Israeli ambassador says Polish roots visible in modern Israel

The Israeli ambassador to Poland has said that it is impossible to think about both a modern Israel and modern Judaism without Polish roots.

Addressing a meeting in Torun, northern Poland, Yacov Livne praised the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II "for the large step he had taken in Polish-Israeli dialogue."

The ambassador said that Jews and Poles had a special, shared history and a common heritage, and that it would be impossible to sum up over 1,000 years in a short lecture.

Having recalled that, for centuries, many Jews had been living in Poland and had friends in Poland, he said that during the Second World War there had also been many examples of a joint struggle of the two nations "on the right side of history - on the side of the fight against the overwhelming evil."

The ambassador also spoke about the Righteous among the Nations of the World, namely, about the courageous Poles who had risked their lives to save Jews in a situation when such aid had been extremely dangerous in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Poland was the only country in Nazi-occupied Europe where aid to Jews had been punished with death penalty.