To the Editor:
Re: the Ruthless Cosmopolitan column "Never better in Krakow?," when we were in Krakow a couple of years ago, I was given a completely different impression of the situation of the Jews. My wife, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law saw anti-Semitic Chasidic dolls being stocked in stores and by street vendors all over Poland. At the synagogue in Krakow we were told about Jews having to be careful about wearing yarmulkes. Jews had been beaten on the way to shul.
The younger people said that they had not encountered much anti-Semitism.
When interpreting social-political information pertaining to the situation of Jews in Europe, as elsewhere in the world, one must keep in mind that Muslims have not yet made the inroads in Eastern Europe as they have in Western Europe. Thus it is not that surprising that the Jews in Eastern Europe think that their situation is relatively benign.
The Jews in Krakow are living a delusion; they had best wake up to a reality. Anti-Ssemitism is growing throughout the world and is reaching an intensity equivalent to what existed in the 1930s. The situation could change should Israel become a world supplier of energy.
Sheldon Gottlieb
Boynton Beach, Fla.
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