Bahá'í Faith in Poland
Encyclopedia
The Bahá'í Faith in Poland begins in the 1870s when Polish writer Walerian Jablonowski wrote several articles covering its early history in Persia. There was a polish language translation of Paris Talks
published in 1915. After becoming a Bahá'í in 1925 Poland's Lidia Zamenhof
returned to Poland in 1938 as its first well known Bahá'í. During the period of the Warsaw Pact
Poland adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, so the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and properties. An analysis of publications before and during this period finds coverage by Soviet based sources basically hostile to the religion while native Polish coverage was neutral or positive. By 1963 only Warsaw was recognized as having a community. Following the fall of communism in Poland because of the Revolutions of 1989
, the Bahá'ís in Poland began to initiate contact with each other and have meetings - the first of these arose in Krakow
and Warsaw
. In March 1991 the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was re-elected in Warsaw. Poland's National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1992. There were about three hundred Bahá'ís in Poland in 2006 and there have been several articles in polish publications in 2008 covering the Persecution of Bahá'ís
in Iran and Egypt.
was the pen name of a very early Russia Bahá'í born in Grodno and her father is buried in Warsaw. Grodno was sometimes part of Poland and Belarus but during her entire lifetime was part of Russia. She is well known because of a play of hers performed in 1903 called Báb. In the 1910s some Jews in a regiment from Poland while stationed in Turkmenistan and came into contact with the Bahá'ís there. Later the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin met `Abdu'l-Bahá
while he lived in Palestine
in 1914 and in 1915 there was a Polish translation of Paris Talks
published in Silesia
.
. Zamenhof was the official representative of the religion to the dedication of the monument erected upon the grave of her father in Warsaw in 1926. Some Canadian Bahá'ís visited Poland in the early 1930s while Zamenhof went to the United States in late 1937 to teach the religion as well as Esperanto
. In December 1938 she returned to Poland, where she continued to teach and translated Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, (see John Esslemont
), Hidden Words
and Some Answered Questions
. While Zamenhof worked on the translations publication was delayed and accomplished out of France by a Polish nephew of Anne Lynch then in a Swiss internment camp for Polish officers. In the second half of 1938 Zamenhof had been a major influence of the conversion of the first known Ukrainian becoming a Bahá'í, who was living in eastern Poland at the time. Zamenhof mentions there were five Bahá'ís in Poland in August 1939. There was contact with nine individuals investigating the religion mostly through Esperantist reading in later in 1947. One of them offered Zamenhof a hiding place she had declined. She was arrested and eventually killed at the Treblinka extermination camp
in autumn 1942.
dated 20 October 1983 was released. Bahá'ís were urged to seek out ways, compatible with the Bahá'í teachings
, in which they could become involved in the social and economic development of the communities in which they lived. World-wide in 1979 there were 129 officially recognized Bahá'í socio-economic development projects. By 1987, the number of officially recognized development projects had increased to 1482. However in the Soviet sphere during the period of the Warsaw Pact
Poland adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, so the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and properties. From 1947 - 1950 Bahá'ís were still known to be in seven cities in Poland. In 1948 there was a known group studying the religion in Warsaw. While the Bahá'ís in Poland were retreating from public view, in Chicago
, the largest ethnically Polish population outside of Warsaw, saw the rise of the first Bahá'í House of Worship
in the West and was completed in 1953. In 1960 a Bahá'í traveled from Poland to Luxembourg for a Bahá'í meeting. By 1963 only Warsaw was recognized as having an active community. After that, until about 1989, the Soviet oppression of religions ended public activities of the religion. See also other Soviet block countries which had Bahá'í communities like Ukraine
, Turkmenistan
among others. While the Bahá'í community became all but unknown, the religion had been the object of some academic and popular commentary in Poland over the years. There are several distinctions between Soviet coverage translated into Polish and native Polish coverage of the Bahá'í Faith. There were differences in sources cited, periods when the works were published, and attitudes about the religion presented. Most Soviet translations cited works from Persian antagonists of the religion. The native Polish works cited leaders of the religion or western or earlier Polish academics. For the native Polish works no Russian or Soviet publications, either in translation or in original, were cited. The translations from Soviet academics largely came from the later period during Soviet domination of Poland while most of the native Polish references were from the period before. The Soviet sources tried to portray the history of the religion as supporting the philosophy of Dialectical materialism
of Soviet communism as an early anti-feudal movement but in the end supporting imperialism
and colonialism
. Contrary to this, native Polish works were either neutral or sympathetic to the religion, including publications from the Catholic Church in Poland. One of the few Pole Bahá'ís known from this period was Ola Pawlowska, a native of Poland who had fled during World War II
and settled in Canada where she became a member of the religion. In 1953 she became a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh when she moved to St. Pierre
and Miquelon Island
s. In 1969 she was traveling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
. In 1971 at the age 61 she returned to Poland for a period of almost 2 years before pioneering
to Luxemburg and then Zaire where she took interest in the Pygmy
population. Lisa Janti, better known as Lisa Montell, a Hollywood actress of the 1950s and 60s, was born Irena Augustynowic and her family fled Poland before World War II. In the 1960s she joined the religion and then worked on several advocacy projects while continuing to work in the arts. Contact is so minimal it is noteworthy that there have been Polish visitors to in Bahá'í Houses of Worship
: before 1973 some visited the temple in Panama who were surprised to meet a guide who could speak alittle Polish and in May 1978 a dance troupe from Poland visited the one near Chicago. In 1979 a Polish citizen attending an Esperantist convention joined the religion.
