Polonophobic AntiCatholic Memes Modras

The Catholic Church and Antisemitism … Poland 1933-39, by Ronald Modras. 1994

Blames Everything on Poland’s Catholicism. A Mile Wide and Inch Deep. Confessedly Cherry-Picked Data. No Context or Significant Analysis Provided

This work flits from topic to topic, making it a many-topic compendium that is lengthy but very superficial. To correct every issue would require a book of its own. I touch on a few specific items later in this review.

The only scholarly merit of this book is its inclusion of much seldom-available Polish-language material. This, of course, assumes that the materials are accurately quoted.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ronald Modras is an ex-Catholic priest. He is obviously a theological liberal (or modernist), as evidenced by his rejection of the Gospels, at least those according to Matthew and John, as objective history. (p. 203). He discusses Wanda Wasilewska in a positive light (p. 379), and manages to avoid mentioning even once that Wasilewska was a deep-dyed, prominent murderer-Stalin-serving Communist.

Pointedly, the author tacitly admits that his qualifications to study the subject of Polish-Jewish relations are very limited [if that]. Modras writes, (quote) I am not a student of Polish history. My training has been that of a theologian, and, as an American Roman Catholic, I have spent much of my professional life studying the reflecting on the history and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. (unquote). (p. xiv).

READING HISTORY BACKWARDS

The author imposes the values of today’s ecumenical climate onto the 1930’s. The reader would never guess that hostilities between religions (not only Christians against Jews!) were unremarkable. [For example, even in my own lifetime, long after the 1930’s, nearly 450 years after the Reformation, and in the pluralistic USA, Catholic classes still taught that Protestant churches were false, manmade churches. Protestants, for their part, still taught that Catholicism was the Whore of Balon.]

HALLMARKS OF AN AGENDA

Here is the author’s methodology, (quote) I have concentrated on Polish Catholic periodical literature…My research is based on some two-thousand pages of material, photocopied from virtually every important periodical published during those years under Catholic auspices. They were gleaned from thousands of pages more, perused for any significant reference to Jews, Judaism, or anti-Semitism. (p. xiv).

The “cherry picking” is obvious. Ronald Modras was explicitly and systematically parsing Catholic publications in order to find references to Jews in general and anti-Semitism in particular. How could this fail to exaggerate the negative aspects of Polish-Jewish relations? More fundamentally, Modras’ transparent cherry-picking approach could only make Jewish-hostile ideas, and Jews in general, much, much more prominent in 1930’s Polish Roman Catholic thinking than they actually were!

Who has an interest in bashing Polish Catholicism? This book was published for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism (SICSA), by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. [See the inside title page]. The implications are obvious. Since this book was sponsored in accordance with a hunt for anti-Semitism (and, furthermore, anti-Semitism as defined by the SICSA), did Modras find what was expected of him to find? How could he not?

POLES AND JEWS: THE USUAL DIALECTIC

Ronald Modras’ thinking is Manichaean in character. Poles are bad–except, of course, when they agree with Jews. (For example, see pp. 359-394). Consistent with this, Jews can say anything that they want about Poles, but Poles dare not say anything unflattering about Jews. The Polish majority has no right to push back against the secularization (“separation of church and state”) that is being pushed by a minority consisting of Freemasons, Jews, and leftist Poles. [The informed reader can see exactly the same reasoning used today in the left-wing demonization of RADIO MARYJA.]

One does not have to believe in PROTOCOLS-style Jewish conspiracy theories, or the notion that Jews have a “racial solidarity” to advance their influences at the expense of the GOYIM, in order to raise legitimate questions about the scope of, and tendencies inherent in, Jewish influence. If we can celebrate Jewish achievements, why can’t we also look at the other side of the coin?

Furthermore, Ronald Modras blurs the line between peaceful opposition to Jews and violence against Jews (p. 35), which Jews commonly did then (p. 347), and do now. This is the standard left-wing tactic of equating verbal opposition to a preferred group with inciting violence against that group.

The author briefly flirts with objectivity when he mentions, however in exculpatory fashion, that Jews can be as prejudiced as Poles. (pp. 192-193, p. 211). However, this only scratches the surface of the surface. The reader should study the detailed, free online book, TRADITIONAL JEWISH ATTITUDES TOWARDS POLES, by Mark Paul.

