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Warsaw Jewish cemetery director fired amid clash over who controls the preservation of Poland’s Jewish past
The director of Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery has been fired following a dispute over restoration projects on the site, which he said too often excluded local Jews.
Witold Wrzosinski, the Jewish director, said he was pushed out on Dec. 10 after seeking a new contract with the Polish Cultural Heritage Foundation, which controls public funds for works in the cemetery. The cemetery languished in neglect for decades after World War II, only recently becoming the center of efforts to preserve the history of Poland’s Jews.
Wrzosinski manages the cemetery’s operating budget for the local Jewish community board, but many restoration projects there also depend on public funds invested by the Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The foundation is led by Michał Laszczkowski, who has ties to the right-wing Law and Justice party that governed Poland from 2015 to 2023 and backed Poland’s newly elected president, a Holocaust revisionist. The party promotes historical narratives about Polish victimhood and resistance to the Nazis while delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism.
Wrzosinski alleges that the current contract between the foundation and the Jewish community board is “abusive,” limiting the influence of local Jews over projects in their own cemetery.
“The whole composition of the contract left us with no power to control the priorities of the foundation,” said Wrzosinski. “We think, as the Jewish community that owns the cemetery, we should have a say.”
Some 200,000 Jews are buried at the cemetery on Okopowa Street in the heart of Poland’s capital. Founded in 1806, it is one of Europe’s largest Jewish cemeteries and holds generations of cultural luminaries, rabbis and activists, along with about 50,000 Jews who were killed by the Nazis and consigned to two mass graves. One portion remains active for the small Jewish community still living in Warsaw today.
In a meeting with the foundation, Wrzosinski said he presented a new arrangement that would safeguard the Jewish community’s input in restoration and conservation projects.
But he said Laszczkowski rejected the arrangement and said the “mental wellbeing of the members of the Jewish community is not a factor” to him.
Laszczkowski did not reply to requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Cultural Heritage Foundation has a stated mission to “protect and promote the national heritage of Poland.” Though it is not specifically dedicated to Jewish heritage, restoring some of Poland’s 1,200 Jewish cemeteries has fallen under its purview. In 2017, the Polish government pledged $28 million to renovate Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery and put the Cultural Heritage Foundation in charge of the funds.
At the time, Warsaw’s Jewish community board was happy to sign this agreement, said Wrzosinski.
“Everybody was so excited that so much money was being pumped into the cemetery that they allowed the foundation to have everything,” he said.
After Laszczkowski rejected Wrzosinski’s proposed new contract, Wrzosinski said the Jewish community would end its agreement with the foundation. Laszczkowski in turn threatened to sue and cut off public funds from the cemetery if Wrzosinski stayed at the helm.
Tombstones at the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw, Poland. (Bildagentur-online/Schoening/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Then the Jewish board turned on Wrzosinski, with four out of seven members voting to remove him. They also suspended his member rights and blocked him from communal Hanukkah celebrations, though that ban has already been reversed after a backlash. Wrzosinski said his fellow board members were intimidated by Laszczkowski’s legal threats.
Wrzosinski has directed the Jewish cemetery since 2020, becoming a key figure behind its renovations and rising profile. He began working at the largely abandoned cemetery in 2006, when it looked more like a forest, and led an effort to clean, decode and index the tombstones. He and his colleagues are documenting the graves in an online database, allowing descendants around the world to trace where their family members rest. Wrzosinski has found seven of his own relatives among the graves.
Wrzosinski said the Cultural Heritage Foundation could fall vulnerable to outside forces, including nationalist political leaders, since it was not contractually accountable to local Jews.
He pointed to a 2018 project under the Law and Justice government, which directed the foundation to build the Mausoleum of Jewish Fighters for the Independence of Poland — a reconstruction of a structure originally planned in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. Many local Jews see the mausoleum as a political design. It features a large Polish eagle and a Star of David, appearing to intertwine Polish nationalism with Jewish memory.
“People didn’t really feel it’s natural, or that it meets any actual need of the community. It just feels artificial and sent from above,” said Wrzosinski.
That same year, the Law and Justice government passed a notorious law that banned accusing Poland or the Polish people of complicity in Nazi crimes.
The mausoleum was built on a part of the cemetery that hosted some of its oldest graves. During construction, the tombstones were removed and stored in a back area. Wrzosinski said the foundation promised to return them, but after years of pressure from the Jewish community, the stones remain out of sight.
“This is wrong according to the halacha, according to the Jewish law,” he said. “If you know where tombstones are coming from, you shouldn’t keep them far away from that place, and you shouldn’t keep them in mud, somewhere in the back, if you took them from the actual area of the cemetery where people are buried.”
Wrzosinski’s dismissal has ignited a fierce outcry among Polish Jewish historians and museum professionals. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the chief curator of Warsaw’s POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, circulated a petition to reinstate him. Within a few days, it has amassed nearly 700 signatures from across the globe.
“The abrupt dismissal is both incomprehensible and deeply troubling,” said the letter. “The preservation of Jewish heritage and memory — especially in a place so profoundly marked by history — requires expertise and knowledgeable leadership. Such leadership should be protected and supported, not discarded.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Jewish hockey star Jack Hughes’ overtime goal propels US to historic gold medal in Olympic hockey
(JTA) — Jewish hockey star Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal Sunday to clinch a gold medal for the U.S. men’s hockey team, its first since 1980.
The New Jersey Devils star center, who had scored twice in Team USA’s semifinal win, sent the puck between the legs of Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington 1:41 into overtime to give the American team a 2-1 win.
“This is all about our country right now. I love the USA,” Hughes told NBC. “I love my teammates.”
