Reply To: Life before the Holocaust in Europe

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Mammele
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ZD: you are wrong about Poland. This from Wiki: History of the Jews in Poland

The newly independent Second Polish Republic had a large and vibrant Jewish minority. By the time World War II began, Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe although many Polish Jews had a separate culture and ethnic identity from Catholic Poles. Some authors have stated that only about 10% of Polish Jews during the interwar period could be considered “assimilated” while more than 80% could be readily recognized as Jews.[75]

“According to the 1931 National Census there were 3,130,581 Polish Jews measured by the declaration of their religion. Estimating the population increase and the emigration from Poland between 1931 and 1939, there were probably 3,474,000 Jews in Poland as of September 1, 1939 (approximately 10% of the total population) primarily centered in large and smaller cities: 77% lived in cities and 23% in the villages. They made up about 50%, and in some cases even 70% of the population of smaller towns, especially in Eastern Poland.[76] [77] [78] [79] In 1939 there were 375,000 Jews in Warsaw or one third of the city’s population. Only New York City had more Jewish residents than Warsaw.”

So if 77% of Jews lived in cities, and 80% of Jews throughout all of Poland were recongnizably Jewish, how exactly were 2/3 of the Jews in the cities not religious as you contend?

And the Dohany Synagogue is Neolog, which was a “milder” version of Reform/Conservative — very big in

Budapest. However, while unfortunately true in Budapest, the biggest or nicest Synagogue does not always equal the largest denomination, just more financial clout.