and Warsaw
. By 1990 the Bahá'ís from the west were helping to build a center to serve as a place to host a summer school for Bahá'ís in 1990 near Olesnica
. In March 1991 the first Local Spiritual Assembly was re-elected in Warsaw. The next assemblies in 1991-2 were in Bialystok
, Gdansk
, Krakow
, Katowice
, Lublin
, Lodz
, Poznan
, Szczecin
, and Wroclaw
. The National Assembly was elected in 1992 (indeed Pawlowska moved back to Poland for a short time to help form the assembly, at the age of 82.) Jane (Sadler) Helbo was among those to pioneer to Poland when she moved to Katowice from 1992 to 2000. In the spring on 1992 the polish Bahá'í community participated in the election of the Universal House of Justice
and in December 1993 Polish Ambassador to Israel Dr. Jan Dowgiatto paid an official visit to the headquarters of the religion in Haifa Israel. Through the 1990s Bahá'ís in Poland presented at or were invited to various conferences or university classes. In 1999 Bahá'í composer Lasse Thoresen
of Norway had a composition performed at the Warsaw Autumn
. In 2004 Senator Maria Szyszkowska
held hearings at which Bahá'ís gave presentations.
, near Warsaw
. Several polish language publications have covered the religion in recent years. The Polish edition of Cosmopolitan
had an extended article about the Bahá'í Faith August 2008 by Małgorzata Kowalczyk-Łuka who followed a family who learning about the religion. The Polish Gazette
(Gazeta Wyrborcza) also covered the religion twice in 2008 - February, April -mostly covering the Persecution of Bahá'ís
in Iran and once earlier in October 2006 covering the situation in Egypt. Bahá'ís from Poland were among the more than 4,600 people who gathered in Frankfurt for the largest ever Baha’i conference in Germany. The Association of Religion Data Archives
(relying on World Christian Encyclopedia
) estimated some 900 Bahá'ís.
Paris Talks
Paris Talks is a book transcribed from talks given by `Abdu'l-Bahá while in Paris. It was originally published as Talks by `Abdu'l-Bahá Given in Paris in 1912. `Abdu'l-Bahá did not read and authenticate the transcripts of his talks in Paris, and thus the authenticity of the talks is not known...
published in 1915. After becoming a Bahá'í in 1925 Poland's Lidia Zamenhof
Lidia Zamenhof
Lidia Zamenhof was the youngest daughter of Ludwig Zamenhof, the creator of the international auxiliary language, Esperanto. She was born 29 January 1904 in Warsaw, then in the Russian Empire...
returned to Poland in 1938 as its first well known Bahá'í. During the period of the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
Poland adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, so the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and properties. An analysis of publications before and during this period finds coverage by Soviet based sources basically hostile to the religion while native Polish coverage was neutral or positive. By 1963 only Warsaw was recognized as having a community. Following the fall of communism in Poland because of the Revolutions of 1989
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
, the Bahá'ís in Poland began to initiate contact with each other and have meetings - the first of these arose in Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. In March 1991 the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was re-elected in Warsaw. Poland's National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1992. There were about three hundred Bahá'ís in Poland in 2006 and there have been several articles in polish publications in 2008 covering the Persecution of Bahá'ís
Persecution of Bahá'ís
The persecution of Bahá'ís is the religious persecution of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Bahá'í Faith originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world...
in Iran and Egypt.
