ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What percentage of the Polish population was Jewish in 1935, and where did most of them live?

Last week Franciszek Bojanczyk spoke with us about the history of the Jews in Poland from the first traders a thousand years ago through the beginning of the 19th century. This week we are picking up the story where he left off, and will hear about how the Jewish communities developed from that time until now.

We hope that this background in the history of the Jews in Poland will help you to better understand and appreciate what Jewish life is like in Poland today. In the upcoming weeks we will speak with people who are involved in diverse aspects of Jewish cultural and religious life in different parts of the country, and we hope that you will be pleasantly surprised by the vitality of Poland’s present-day Jewish communities.