Jews have come to Poland since the…

Jews have come to Poland since the tenth century from the west, from Khazaria in the east, and from the Eastern Roman Empire in the south.

Their presence had soon evoked the enmity of the Polish church: a synod convened in 1267 in Breslau (Wroclaw) outlines its anti-Jewish policy; its main aim is to isolate the Jews as far as possible from the Christians, not only from the communion of friendship and table but also to separate them in quarters surrounded by a wall or a ditch “for as up to now the land of Poland is newly grafted on to the Christian body, it is to be feared that the Christian people will more easily be misled by the superstitions and evil habits of the Jews that live among them.”