Grapevine, September 4, 2024: Poland appoints ambassador - feature

Following a three-year hiatus in which there was no Polish ambassador to Israel, Poland’s Ambassador-designate Maciej Hunia is due to take up his post within the next month or two.

Hunia, who was in Israel over the past week in preparation for his new assignment, attended the stunning photo exhibition “Refugees for the Second Time” at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, in Tel Aviv, cohosted by the embassies of Poland, Ukraine, Sweden, Estonia, and Finland.

However, as he is not yet resident in Israel, the Polish Embassy was officially represented by Agata Czaplinska, its chargée d’affaires.

Hunia is no stranger to Israel, having visited numerous times in different capacities. Born in Krakow, he is an alumnus of its famed Jagiellonian University, which dates back to 1364 and is one of the oldest universities in Europe. He held various high-ranking positions, including chief of the Military Intelligence Service and head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency.

His appointment was announced a little over a month ago, and he was asked during a pre-appointment hearing in the Polish Parliament whether he believes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Hunia replied that military operations that cause unintended harm to civilians cannot be characterized as genocide. “We saw that in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Diplomatic relations between Israel and Poland were downgraded three years ago due to a dispute over property claims by Holocaust survivors and their heirs, after Poland introduced legislation that placed a time limit on restitution of property. Former ambassador Marek Magierowski was recalled and transferred to Washington, where he recently concluded his tenure and returned to Warsaw.

Importance of diplomatic presence

Hunia told The Jerusalem Post that it is very important for Poland to have an ambassador in Israel.

■ THE PHOTO exhibition, by master Tel Aviv photographer Erez Kaganovitz, features 20 portraits, nearly all of them of female Ukrainian refugees living in Israel. Men of fighting age were called to defend the homeland. Each portrait is accompanied by the story of each subject in her own words. The stories appear in English on the left side of the photograph and in Hebrew on the right.

The refugees, who fled from Ukraine following Russian aggression, became refugees a second time following October 7, when they were displaced from their homes in Israel. Some, such as Anna and Eva Ovcharenko, originally from Dnipro, and living in Bat Yam, lost their friends Alexander Samoilov and Victoria Gorlov, who were among the victims of Hamas at the Supernova music festival, where they worked as security guards.

The oldest of the refugees who were photographed is Natalia Raitman, 94, from Kharkiv, who now lives in Haifa. Raitman has learned that people don’t really have control over their lives, but they can still choose how to respond to what happens to them.

“Embrace life with love and optimism, and you’ll be better equipped to handle life’s challenges,” she said.

During the Holocaust, her family escaped to Siberia. She never expected that war would knock on her door again, but then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Raitman has a granddaughter living in Israel who reached out to Chabad and asked it to help Raitman. Initially, Chabad sheltered her in the Kharkiv synagogue, then transported her to Moldova, from where she was put on a flight to Israel.

Valentina Varshavsky, originally from Kyiv and now living in Haifa, said that she hoped the exhibition would help to create greater awareness of the suffering that Ukraine has endured due to Russia’s aggression.

The advice she would give to future refugees: “Despite all the difficulties you may experience, you have to adapt to the new life as quickly as possible. Don’t hide. Never hide. Be surrounded by as many people as possible who will help you deal with loneliness and longing.”

She referred to Israel as “our second home.” While some Ukrainian refugees will remain in Israel as immigrants, others will return home or move on elsewhere.

It was announced by members of the Ukraine Embassy that, after October 7, many of the Ukrainian refugees joined community goodwill projects which enabled them to do for others what had been done for them.

■ ALL THE diplomats who spoke at the exhibition had a connection with Ukraine or with the period August/September. There was the inevitable comparison between Ukraine and Israel facing brutal aggressors, plus expressions of sorrow over the sadness of the day for Israel with the discovery and repatriation of the bodies of six of the hostages.

Ukrainian Ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk said that despite the sadness of the day, he was grateful to see that so many people had come to the opening of the exhibition. Both Israel and Ukraine face brutal attacks on democracy, he stated, adding that Ukraine will continue to fight for a just peace and stability. He expressed appreciation to Israel for its support and cooperation.

Although Czaplinska did not mention that the date, September 1, marked the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, the issue hung unspoken in the air. Instead, she focused on the fact that Poland has taken in more than two million Ukrainian refugees. In offering condolences to Israel, she mentioned each of the six dead hostages by name.

