December 15, 1977
Page 39338
A HISTORIC TRANSFER ARRANGED BY EDWARD PISZEK
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on November 2, 1977, a widely disparate group met in Philadelphia to witness the transfer of nearly 400 rare documents from the Polish Government to a group of Hasidic Jews in America.
The transfer was arranged by Edward Piszek, president of Mrs. Paul's Kitchens. Mr. Piszek has long been involved in public service, and is a personal friend.
Mr. Piszek's willingness to volunteer his time, energy, and considerable talent to this cause is no more than those of us who know him have come to expect. Saying that does not diminish our respect or appreciation for his untiring work in behalf of others.
John Cardinal Krol spoke at the ceremony on November 2, and provided us with a fascinating history of the relationships between the Polish and Jewish. people. As he says, it "is not without blemish." Cardinal Krol also summarized the importance of the Philadelphia meeting, saying it "reflects the best and most noble tradition of the Polish people." So does Ed Piszek's work to make the transfer possible.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Cardinal Krol's remarks, and a New York Times article from the November 3, 1977, issue, describing the meeting, be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
REMARKS BY JOHN CARDINAL KROL
Presentation of a collection of religious books and manuscripts to the Hasidic Lubavitcher Group at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on November 2, 1977 at 11:30 a.m.
RARE IF NOT UNIQUE CEREMONY
We witness a rare, if not unique ceremony — the presentation by a Christian gentleman of Polish ancestry, Mr. Edward J. Piszek, of an irreplaceable collection of religious books obtained from the Polish Regime, which ideologically is committed to the eradication of all religions, to an American Hasidic Lubavitcher Group of Jews.
WHY?
This presentation evokes two questions. Why should Mr. Piszek be so concerned with the preservation of this valuable collection of Jewish religious books and manuscripts? Why should a Polish Regime committed to the total abolition of religion, release to and through Mr. Piszek, this collection of religious books and manuscripts?
THE ANSWER
I suggest that the answer to both questions is in the one thousand year history of relations between the Polish and Jewish peoples.
Jewish history in Poland dates to the very beginnings of Poland's history as a nation, 986 AD. That history, like the history of any nation, is not without blemish; not without shameful violation and repression of rights; not without sorrow and not free of blood shedding
.
However, the fact is that not only did the Jewish people find refuge from persecution in Poland, but they enjoyed a privileged status. This is evident from the fact that some of the early coins in Poland had Jewish inscriptions.
The great influx of Jews came into Poland in the 11th and 12th centuries. Jewish communities developed and flourished, and their contributions to the cultural and economic development in Poland were invaluable.
In 1264, King Boleslaus — the Pious — enacted the celebrated charter — the Statutes of Kalisz which guaranteed equal protection of the law to all and specifically to the Jews, with a guarantee of freedom of worship, with sanctions for anyone who would desecrate a Jewish synagogue, religious school or cemetery. The Book of Jewish Knowledge refers to this statute as the "celebrated charter — the only one of its kind in the history of Christendom."
When the Jews fled the "Black Death" persecution in the West in the XIV century, King Casimir affirmed the Kalisz Charter and welcomed a new flood of Jewish refugees as integral members of the Polish community.
In 1414, Paul Wlodkiewicz, Rector of the Catholic University of Krakow, submitted a memorandum to the Council of Constance, in which he averred the right of non-believers to worship in their own fashion. The principles of civil and religious liberty expressed in the Kalisz statutes and the Wlodkiewicz memorandum provided a healthy climate for religious worship and culture, and provided a welcome shelter for all persons persecuted for their religious beliefs.
It should be noted that the principles of civil and religious liberty expressed in the Statutes of Kalisz and the Wlodkiewicz memorandum were articulated with clarity, 700 and 550 years later respectively in the II Vatican Council's declarations on relations with Jews and on Religious Freedom. These principles found their way into the Pacta Convents, which proclaimed for the first time anywhere in Europe constitutional guarantees of religious worship for all citizens.