Early period
The earliest known articles in Polish were written by Aleksander Walerian Jabłonowski in the 1870s after he had met the Bahá'ís in Baghdad, and one of these was to defend the Bahá'í Faith against an erroneous article in another publication. Isabella GrinevskayaIsabella Grinevskaya
Isabella Grinevskaya was the pen name of Berta Friedberg, daughter of the author Abraham Shalom Friedberg and the first wife of Mordechai Spector....
was the pen name of a very early Russia Bahá'í born in Grodno and her father is buried in Warsaw. Grodno was sometimes part of Poland and Belarus but during her entire lifetime was part of Russia. She is well known because of a play of hers performed in 1903 called Báb. In the 1910s some Jews in a regiment from Poland while stationed in Turkmenistan and came into contact with the Bahá'ís there. Later the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin met `Abdu'l-Bahá
`Abdu'l-Bahá
‘Abdu’l-Bahá , born ‘Abbás Effendí, was the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. In 1892, `Abdu'l-Bahá was appointed in his father's will to be his successor and head of the Bahá'í Faith. `Abdu'l-Bahá was born in Tehran to an aristocratic family of the realm...
while he lived in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in 1914 and in 1915 there was a Polish translation of Paris Talks
Paris Talks
Paris Talks is a book transcribed from talks given by `Abdu'l-Bahá while in Paris. It was originally published as Talks by `Abdu'l-Bahá Given in Paris in 1912. `Abdu'l-Bahá did not read and authenticate the transcripts of his talks in Paris, and thus the authenticity of the talks is not known...
published in Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
.
Lidia Zamenhof
Around 1925 Zamenhof became a member of the Bahá'í FaithBahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
. Zamenhof was the official representative of the religion to the dedication of the monument erected upon the grave of her father in Warsaw in 1926. Some Canadian Bahá'ís visited Poland in the early 1930s while Zamenhof went to the United States in late 1937 to teach the religion as well as Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
. In December 1938 she returned to Poland, where she continued to teach and translated Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, (see John Esslemont
John Esslemont
John Ebenezer Esslemont M.B., Ch.B. , was a prominent British Bahá'í from Scotland. He was the author of the well-known introductory book on the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, which is still in circulation. He was named posthumously by Shoghi Effendi as the first Hand of the Cause he...
), Hidden Words
Hidden Words
Kalimát-i-Maknúnih or The Hidden Words is a book written in Baghdad around 1857 by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith...
and Some Answered Questions
Some Answered Questions
Some Answered Questions was first published in 1908. It contains questions asked to `Abdu'l-Bahá, son of the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, by Laura Clifford Barney, during several of her visits to Haifa between 1904 and 1906, and `Abdu'l-Bahá's answers to these questions.Prominent among the topics...
. While Zamenhof worked on the translations publication was delayed and accomplished out of France by a Polish nephew of Anne Lynch then in a Swiss internment camp for Polish officers. In the second half of 1938 Zamenhof had been a major influence of the conversion of the first known Ukrainian becoming a Bahá'í, who was living in eastern Poland at the time. Zamenhof mentions there were five Bahá'ís in Poland in August 1939. There was contact with nine individuals investigating the religion mostly through Esperantist reading in later in 1947. One of them offered Zamenhof a hiding place she had declined. She was arrested and eventually killed at the Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
in autumn 1942.
Period of oppression
Since its inception the religion has had involvement in socio-economic development beginning by giving greater freedom to women, promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, and that involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and clinics. The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of JusticeUniversal House of Justice
The Universal House of Justice is the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith. It is a legislative institution with the authority to supplement and apply the laws of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and exercises a judicial function as the highest appellate institution in the...
dated 20 October 1983 was released. Bahá'ís were urged to seek out ways, compatible with the Bahá'í teachings
Bahá'í teachings
The Bahá'í teachings represent a considerable number of theological, social, and spiritual ideas that were established in the Bahá'í Faith by Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion, and clarified by successive leaders including `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh's son, and Shoghi Effendi, `Abdu'l-Bahá's...
