"The process of group layoffs has begun at the furniture company Black Red White from Biłgoraj, which operates three plants in the Podkarpacie region: in Mielec, Dachnów, and Przeworsk. The latter, which produces chairs and tables, will soon cease to exist," reported local news outlet Nowiny24.pl. Trade unions are negotiating severance terms for 220 workers who were laid off from a factory in southeastern Poland, part of the country's largest furniture group. The company has proposed six- or seven-month severance packages, but unions consider them insufficient, particularly for those approaching retirement. Layoffs are expected to continue until June, and some employees may be transferred to other company plants, though the details remain unclear. Poland they're putting finishing touches on this replica of the Wolpa Synagogue A small town in Poland is building a wooden synagogue — more than 70 years after the Nazis burned all the country's wooden Jewish temples to the ground there aren’t any Jews left in the town of Bilgoraj Even the retired businessman who came up with the idea “One day he woke up in the night and he got the idea of rebuilding a wooden town in Bilgoraj — with a synagogue in the center of the market,” said Kinga Staroniewska the coordinator of the Bilgoraj XXI Foundation that’s carrying out the project A replica of a pre-World War II icon, the temple is the latest monument being erected in Poland at a time when it's witnessing a small Jewish revival The replica is not meant for religious practice The foundation coordinator explained that the purpose is to give people a chance to visit a historical house of worship “[Kuźmiński] is retired and he wants to do something more than just sitting in a chair,” Staroniewska said “The main reason is to leave something for the next generations to show how Bilgoraj looked before World War II Russians and Poles were all mixed together and liked each other.” That last sentiment may sound a bit romanticized There was some relative coexistence among those cultures before the war There were also moments through history of sheer brutality Poland’s Jewish population dates back centuries and is believed to have once been the largest in the world Little Bilgoraj used to have a thriving community about 5,000 Jews lived in Bilgoraj — more than 60 percent of the population — but only the 500 families that fled to the Soviet Union before the Nazi occupation survived They did not return to Bilgoraj after the war The Nazis killed all the Jews who remained They used the stones from the Jewish cemeteries to pave the streets there were about 200 wooden synagogues in Poland an art historian at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews The interior of the structures were richly decorated with paintings that often depicted perhaps unexpected items Only about five modest wooden synagogues in Lithuania survived the war Attempting to further reflect Bilgoraj's multicultural history Kuźmiński is also planning to build a mosque near the synagogue in honor of the Tatar Muslims who used to live in his town About 2,000 of Poland's residents identify as having Tatar roots Bilgoraj’s Tatar community wasn’t killed off by the Nazis The town's mosque was destroyed in the 19th century and the foundation plans to rebuild it based on a painting that survived Imitation temples and mosques aren’t the only things popping up Kuźmiński also built wooden homes like the ones people lived in before the war They look quite different from the Soviet-era apartment blocks that currently dot the town One of the wooden houses is a replica of the home of Isaac Bashevis Singer the late Polish Jewish author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 Singer lived in Bilgoraj when he was a teenager in the home of his grandfather the house opened to the public on April 23 as what Staroniewska described as the first museum dedicated to Singer in the world The Bilgoraj XXI Foundation is now raising money to paint murals on the reconstructed synagogue’s ceiling Staroniewska estimates that will cost about half a million dollars and take several years but some people in Poland say Kuźmiński’s project is a good one “This is our history and it has to be remembered whether there are Jews in Bilgoraj or not,” wrote Warsaw resident Marcin Kotas in a Facebook message we won’t be able to make the future free of past horrors History likes to repeat itself unless you work to change it.” “I think it’s a great idea because he felt some connection to it,” he said about the Polish businessman’s project “I guess because he feels something is missing in the town.” delivered to your inbox every weekday morning Thanks to our sponsor PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402 Two Ukrainian girls in foster care look out the window of a home they are now sharing with a Polish foster family in Bilgoraj More than 1.5 million Ukrainians — many of them children — have fled since the Russian invasion More than 1.5 million Ukrainians — many of them children — have fled since Russia invaded their country over a week ago Some are children who had been living at an SOS Children's Village in Brovary a home for children who have been have been orphaned The international nonprofit finds legal guardians for children without adequate parental care A house and playground at an SOS Children's Village in Bilgoraj SOS Children's Villages operate around the world to find legal guardians for children without adequate parental care says the Russians invaded when she was on vacation with the three children she cares for They immediately headed for the Polish