Poland, the country where I was born and where I live and work today, has suddenly found itself at the center of a major internal and international crisis that is deeply rooted in historical tragedy, competing narratives and questions of identity.
The Palestinian civil war descended further towards disaster with the recent attempted assassination of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. The struggle between Fatah and Hamas is an important reason why the coastal territory’s nearly 2 million residents live in a situation of permanent instability and uncertainty.
A year ago, over 500 guests from Poland, the U.S., and other countries met at the Polin Museum to celebrate the opening of the new Warsaw-based American Jewish Committee office - AJC Central Europe.
Mireille Knoll’s murder haunts me. It is a painful reminder (as if we needed one) of the face of antisemitism in France today, where a helpless and sick 85-year-old Holocaust survivor can be killed in her apartment for one reason only: because she is Jewish.