T. W. Will be the Jewish Service a morning prayer shop in warsaws main synagogue led to proudly by the chief rabbi of poland. The fact that there is noise behind me because the people who are prayed are now having breakfast together is a sign. That there is jewish life and. A resurgence of jewish life in poland for many a highly Unexpected Development earlier. This was the country that nazi germany chose as the epicenter of a systematic genocide in which 6000000 jews died across europe we dont talk a lot about auschwitz. Policemens this person has a as a gift a great gift. We desperately need the rabbi. Fundraising. Cheese i said and for that. Matter a Catholic Bishop is among the various public figures attending this Interfaith Service in warsaw. The host michel she trick chief rabbi of poland the answer of a everyone. Of an interfaith prayer wishing that anti semitism will finally disappear. Change doesnt happen overnight. It takes time but as long as you see youre going in the right direction that gives you gives you energy and gives you power. And its that hope that sustains the work of michael shoot rick this is his office and warsaws no cheek synagogue also a home for the american born rabbi. You never find what you want it. The son of a new york rabbi he 1st visited the country in the 1970 s. In search of his roots his grandparents had left europe before the 2nd world war in communist ruled poland she drew it found a few jews struggling to preserve what was left of their heritage the diaries as i wrote. In the 79 my impressions when i met different people remember one thing i said all this person has the mrs on the inside of the dorothy at the outside you know and i thought that that was. Like being somewhat embarrassed of being here so i realized later that was a tremendous statement of being jewish because nobody had it on the outside and almost no one had on the inside so i have you know having to understand what something meant here. After the collapse of communism shoot now a rabbi himself relocated to warsaw and embarked on his mission his aim was to reestablish jewish religious life in poland this is the 1st time that a jewish prayer book was reprinted in poland after the fall of communism this is the original page was from a few 26. 00 this is probably from. 192. Before that there were few if any jewish religious books here now 30 years on warsaw has a flourishing Jewish School again with 200 students this year will see the 1st of them graduate you want to name your school as children attend the school like thousands of other polish jews it was only after the fall of communism that she started to embrace her jewish identity. Thanks also to the dedication of chief rabbi michael shooter rick just oil. But they dont yet know what they some of that. They are the Jewish School has been a blessing for you want any near ska her husband and their 3 children. They call it. A lot of. Very. Very simple life but the big markets will. Go for the its never remember milk for i think this is so and the money minority here is so real minority so its real sometimes it feels like you know we all need jobs in the whole our own country talk that well find them put or theres a growing climate of trust that the people i want you to think votes the most important things will star wars your leg obviously there are still many prejudices and. Traumas left over from the 2nd world war and theyve been passed down from generation to generation. You can use to war didnt just destroy or at least try to destroy Human Dignity thing to a great extent it also destroyed the mutual trust between peoples including the trust between the jewish and polish peoples that of them its december and hanukkah are the jewish festival of lights is approaching the rabbi offer some guidelines to the teachers. An important question is whether to give the children presents that hanukkah. A few 100 years ago there was the socalled hanukkah go to children were given money to buy themselves something. Today its perfectly fine to give jewish children a small present on every hanukkah evening. You dont have to of course it used to be hanukkah get some chocolate and yes. Were living here under strong christian cultural influences that the Christmas Season is a similar time of the year to hanukkah. So lets give the children presents we present not. Of. She trick has been working in poland for the past 30 years the school is one of many funded by the american philanthropist ronald s. Slaughter to promote jewish life in Eastern Europe we need somebody to go to poland. I heard about this rabbi michael should read so we brought him over we saw him. And we said this is the right person we installed them initially in the synagogue. 1919 next may. And also was involved in the game the school look here mainly akin to god but it was interesting is that the men who got to poland. He became much more. Much more polish and as he started to learn polish we desperately needed the rabbi and the rabbi. But michael wasnt just any rabbi i remember. Will his 1st trip though that was already filed so it must have been early knowing these he just arrived after flying nonstop from new york or about that he was in that tired but he still had a session with where the teenagers. And they were pestering him with questions and eventually michael replied says ok guys. Tomorrows another day i was just sleep over it and hes trying to rise from the armchair with the. Girl just shopped him back at the. Stand with the legs get away from jewish mothers in this country we need to know everything now monica and stanley suave car you have ski remained faithful to their heritage even during the communist era. Began before that you know we heard. Earlier and this is money because a book the 2nd one by the way of the summit there is the reason mothers in power want the quiet skis researched this aspect of jewish heritage 1st some 90 percent of the Jewish Population of poland were murdered during the German Occupation most of those who survived did so by going underground or pretending to be christian and losing their jewish identity these old cemeteries are precious reminder of polands extensive Jewish Population before the holocaust ringback with