A Sign of Barbarism

The Kraków newspaper "Nowy Dziennik" carries the following news from Vilnia:

In the Jewish cemetery in Vilnia the grave of Walenty Potocki has been desecrated and destroyed.

Many, many years ago, having become acquainted with the Talmudic world in Amsterdam, Count Potocki was so taken with it that he adopted the Jewish faith. This was kept secret, as a crime "insulting" the Catholic faith. However, that secret was uncovered, and in 1749 Potocki was burned alive at the stake. The Jews stole his ashes and buried them with great reverence in their cemetery. A year ago someone cut down a very old tree that grew on the grave, and now some unknown person has wrecked the grave itself.

As we see, the wild fanaticism that burned Potocki in 1749 (such was the "freedom of faith" then in the Polish Commonwealth) has come back to life in the reborn Poland…