The Catholic Church and Antisemitism Review

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(More customer reviews)Roman Catholic theologian Ronald Modras's "The Catholic Church and Antisemitism, Poland, 1933-1939" is a critical appraisal of the virulent anti-Semitism of the interwar Polish Church.
Beginning in the 1890's, Roman Dmowski's National Democrats (Endecja) tapped into centuries-old popular anti-Semitism, blaming all of Poland's problems on it's Jewish citizens. By the 1930's, Endekian thought was becoming increasingly institutionalized. Modras shows that the church was not a bystander to the growing intolerance but was a leading and enthusiastic proponent.
Modras goes to great lengths to demonstrate that the anti-Semitism of the Polish Church was not unique but was in accordance with the viewpoint of the Vatican and other national churches at that time. The author provides a wealth of anti-Semitic articles from official Polish Catholic publications. Most numerous are articles from Fr. Maksymilian Kolbe's rabidly anti-Semitic daily newspaper, Maly Dziennik.
"The Catholic Church and Antisemitism, Poland, 1933-1939" is an exceptional book and a thoughtful, Christian response to the ethno-nationalistic chauvinism still so prevelent in American Polonia today.

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Interwar Poland was home to more Jews than any other country in Europe. Its commonplace but simplistic identification with antisemitism was due largely to nationalist efforts to boycott Jewish business. That they failed was not for want of support by the Catholic clergy, for whom the ''Jewish question'' was more than economic. The myth of a Masonic-Jewish alliance to subvert Christian culture first flourished in France but held considerable sway over Catholics in 1930s Poland as elsewhere. This book examines how, following Vatican policy, Polish church leaders resisted separation of church and state in the name of Catholic culture. In that struggle, every assimilated Jew served as both a symbol and a potential agent of secularity. Antisemitism is no longer regarded as a legitimate political stance. But in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, the issues of religious culture, national identity, and minorities are with us still. This study of interwar Poland will shed light on dilemmas that

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