London – The Polish Embassy in England held a kosher reception on Tuesday to welcome the first rabbi born in Poland to serve in the country for 40 years.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Remarkably, Rabbi Maciej Pawlak did not even find out he was Jewish until he was 15.
Now, aged 32, he is the living embodiment of the revival of Jewish life in Poland as principal of the Lauder-Morasha Jewish day school with 200 children in Warsaw.
Hosted by the embassy, his visit to the UK was due to include an address at yesterday’s annual Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies conference at the embassy.
“I never met my grandparents, who passed away when I was little,” he said. “When I was 15, my parents told me the history of my family and how my grandparents survived the war. That was the beginning. I went to Jewish summer camp and that was my first contact with Judaism.”
There are many more in Poland, he believes, with a similar background, although no one knows the numbers.
get back to speaking yiddish, revive the community and the language. great news! all the jews in the world shouldnt be situated only in new york and israel!