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07.03.02, 00:44
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0203060138mar06.story
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CO DO TYTULU W GW - NIESTETY - JEST SKANDAL NA CALEGO.
From the Chicago Tribune
Polish leader stands by vitriol
Emanuel decries political attack
By David Mendell
Tribune staff reporter
March 6, 2002
A Polish community leader with a history of controversial comments about Jews
has stirred another furor by attempting to link a candidate in the 5th
Congressional District race who is Jewish to anti-Polish sentiment in Israel.
A spokesman for Edward Moskal, president of the Polish National Alliance, a
fraternal organization on Chicago's North Side, said Tuesday that Moskal stands
by public remarks he made about Democrat Rahm Emanuel at a Pulaski Day
celebration.
Moskal, who is backing Democrat Nancy Kaszak in the contest, claimed
incorrectly that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and implied that Emanuel's
allegiance to Israel is stronger than to the United States.
The comments drew such attention that even Kaszak called them disturbing and
said she would sever ties with Moskal. Kaszak, who is of Polish heritage, has
heavily courted the support of Polish leaders, including Moskal, in a district
where nearly one in five voters has Polish roots.
Moskal came under fire in 1996 when he sent a letter to officials in Poland
complaining about Jewish influence there and accusing Jews of trying to
denigrate Poles worldwide.
Many leaders in Chicago's large Polish community worried at the time that
Moskal had severely strained relations between the two groups. But some leaders
also said Moskal speaks for only a fraction of Poles.
A tape of Moskal's Pulaski Day address Monday was broadcast that night on the
public affairs show "Chicago Tonight" on WTTW-TV, triggering accusations of
anti-Semitism from the Emanuel campaign, Mayor Richard Daley and others.
"Backed by huge sums of money, this millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing
about our values, our causes, our expectations or our heritage, is claiming he
deserves to be our representative," Moskal said.
"As many in our community perhaps don't know, he was a citizen of another
country and served in their armed forces for two years," Moskal continued,
referring to Israel. He then went on to attack Emanuel for giving
his "allegiance" to Israel, a country that Moskal claimed "defiles the Polish
homeland and continues to hurl insults at the Polish people."
Emanuel's father was an Israeli immigrant and his mother was a Russian
immigrant, but Emanuel was born on the North Side and grew up primarily in the
north suburbs. A former top official in the Clinton White House, Emanuel has
neither served in the Israeli military nor held Israeli citizenship.
"The comments made by Mr. Moskal yesterday are deplorable," Emanuel
said. "They're sick and they're filled with hatred."
Emanuel and his aides also said Moskal and others in the Polish community have
spread anti-Semitic innuendo about him for some time to stir opposition to his
candidacy.
Kaszak had two responses to Moskal's remarks. Initially, Kaszak told "Chicago
Tonight" that Moskal's remarks were his own. But Kaszak later called on Moskal
to apologize and said she was ending her relationship with him.
"Those sentiments have no place in our society or in a political campaign,"
Kaszak said.
But when Kaszak, a former state representative, showed up at an Emanuel news
conference Tuesday to echo those thoughts, Emanuel's aides wouldn't let her in.
In barring her, Emanuel appeared to be trying to use the comments to his
political advantage--an accusation made later Tuesday by a spokesman for the
Polish National Alliance.
T. Ron Jasinski-Herbert, a PNA spokesman, said Emanuel called attention to the
remarks to gain publicity "because he is losing."
"Mr. Moskal could have said `la-di-da' and Emanuel would have said it was anti-
Semitic," Jasinski-Herbert said, adding that Moskal's comments "were not made
in a hateful manner," but were born of frustration with Jews.
"The Jewish community fails to acknowledge that there is a lot of anti-Polish
sentiment coming from Israel," Herbert said. "We don't enjoy being called
Nazis. Our brothers were killed just like the Jews were killed. If the Jewish
community would only stop calling us Nazis, a lot of these tensions would go
away."
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
