GRABSKI, STANISLAW°

GRABSKI, STANISLAW° (1871–1949), Polish statesman and economist; he was the most prominent ideologist of the endecja (ND) Party and its leader for many years. Grabski held office as minister of education in 1923. In 1925–26, before the May Revolution, he played a prominent role in the conclusion of an agreement (ugoda) between the Jewish Parliamentary Club and the Polish government headed by his brother Wladyslaw. In 1926, he became alienated from Endecja because of his opposition to Fascist circles. Grabski was inconsistent in his political opinions during World War II in the government-in-exile in London, and in 1946 he returned to Warsaw, having reconciled himself with the new regime. WLADYSLAW GRABSKI (1874–1938) was Stanislaw's brother. Before World War I he was a National Democrat (Endecja) deputy in the Russian duma . In independent Poland after the war, where he was a deputy of the Sejm (parliament), he left the party and took an independent position, serving as minister of finance in several governments. When the Red Army invaded Poland in 1920, Grabski became prime minister for a short while, and again headed the government from 1923 to 1925. The financial policy and taxation system introduced by Grabski became a severe financial burden to Jewish merchants and shopkeepers. The resulting crisis in the economic life of Polish Jewry served as an impetus to emigration on the "Fourth Aliyah" to Palestine of 1924–26, which became known as the "Grabski aliyah." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Polski Słownik Biograficzny, 8 (1959–60), 519–28. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Rudnicki, Zydzi w Parlamencie II Rzeczypospolitej (2004), index; A. Ajnenkiel, Od "Rzadow Ludowych" do Przewrotu majowego 1918–1926 (1964), index; S. Netzer, "Medini'ut ha-Neẓigut ha-Yehudit (ha-'Kolo') be-Parlament ha-Polani be-1924," in: Galed, 12 (1991); idem, "Ha-Antishemi'ut ha-Kalkalit be-Polin bi-Shenot ha-20 u-Ma'avaka shel ha-Neẓigut ha-Yehudit be-Beit ha-Nivḥarim Negdo," in: Galed, XIV; P. Korzec, "Heskem Memshelet W. Grabski im ha-Neẓigut ha-Parlamentarit ha-Yehudit," in: Galed, I, 175–210. (Moshe Landau)