Polish-Jewish magazine confounds skeptics, nets ad revenue
Konstanty Gebert said he'd been waiting for years for a Polish-Jewish magazine he could contribute to.
Finally, he decided to start his own Midrasz with start-up financial help from the Ronald Lauder Foundation.
Gebert, an early Solidarity activist, was one of the pioneering journalists for Gazeta Wyborcza, writing commentary under the name Dawid Warszawski. He also became one of the first Polish Jews to talk about religion, to rediscover his own, and to write about the Jewish heritage and its roots in Poland.
But starting an intellectual-cultural-political magazine moored to a Polish Jewish foundation? Gebert said his most supportive friends were skeptical. "When I left Gazeta Wyborcza to do this, they said either I wouldn't have any readers or I wouldn't have any writers," he told the Poland chapter of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists last Monday.
They were dead wrong. Although the monthly magazine still gets financial support from the Lauder foundation, its sales have gone up from 1,000 in the first year to 1,500 in the second, and as the magazine celebrates its third anniversary, sales are pushing 2,000. And Midrasz is now starting to get advertising from companies wanting the business of the readers, now that Gebert can show that there are readers.
"After World War II, Polish Jews tried desperately not to be seen," he said. "We had the opposite concept. We want to be seen to be on your dentist's coffee table in the waiting room. In fact, my wife's dentist recently asked her how he could get Midrasz for his office."
Gebert divides his target audience into three groups: Polish Jews, here and abroad; the Polish "intelligentsia" interested in longer essays and debates; and "Poles of Jewish origin those who have Jewish roots and would like to find out more," but who would not openly show up at Jewish services or schools. He aims to give them some information about the past, and the present, which will help them in their quest.
The magazine's readership surveys indicate that half its readers are Jewish. Gebert said the non-Jews are the ones who want more articles about Judaism, "about the Torah and the Jews who subscribe want more literature. Go figure!"
Detroit-based Miller, Canfield attorney Michael Traison has been the catalyst behind the creation of the Poland chapter of the Jewish lawyers group. He has led the four monthly meetings held so far, whose speakers have included Piotr Dubno, a top aide to Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz, and also the U.S. Embassy's political officer, Marc Norman.
Traison has said that the membership, now nearing 30-40, is not restricted to religious, ideological or country-of-origin categories.
And when the group elected officers last Monday night, they selected two seasoned lawyers who have been early activists in this group but who are not Jewish. Iwona Chelkowska-Kamionka, a partner in Kalwas & Partners, was elected president. Maria Slazak, an attorney and senior manager at the EVIP Plucinska & Partners Law Office, was elected secretary treasurer.
Daniel Fried may have left Poland as U.S. ambassador, but he's far from leaving Polish interests behind. His new job is principal deputy secretary of state for the Office of New Independent States. In English, that translates into being a point person for the former Soviet republics, now grouped into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
That means he'll be benefitting from his Polish expertise in building new bridges with Ukraine in particular, and in drawing lessons from Poland's success as a way of helping other countries to the east in their varying paths on the way to transition.
And the new U.S. ambassador-designate, Christopher Hill? His nomination is mired in Congress. Not because there's any problem with his qualifications. He may be one of the savvier ambassadors to be sent here in terms of background. He was here in the 1980s; speaks Polish; and as a former Poland desk officer, knows the issues. He was also a former ambassador to Macedonia.
But in the run-up to the U.S. presidential vote this fall, the Republican-dominated Congress is holding up many nominations and holding them hostage as bargaining chips with the Democratic White House.
So if you're among the lucky ones to get an invite to the July 4 celebrations at the U.S. ambassador's residence, don't count on Hill being there to greet you.
So what happens when Citibank takes control of Bank Handlowy, assuming the interim steps continue without any hiccups through the summer and fall?
Some analysts think there is room for much reorganizing.
Andrzej Powierza, a banking expert at Wood & Co., expects Citibank to help Handlowy get a better grip on services to small and medium-sized businesses and the burgeoning crop of Polish entrepreneurial start-ups.
Handlowy may have been a leading specialist in state-owned enterprises and its successors, giant privatized corporations, he said, "but it is better to have a base of Polish clients among small entrepreneurs. They are more stable than big clients, which are being taken over by foreign companies."
Powierza also said it was clear that banking regulators wanted to make sure there was a single bank emerging from this high-profile takeover.
"They wanted to avoid a situation as in the case of ING, which has its own subsidiary bank, ING Barings Poland and is also a majority shareholder in Bank Slaski," Powierza said.
