Jewish Community News

News: June 2007

Poland’s Chief Rabbi speaks in Los Gatos

Rabbi Schudrich speaks with Holocaust Survivor and local community member Jack Tramiel.

By Cecily Ruttenberg

   During a recent visit to Los Gatos, Poland’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, told visitors a common Polish story of the last half decade.
     A young man comes to him and says, “Rabbi, I want to become Jewish.” The man is a born Catholic, and for some reason, now feels called to Judaism.  Trying to be polite, Schudrich tells him he will have to keep Shabbos, wear teffillin, pray.  “Hoping to scare him away,” Rabbi Schudrich jokes.
    But the man perseveres. Months later the man visits his mother, who has heard about his Jewish pursuits. She lets her son in on a long kept family secret. Her maiden name had really been Bernstein. They had been Jewish all along.
    Newly discovered Jewish adults are emerging in greater numbers in Poland in the last half-decade, in large part thanks to the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland. Backed by  local Jewish philanthropist Tad Taube, the Heritage Initiative funds Jewish education and cultural programs in Poland, including funding of rabbis, synagogues, Polish-Jewish artists, adult Jewish education, Holocaust education and more.
    The result has been a resurgence of interest in Judaism by Polish Jews and non-Jews alike. Adults rediscovering their Judaism are becoming more religiously and culturally affiliated and involved.
    In 1939, Poland contained a thriving Jewish community of three-and-a-half million. By 1944, 90 percent had been murdered. Of the remaining 350,000, most of those who wished to maintain their Jewish identity left. “Of those who wanted to stay, most gave up their Jewish identity,” Schudrich explains. “Because of fear, not assimilation. It was not safe to be Jewish in Poland.”
   Fast forward to the 1970s. Still in rabbinical school, Michael Schudrich travels to Poland. His tour guide tells him, there are only a few thousand old Jewish people left, that’s it. Schudrich instinctively knows there are more, hiding in cracks, in hidden identities. In the next decade, he travels to Poland six times.  “I was fascinated by what was left, I can’t explain it logically.”
     In 1989, the Communist system crack-ed. At this turning point, a new message emerged that had not been heard since 1939. It was safe to be Jewish. Slowly, small groups of Jewish Poles emerged from the woodwork. Mostly their Jewish knowledge was limited to the fact that they were Jewish.
  In December 2004, Rabbi Michael Schudrich was appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland, by the Union of Jewish Communities, the Jewish umbrella organization in Poland. Schudrich’s position is funded by the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland.
     Rabbi Schudrich today continues to
teach Jews in Poland about Judaism. “Fifteen or sixteen years ago, there was an advantage that everyone was at the same level. A five-year-old, 15-year-old or 55-year-old were all at the same place, they knew nothing,” said Schudrich. “You didn’t have the need for a tiered curriculum. This is a new challenge. Today one person just discovered they were Jewish, and there’s a college student who may know quite a lot.”
     Rabbi Schudrich (and the Jewish Heritage Initiative) emphasize the need not only to support the remerging Jewish community in Poland, but to acknowledge the contributions of  pre-World War II Poland. It was Poland’s Jewish, Ashkenazic culture, Klezmer music, folklore, art, food and traditions that have created the fabric of American Jewish life.