border says the panic of war — and escaping the war — is all everyone talks about were on a vacation in Ukraine when the Russian invasion began They fled to the Polish border without returning home to gather their belongings taken in by other families associated with SOS Children's Villages Other Poles are also taking in Ukrainians displaced by war So many are offering temporary lodging that Polish authorities say they have no immediate need for refugee camps A Ukrainian foster girl stands in the kitchen of a Polish foster home A group of four adults and 17 foster children crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland together A caretaker at an SOS Children's Village in Bilgoraj A Ukrainian girl is being fostered at a home in Poland is caring for a Ukrainian family in his home Three Ukrainian girls hang out in the kitchen of their new foster home in Poland Stickers are seen on a window of an SOS Children's Village hired a minibus and gone on a nation-wide road trip to explain why they’re defending the rule of law It could be a village festival at the end of summer Pop music blares from loudspeakers competing with the screams of children playing Only a few dozen local people have turned out but they listen with interest This is Biłgoraj, a small town in south-eastern Poland not far from the Ukrainian border part of the last battle to save Polish democracy he stops and hands someone a booklet from a bundle under his arm: the slim document with a crowned eagle on the red and white cover Tuleya is a judge in the district of Warsaw; the constitution the foundation of his work. For now. As the governing Law and Justice party (PiS) steps up its six-year campaign to “reform” Poland’s courts, the constitution is at the centre of a deepening crisis within Poland’s borders and between Poland and Europe The EU says the restructuring undermines the judiciary’s independence and the rule of law cornerstones of democracy and of EU membership The nationalist government waves the Polish constitution at Brussels to ward off EU “legal aggression” democracy campaigners say the document is being hollowed out while the credibility of judges like Tuleya routinely characterised as corrupt and unpatriotic Not only has the government appointed PiS loyalists to the constitutional court it has created a supreme court “disciplinary chamber” with the power to lift judges’ immunity from prosecution As a result, judges find themselves at risk of “disciplinary offences” for rulings the government finds unhelpful including referring cases to the EU court In July, the European court of justice ruled that the disciplinary chamber was vulnerable to political interference and incompatible with EU law Poland was given an ultimatum: scrap it or face sanctions The crisis moves into an altogether higher gear this week the constitutional court is scheduled to rule on a question most people thought had been resolved when Poland joined the EU in 2004: does EU law have primacy over domestic law If the answer they give is “no”, experts believe it would be a tipping point, a first step even to Poland quitting the union. No wonder the verdict has been postponed four times already Police remove a protester from the entrance of the constitutional court in Warsaw on the eve of a court ruling in August critical to the country’s future relationship with the EU Photograph: Czarek Sokołowski/APWith Poland’s slide to authoritarianism and a legal “Polexit” at stake demonised judges are not lying down: they are taking the constitution on tour The “Tour de Konstytucja” has already been to more than 80 Polish towns to explain to citizens why they should care about what is a remote and meaningless concept: the rule of law a volunteer from the audience is invited to slip on a long black judge’s robe under which her white sneakers peek out Then a heavy judge’s chain with a silver eagle pendant is placed around her neck speaking into the microphone in a serious-sounding voice It’s a role-play designed to educate people about how the justice system works for them Last autumn his judicial immunity was lifted by the disputed disciplinary chamber and he was tried for misconduct and exceeding his powers Tuleya’s defiance on judicial independence has made him an icon of resistance to the PiS from supporters’ lapels and bumper stickers this is the darkest hour for the rule of law in Poland That’s when it became apparent that my whole life had revolved around the court,” he says after failing to comply with a summons issued by a court whose authority he refused to recognise afraid that the police would storm his flat in the early hours of the morning to pick him up Government prosecutors are still seeking “disciplinary proceedings” against him on seven charges and if his judicial immunity is not restored With his career as a judge on hold for now he is increasingly to be found among those whose rights he had once sworn to defend “We want to make people interested in what is happening in Poland and interested in their own rights,” says Tuleya summing up the purpose of the tour not many Poles knew what the Polish constitutional court did Nor would judges have worried much about public trust This expedition isn’t all doom and gloom: out on the road there are constitutional quizzes live panel debates and – most unlikely of all – songs about the constitution The preamble has boomed out of loudspeakers to kick off at least 80 events which just as often ended with people clamouring around the judges to sign an unrolled scroll of the basic law The tour attracts some enthusiastic supporters but Polish trust in