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Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla Open Jewish Center in Krakow |
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 by Jessica Miller, April 29, 2008 |
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Prince Charles: goes looking for a mezuzah Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla arrived in
Poland today to take part in the opening ceremony of a new Jewish community center in
Krakow’s Kazimierz Jewish quarter. While the project was overseen by World
Jewish Relief (a charity group based in London and credited with aiding Jewish
children in escaping the Nazi regime during World War II), the inspiration for
and funding of the center came directly from the Prince of Wales.
In 2002, Charles met with many of Krakow’s Holocaust survivors and was so moved by their stories that he decided to commit himself to the building of a community center. Many of the survivors he initially spoke with were present at today’s ceremony, including Ryszard Orowski, who lost all of his relatives in the Holocaust. Orowski expressed his joy and amazement over the project: "Never did we imagine that we would have a center, a home for the whole community of Krakow."
Prince Harry: fashion faux pasThe center will be used by about one thousand neighboring
community members, ranging from elderly citizens to
Polish students at Krakow University. It will be open to Jews and non-Jews alike for all
sorts of social, religious, and educational activities.
As a token of gratitude, Prince Charles was given the honor of nailing the mezuzah on the front door of the center, making for one of a few rather excellent photo ops.
It is probably no coincidence that the opening
of the center coincides with Yom Hashoah, and thus far plans have gone off without a hitch -- unlike three years ago when the British Royal family’s plans to
commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day went 
Prince Charles Says: want to play torah slides and ladders?terribly awry after every tabloid from here to
Tel Aviv had a photo of Prince Harry dressed as a Nazi
soldier on its cover. Also notable
is that the Prince and Duchess’s presence at the opening of the community
center comes less than a month after the Jerusalem Post published an article exposing the United Kingdom as
“the European center of anti-Semitism.”
According to Oxford-educated Hebrew University Professor Robert S.
Wistrich, anti-Semitism is so implicit in British culture – literary,
political, and otherwise – that Brits can’t even recognize it anymore.
Not to belittle his efforts in Krakow, but maybe Prince Charles should take that kippah and hammer and head over to a synagogue in his own hometown.
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Jessica Miller is Jewcy's Editorial Intern. She currently studies religion and English at Barnard College in New York City, spending most of her time writing essays about the journeys of metaphorical Sufi birds and how tripped out the book of Daniel is. More... |
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RW
OK, someone's got to say it
But the British royal family does not need to engage in public displays of Holocaust remembrance. England did its part, however belatedly, to stop the Nazis, and gets a pass. If Poland wants to expunge any latent Holocaust guilt by building community centers in Krakow or whatever, by all means, the Poles can knock themselves out.
Is anyone else tired, as a Jew, of being remembered more for being murdered en masse than anything we've done or are doing while we're alive? It's bad enough that people confuse Yom Hashoah with a Jewish religious holiday instead of an Israeli secular one without compounding it by having the high and mighty turn up to condescend to us on the occasion of Holocaust remembrance, while ignoring the more mundane needs (and almost the existence!) of the Jews who are still alive and well.
Harry Palmer
Lighten up
What a nasty, sneering piece.
Prince Charles does something decent and you come out with comments like ''
Not to belittle his efforts in Krakow, but maybe Prince
Charles should take that kippah and hammer and head over to a synagogue in his
own hometown.''
Shame on you if that is the way you respond to an act of friendship and kindness.
Anonymous
Harry, friendship abroad is
Harry, friendship abroad is nice. We seem to agree on that. What's wrong with being consistent and promoting it in one's hometown, among one's own roots? Or is it to be expected that a civilized demeanor abroad should be accompanied by a sneering attitude toward those same subjects from afar, when safe back home in merry old England? Perhaps the mindset is just an indelible cultural hold-over of British colonial imperialism that those ungrateful Jews should learn to become used to.
Anonymous
Or put another way
Perhaps you'll be more comfortable addressing anti-semitism in the U.K. once it's not so fresh and raw a phenomenon. Once it's as over as the Holocaust is. Is the fact that it's still pernicious what bothers you? Or is the recognition that it's pernicious what bothers you?
Obviously the royals have great power to influence the British public by speaking out on issues of importance to them when they choose to do so. Apparently hatred of the Jews - in Britain - is, to you, not one of them.
Harry Palmer
Anonymous doesn't get it
Anonymous, Prince Charles is consistent. He regularly speaks out against racism and discrimination.
As for hysterical nonsense about 'pernicious' anti-semitism, Britain is one of the best places in the world for Jews to live in, lets drop the whining, pathetic victimhood and GROW UP.
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