■ SWEDEN’S NEW ambassador, Alexandra Rydmark, who arrived in the country only two weeks earlier, is quite familiar with Israel, having served at the embassy a decade ago during the tenure of ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser. She has returned frequently on vacation and to reconnect with Israeli friends.

Relating to the pall hanging over Israel last Monday, she said: “All of us are with the victims and their families.” She also related to the suffering of the Ukrainian people and said that Sweden had taken in 60,000 Ukrainian refugees. Commenting on this fact, Rydmark noted that her country has enjoyed “peace with good neighbors” for 200 years, but was aware “that this is something that can’t be taken for granted.”

■ ESTONIAN ACTING Charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission Robert Derevski remarked on the wide spectrum of emotions reflected in the exhibition. As for the situation that brought about the refugee status of so many Ukrainians, Derevski commented that in Israel at the present time it’s easy to forget that another war is being waged in Ukraine, and emphasized that this is something that should not be forgotten.

He suggested that Israel, which has already provided considerable aid, could do more to support Ukraine.

■ FINLAND’S AMBASSADOR Nina Nordstrom presented her credentials to President Isaac Herzog exactly a year earlier, but she was absent from the opening because she was temporarily back in Finland. Instead, Finland was represented at the exhibition by deputy head of mission Suvikki Silvennoinen, who said that there are approximately 117 million refugees in the world, of which 72,000 from Ukraine have applied for a temporary haven in Finland.

She complimented Kaganovitz for capturing both the strengths and the frailties of the people whom he photographed.

■ THOUGH NOT a cohost of the event of the exhibition, US Ambassador Jack Lew, who in one of his previous positions had a lot to do with Ukraine, was among the participating diplomats.

Lew stressed the importance of togetherness on such a dark day, in the midst of which “Ukraine remains a free, sovereign, independent nation,” during Russia’s continuing of the war. Lew praised Ukraine’s courage, which he said remains unwavering, adding that “the spirit of the Ukrainian people will never be broken.”

He spoke of America’s long-term security support for both Ukraine and Israel while they confront Russian aggression and Iranian terrorism, respectively.

“America stands with the people of Ukraine and Israel,” he declared.

Then, turning specifically to Israel, Lew said of the deceased hostages: “They didn’t just die. They were murdered. With every passing day they [the remaining hostages] are in jeopardy, and with every passing day there is the danger of escalation of war in the region.”

Yuval Fuchs, head of the Eurasian and Western Balkans division of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, underscored the strong relationship between Israel and Ukraine, recalling that Israel was among the first countries to reach out to Ukraine when the Russians began their attack. He also mentioned prominent Israelis who were born in Ukraine, such as former prime minister Golda Meir.

■ ON THE same day that the exhibition pertaining to Ukrainian refugees opened in Tel Aviv, an exhibition of portraits of survivors from the Kaunas Ghetto opened at the Jerusalem Theater. The exhibition is titled “Back to Kaunas.”

Kaunas is better known in Jewish circles as Kovno. One of the most famous survivors of the Kaunas Ghetto is former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak.

According to one of the people who attended, the expressions on the faces, displayed in large format, are worth a thousand – perhaps a million – words.

Photographer Michael Shubitz had approached the project with great sensitivity, and, of course, he was present, as were several of the people whom he had caught in the lens of his camera.

Like his colleagues in Tel Aviv, Lithuanian Ambassador Audrius Bruzga referred to the tragedy of the six Israeli hostages murdered shortly before they were reached by members of the IDF, but primarily he spoke in poignant fashion of the fate of Lithuanian Jews during the Holocaust and paid tribute to the resilience of the survivors.

■ JUST A few days ahead of the eighth anniversary of the death of Israel’s ninth president and eighth prime minister, Shimon Peres, the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation was visited by British historian and journalist Lord Andrew Roberts, who led a delegation to Israel to see at close quarters what they had been reading about in their newspapers, watching on television, and receiving on various social media platforms.

At the Peres Center the delegation met photojournalist Ziv Koren, whose October 7 exhibition has attracted hundreds of viewers since opening at the center in early May. Together with Peres Center Director Efrat Duvdevani, they toured the exhibition, as Koren explained details in the photographs.

