Exploring Warsaw’s Jewish heritage

The Blue Skyscraper in 2 Bankowy Square in downtown Warsaw is covered with reflexive glass panels that reflect the blue of the sky – hence the building’s nickname. The boxy skyscraper was completed in 1991 after 26 long years of construction. The reason for this prolonged building process is the subject of a well-known Warsaw urban legend.

Before World War II, Warsaw’s Great Synagogue stood on the spot where the Blue Skyscraper stands today. It was the biggest synagogue in the world at the time. Devastatingly, it was blown up by the Nazi Germans on 16th May 1943 as a symbol of the quashing of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

After the war, the area stood empty for many years until finally a decision was made to build a skyscraper there. But the construction of the high-rise was often interrupted (for example due to the introduction of changes to the architectural design) and seemed to go on forever. According to legend, these frequent interruptions were caused by a rabbi’s curse. The rabbi supposedly cursed the plot of land making it impossible to raise a new building there.

The curse is gone now, apparently. No more Ghost Busters stuff.

That’s the paranormal, or as I like to call it, the unexplained side. There’s much more but it would take ten thousand words.

Now, aside from POLIN, it’s actually not that easy to find Jewish-related events here in Warsaw. Hardly surprising, given what happened 80 years ago. Sure, you have festivals and so on, but yeah, it’s all pretty niche.

So, officially, there’s a few thousand Jews in Poland. I guess if you mean going to synagogues and so on, openly adhering to Judaism, sure. I also believe that most Poles have some Jewish heritage (but try to say it to some people here, try to suggest they might have some Jewish heritage, they would hate you for life – why? Your guess is as good as mine, probably some kind of intergenerational World War 2 trauma still going on). Angry people sent me emails a while back, ”How dare you write such things.” Look, I like Poland, but this Polish holier-than-thou thing, some Poles really gotta tone it down. It’s too much.

There’s the progressive synagogue (not much of interest to me as I’m not a fan of having intermediaries to communicate with God and never needed them, particularly Catholic priests – what audacity, what hutzpah, one needs to have to believe that some guy in black can speak for the infinite intellect and Creator). Also, believing that totality of endless existence can be described in one book. Never made sense to me. It’s not about rebelling, it just never made sense to me. Even if I wanted to convince myself that some religion is true, my mind wouldn’t let me. Too many questions, too many doubts, and ”have faith” or ”heresy” are just manipulative phrases to me. But I get it. A lot of people find comfort in their little book (just don’t say your book was inspired by the angel Moroni, please).

There’s a place in downtown Warsaw offering Hebrew lessons – that’s of interest to me. I have a background in linguistics and believe that languages expand our window of perception (each language is one soul and all that). To Poles, Hebrew sounds guttural, maybe like Arabic, but nicer, softer. We sometimes get mad at people for saying Polish and Russian sound similar – but what if someone doesn’t have any contact with Korean, Mandarin and Japanese? These languages would sound similar, too and if you know anything about Korean-Japanese relations, you know how strained they can be. Same with Chinese-Japanese relations. We’re all ignorant on some level. It’s not always about malice, trolling, or plain nastiness. Ask about the swastika in Asia and you’d be surprised to learn that a lot of people don’t see it as some evil symbol. They might tell you that the swastika is a symbol of good luck and prosperity. They don’t have the whole Nazi experience – so what you do instead, say that the Nazis were like the Japanese Empire. And suddenly – voila! They get it. When I want to explain the destruction of Warsaw by the Nazis to someone in Asia who has little to no understanding of European history, I compare it to Manila in 1945. Use cultural and historical comparisons. They don’t need to be perfect, but they often work.

Anyway, going back to Hebrew. I can’t sign up because I’m a beginner and they have intermediate students for now. I’ll try again later. I might learn more about dybbuks. It’s a fascinating topic, though I realize some people would disagree. ”Why is this nutcase asking about the dybbuk?” Well, because the idea of a soul possessing a living person to live more in the physical world is way cooler than demonic possession to me. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course. Jewish culture is thousands of years old and has a lot of concepts I like.

So, if you know of a place in Warsaw where you can delve into the mysteries of the Jewish culture, including the less corporeal ones, let me know. I’m always interested in intriguing ideas and projects.