The win broke a 46-year Olympic drought for Team USA, which had not taken gold since the famous “Miracle on Ice” team that upset the Soviet Union on its way to gold in 1980. The United States also won in 1960.
“He’s a freaking gamer,” Quinn Hughes, Jack’s older brother and U.S. teammate said, according to The Athletic. “He’s always been a gamer. Just mentally tough, been through a lot, loves the game. American hero.”
Quinn Hughes is a defender for the Minnesota Wild and a former captain of the Vancouver Canucks who won the NHL’s top defenseman award in 2024. He was also named the best defender in the Olympic tournament by the International Ice Hockey Federation after scoring an overtime goal to send the U.S. team to the semifinals.
The third Jewish member of the U.S. team, Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, won the one game he played, a Feb. 14 preliminary-round victory over Denmark.
The Hughes family — rounded out by youngest brother Luke, who also plays for the Devils — has long been lauded as a Jewish hockey dynasty. They are the first American family to have three siblings picked in the first round of the NHL draft, and Jack was the first Jewish player to go No. 1 overall. They are also the first trio of Jewish brothers to play in the same NHL game and the first brothers to earn cover honors for EA Sports’ popular hockey video game.
Jack, who had a bar mitzvah, has said his family celebrated Passover when he was growing up. Their mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, who is Jewish, represented the U.S. women’s hockey team at the 1992 Women’s World Championships and was on the coaching staff of the gold-medal-winning women’s team in Milan. Weinberg-Hughes is also a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Hughes’ golden goal ushered in a burst of Jewish pride on social media, with one user calling it “the greatest Jewish sports moment of all time.” The Hockey News tweeted that Hughes was “the first player in hockey history to have a Bar Mitzvah and a Golden Goal! Pretty cool!”
Jewish groups and leaders also jumped on the praise train. “Special shout out to @jhugh86 on scoring the game-winning goal!” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “Beyond his incredible skill on the ice, Jack makes history as a proud representative of the American Jewish community, reminding us that the Jewish people are interwoven into America in her 250th year! Mazel Tov, Jack!”
The post Jewish hockey star Jack Hughes’ overtime goal propels US to historic gold medal in Olympic hockey appeared first on The Forward.
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Iran and US Views on Sanctions Relief Differ, Iranian Official Tells Reuters
Iranian women walk past an anti-US billboard in Tehran, Iran, February 19, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran and the United States have differing views over sanctions relief in talks to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that new talks were planned in early March as fears of a military confrontation grow.
Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program as the US builds up its military capability in the Middle East, fueling fears of a wider war.
Iran has threatened to strike US bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by US forces.
“The last round of talks showed that US ideas regarding the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief differ from Iran’s demands. Both sides need to reach a logical timetable for lifting sanctions,” the official said.
“This roadmap must be reasonable and based on mutual interests.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that he expected to have a draft counterproposal ready within days, while US President Donald Trump said he was considering limited military strikes.
READINESS TO COMPROMISE
While rejecting a US demand for “zero enrichment” – a major sticking point in past negotiations – Tehran has signaled its readiness to compromise on its nuclear work.
Washington views enrichment inside Iran as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and wants its right to enrich uranium to be recognized.
Washington has also demanded that Iran relinquish its stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU). The UN nuclear agency last year estimated that stockpile at more than 440 kg of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade.
The Iranian official said Tehran could seriously consider a combination of exporting part of its HEU stockpile, diluting the purity of its most highly enriched uranium and the establishment of a regional enrichment consortium in exchange for the recognition of Iran’s right to “peaceful nuclear enrichment.”
“The negotiations continue and the possibility of reaching an interim agreement exists,” he said.
BENEFITS FOR BOTH SIDES
Iranian authorities have said that a diplomatic solution delivers economic benefits for both Tehran and Washington.
“Within the economic package under negotiation, the United States has also been offered opportunities for serious investment and tangible economic interests in Iran’s oil industry,” the official said.
However, he said Tehran will not hand over control of its oil and mineral resources.
“Ultimately, the US can be an economic partner for Iran, nothing more. American companies can always participate as contractors in Iran’s oil and gas fields.”
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Mike Huckabee’s Comments to Tucker Carlson on Israel and Middle East Land Draw Condemnation in Region
Tucker Carlson speaks on first day of AmericaFest 2025 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec. 18, 2025. Photo: Charles-McClintock Wilson/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect
Comments by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggesting that Israel had a biblical right to much of the Middle East drew condemnation over the weekend from countries across the region, who called his remarks “dangerous and inflammatory.”
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, has been a staunch supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the West Bank – land which the Palestinians seek for a state.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson that was conducted on Wednesday in Israel and aired on Friday, the populist US talk show host asked Huckabee about Israel’s right to exist and about Jewish roots in the ancient land.
Citing the book of Genesis, Carlson asked whether the modern state of Israel had a right to the lands promised in the Bible by God to Abraham, stretching from the Euphrates River to the Nile, covering much of the Middle East. In response, Huckabee said:
“It would be fine if they took it all. But I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here today.”
Huckabee added: “We’re talking about this land that the state of Israel now lives in and wants to have peace in, they’re not trying to take over Jordan, they’re not trying to take over Syria, they’re not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else. They want to protect their people.”
In response, a joint statement condemning Huckabee’s comments was issued by the Palestinians and countries in the Middle East and beyond, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.
They said his comments were: “Dangerous and inflammatory remarks, which constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and pose a grave threat to the security and stability of the region.”
A US Embassy spokesperson said Huckabee’s comments did not reflect any change in US policy and that his full remarks made clear that Israel has no desire to change its current boundaries.
Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the interview or the reaction from countries that signed the joint statement.