Haha, it's funny because we've had the same sort of "misunderstanding" in the Polish section, wetal.
It's nothing wrong about Pekka asking for Lem's roots, notice that he hasn't said that it implies anything. He is just curious.
Thank you, Terminus. Here is another piece of information from the web:
Stanislaw Lem was born in 1921 in Lvov, Poland, to a family of the professional class; both his father and uncle were doctors. As a young man Lem planned to become a doctor himself, enrolling at the Lvov Medical Institute. When the Institute closed due to the war in 1941, he became a mechanic and welder for a German corporation. During the lean war years Lem, who was himself of Jewish ancestry, escaped a number of close calls as Jewish acquaintances disappeared around him. On at least one occasion, he was nearly arrested sneaking out supplies from his workplace for the Polish Resistance.
http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/lem.htmlAnd Washington Post writes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/27/AR2006032701571.htmlDuring World War II, his secular Jewish family struggled to stay together and survive. The family forged identification papers to avoid internment in the Jewish ghetto.
So friends, if I write about Lem, which one is the most appropriate expression -
to call Lem Polish, or Polish-Jewish?
Maybe I am so obsessive about a correct definition because in Finland you call people Finns or Finnish-Swedes depending on the native tongue. Swedes is reserved for Swedes in Sweden. Usually, but not always you find out by the name. Or shoud the term jewish be reserved only practitioners of Jewish religion, because, as it has already been said, we all are mixed-up (my mother´s family originates from Sweden, but they changed language about 200 years ago so you call them Finns).
Cheers, Pekka