King Sigismund II enhanced the tradition of Jewish civil rights in Poland by granting the Jewish communities practical autonomy under the direction of a body of local notables and rabbinical courts. At the apex of the pyramid was a "Council of the Four Lands" which could legislate and adjudicate according to the Jewish laws. This arrangement gave the Jews the nearest approach to self-government since the Sanhedrin of antiquity.
During the cossack revolt and the Tartar invasion, Poland was ravaged and the Jews were the special targets of invaders. During the Russian and Swedish invasions, Jews were singled out for harsh treatment, not only by the invaders, but regrettably by some Poles who suspected some Jews of being in league with the enemy. In this case, insecurity led to intolerance with the result of unrelieved disaster. When Poland lost its independence in 1795, the condition of the Jews, like that of the Poles, depended upon the dispositions of the occupying forces. When after the first World War, Poland regained its independence, Jews were accorded minority rights.
Even though the spirit of the Kalisz statutes was at times marred by invaders, and at times by some Poles, the Jewish community flourished and developed and became the largest and most significant Jewish cultural center in the world. Warsaw was renowned for its Talmudic, rabbinical and teacher training seminaries and schools. Yiddish and Hebrew periodicals were produced in Jewish publishing houses, and outstanding writers and leaders made lasting contributions to Jewish culture and life.
In the II World War, Poland lost 15 of her 35 million inhabitants. No ethnic group bore the fury of Hitler's hatred more than did the people in Poland and especially the Jews. The vast majority of the Six Million Jewish victims lived in Poland.
It is the tradition of binding ties between Polish and Jewish peoples that provides the answers to the two questions: Why does a Christian gentleman of Polish ancestry, attempt the seemingly impossible task of obtaining from a Polish Regime, ideologically committed to the total abolition of all religions, an irreplaceable collection of Jewish religious books. I can only suggest that both Mr. Piszek and the Polish Communist Regime are living up to the very noble one thousand year tradition of relations between the Polish and the Jewish people.
MY PRESENCE AT THIS EVENT
I am grateful for the invitation to witness this presentation. As a Catholic religious leader of Polish ancestry, I am pleased with and applaud the efforts of Mr. Edward J. Piszek for his concern and for his efforts in behalf of the Jewish Hasidic Lubavitcher community. By his action, he exemplifies Christ's command of love of neighbor, and also continues the noble tradition of Poles of living with peace and harmony with their Jewish neighbors.
At the same time, I am pleased to commend the Hasidic Lubavitcher goups of Jews for their fidelity to a common legacy which we share. We live in a climate of secular and atheistic humanism. It is a joy to acknowledge that Jesus and Paul sprang from the deepest soil of Jewish history, and that the Catholic Church is born out of Israel's loin.
We recall the Jewish legacy to humankind and the indebtedness of our civilization and our religion to the Jews.
The first legacy is a firm belief in one personal God who is the Master of all creation, and who has the right to impose his laws and commandments upon all.
The second legacy is the Bible — the Torah, which is the source of the first formulations of social justice which provides us with a moral code — a moral rectitude governing man's relation with his God and with his fellow men.
The third legacy is the doctrine of man's immense and incomparable dignity as expressed by the Psalmist: "What is man that you should be mindful of him ... You have made him little less than the angels and crowned him with honor and glory. You gave him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet" (Ps. 8, 57).
The fourth legacy is the doctrine of moral choice. God gave man mastery over His world, through the divinely given capacity to "Choose Good and Reject Evil." This reality of man's freedom of choice contradicted the old pagan philosophies of fatalism, disguised and adopted by Karl Marx under the name of economic determinism. This divergent outlook on man's freedom of choice is a principal cause of the radical and irreconcilable division between the free world and the world of communism today. This doctrine of moral choice carries with it social implications. The command "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" provides the concept of the solidarity in human relations, and the concept of a moral law applicable to societies as well as individuals.
The presentation of this collection of religious books and manuscripts reflects the best and most noble tradition of the Polish people, and at the same time highlights the legacies of the Jewish cultural and religious heritage.
