Polish parliament celebrates Hanukkah amid far-right protest outside

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

An official ceremony to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah has been held in Poland’s parliament, one year on from when the same event was attacked with a fire extinguisher by far-right MP Grzegorz Braun.

Braun, who is now a member of the European Parliament, led a protest outside the building under the title “This is Poland, not Polin” – a slogan that uses the Hebrew name for Poland to suggest that Jews are trying to control the country.

Poland’s parliament has long invited Jewish leaders to celebrate Hanukkah every year. Today’s ceremony was joined by the speaker of the Senate, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, who took part in lighting the candles of the hanukkiah alongside Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich.

Ahead of the ceremony, Szymon Hołownia, the speaker of the Sejm, the more powerful lower house, declared that “parliament is and will remain a hospitable place”.

“Just as we celebrate the Christian Christmas here, we will also allow other national and religious minorities to feel as if they were at home here,” he continued.

Before the Holocaust, Poland was home to around 3.5 million Jews, roughly 10% of the country’s population. Now, however, the community numbers only around 16,000, according to the most recent census.

Meanwhile, outside parliament, dozens of supporters of Braun – whose Confederation of the Polish Crown (Konfederacja Korony Polskiej) party is part of the broader far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group that sits in parliament – gathered.

Some brought with them fire extinguishers in reference to last year’s incident, in which Braun sought to put out the candles on the hannukiah. In April this year, he was charged with the crime of insulting a religious group – which carries a potential prison sentence – after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

However, soon after he was elected to the European Parliament, meaning he once again gained immunity. In October, justice minister Adam Bodnar submitted a request for Braun to have his European immunity lifted. It is still being processed by the European Parliament.

Speaking this evening, Braun told his supporters that, “according to the false doctrine” being imposed on Poland, “us non-Jews have only one choice: to serve like animals, like cattle…This is a teaching spread for 2,000 years [by Jews], since the manger and the cross of Christ were rejected”.

“Everyone who takes part in this [Hanukkah] ritual is indeed making such a choice,” continued Braun, who has a long history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. They “aspire to be a useful beast… in the process of trampling into the ground all those who reject this dictate”.

“Do you want a future for your children that is shared by children in Gaza today? Do you want such a fate for Polish children? A fate of slaves, subhumans, at the mercy of the Jewish Übermensch?”

In recent weeks, Braun’s party has placed billboards around Poland reading: “Hanukkah or Christmas? Europe, the choice is yours!”

Figures from Poland’s ruling coalition, which ranges from the left to centre-right, have been highly critical of Braun and his associates.

Speaking today to broadcaster Polsat, health minister Izabela Leszczyna said that “unfortunately, Poland, just like other European countries, is not free from parties that are antisemitic, nationalist and populist”.

Last year, after Braun attacked the Hanukkah celebration, a second ceremony was held to show support for the Jewish community and was attended by politicians from across the spectrum, including President Andrzej Duda.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Senat RP/X

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.