Poles in the Holy Land towards the end of 1949

Towards the end of 1949, the number of Poles living in the Holy Land was estimated to be at the level of 115-130 individuals. The majority of them, that is around 80 people, lived in Israel; the remaining ones lived on the Arab side (in Trans-Jordan). Among them, there were those who set up their own families here, as well as a dozen or so clergymen and a small group of post-World War II refugees. An interesting source material which allows one to get an insight into the scale and character of the Polish presence in the Holy Land in the fi rst months after the end of the Arab-Jewish war, is a short but succinct note published in the Monthly Report of the Publishing Company “Reduta” (to be circulated internally) entitled “Sprawy Bliskiego i Środkowego Wschodu” (The Problems of the Near and Middle East). As can be seen from its content, the note had been drawn up by someone who was extremely well acquainted with the contemporary realities of life in Jerusalem. The current publication had been prepared on the basis of a copy of the periodical which was found in the collection of the Polish Library in London.