Fervent Poles crucify US envoy on Twitter for wishing them happy Passover on Good Friday

The US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher has wished Jews a happy Passover in Polish – then faced a backlash from Twitter users wondering if she might have forgotten that Poland is a Catholic-majority country.

The ambassador took to Twitter to wish Jews happy holidays on Friday, just as the Passover celebrations, marking the escape from Egypt, had begun. This year, Passover overlaps with the Holy Week observance by Roman Catholics – and the beginning of the Jewish holiday coincided with Christianity’s Good Friday – the day when Jesus Christ was crucified.

While Mosbacher followed her Passover post with a re-tweet of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s post on Good Friday, it did not save her from an angry backlash from Polish-speaking users. A legislator with the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, Krystyna Pawlowicz, was among those outraged, calling Mosbacher's tweet a “provocation.”  Some wondered if Mosbacher thought she was actually an ambassador to Israel.

“You are not a US ambassador in Israel only in Poland,” one user said, adding that “Poland has been Catholic for 1,000 years.” 

Another user provided Mosbacher with a screenshot from Wikipedia, in an apparent attempt to enlighten the US envoy on Polish demographics.

While the figures from the free encyclopedia might be true, Poland had, for centuries, housed the majority of European Jews. The rapid decline of the Jewish population in the country occurred only in the 20th century – due to Nazi occupation and the Holocaust.

Many Poles, however, appreciated Mosbacher’s wishes and thanked her, while others rallied to her support, accusing her critics of anti-Semitism.

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