Jews unwelcome at Polish guesthouse

Jewish organizations are calling on the Polish government to take action against a guesthouse which bans Jews. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

A flagrantly anti-Semitic banner hanging at the entrance to a guest house near the western city of Wroclaw has prompted Jewish organizations from around the world to call on the Polish government to take action and prosecute those responsible for posting it.

Against a red and white backdrop that are the colors of the Polish flag, the sign at the Dom Polski guest house in Cesarzowice declares that “entry is forbidden to Jews, Commies, and all thieves and traitors of Poland.”

According to press reports, the guest house belongs to Piotr Rybak, a notorious anti-Semite responsible for several anti-Jewish incidents including the burning of an effigy of a Jew on the main market square in 2015 in Wroclaw, for which he is currently serving a 10 month sentence in jail, and for publicly insulting first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda for her Jewish origins.

The Polish government has so far failed to intervene and act against this blatant act of anti-Semitism.

World Jewish Congress (WJC) CEO Robert Singer said that the sign “conjures up memories of ghetto benches and other chilling manifestations of anti-Semitism in Poland in the late 1930s. Given Poland’s history, we would have expected the authorities to act forcefully and swiftly to put a stop to such activity, which is illegal and utterly contravenes the democratic norms Warsaw is committed to upholding.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is “urging Polish authorities to investigate the illegal and anti-Semitic banner at the hostel and take appropriate action against those responsible.”