US Jewish group asks Poland, Israel to stay calm
The American Jewish Committee says it hopes years of reconciliation work between Poland and Israel will not be undone by a new dispute over the Holocaust.
American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said Monday that "competing historical narratives" had strained the two countries' relations before.
Harris says such disputes usually result from "varying assessments of the magnitude of anti-Semitism in Poland, especially before and during World War II."
But he said it was important for public officials in Israel and Poland to choose their words carefully and not to let disagreements "escalate out of control."
Noting that Poland was a center of Jewish life for centuries, Harris said: "1,000 years of Jewish presence on Polish soil cannot be reduced to a single headline or sound bite."
