PERSPECTIVE ON POLAND : Communism Toppled, Prejudice Endures : There are few Jews alive in Poland today, but the country still manifests a virulent anti-Semitic strain.

During a recent visit to Poland I was confronted with compelling evidence of the revolutionary changes occurring there. Tour guides, once compelled to toe the party line, now freely criticize the government, Russians, communism or whatever strikes their fancy. A fierce presidential campaign--forcing Lech Walesa into a runoff--was under way. In the bustling Polish “gray market” customers haggle for everything from German watches to tomatoes. The former headquarters of the Communist Party has become the site of a bank and a stock exchange.

Yet while the vestiges of communism are crumbling, entrenched prejudices are not. Anti-Semitism, if still a marginal phenomenon, is increasingly evident. I saw anti-Semitic graffiti--including swastikas and the slogan “Jews to the gas”--on Jewish institutions.

More subtle and potentially more dangerous is the “passive” prejudice of the political and social arenas. Adam Michnik, editor of the respected newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, called it “magical anti-Semitism.” If a Pole doesn’t like someone, he must be a Jew. If a government policy is not to one’s liking, the minister responsible must be a Jew.

Polish anti-Semitism is also “magical” in the sense that it is hardly ever a product of firsthand experience. Poland supports the notion that where Jews do not exist, anti-Semites create them. Poland’s Jewish population is minuscule--Buddhists outnumber them.

As the journalist Konstanty Gebert observed, Polish attitudes toward Jews are largely grounded in ignorance and historical distortion. What they do not know they have learned from the crucifixion saga in the New Testament. The communist regime stressed the terrible things that were done to Poles during the war--but little, if any, mention was made of the Jews’ fate. At Auschwitz, I heard a teacher tell her class that 90% of the people who died at the camp were Poles (in fact 15% were Poles, 85% were Jews). As if to imply that Jewish suffering was incidental, she added that Jewish survivors are “now very close to the Germans and live in great comfort.”

Post-communist free expression has brought with it the demons of religious fundamentalism and extreme nationalism, both of which are inherently anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism is a factor in the presidential campaign. Defeated candidate Tadeusz Mazowiecki lost many votes because of false rumors that he is Jewish. Lech Walesa made such oblique accusations, urging voters to support him because “I am a full-blooded Pole born here.” Walesa has called on Jews to stop hiding their identity, buttressing the popular perception that many “closet “ Jews are in powerful positions. His rallies consistently attracted anti-Semites who yelled slogans such as “Jews to the gas.” To the consternation of many Poles, Jews and non-Jews, Walesa never disavowed them.

Tolerance of anti-Semitism among young people is growing. Last year when an Israeli basketball team visited the university in Poznan, it was greeted with jeers, “Go to Auschwitz!” “Go the gas ovens!” A high school senior recounted to me how her classmates barred her way, taunting “No Jews allowed in here.” She was particularly pained that none of her other classmates--whom she had known since kindergarten--came to her defense.

Anti-Semitism has made itself felt in the religious context. A new Polish edition of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”--the fraudulent blueprint for Jewish “world domination” that originated with czarist secret police in 19th-Century Russia--has been distributed at church bookstores. It accuses Jews of being responsible for Poland’s ills. Another publication describes a Jewish “hate campaign” against the Roman Catholic church. The liberal Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny accused priests, nuns and church officials of encouraging anti-Jewish prejudice.

There are positive signs. Mazowiecki has publicly condemned anti-Semitism. In a meeting with a delegation of American Jews, Mazowiecki reiterated to us his determination to fight it. In an especially moving episode, Father Stanislaw Musial, editor of Tygodnik Powszechny, denounced Christian Poles’ behavior during the Holocaust. He “begged forgiveness” for “every Pole of Christian faith who betrayed you to the Nazis . . . who enriched himself on your fear and loneliness.” He spoke to me of the desperate need for Poland to practice true repentance by becoming a “land totally free of every trace of anti-Semitism.”

Poland and other countries where anti-Semitism is evident must transmit this message to the average citizen and not just the foreign visitor. Leaders must expose anti-Semitism for the lunacy that it is. More important still is revising academic and church curricula. The unique fate of the Jews during the Holocaust must become part of the official curriculum.

Until the younger generation understands anti-Semitism within a broader historical context, they will be easy prey for hatemongers. They must be taught not only how Jews died but how they lived. Bigotry capitalizes on ignorance. It is not the welfare of the remnant of Polish Jewry that is at stake, but the future of this newborn democracy.