For a number of years, the publications by Professor Jan Woleński have been very illuminating and beneficial for me in research. They deal with matters which I simply do not know or where I have no established convictions. Jan Woleński writes matter-of-factly and precisely, usually tackling the commonly held opinions which simplify or even falsify reality. His lecture Because he admitted to being a Jew has been substantially enhanced with autobiographical threads. In that particular case, it worked very well both for the lecture and the text which is its written record. Perhaps one can or should speak about Jewish matters in Poland exclusively through the lens of one's own biography as the subject cannot be emotionally indifferent.
Because he admitted to being a Jew is a very accurate and clear record of the situation of a Jew in Poland at the beginning of the 21st century. And it is not only a mere record but a philosophical deliberation in which the author refers to the Internet entries usually disregarded by sociologists. Those entries are very important and quite frightening at the same time as it is a record of uncensored state of consciousness of Polish Internet users. Such a methodological eclecticism seems to be not only a justified approach but simply a very necessary one. It allows one to utlize various explanations while being fully aware that they are far from sufficient. And one needs to agree with Jan Woleński that anti-Semitism finds its roots in history rather than metaphysics.
Stanisław Obirek