JEWISH FREETHOUGHT

A major theme of this work is that Poles thought of Jews as unbelievers, and thus increasingly saw Jewish influence as something inimical to Poland’s Catholic culture. Cardinal Hlond’s much-condemned 1936 “Jews are freethinkers” statement is repeated, as are similar statements by leading Catholics.

Ronald Modras, without presenting any evidence, asserts that “most Jews in Poland were not secular”. (p. 186). This flies in the face of the facts. [Of course, it is possible that most of Poland’s Jews still were outwardly observant–largely out of culture rather than religious convictions.] In fact, the self-atheization of Poland’s Jews, which had begun in tsarist Russia decades earlier (for example, through the Yiddishist movement) was by now well advanced. Many Jewish authors had written about this, and religious Jews had condemned the large-scale Jewish departure from religion even more severely than the Catholic Poles that Ronald Modras berates! [See the Peczkis Listmania: JEWISH FREETHOUGHT IN PRE-WWII POLAND.]

All this occurs even today–in Israel. The haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) condemn the mores of secular Israeli Jews in very much the same ways that Catholic Poles did their secular Jewish counterparts in the 1930’s. See Real Jews: Secular Versus Ultra- Orthodox: The Struggle For Jewish Identity In Israel.

THE MASONS AND MASONIC INFLUENCE

Not content to bash Polish Catholics for disagreeing with Jews, Modras also attacks Poles for disagreeing with Freemasonry. In doing so, Modras, among other things, sidesteps the long anti-Christian history of Freemasonry. See The War of Antichrist with the Church and Christian Civilization, Lectures.

JANUSZ KORCZAK. DARE CATHOLICS BE RAISED BY CATHOLICS?

Korczak is famous for marching into the gas chambers of Treblinka, with the children in his care, during the German Nazi Holocaust. Before WWII, Korczak ran one orphanage for Jewish children and one for Polish children. Modras, bending over backwards to find Polish anti-Semitism anywhere that his imagination carries him, excoriates devout Poles for objecting to Polish Catholic children raised by a freethinker and a Jew. Modras stresses the fact that Janusz Korczak was nonobservant, and considered himself a Pole (pp. 66-67), as if this was relevant.

The considerations are elementary. A devout Catholic would not want Catholic children raised by a non-Catholic, be the guardian an atheist, Jew, Protestant, or any other non-Catholic. [Even in my lifetime, long after WWII, a Catholic committed a mortal sin if he willingly exposed himself, or his children, to significant non-Catholic influences, even by as much as visiting a non-Catholic Sunday school.]

This worked both ways. A Jew, especially a devout Jew, certainly would object to Jewish children raised in a non-Jewish environment, even if there was no obvious danger of the child being pressured or enticed to convert to Christianity. [This became vividly real during the Holocaust, when Poles attempted to rescue Jewish children. Many Polish Jews refused to relinquish their children to be raised by Christians. They preferred their children die with them instead of growing up in a non-Jewish environment.]

THE TALMUD

Modras’ exculpatory reasoning about Talmudic statements is self-refuting. He admits that the consideration of Christians as idolaters is ambiguous (p. 195). This means that Jews can see Christians as idolaters when they see fit. [See also the Mark Paul book referenced earlier].

In addition, on another subject, if Jews can have the admittedly anti-Christ messages in the Talmud as a defense against unfriendly Christian influence (p. 192), then why cannot the Poles of the 1930’s have their Judeophobic messages as a defense against the Catholic-hostile teachings and influences of atheistic Jews?

As a matter of fact, the Talmudic teachings against Jesus Christ cannot easily be exculpated. See Jesus in the Talmud by Schaeffer.

SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION

During Poland’s Second Republic (1918-1939), almost the entire meat industry was in Jewish hands. Because of ritual slaughter (SCHECHITA), Poles buying meat were paying a hidden tax that supported the Jews. Polish disinclination to continue paying this hidden tax to this led to the law restricting SCHECHITA. (pp. 235-238).

Polish objections to Jews manufacturing and selling Catholic religious articles, often by Jews pretending to be Poles, must be understood in light of the fact that Jewish policies allowed only Jews to prepare Jewish religious articles (prayer shawls, mezuzahs, tefellin). (pp. 238-239).

