34 No. 57 JUSTICE ntroduction Very recently, a few words by a well-known Polish writer about Poles’ shared responsibility for the fate of their Jewish neighbors during the Second World War proved to be sufficient to trigger a campaign of antisemitic hatred on the Internet and in public debate.1 Soon after, other drastic cases of antisemitism were reported and were well captured in the official statement issued by the Polish PEN Club: Following a series of physical and symbolic Nazi acts of violence in Wrocław and other cities around Poland, the demonstration of extreme nationalist groups performed an act of burning the figure of a Jew in the Wrocław market. This constitutes a neo-Nazi act of executing a death sentence in effigy – of the representation of an imaginary condemned convict. The direct perpetrator of this act was one of the closest – till quite recently – collaborators of a member of the Committee for Matters Relating to the Special Forces of the Polish Parliament, of a leader of a strong Parliamentary alliance.… We express our support for the stand taken by the President of the City of Wrocław who as the first representative of local government approached the law enforcement institutions demanding an immediate initiation of proceedings. We appeal to the highest authorities of the Republic of Poland to promptly bring to a stop the increasingly insolent racist acts that are taking place in Poland.2 One can never stop being vigilant. As Leszek Kołakowski, a great Polish philosopher, once said, “Fragile atoms of antisemitism, dispersed and harmless, under favourable conditions can be rapidly grouped together into an immediate mixture which explodes into a crime. Tolerance of antisemitism in its present weakest manifestations is therefore tolerance of the pogroms of tomorrow.”3 Nor can one stop being vigilant in the case of the so-called “new antisemitism,” although, as we know, opinions on the matter differ: some researchers claim that antisemitism has remained one and the same for centuries – only the forms in which it is publicly manifested change. However, irrespective of whether one agrees with this approach or not, undoubtedly in the last decade we have witnessed characteristically different manifestations of antisemitism.4 Because of their specific character, they are presently the greatest challenge, not only for the I 1. In 2015, Olga Tokarczuk won the most important Polish literary prize for her latest work, "Księgi Jakubowe” ["The Books of Jacob"]. During the award ceremony held on October 5, she said: "We contrived a narrative of Polish history depicting Poland as a tolerant, open country, one which has never disgraced itself with any wrongdoing towards its minority groups. Meanwhile, as colonisers and an ethnic majority we did appalling things, suppressing the minorities; we were slaveholders and murderers of Jews." Subsequently, a campaign of hatred erupted. For the coverage of the reaction of Tokarczuk’s words in English, see for example, Author Olga Tokazczuk spurs online lynch mob, RADIO POLAND, Oct. 16, 2015, available at www. thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/225180,Author-Olga-Tokarczukspurs-online-lynch-mob (last visited Dec. 13, 2015). 2. The Board of the Polish PEN Club, statement of Nov. 22, 2015, available at www.penclub.com.pl/biuletyn (last visited Dec. 21, 2015). 3. Leszek Kołakowski, ANTYSEMICI. PIĘĆ TEZ NIENOWYCH I PRZESTROGA [ANTISEMITES. FIVE OLD THESIS ANDAWARNING] (1956). 4. See, for example, Roni Stauber, THE ACADEMIC AND PUBLIC DEBATE OVER THE MEANING OF THE "NEW ANTISEMITISM" (2008). Defining and Fighting Antisemitism in 21st Century Europe AleksandraGliszczyńska-Grabias Editor's Note: Following is the text of an address delivered at a symposium held in Vienna, November 23, 2015, on "Opening a Dialogue: Combating Anti-Semitism through Legal Means," co-sponsored by the IAJLJ, the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Ministries of Justice and Interior of the Republic of Austria.
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