Some Jewish historians say the Hebrew word for '
Poland' is pronounced as
Polania or
Polin in
Hebrew. As
transliterated into Hebrew, these names for Poland were interpreted as "good omens" because
Polania can be broken down into three Hebrew words:
po ("here"),
lan ("dwells"),
ya ("
God"), and
Polin into two words of:
po ("here")
lin ("[you should] dwell"). The "message" was that Poland was meant to be a good place for the Jews. In later centuries up to 80% of the Jewish world population lived in Poland.