the judiciary fell from 56% to 46% in the two years after the PiS came to power Photograph: Agata Szymanska Medina/The Guardian“The judges are the last stop before the dictatorship Poland [and] Europe face a dark future,” says Robert Hojda Hojda is also the chair of the Congress of Civic Democratic Movements “Politicians use the constitution for their own purposes,” Hojda said Robert Hojda: bus driver tour co-organiser and the chair of the Congress of Civic Democratic Movements Photograph: Agata Szymanska Medina/The GuardianBesides Tuleya other prosecutors and lawyers are reaching out directly to the people colliding with a hostile government and the state-backed media in the process.One of them is Monika Frąckowiak who sits in Poznań district court in western Poland A total of five disciplinary investigations are now under way against her for calling the Polish constitutional court a “sham institution” and criticising the Minister of Justice in the European parliament Frąckowiak has been targeted by a smear campaign and has received death threats on Twitter Her address and the names of her daughters were made public these people are ready for anything,” Frąckowiak said The 47-year-old accuses the Polish Ministry of Justice of passing on sensitive information to Twitter accounts to intimidate judges Judge Monika Frąckowiak faces disciplinary action for calling the Polish constitutional court a ‘sham institution’ Photograph: Agata Szymanska Medina/The GuardianIt is out of the question for her to remain silent: “My parents were members of Solidarity I want to prevent what they fought for in the 1980s from being in vain.” But the campaign to characterise judges and lawyers as an elite and corrupt caste who make people’s lives harder has cut through with big sections of the Polish public A 2019 study showed that trust in the judiciary far lower in Poland than in other EU member states fell from 56% to 46% in the two years after the PiS came to power Frąckowiak says it is easy for a hostile government to play on people’s disgruntlement This makes it all the more important for judges themselves to restore trust near the border with Ukraine and a stronghold of the PiS 60% of people here voted for the ruling party Its promise to create jobs fell on fertile ground after the local shoe and cement factory closed Such places are close to the judges’ hearts because state television is the main source of news and independent media have scant reach Tuleya poses for a photo with a supporter in Chełm Photograph: Agata Szymanska-Medina/The GuardianIn the town square people pull his wiry body towards them for selfies Some people ask him to sign their copy of the constitution “I shook his hand and thanked him for what he is doing,” one man said Tuleya admits later that even at such moments he feels despondent and isolated “If we don’t win back people’s trust now,” he says A small but enthusiastic turnout in the town square of Chełm Photograph: Agata Szymanska Medina/The GuardianFor years death threats and verbal assaults on the streets of Warsaw envelopes containing white powder arrived and his court had to be evacuated communists!” and some of the events were disrupted Tuleya says he always tries to engage with genuine sceptics “I don’t know if we were able to convince them that the rule of law is an important thing,” he says “but at least we managed to make them see in us people who also have their own convictions and who are worth talking to.” solidarity among the activist judges has kept him going They came from all over Poland to support him when he went on trial in Warsaw When his salary was cut and he worried he wouldn’t be able to pay his mortgage Tuleya has received hate mail and death threats since challenging the PiS party in 2017 ruling that its MPs had effectively rigged an election Photograph: Agata Szymanska Medina/The GuardianNevertheless Tuleya is exhausted and unconvinced that the EU will stand up to Poland has no real intention of reversing its takeover of key parts of the judiciary are about dodging EU fines and securing European Covid reconstruction funding Even if it abolishes the illegitimate chamber it won’t give up the systemic undermining of the constitution and the rule of law the tour bus is parked up in the shadow of Warsaw’s towering Stalin-era Palace of Culture All the judges who have taken part over recent weeks reunite: the mood is good; embraces are warm The road trip will resume soon as enough money has been raised to buy a bus More cities and towns will be added to the tour this week’s ruling is legally meaningless: “I don’t care what they deliver as I don’t recognise the constitutional court Is she worried that it could signal the start of Poland’s disengagement from the EU Reporting for this article was supported by a journalism bursary from the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a deeply personal and emotional address on Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day speaking at the Knesset’s annual “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony Reflecting on his late father-in-law Shmuel Ben-Artzi’s life Netanyahu wove family memory into the national act of remembrance immigrated to the Land of Israel,” Netanyahu began He described Shmuel’s departure from Europe as a moment of familial and ideological tension “His father Moshe accompanied him along the way and tried to persuade him in every way not to immigrate.” “He tried to persuade him by using some of the values he learned at home “He also told him: 'You have nothing over there Netanyahu recounted how Shmuel struggled between staying with