Historically, Poland has played a significant role in the history of the Jewish people. Before World War II, Jews made up a notable portion of the country’s population. According to the 1931 census, over 3 million of its citizens practiced Judaism, and 8.56% identified Yiddish as their native language. The Holocaust and subsequent waves of mass emigration of surviving Jews from Poland (primarily to Israel) have resulted in Jews now being a numerically small and heavily assimilated minority.

With the onset of Russia’s full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland became one of the primary destinations for Ukrainian emigration, which includes a relatively small but statistically significant Jewish component. Experts estimate that the current number of people in Poland from the post-Soviet space with Jewish roots is between 5,000 and 10,000.

In conversations with many non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees living in Poland, the author could not help but notice a wary, and at times hostile, attitude among the majority towards Russians as a whole, regardless of their political views. However, within the Jewish community, the attitude towards the small number of Jewish émigrés from Russia is generally one of tolerance. It can be asserted that the Russian language serves as a unifying factor within the Jewish community of individuals from the post-Soviet space.

It is expected that the decision by Polish authorities to revoke the special status of Ukrainian refugees by spring 2026 and equate their status with that of other immigrants from non-EU countries will, in some way, encourage those among them who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return to consider repatriation to Israel.

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