PETER KOHN

A NEW organisation of Polish Jews in Australia aims to strengthen ties between Jewish and mainstream communities in Poland, as well as among Jews and non-Jewish of Polish descent locally.

President Bernard Korbman told said the reason for the creation of the Australian Society of Polish Jews and Their Descendants (ASPJ), which has a membership of around 50 primarily “second-generation” people — the children of Shoah survivors — was because “the time was right”.

The group also has survivors among its ranks, including David Prince and Moish Fiszman, who are on its board.

According to Korbman, the organisation, which held its first annual general meeting on November 17, is a successor to the former Australian chapter of the postwar Federation of Polish Jews, pioneered by communal figures such as Aron Sokolowicz.

ASPJ is also a descendant of the landsmanshaften, which underpinned Australia’s Polish-Jewish community from the 1940s onwards, but which are now in decline because of the ageing of survivors. It was the generation that established the Jewish Holocaust Centre, of which Korbman is executive director.

“The children did not get involved and take over from their parents,” he said. “We all felt Australian and [we] did not want to be known as Polish Jews, it meant very little to us. But as we’ve aged, some of the second generation have started to want to know more and learn about our roots.”

Interest has been re-ignited by developments such as the March of the Living, the fall of communism and renewed interest from Poles generally in their country’s Jewish history.

ASPJ has forged ties with the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which will open in Warsaw in 2011, and Andrew Rachjer, an ASPJ member, is also a member of the museum’s board.

When Korbman visited Poland in 2006, he was “inundated by young Poles who wanted to learn more about Judaism and Jews and [he] gave lectures at universities”.

Korbman said strengthening ties between Australian Jewish and non-Jewish communities of Polish ancestry needs to be achieved “without in any way whitewashing the history of the Holocaust and the relationship between Poles and Jews and anti-Semitism … but we want to focus on the 1000-year history of Jews in Poland”, which he hailed as an age of culture, learning and long periods of peaceful development.

Meanwhile, he added, Jews and non-Jews of Polish descent in Australia need to hold “frank and honest dialogue” to break down stereotypes of each other’s communities.