the family he loved and following his conviction to build a new life in the Land of Israel “He wanted with all his heart to be a pioneer.. He would build the foundation in Bnei Brak.” Shmuel worked in orchards for eight years before becoming an educator “He was one who left his mark on many generations including people who passed through the Knesset as well as those in the media who also talked about him,” Netanyahu said “'The educator' — that's how they called him.” Shmuel was invited by David Ben-Gurion to participate in his first organized Bible class and uniquely received medals from both the Irgun and the Haganah “I think Shmuel was the only one in the country who received medals from both the Irgun and the Haganah,” Netanyahu added Shmuel also channeled his grief into poetry earning the Ka-Tzetnik Prize for Holocaust literature Netanyahu described how Shmuel sent money to his family in Poland until the outbreak of World War II he realized something terrible had happened “He expressed this in several moving poems expressing longing but mostly despair,” Netanyahu said To Europe: "My eyes are immersed in a river of sorrow and my Lord is silent… Like a stone in a field I too will be silent before the crescent moon For the ‘Jude’ a bullet’s a waste — Only poisonous gas in a closed trailer The Prime Minister then solemnly recited the names of Shmuel’s murdered family members — parents my father-in-law's entire family from Biłgoraj and Tarnogród in Poland perished,” Netanyahu stated “Shmuel passed away at the age of 97,” Netanyahu said even during the last days before he passed away Daniel Ben-David is a reporter and community correspondent for the Jewish Chronicle Daniel Ben-David whose first bar mitzvah was hastily carried out inside a Russian gulag while fleeing the Nazis last weekend celebrated his third bar mitzvah at the age of 96 home and shop were bombed in quick succession were forced to leave with just the clothes on their back and roam the countryside pleading for food and shelter in neighbouring towns Fiszel recalls a German Luftwaffe spotted them and began its descent towards them while opening fire His father hurriedly beckoned the family into the long grass and instructed them to lie flat and say “Shema Yisrael” in what looked likely to be their final prayer they survived the night and continued their journey at first light the family had the opportunity to flee to Siberia through a friendship that his old sister Sara established with a Russian soldier who was being relocated there That decision to venture towards the unknown likely saved their lives The Siberian arctic temperatures were the coldest Fiszel had ever experienced The family were forced into a Russian gulag which although not a place anyone would normally voluntarily live was “not comparable to the German concentration camps” It was in this gulag under extremely challenging conditions and unrelenting hunger which led to him suffering from chronic stomach ulcers for decades that Fiszel would have his first bar mitzvah his father mustered the energy to call out to his family requesting that they approach him with four small cups of vodka for a “L’Chaim” survived the remainder of the war and in 1946 were evacuated to London Fiszel became a well-known member of Finchley Synagogue having spent many years since the mid 1960s as part of its choir it was where he celebrated his second bar mitzvah a man who reaches the age of 83 will have a second bar mitzvah under the logic that in the Torah it says that a normal lifespan is 70 years and so every subsequent 13 years is marked by a bar mitzvah including his seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren Fiszel celebrated his third bar mitzvah at Stanmore Synagogue this time there was no reason to have this one in hiding or hurriedly.” Singing and music have remained Fiszel’s passions for many decades when he is not avidly reading Jewish religious texts Faith remains an integral part of his life and philosophy When David visits his father almost every day Fiszel will say: “Hodo L’Hashem Ki Tov Ki L’Olam Chasdo” Third bar mitzvah Get important news about your town as it happens Get the top stories from across our network Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from daily updates Beloved North Jersey resident Piotr Grel died Sunday Born in Bilgoraj, Poland, Piotr moved to the United States in 1991, growing up on Clifton and eventually settling in Wallington, his obituary says Piotr spent several years working an HVAC Technician for Eco Flow in Wallington He was known for his love of fishing and other outdoor hobbies Piotr’s surviving family members include his loving parents Zbigniew Grel and Irena (Lipjec); a sibling Several tributes hit social media following Piotr’s tragic passing: Click here to view the full obituary of Piotr Grel. Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information A man works on the production line at a cider plant in Bilgoraj the government gave its blessing to a $100 million ad campaign explaining why workers were required to contribute Privately managed savings accounts would assure a comfortable retirement while giving a boost to Polish capital markets and taking pressure off the underfunded state social security system the Polish government seized more than half the assets held in the individual accounts telling workers that the state social security system would pay their benefits when they retired the strong taking from the weak,” fumes Marcin Jaworski “I expect the public pension system to go bust,” he says This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.