Today, I pay tribute to Mr. Edward J. Piszek for continuing a noble Polish tradition and for giving our communities an example of sympathetic concern and solidarity in human relations.
I pay tribute also to the Hasidic Lubavitcher group of Jews for their interest and efforts in preserving Jewish legacies — religious and cultural, and for giving witness to the joys of living a life of faith — a life of fervent love of, and dedicated service to God, the Creator, Master and Ruler of the Universe and of all life.
[From the New York Times, Nov. 3, 1977]
HASIDIC FEAT: SIMPLE AS ALEPH, BETH, GIMEL
(By Israel Shenker)
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 2. This was not one of your garden variety historic events at Independence Hall, such as a meeting of the Continental Congress or the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Today, some bearded Hasidic Jews met here with representatives of Poland's Communist atheist Government in the presence of a Roman Catholic Cardinal and a consul general from Israel, with which Poland does not have diplomatic relations. The ceremony was made possible through negotiations conducted by a manufacturer of nonkosher frozen seafood.
It was as simple as aleph, beth, gimel.
When the Polish Government turned over crates filled with 130 handwritten books and 240 rare printed books, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, local representative of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement, was the first to open a volume. He declared it to be in the handwriting of the third and sixth Lubavitcher Rabbis. After looking at the text a moment, he lowered his head and, his red beard quivering, kissed the open page.
"Pardon me for getting emotional,"he said.
These were all works lost in the flight of the sixth Lubavitch Rabbi from the Nazis, in 1940. He came to America with only part of his library. "The missing books were all thought to be lost, burned, destroyed," Rabbi Shemtov said.
But the Lubavitchers discovered them in a Warsaw library and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Polish authorities to restore them to their rightful owner, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitch Rabbi and son-in-law of the sixth, who died in 1950.
About three years ago, Rabbi Shemtov went to Edward J. Piszek, the founder president of Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, the seafood company, and asked him to help. Mr. Piszek, a patron of the arts who is a trustee of the New York Public Library, has nurtured good relations with Poland. Some years ago he donated medical equipment to Warsaw and, as he said, "helped put tuberculosis to bed in Poland."
"They knew I was a friend of theirs," he said, "and I told them they could do something that would be good for both sides. Here I am, a Christian American of Polish descent who put himself on the line for something his Jewish brothers believe in. The Lubavitchers are like Jesuits — these are their records, and they mean a lot to them."
Rabbi Shemtov went to Warsaw twice to identify the Yiddish and Hebrew handwriting of successive Lubavitch leaders, and Mr. Piszek used all his charm. "There were times," Mr. Piszek recalled, as he stood here today with Rabbi Shemtov, "when the rabbi called me every day and said, 'Where are the books?'"
"Correction," the rabbi said. "Three times a day."
The first public sign that anything was going on came earlier this week in quarter page advertisements in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and two Philadelphia dailies. The text began:
"We thank the Polish authorities and our friends in Poland for their efforts. . . ." It was signed "Philadelphia Friends of Lubavitch."
In his brief address to the small group gathered here, John Cardinal Krol, who is of Polish descent, spoke of the Polish Government's dedication to the eradication of religion. He acknowledged that Poland's attitude to Jews had been "not without blemish, not without shameful violation and repression of rights, not without sorrow and not free of bloodshed."
He also cited instances when Polish Governments had extended protection to Jews, and he hailed "the very noble 1,000 year history of the Polish and Jewish peoples."
James A. Michener, author of "The Source,"also spoke, and praised the Polish Government for having "the wisdom and generosity to set these books free."
From Philadelphia, the books will go to the movement's headquarters in Brooklyn, geographically distant from the former seat in the Byelorussian village of Lubavitch but hardly removed in tradition and ritual.
The Lubavitchers, now in many countries, go back to a group of believers who attached themselves to a disciple of Hasidism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name), an 18th century mystic who taught that a simple man who prayed sincerely was better than a Talmudic scholar whose heart was cold.