Edward Moskal (May 21, 1924 – March 22, 2005) was a longtime president of the Polish National Alliance (PNA) and the Polish American Congress (PAC).
Biography
Moskal was born to a Polish immigrant couple who owned restaurant and catering businesses. Chicago's St. John Cantius School, which focused on the children of Polish Catholic immigrants, provided his education. He became an insurance broker and completed a three-year tour in the U.S. Army before joining the PNA in 1942.
Moskal was elected president of both Polish National Alliance (PNA) and Polish American Congress (PAC) in 1988, and left the position of treasurer.
His 60-plus-year career with PNA led him to a private meeting with Pope John Paul II, several humanitarian-related trips to Poland, and an appointment by United States President Bill Clinton to accompany Vice President Al Gore at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising anniversary ceremonies in Warsaw.
Poland's President Lech Wałęsa awarded him the second highest civilian honor of the Republic of Poland, the Commander's Cross with Star of Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. He was also made an honorary citizen of the city of Kraków, Poland. The title of Honorary Doctor was bestowed upon him by the University of Poznań Medical School in 1997.
Edward Moskal died on March 22, 2005, aged 80, in Chicago. He suffered from diabetes, and succumbed to complications after a long period of illness. Over the 2 day Wake and Mass, the Church of St. John Cantius, where he was a lifetime member, reported that over 3000 people paid their respects. Moskal transformed the PAC from its Polish-oriented lobbying active mostly in Washington to greater activity in Warsaw.
His criticisms of Israel and the Jewish lobbying groups internationally became a focus of attention.
The American Jewish Congress (AJC), called Moskal an anti-Semite.
In a letter to Prime Minister Buzek he criticized the nomination of Wladyslaw Bartoszewski as a member of the Remembrance Committee. (Bartoszewski was an inmate in Auschwitz). The letter ended: "It brings me comfort to think that, with God's help, you shall be prime minister only until the spring."
Under the headline: "Another Trojan horse of Jewish organizations", Moskal reflected: "Who employs Kieres. Aren't these the lackeys who, feeling strange guilt, yield to Jewish demands.." In the same statement he advises Jews: "It would be better if they treated Palestinians properly without killing their children. Terrible is the image of a young Palestinian protected by his own father against Israeli gunfire, moments later dead from the bullets of these 'heroes'."
He made headlines a few years later when he speculated that Polish war hero Jan Nowak-Jeziorański was a Nazi collaborator.
In 2002, when Rahm Emanuel pursued the U.S. House seat in the 5th District of Illinois to replace Rod Blagojevich who successfully ran for governor, Moskal supported former Illinois State Representative Nancy Kaszak. Moskal called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing" about "our heritage". Moskal also charged that Emanuel had dual citizenship with Israel and had served in the Israeli Army. Moskal's comments were widely condemned as antisemitic.
Other actions
He took former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar to task at a Pulaski (Kazimierz Pułaski) Day event in 1996, demanding the ouster of then state Education Superintendent Joseph A. Spagnolo for failing to order Illinois schools to teach about Pulaski, a Revolutionary War hero who was born in Poland.
When the late syndicated columnist Ann Landers used a racially derogatory term to describe Pope John Paul II in The New Yorker, Moskal quipped, "She should have shut up after she made the nice remark about the pope."
References
External links
- Home page of the Polish National Alliance (Pol:Związek Narodowy Polski)
- Home page of the Polish American Congress
- Polish language site, needs description.
- Polish language site, needs description.
- Polish language site, needs description.
- Polish language site, needs description.
- Polish language site, needs description.
- Polish language site, needs description.