Poland

They were precocious childhood actors who once plotted to steal the moon, but these days the silver-haired Kaczynski twins have a new goal: leading Poland to the right. President Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin, Jaroslaw, leader of the dominant Law and Justice Party, believe Poland has been weakened by years of liberalism and corruption. They're stoking patriotism and forming alliances with ultraconservative parties. Their homespun rhetoric resonates in an economically troubled nation that has yet to bury the vestiges of 40 years of communism.

Bush's "generous" offer of $100 million in aid to the Polish government is an insult to that country by its insignificance. Just consider that we give this much every two weeks to the Israeli government, whose population is only 4 million people, a fraction of Poland's. If we can afford to give Israel almost $10 million every day of the year, we certainly can be equally generous with Poland, whose ways we are trying to change. ALFRED EGENDORF San Diego

In reading the article (May 16) on the fate of the Jews of Poland, I was surprised to see no mention of the ferocious anti-Semitism displayed in Poland even after the defeat of Hitler. There were numerous anti-Semitic assaults, including many murders, perpetrated against Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had returned to Poland after World War II. These attacks reached a peak in the city of Kielce on July 4, 1946, at which time the Jewish population was attacked by Polish mobs that brutally murdered 42 of the Jewish residents.

In your editorial the gratitude expressed by the writer to Poland's Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki could be compared to the stroking of a child and whipping him, all at the same time. The acknowledgement of the noble gesture of making available Polish airline LOT for emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel is mixed in the same sentences with all alleged past wrongs of Poland. Before the Solidarity movement Poland used to get only bad press in writings about Polish-Jewish relations.

When I returned from Poland in November, my family asked me what was it like. Worse than I expected and impossible. Thanks to Joseph Borkowski ("Christmas in Poland, the Season to Be Jostled," Opinion, Dec. 25), I now hand out copies of his column and say "that's what it was like." I traveled alone for two weeks and lived with a family for a month. When I would comment on the surliness of waiters and clerks, people would tell me this is "normal." The putrid air in Silesia, "normal."

Piotr Pacewicz writes in "The 'Other Poland' Votes for a Miracle" (Opinion, Dec. 2) that Polish television "gave equal free time for all candidates' campaigns." Imagine what would have happened here in the United States November if we had such a democracy! In our "free elections" the media are available only to those candidates with enough money to buy them. JACK MITCHELL, Cedapines Park

An empty lawn in the heart of what was once the Warsaw Ghetto will soon become a place not only of mourning, but of celebrating the Jewish life that flourished in Poland before it was destroyed in the Holocaust. Jewish leaders and President Lech Kaczynski broke ground Tuesday for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.