Israelis to get a better look at Poland's Jewish history

President Lech Kaczyński met with Israeli President Simon Peres and PM Ehud Olmert yesterday. However, the most important talks may be with Education Minister Yuli Tamir.

Tamir agreed to a Polish proposition to create a Polish-Israeli fund to finance excursions for young Israelis. Poland wants to have a say in the programs of visits, which are currently limited to the death-camp Auschwitz.

This leaves Israelis with the impression that Poland is a "giant Jewish cemetery," said Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka from the Presidential Chancellery. She added, "we want to show that before the Holocaust there was Jewish life here and 800 years of peaceful coexistence of both peoples."

The Polish delegation also reached an agreement with the Israeli side on a youth exchange of around 300 people annually and to a textbook curriculum.

Representatives of both sides said this is the result of a large improvement in the Polish-Israeli relationship. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A12) K.K.