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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.
The post Warsaw Jewish cemetery director fired amid clash over who controls the preservation of Poland’s Jewish past appeared first on The Forward.
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Downed Planes Raise New Perils for Trump as Tehran Hunts for Missing US Pilot
Traces of an Iranian missile attack in Tehran’s sky, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 3, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Two US warplanes were downed over Iran and the Gulf, Iranian and US officials said on Friday, with two pilots rescued and a third still missing and being hunted by Tehran’s forces.
The incidents show the risks still faced by US and Israeli aircraft over Iran despite assertions from US President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that their forces had total control of the skies.
The first plane, a two-seat US F-15E jet, was shot down by Iranian fire, officials in both countries said.
The second plane, an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft, was hit by Iranian fire and crashed over Kuwait, with the pilot ejecting, two US officials said.
Two Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search effort for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two US officials told Reuters.
The degree of injuries among the crew of the aircraft remained unclear. The status and whereabouts of the missing F-15E crew member was not publicly known.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where the pilot’s plane came down in southwestern Iran and the regional governor promised a commendation for anyone who captured or killed “forces of the hostile enemy.”
Iranians, who have been pummeled by American air power for weeks, posted gleeful messages celebrating the plane downings. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the U.S. and Israel’s war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for their pilots.
Trump has been in the White House receiving updates on the search-and-rescue operation, a senior administration official told Reuters. The Pentagon and US Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NO SIGN OF END TO WAR
The prospect of a US service person being alive and on the run inside Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict with low public support and no sign of an imminent end.
Iran has officially told mediators it is not prepared to meet with US officials in Islamabad in coming days and that efforts to produce a ceasefire, led by Pakistan, have reached a dead end, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The US and Israel opened the campaign with a wave of strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28. The war has killed thousands and threatened lasting damage to the global economy.
So far, 13 US military service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 300 have been wounded, according to the US Central Command.
Iran has rained down drones and missiles on Israel. It has also taken aim at Gulf countries allied to the US, which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
In a security alert on Friday, the US embassy in Beirut said Iran and its aligned armed groups may target universities in Lebanon and urged US citizens in the country to leave while commercial flights are still available.
Israel has been waging a parallel campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon after the militant group fired at Israel in support of Iran.
TRUMP THREAT TO STRIKE BRIDGES, POWER PLANTS
On Friday, as Trump threatened to hit its bridges and power plants, Iran struck a power and water plant in Kuwait, underlining the vulnerability of Gulf states that rely heavily on desalination plants for drinking water.
On Thursday, Trump posted footage on social media showing dust and smoke billowing up as US strikes hit the newly constructed B1 bridge between Tehran and nearby Karaj, which was due to open this year, and said more attacks would follow.
“Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote in a subsequent post.
On Friday, a drone hit a Red Crescent relief warehouse in the Choghadak area of Iran’s southern Bushehr province.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery had been hit by drones. Other attacks were also reported to have been intercepted in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Missile debris landed near the Israeli port of Haifa, site of a major oil refinery.
Oil markets were closed after benchmark U.S. crude prices gained 11% on Thursday following a speech by Trump that offered no clear sign of an imminent end to the war.
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US-Iran: Diplomatic Push Falters as Qatar Steps Back and Pakistan Talks Stall
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks after a meeting with the Lebanese president at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Emilie Madi
i24 News – Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran appear to have reached an impasse, as key regional mediators pull back and broader talks stall.
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Qatar has informed US officials that it does not wish to take a central role in mediating between the two sides. Officials familiar with the matter said Doha has made clear it is “not willing” to lead negotiations or act as the primary broker.
At the same time, Pakistan-led efforts to bring Iranian and American officials together have also stalled. Mediators say Tehran has refused to attend proposed meetings in Islamabad, calling Washington’s conditions “unacceptable,” further underscoring the widening gap between the two sides and the growing difficulty of restarting dialogue.
Despite the deadlock, diplomatic channels have not fully closed. Turkey and Egypt are continuing parallel efforts to revive talks, with discussions underway about potential alternative venues, including Doha and Istanbul.
US President Donald Trump downplayed the impact of recent military developments on diplomacy, including the destruction of a US fighter jet during operations in Iran. Speaking in a brief exchange with an NBC News journalist, he said: “No, not at all. It’s war. We are at war.”
He further fueled speculation with a cryptic social media post on Truth Social, writing: “Keep the oil, anyone?” criticising international allies on Friday over rising fuel prices. Trump appeared to mock allies such as the United Kingdom, writing that they should “keep the oil.”
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Report: Iran Retains Significant Missile Capability Despite Weeks of US-Led Strikes
Iranian missiles are displayed in a park in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – Despite weeks of sustained airstrikes by the United States and its allies, Iran has reportedly managed to retain a substantial portion of its military capabilities, particularly its ballistic missile arsenal.
According to a report by The New York Times citing US intelligence assessments, Tehran has developed methods to mitigate the impact of the strikes, allowing it to preserve and restore key parts of its missile infrastructure.
While the Pentagon has claimed responsibility for striking more than 11,000 targets over five weeks and reducing the rate of Iranian missile fire, intelligence officials now caution that the actual damage may be more limited than initially assessed. Iranian forces are reportedly able to rapidly repair or reactivate missile launchers stored in heavily fortified or underground facilities, sometimes within hours of being hit.
Analysts also point to the widespread use of decoy sites, which may have drawn strikes away from operational assets. Many of the targeted locations are believed to have contained dummy installations, complicating efforts to accurately gauge the degradation of Iran’s ballistic capabilities. Combined with deep underground bunkers and dispersed storage networks, this approach is seen as enabling Tehran to maintain a higher level of readiness than publicly estimated.
US intelligence officials assess that this resilience reflects a deliberate strategy: preserving a credible long-range strike capability as both a deterrent and a bargaining tool in any future negotiations, while ensuring regime survival and continued regional influence.
Despite sustained air dominance claimed by Washington and its allies, Iran’s adaptive tactics continue to complicate battlefield assessments, leaving the true balance of power in the conflict uncertain.