Archives: Year 2021

The Polish National Church was founded in 1897 in Pennsylvania by Reverend Francis Hodur. Father Hodur was born in Żarki in 1866, in the Austrian dominated sector of Poland. In 1893, he emigrated to the United States and was ordained into the priesthood at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Parish in Scranton, PA. A political activist, Father Hodur undertook a mission to Rome to secure a greater voice for Poles in the American Church. Unrest among the Polish parishes was common during this period and rioting broke out in his parish in a dispute over the ownership of church property, use of the Polish language, and selection of local priests.

The 2nd and 3rd days of May are very important holidays in the life of the American Polonia, but also in the life of the entire global Polish diaspora. On May 2 we celebrate Flag Day and the Day of Polish Diaspora, andon May 3rd — the Constitution Day. This year, the Polish community in Milwaukee hosted representatives of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., the military attaché Major General Cezary Wiśniewski and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Karol Budniak.

It is time for the Polish government to fund Polonia Departments in major universities. The story of Polonia must be carefully researched and presented if Poland wants to use this tremendous demographic asset to strengthen her role in the global arena. Currently, the study of the diaspora with ties to Poland, called Polonia, is fragmented, not coordinated with the strategy of country’s development, and often steered by foreign funding sources. Research findings do not reach Polonia centers around the world. Poland prides herself with the Jagiellonian University and its role as the academic cradle of Poland. We need a Polish university, which will lead the way in elevating the role of Polonia to its due place in the development of Poland’s global potential.

Polish hussars and Japanese samurai are military formations that fascinate us to this day. Although so distant in time, the geographical space, and cultures they represent, they are vividly reflected in the contemporary imagination. Their bravery and courage impress us no matter where we live.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ) is a military treaty established on August 24, 1949. The purpose of NATO at the time of its creation was military defense against attack by the USSR and its satellite states.

Why so few Poles, both those living in Poland and those permanently residing in the United States, remember this significant tenure in the area of American politics by a longtime senator, as well as the governor of Maine, and the secretary of state in US diplomacy?

Although most people still haven’t heard of it, the Three Seas Initiative is the most significant political and economic policy initiative to emerge in Central and Eastern Europe since the enlargement of the EU and NATO. It's an international economic and political initiative that currently brings together twelve countries of the European Union located between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic seas.

The Katyn massacre, according to many legal definitions, is classified as a crime against humanity, a crime against peace, a communist crime, and a crime of genocide. For the sake of political correctness, different terms were used at various times in history. Why is the case of the Katyn massacre so difficult, and why it has so long remained silent and is still not fully clarified? Perhaps recalling some of the most painful facts will bring you closer to understanding the problem.

On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, the first President of independent Ukraine (1991-1994) Leonid Kravchuk suggested that the talks about the future of Ukrainian-Russian war should be moved from Belarus to Poland. Because of recent actions by both Presidents Lukashenka and Putin, Minsk cannot be regarded as an objective peace broker between Ukraine and Russia.

The recently celebrated 100th anniversary of the victory over Bolshevik Russia in 1920, among others, became an opportunity to recall the extraordinary history of the Kościuszko Squadron, created in 1919 by American airmen fighting alongside Poles in the war with the Bolsheviks.

A Japanese edition of The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Captain Witold Pilecki is now available. Japanese-language rights were acquired by Misuzu Shobo Publishers in Tokyo, from Aquila Polonica Publishing, Los Angeles. Aquila Polonica was represented in the transaction by Eriko Takeuchi of Japan UNI.

The American Polonia has repeatedly contributed to the defense of Polish sovereignty and has made a huge contribution to the reconstruction of the Polish state. From 1910, she worked at various conferences on a memorial on the creation of the Polish state, so that after Jan Ignacy Paderewski's arrival in the USA, she joined her efforts and presented them to President Wilson. She sent to Poland and financed the modern, well-trained and armed Blue Army. She started financial aid for Poland, which continues to this day. (according to the World Bank, about $ 900 million annually).

I confess there’s much that I have in common with Masha Gessen, Barbara Engelking, and Jan Grabowski. We’re all middle-aged Jews, who by accident of birth in the post war era escaped the horrors of the Second World War experience. Additionally, our families originated from much of the same locales in Eastern Europe. My Dad’s people hailed from Lwow and Premysl in what was once the Austrian partition of the first Polish Commonwealth. On my mother’s side, I grew up hearing stories from both my Babcza and Great Babcza of life in a Russified Ukraine in the years before the 1917 revolution that ended Tsarist rule and brought Lenin and his gang to power over the expanse of Holy Russia.