, in which they could become involved in the social and economic development of the communities in which they lived. World-wide in 1979 there were 129 officially recognized Bahá'í socio-economic development projects. By 1987, the number of officially recognized development projects had increased to 1482. However in the Soviet sphere during the period of the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
Poland adopted the Soviet policy of oppression of religion, so the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned its administration and properties. From 1947 - 1950 Bahá'ís were still known to be in seven cities in Poland. In 1948 there was a known group studying the religion in Warsaw. While the Bahá'ís in Poland were retreating from public view, in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, the largest ethnically Polish population outside of Warsaw, saw the rise of the first Bahá'í House of Worship
Bahá'í House of Worship
A Bahá'í House of Worship, sometimes referred to by its Arabic name of Mashriqu'l-Adhkár ,is the designation of a place of worship, or temple, of the Bahá'í Faith...
in the West and was completed in 1953. In 1960 a Bahá'í traveled from Poland to Luxembourg for a Bahá'í meeting. By 1963 only Warsaw was recognized as having an active community. After that, until about 1989, the Soviet oppression of religions ended public activities of the religion. See also other Soviet block countries which had Bahá'í communities like Ukraine
Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine
The Bahá'í Faith in Ukraine began during the policy of oppression of religion in the former Soviet Union. Before that time, Ukraine, as part of the Russian Empire, would have had indirect contact with the Bahá'í Faith as far back as 1847...
, Turkmenistan
Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan
The Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan begins before Russian advances into the region when the area was under the influence of Persia. By 1887 a community of Bahá'í refugees from religious violence in Persia had made a religious center in Ashgabat. Shortly afterwards — by 1894 — Russia made...
among others. While the Bahá'í community became all but unknown, the religion had been the object of some academic and popular commentary in Poland over the years. There are several distinctions between Soviet coverage translated into Polish and native Polish coverage of the Bahá'í Faith. There were differences in sources cited, periods when the works were published, and attitudes about the religion presented. Most Soviet translations cited works from Persian antagonists of the religion. The native Polish works cited leaders of the religion or western or earlier Polish academics. For the native Polish works no Russian or Soviet publications, either in translation or in original, were cited. The translations from Soviet academics largely came from the later period during Soviet domination of Poland while most of the native Polish references were from the period before. The Soviet sources tried to portray the history of the religion as supporting the philosophy of Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism
Dialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
of Soviet communism as an early anti-feudal movement but in the end supporting imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
. Contrary to this, native Polish works were either neutral or sympathetic to the religion, including publications from the Catholic Church in Poland. One of the few Pole Bahá'ís known from this period was Ola Pawlowska, a native of Poland who had fled during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and settled in Canada where she became a member of the religion. In 1953 she became a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh when she moved to St. Pierre
St. Pierre Island
St Pierre Island is a raised reef island west of Providence Atoll and part of Farquhar Group, which belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles. The island is located 35 km west of Cerf Island of Providence Atoll, 704 km from Mahé and 500 km ENE of Aldabra...
and Miquelon Island
Miquelon Island
Miquelon Island is one of the three main islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. It is connected to the similarly-sized Langlade Island by a thin tombolo sandspit known as La Dune, which in turn forms a part of the boundary of the Grand Barachois.Miquelon and Langlade form the commune of...
s. In 1969 she was traveling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
. In 1971 at the age 61 she returned to Poland for a period of almost 2 years before pioneering
Pioneering (Bahá'í)
A pioneer is a volunteer Bahá'í who leaves his or her home to journey to another place for the purpose of teaching the Bahá'í Faith. The act of so moving is termed pioneering. Bahá'ís refrain from using the term "missionary"...
to Luxemburg and then Zaire where she took interest in the Pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
population. Lisa Janti, better known as Lisa Montell, a Hollywood actress of the 1950s and 60s, was born Irena Augustynowic and her family fled Poland before World War II. In the 1960s she joined the religion and then worked on several advocacy projects while continuing to work in the arts. Contact is so minimal it is noteworthy that there have been Polish visitors to in Bahá'í Houses of Worship
Bahá'í House of Worship
A Bahá'í House of Worship, sometimes referred to by its Arabic name of Mashriqu'l-Adhkár ,is the designation of a place of worship, or temple, of the Bahá'í Faith...
