“Today I congratulate the Polish government. In just seven days it achieved something that Polish diplomacy couldn’t achieve in 70 years” – said Severyn Ashkenazy in an interview with Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Severyn Ashkenazy describes himself as a Polish Jew living in America. Born in 1936 in Tarnopol, then part of Poland, now in Western Ukraine. During World War II, he and his family hid in the cellar in the house of Polish peasant family in the countryside, who despite being fully aware of death penalty for helping Jews provided Ashkenazy’s immediate and extended family (8 people in total) with shelter for over 20 months. After the war he moved to France then to the USA, where be became hotelier and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Beit Warszawa Association, Heritage and Rebirth, Beit Polska and Beit Warszawa foundations, and Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland.
Seweryn Aszkenazy in a conversation with DGP:
I’m sorry to say this, but in the Israeli government there aren’t too many enlightened individuals. I openly say that, more often than not, I am ashamed for those ruling Israel. Israel has no right to interfere into the legislation of the Polish government.
For years our diplomats did not know how to defend Poland. They simply lacked the skills. The job of a diplomat is to be polite and diplomatic. They did not learn how to present arguments in defense of their country in an elegant manner, and too often they do not have the time or the knowledge to defend their country. I am speaking about diplomats who receive insufficient training, and are not prepared to defend Poland, especially against accusations of anti-Semitism. And I have said several times that for centuries Poland was a Jewish home.
Please read the entire interview in dziennik.pl