Roberts said that he found the exhibition to be very moving. Duvdevani said that showing people from abroad what had happened on October 7 and afterward was part of the mission of the Peres Center.

On Wednesday, September 4, at 4:30 p.m., the Peres family and friends, along with members of staff who worked with Shimon Peres, will gather at his graveside on Mount Herzl to honor his memory. President Herzog will be among the participants.

■ IF THE present government succeeds in running a full term, the next Knesset election will take place on October 27, 2026, give or take a week in either direction. By that time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be 77 years old, and may be replaced as leader of the Likud.

One of the reasons that he has been able to carry on for as long as he has is that he managed to create an aura around himself in which people believed that no one else in Israeli politics could match his leadership, his oratory, and his intellect.

Few would quarrel about his intellect or his oratory, but many would question his leadership. He is not the Bibi we once knew – certainly not King Bibi, as he was when anointed as such by Time magazine.

Whereas there was quite a long period in which most Likudniks did not dare to defy him, this is not the case today. Past exceptions included Danny Danon, who has twice been sent to represent Israel at the United Nations, and Gideon Sa’ar, who left the party and formed a new one. Each had challenged Netanyahu for the leadership of the party, and each suffered humiliation as a result.

Nir Barkat fancied himself as a successor to Netanyahu, but at this stage it does not look as if that’s going to happen.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is today the only member of Netanyahu’s party who will openly defy him by taking a humanitarian stance on the hostages and not allowing the Philadelphi Corridor to take priority over the saving and rescuing of human lives. But Gallant is also one of the people responsible for the massive Hamas infiltration of southern Israel.

Raised on the moral value of not leaving anyone behind, Gallant may also have another reason for being so determined to give the hostages precedence over the Philadelphia Corridor. His mother, Fruma, who died last year at the age of 88, was a Holocaust survivor who was one of the passengers who sailed from France to the Holy Land on the ship Exodus 1947, which was intercepted by British Mandate naval authorities, which guided her to Haifa Port, from where more than 4,000 passengers were deported back to refugee camps in Europe. She returned shortly after the establishment of the state.

If nothing could persuade Netanyahu to put the return of the hostages above all else, and events of recent days fail to soften the hardness of his heart, then people of conscience in the government coalition must resign in order for the government to fall, so that any possibility to save those hostages still living can be implemented.

The passionately painful address delivered by President Herzog at the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in which he voiced the most difficult things for anyone to say, “I’m sorry” and “We failed,” will surely resonate with more people, especially during the Hebrew calendar month of Elul, in which penitential prayers are recited up to and including the High Holy Day period.

At his press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu followed Herzog’s lead and also apologized for not having saved the murdered hostages, but he was far less emotional.

Only the most loving parents could have done as much as Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents to save their son. Sometimes people have to suffer the most heartbreaking tragedies to discover their mission in life.

Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin and the parents, siblings, and offspring of other hostages discovered and developed a dormant gift of oratory through which they could inspire others. Proof of that inspiration was in the huge crowd that turned out for the Goldberg-Polin funeral and the funerals of the other hostages.

Usually, crowds of such a magnitude escort a famous rabbi to his final resting place. The fact that so many people came to pay their respects to Hersh was no less a tribute to his parents.

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin, in her public addresses in Israel and abroad, uttered the word “Survive!” in the grammatical imperative, she was obviously instructing her son, but the order extended to the Jewish people inside and outside Israel.

■ WITH SO many funds dedicated to humanitarian needs, academic projects are not overlooked. Prof. Natti Ronel, from the department of criminology at Bar-Ilan University, and his colleagues have received a $220,000 grant from the US-based Templeton World Charity Foundation for a two-year project focusing on educating rabbis and Jewish spiritual leaders in Israel in the science of forgiveness intertwined with the principles of Jewish wisdom.

Through development of a training program that integrates forgiveness principles from scientific perspectives with Jewish teachings, the project aims to empower rabbis and Jewish spiritual leaders to share their knowledge of Jewish forgiveness, along with evidenced-based content on forgiveness, with their respective communities.

The project, titled “Forgiveness Education and Training of Jewish Community Spiritual-Religious Leaders in Israel,” is directed by Dr. Yitzhak Ben Yair from Zefat Academic College, and is led by a team of researchers who have pioneered Jewish forgiveness therapy and forgiveness education (JFTE), including Ronel, Prof. Robert Enright from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Prof. Suzanne Freedman from the University of Northern Iowa, and Dr. Ben Yair.