: before 1973 some visited the temple in Panama who were surprised to meet a guide who could speak alittle Polish and in May 1978 a dance troupe from Poland visited the one near Chicago. In 1979 a Polish citizen attending an Esperantist convention joined the religion.
Re-development
Following political changes in Poland following the Solidarity movement, the Bahá'ís in Poland began to initiate contact and have meetings - the first of these arose in KrakowKraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. By 1990 the Bahá'ís from the west were helping to build a center to serve as a place to host a summer school for Bahá'ís in 1990 near Olesnica
Olesnica
Oleśnica is a town in the Trzebnickie Hills in southwestern Poland with 36,951 inhabitants . It is situated in Lower Silesian Voivodeship...
. In March 1991 the first Local Spiritual Assembly was re-elected in Warsaw. The next assemblies in 1991-2 were in Bialystok
Bialystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Located on the Podlaskie Plain on the banks of the Biała River, Białystok ranks second in terms of population density, eleventh in population, and thirteenth in area, of the cities of Poland...
, Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
, Lodz
Lódz
Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately south-west of Warsaw...
, Poznan
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, and Wroclaw
Wroclaw
Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...
. The National Assembly was elected in 1992 (indeed Pawlowska moved back to Poland for a short time to help form the assembly, at the age of 82.) Jane (Sadler) Helbo was among those to pioneer to Poland when she moved to Katowice from 1992 to 2000. In the spring on 1992 the polish Bahá'í community participated in the election of the Universal House of Justice
Universal House of Justice
The Universal House of Justice is the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith. It is a legislative institution with the authority to supplement and apply the laws of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, and exercises a judicial function as the highest appellate institution in the...
and in December 1993 Polish Ambassador to Israel Dr. Jan Dowgiatto paid an official visit to the headquarters of the religion in Haifa Israel. Through the 1990s Bahá'ís in Poland presented at or were invited to various conferences or university classes. In 1999 Bahá'í composer Lasse Thoresen
Lasse Thoresen
Lasse Thoresen is a Norwegian composer whose works concentrate on a contemporary transformation of the folk-music traditions of many peoples, especially those of Scandinavia.-Biography:...
of Norway had a composition performed at the Warsaw Autumn
Warsaw Autumn
Warsaw Autumn is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. Indeed, for many years, it was the only festival of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board...
. In 2004 Senator Maria Szyszkowska
Maria Szyszkowska
Maria Szyszkowska is a Polish academic, writer and former Senator. Szyszkowska was a member of the SLD and chaired that Party's Ethics Committee...
held hearings at which Bahá'ís gave presentations.
Modern community
In 2000 Poland rose in support of a United Nations human rights resolution about concern over the Bahá'ís in Iran as well as taking steps to further document conditions. There were about three hundred Bahá'ís in Poland in 2006. The 2006 and 2008 Polish summer schools took place late July in SerockSerock
Serock is a town at the north bank of the Zegrze lake in the Legionowo County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,616 inhabitants ....
, near Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Several polish language publications have covered the religion in recent years. The Polish edition of Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
had an extended article about the Bahá'í Faith August 2008 by Małgorzata Kowalczyk-Łuka who followed a family who learning about the religion. The Polish Gazette
Blackpool Gazette
The Blackpool Gazette is an English evening newspaper based in Blackpool, Lancashire. Published every day except Sunday, it covers the towns and communities of the Fylde coast...
(Gazeta Wyrborcza) also covered the religion twice in 2008 - February, April -mostly covering the Persecution of Bahá'ís
Persecution of Bahá'ís
The persecution of Bahá'ís is the religious persecution of Bahá'ís in various countries, especially in Iran, where the Bahá'í Faith originated and the location of one of the largest Bahá'í populations in the world...
in Iran and once earlier in October 2006 covering the situation in Egypt. Bahá'ís from Poland were among the more than 4,600 people who gathered in Frankfurt for the largest ever Baha’i conference in Germany. The Association of Religion Data Archives
Association of religion data archives
The Association of Religion Data Archives is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997, and online since 1998, the archive was initially targeted at researchers interested in American religion...
(relying on World Christian Encyclopedia
World Christian Encyclopedia
World Christian Encyclopedia is a reference work published by Oxford University Press, known for providing membership statistics for major and minor world religions in every country of the world, including historical data and projections of future populations.The first edition, by David B. Barrett,...
) estimated some 900 Bahá'ís.