Campus violence against Jews has been way overblown. Modras cites a 1937 Jewish source that shows that only 3% [1,500 out of 48,000] of Polish university students engaged in anti-Jewish riots. (p. 309).

Fr. Stanislaw Trzeciak defended the ghetto benches as a belated Polish response to Jewish conduct. Jews had always engaged in segregation, discrimination, and exclusion, as by the separate seating for men and women in synagogues, and by Jewish men thanking God that they were not created gentiles [GOYIM], slaves, or women. (p. 310).

IMPACT OF JEWISH INFLUENCE ON POLAND’S CATHOLIC CULTURE

The culture war in Poland was very real. I now present several specific concerns, from the quoted Catholic press, about the ZAZYDZENIE (Judaization) of Poles and Poland:

Jewish influence wanted to secularize Poland, to drive the Catholic Church out of public life (p. 342), and for the Poles to transform their Catholicism into a private matter. (p. 268). [Sounds familiar?] Poles wanted to maintain a distinctive Polish Catholic culture. In academics, Catholic thinking should not be limited to religion class. It should also illuminate all the academic subjects. (p. 259).

Marriage was a sacrament, and should remain religious, not civil. (p. 255). The legalization of divorce, as allowed by the Talmud, would transform marriage into an egoistic, materialistic contract. (p. 256).

When Polish and Jewish students were integrated in schools, this had varied effects. Jews set a good example by being studious, but also set a bad example by skipping their religious classes, and identifying with socialism or Zionism, both of which fostered indifference or hostility to Polish patriotism. (p. 265).

As for the media, Jewish influence tended to appeal to lower instincts by emphasizing frivolities–crimes, sports, and scandals over intellectual matters. (p. 250). Cabaret songs, such as those of Julian Tuwim, were either nonsensical, cynical, or pornographic. Even when Jews tried to feature Polish classics, these effectively became parodies, because Jews could not feel the Polish spirit. (pp. 251-252).

Many assimilated Polish Jews displayed an undercurrent of aloofness or antagonism to things which were noble and heroic in Poland’s past. (p. 249). [I noticed this is my readings of Polish Jewish authors. They portray Polish victories and defeats as abstractions. One side won, and the other side lost. No big deal. No emotion. No reflection. The informed reader can think of other examples. For instance, many current influential Polish-Jewish authors show a contempt for Polish sacrifices and sufferings when they deride the long-abandoned “Poland as the Jesus Christ of Nations” idea, and otherwise try to deconstruct so-called Polish “national myths.”]

Julian Tuwim’s pacifism was offensive to Polish military traditions. (p. 85, 249). [Modras does not mention the fact that Endek doubts about Tuwim proved prophetic. After WWII, Julian Tuwim became openly Communist, and praised the Soviet-imposed Communist puppet government of Poland.]

Clearly, Endeks and devout Catholics were skeptical about the value of Jewish assimilation. On the other hand, Catholic publications noted that some (very few) Jews became sincere patriotic Poles, and then only after many generations of assimilation. (p. 270).

Doubts about religious conversion transforming Jews into Poles were supported by the fact that Germans were often Catholic, yet anti-Polish. One also could not overlook the many Jews who had converted to Catholicism, only to abandon it for Freemasonry, socialism, or Communism. (p. 277).

Some Poles felt that Jews were an Asian race, complete with immutable traits such as “eastern excitability”, all of which differed essentially from Polish traits. A full assimilation and conversion of Jews, were it possible, would only transform Polish nationality into a new nationality. (p. 278). [As usual, Modras does not go deep enough. Lest all this sound horribly racist to modern ears, the reader needs to know that many influential Jews at the time ALSO believed that Jews are a race with unchangeable characteristics.]

THE GATHERING GERMAN NAZI STORM: DON’T BLAME POLAND

The author surveys, in considerable detail, the relation of the Polish Catholic press to developments in next-door Nazi Germany. To his credit, Modras points out that Jewish-critical statements in the Polish Catholic press, with few exceptions, did not partake of Nazi thinking, and were often very critical of Nazi philosophy and tactics against Jews.

However, the author stumbles badly when he asserts that the ONR (Oboz Narodowo Radykalny) was “based on the Nazi model” (p. 33), or “a Polish imitation of Germany’s Nazi party”. (p. 305). Modras is egregiously wrong. See: POLSKA DLA POLAKOW… by Wojciech Muszynski.