JFTE integrates the contemporary science of forgiveness with ancient spiritual, mental, and behavioral insights found in Jewish wisdom and Scriptures.

The training program developed by this project team will incorporate necessary cultural adaptations, providing a comprehensive course for religious leaders.

The project will also foster an emerging non-geographical forgiveness community through a digital platform. This virtual community will facilitate the dissemination of forgiveness science knowledge, the sharing of fieldwork experiences, and discussions.

A hybrid international conference on Jewish forgiveness science will be concluding the project. 

To acknowledge exceptional contributions to forgiveness, the team plans to introduce a Jewish Forgiveness Excellence Prize, spotlighting those who’ve made notable strides promoting forgiveness within the Jewish context to families and communities.

■ REGARDLESS OF how set we may be in our religious and political beliefs, most of us have the potential for change. We see this in America, where people who grew up in families that traditionally voted Democrat are now members of the Republican Party, or vice versa. We see it in Jewish religious life, where secular people take on religious values and practice, or people raised in an ultra-Orthodox environment move into a secular lifestyle.

As far as nationalism goes, we saw Mosab Hassan Yousef, otherwise known as “The Green Prince,” who is a son of one of the founders of Hamas, change course. Following his capture and arrest by Israel, he became an informer, gradually saw the light and defected to Israel. He eventually converted to Christianity and resides in another country.

But he’s not a solo example. There are other Muslims from communities that bear animosity toward Jews and Israel, who have seen for themselves that, as in any community, there are the good guys and the bad guys – and they are interested in forming friendships with the good guys.

One such person is Rawan Osman, a Syrian-born peace activist, who grew up in Lebanon but later returned to Syria. She has also lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. At the onset of Syria’s civil war, she moved to France to learn the skills of winemaking and tasting, because she wanted to open a wine bar in Damascus. She lived in Strasbourg, and, as fate would have it, she chose to live in the Jewish neighborhood, without having previously met any Jewish people.

That lacuna was soon remedied. But she had been taught antisemitism throughout her youth, and the feelings that had accumulated for so many years were difficult to shed. Not only did she shed them, but she became a leading figure in the global struggle against antisemitism and in promoting peace and good relations between other countries of the Middle East and Israel.

An outspoken Zionist, she is pursuing Islamic and Jewish studies at Heidelberg University in Germany. She is a board member and/or founder of several Arab-Jewish organizations, and is currently in Israel for an extended stay. Her story is much more thought-provoking than the image that these few lines have conveyed.

To see her and hear her in person is an opportunity provided by the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, on Thursday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. Interested parties who are unable to attend in person can hear her via Zoom.

■ PEOPLE FROM across the political spectrum, including former ministers and retired army top brass, say that the government has no strategy, which is why it refrains from talking about the “day after” until Israel emerges (hopefully) triumphant from its war against Hamas. There are also dire predictions that the war will go on for years, just like the war between Russia and Ukraine. Without strategy, progress becomes an illusion.

Not everyone is waiting for the government to get its act together to map out a plan for tomorrow, next year, and at least 10 years along the line. The New Israel Fund, Berl Katznelson Center, and Mitvim Institute, together with the Haaretz newspaper, are hosting a “day after” conference on security and state on Monday, September 16, in the Zucker Hall of the Tel Aviv Culture Center (Heichal Hatarbut), where proposals will be made regarding solutions to existing problems, and new thinking outside the box will be encouraged.

In line with current thinking that there should be greater Arab participation in events the outcome of which could affect the country’s Arab population, there will not be one or two token Arabs among the speakers; there will be seven, including two Palestinians, among a total of 27. That’s still too low a ratio, but improves slightly with the realization that two of the speakers are neither Arab nor Jewish but foreign diplomats. They are German Ambassador Steffen Seibert, who is one of the foreign envoys most involved in Israeli affairs, and French Ambassador Frédéric Journes. The pairing is not coincidental. Germany and France were sworn enemies during the Second World War, but today both are active members of the European Union.

Among the immediate post-October 7 challenges is finding a modus vivendi for Israel to live in peace and harmony with her neighbors, with economic cooperation and cultural exchanges.