Polish President Karol Nawrocki does not intend to celebrate Hanukkah, fulfilling a campaign declaration he made before he became president.
At the time, while running for office, Nawrocki said that if he won the presidency, he would not celebrate Hanukkah.
“I take my commitment to Christian values seriously, so I celebrate holidays that are close to my heart,” he told RMF FM.
Although not a long-standing tradition, menorah candles are lit in the Polish Parliament. President Lech Kaczyński initiated the tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at the Presidential Palace by the head of state. Andrzej Duda continued the tradition. Nawrocki, however, has no intention of continuing this practice.
On Monday, the Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony took place in the Sejm (lower house of parliament). The ceremony was attended by Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chabad-Lubavitch President Shalom Ber Stambler, Israel’s Ambassador to Poland Yaakov Finkelstein, Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek, and U.S. Ambassador to Poland Thomas Rose.
Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, commented on Karol Nawrocki’s decision in a program on Wirtualna Polska.
“Every president has his own customs, his own approach to certain issues. I would like to make it very clear that this is not an anti-Jewish or hostile gesture,” he said.
The presidential minister estimated that over 90 percent of Poles do not know what days Hanukkah is celebrated on, and “the Jewish diaspora is small today.”
“Other presidents considered this to be appropriate. President Nawrocki decided there was no need for it. It’s no big deal,” said Bogucki.
Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday based on historical events described in the Books of Maccabees. In 2025, Hanukkah began on the evening of Dec.14 and ends on the evening of Dec. 22.
Nawrocki has had fierce disputes with Jewish and Israeli organizations in the past over their interpretation of Poland’s role in the Holocaust.
Many Israeli publications were furious once he won. For example, The Times of Israel opened its article covering Nawrocki’s inauguration, writing: “Conservative Karol Nawrocki, who made Holocaust revisionism part of his campaign, was inaugurated Wednesday as Poland’s new president, which could set the country on a more nationalist course and cast doubt on the viability of the centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.”
The portal not only took issue with the support Nawrocki received from PiS, which they say “promoted historical narratives about Polish victimhood and resistance to the Nazis, while delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism or Poles who killed Jews.”
They also wrote that he “sought favor from Grzegorz Braun,” whom they call “a far-right candidate who came in third and made antisemitism a feature of his campaign.”
