{"id":24680,"date":"2015-08-07T18:05:25","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T16:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=24680"},"modified":"2015-08-07T05:59:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T03:59:53","slug":"24680","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=24680","title":{"rendered":"The amazing story of P\/N Kondrat, a new Jew in Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The amazing story of P\/N Kondrat, a new Jew in Poland<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Lily Galili<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"P\/N

P\/N Kondrat ( )<\/p><\/div>\n

Born Catholic but with a vague sense of not belonging, he converted – and immediately felt persecuted<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Late this June, P. Nathan Kondrat celebrated his birthday in his hometown, not far from Warsaw, Poland. Not the kind of birthday that marks one\u2019s day of birth, but rather the Catholic version, the day of one’s saint. A remark by a Jewish friend that “Jews do not celebrate this kind of a birthday” was answered with a similar amused-serious response: “It\u2019s not Nathan who is celebrating; it\u2019s Piotr.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Piotr and Nathan, as you must have guessed by now are, one and the same: a 52-year-old prominent Polish actor best known for his monodramas, mainly Shakespeare. Now you already know about Kondrat more than most of his colleagues and even family: that the man they\u2019ve known for decades is actually a Jew. A new-born Jew.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several years ago Kondrat converted. It was a Reform conversion that included one year of Judaism studies, some basic Hebrew, history of Israel and a circumcision. Kondrat is not the only Pole to find Judaism: some actually learn late in life about their hidden roots and come out of the closet in a rather accepting atmosphere; others simply make it up, mostly to acquire some exotic flavor or possible financial gain from being associated with the world Jewish community.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Synagogue in Warsaw”<\/p><\/div>\n

Kondrat is different. Not only did he choose to go down this bumpy road alone, but strangely enough, he immediately adopted another Jewish characteristic \u2013 a profound sense of persecution. He has become not only a Jew, but a persecuted one. \u201cPeople here have anti-Semitism under the skin,\u201d he says in an interview with i24news in Warsaw. \u201cIf I make it public in my circles, I\u2019d be ridiculed. I encountered it even in my own family: a friend of my former mother-in-law explained to my children that Jews killed Jesus ( I made sure she doesn\u2019t come to visit them again), and I\u2019m afraid to tell my cousin that she\u2019s of Jewish origin herself. She\u2019s so anti- Semitic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s absolutely convinced that he can detect a change in attitude on those rare occasions people find out about his transformation. \u201cSome distance themselves from me, some just have this weird look on their face when they realize I\u2019m a Jew. When asked to spell my name (P.N Kondrat), I\u2019d rather say ‘N’ like ‘Nathalie’ and not ‘N’ like Nathan. ‘Nathan’ doesn\u2019t get a lot of empathy here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It all started many years ago, with a nagging feeling, when Kondrat worked in a Jewish theater in Poland. The director often asked him why he chose to work there and Kondrat explained that his grandmother grew up in Buchach (now Ukraine). Kondrat clung to that history of Jewish Buchach, wanting it to be his. No signs pointed in that direction: his father spent years in orphanages run by the Church, became a devout Catholic who forced his own sons to attend church religiously. Like all kids, Kondrat resented the coercion, but sensed something more. While playing Hamlet on stage, he had long discussions with the ghost of the father; as Piotr Kondrat, he continued those discussions with his real father – off stage. To no avail. All he heard from his father was that his own father died when the boy was two, an answer that seemed to close that chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Wikipedia\"

The Ukrainian town of Buchach – Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2008, he started to attend the synagogue in Warsaw. The first Jewish ceremony he attended was a traditional Passover meal. Kondrat was impressed – both by the endless waiting for food to be served while the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt was read, but also by the concept of passing down the story from generation to generation. So he came again. For Shabbat, for holidays. And then he stayed. A rabbi from Berlin, another one from London and a woman rabbi from Budapest certified his conversion. Israel\u2019s ambassador to Poland, Zvi Rav-Ner, attended the ceremony. Kondrat feels happy. When he lights candles with his twin boys, whenever he makes a blessing over the wine. For now, it\u2019s his secret. He will let his boys choose later in life between the two traditions \u2013 Catholic and Jewish.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the real closure came much later. Kondrat\u2019s father died recently at the age of 87, not knowing his son has become Jewish, information that wouldn\u2019t have made him happy. His death was for Kondrat a signal to embark upon a more profound search. And he did. In the process, he came across some documents waiting to be discovered: his dead father was actually the out of wedlock son of a Jew from Buchach by the name of Maler. Everything fell into place. ” We don\u2019t come out of nowhere,” says Kondrat. “It brings me immense pleasure when we mention the forefathers, our ancestors. No one is born the moment he or she come into this world; we are a link in a long chain and it matters who preceded us. The silent conversation I\u2019ve been carrying on with my father for years – has been answered. There was a cloud hanging over me – and now it\u2019s clear. I found peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everybody, even in his immediate family, shares his enthusiasm. His brother warns him that now no one is going to see him as theirs \u2013 neither the Jews, nor the Catholics. Kondrat says his brother is actually concerned about his own daughter. Having a Jewish uncle is not a great asset in many circles in Poland. But it\u2019s certainly an asset for him. Last month, Kondrat was invited to play the role of Shylock, a Venetian money lender in Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cMerchant of Venice\u201d. He went there, this time, knowing who his grandfather was. \u201cIt gave me, as an actor, a greater freedom and clarity\u201d. And in between, Kondrat almost became a rabbi. He enrolled to study rabbinical studies in Berlin. \u201cLuckily I didn\u2019t go,\u201d he says; “otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t have been here to find those documents proving who I really am.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lily Galili<\/strong> is a feature writer, analyst of Israeli society and expert on immigration from the former Soviet Union. She is the co-author of “The Million that Changed the Middle East.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The amazing story of P\/N Kondrat, a new Jew in Poland Lily Galili Born Catholic but with a vague sense of not belonging, he converted – and immediately felt persecuted Late this June, P. Nathan Kondrat celebrated his birthday in his hometown, not far from Warsaw, Poland. Not the kind of birthday that marks one\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24680"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24686,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24680\/revisions\/24686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}