the Minister the strong arguments against the law and our total dismay against the storm of antisemitic reaction it had created in Poland.  It runs the strong risk of enforcing a distorted view of history and chilling debate on the destruction of Polish Jewry.”

Objections to the new law have been voiced by the Israeli government, the European Jewish Congress (EJC), the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and other international Jewish organisations.