was like an eye open open their eye opening for we know that the presence of those traces of jewish presence of you is past in my circle of friends there are many who had jewish ancestry and bob. Didnt learn anything to do with didnt. Feel jewish and when we were children because we were not introduced into it. The kind of skis have been living their lives in accordance with jewish traditions and scripture for 2 generations now their son daniel was prepared for his bar mitzvah the jewish coming of age ceremony for boys by rabbi shoot rick. Of of the. Chief rabbi is now off on a trip to southern poland. Hes constantly on the move. And sometimes that means mobile conferencing in the car. Today hes talking to a Jewish Community in pittsburgh. Just steps from the sun. He setting up an Exchange Program for young jews from poland and the u. S. I think that our biggest challenge im a very practical and its still its a blast but still existing on follow up is we dont necessarily have the professional staff to follow up the way we show up with a plethora of projects to watch over it often seems like too much for one person. Who said it was going to be easy. I can say that the Jewish Community of poland in the last 30 years has gone from a stagnating dying dysfunctional Jewish Community to a reemerging vibrant dysfunctional Jewish Community. Were still dysfunctional but at least now were alive were vibrant were creating. Today there are once again jewish communities in nearly all of polands larger towns and cities optimistic estimates say the country is now home to up to 12000 practicing jews this renaissance has led to a growing demand for kosher food today a rabbi should direct is visiting 3 businesses catering to that demand were only welcome to film and one the profit of vodka distillery had no. Doubt the production line fest or the office of action. Jewish dietary laws divide foodstuffs into kosher and nonkosher the chief rabbi checks production for compliance certain additives such as pork paste gelatin. Not permitted. To have to do that today theyre doing a production for israel but its not always are the stickers in hebrew so you could see all the stickers around here but its going to israel after inspection the firm is given an international kosher certificate is a popular drink during the passover festival so this in here actually some when you see it signed in hebrew by our scotia supervisor its. With a a lock here here and here and here and here. So we know that when we come back to the passover the passover production that it really is from that alcohol most of the kosher vodka is for export only a fraction will stay in poland one of the small. Kosher. Very nice you know me and i suppose thats the main market is israel also we produce and so this product to the United States and to accompany cups of coffee kyra. Also some amounts we produce and so on and see you know we are trying to raise a market call for a soccer ball car or truck also for our cultural products so at least the share you are selling in poland which means theres among. People who. You know its ok its not going to be cooked communi if you think about polish and jewish people but i think most people dont know the roots are from jewish coming to you so i think if this is still in progress so. We still have. Information to give you a measure of ok lets take a generation very well. Im very happy that i wasnt the only jew who want that there live as a jew in both of them because otherwise it would have been very lonely. But if those jews there and adventurously decide and some do that they want to live their jewish lives elsewhere if theyre free choice were not making a religion out of juice in poland its not an obligation but that certainly is a right and it gives me also the private satisfaction were hard to care. And they want to keep us that way the question heres another question certificate i know the firm is just getting it we need. To see and this is the confirmation for kosher distillation next up thank you i hope i havent caused you too many headaches. And the rabbi leaves with a present. Very important to kosher for passover. So far our impressions have been positive but jewish gentile encounters dont always run this move lee lets go. Relations with the polish government have been strained recently the right wing nationalist government introduced legislation in 2018 that caused deep offense to jewish sensibilities it made it illegal to suggest that the polish state or people were in any way complicit in the holocaust perpetrated by the nazis it basically was the offend the good name of poland the polish shouldnt be blamed for things that they didnt do but there was then a great concern is but they were poles they did bad things and how were going to deal with that and more and more importantly it was. The. Problem that. The reaction there were hurtful statements. There were hurtful statements made by some poles that were hurtful statements made by some jews. Protests met with the wave of anti semitic rhetoric in the media and on the internet. And the bill is controversial with a little hand holds feel insulted when the press in europe or the International Media refer to the german concentration camps as polish death camps or that hurts the poles you have to understand that its one of the part of the polish people them so. Elves suffered during the 2nd world war and 6000000. 00 of them died almost 25 percent of the polish nation g. P. M. This legacy of the 2nd world war isnt better than the consciousness of generations of poles to this day that after all they suffered their extremist sensitive to claims that the poles were responsible for the existence of the death camps in poland at the end there was an unnecessary. Problem that. More or less is no longer you know people remember it but its no longer a war and its a scar. When International Jewish organizations protested warsaw held discussions with the Israeli Government and the legislation was watered down rabbi shoot trick played a mediating role. But he prefers to focus on the positive aspects of life in poland. For instance that poland is represented by people like daddy popular a young kayaker who has competed for the country at the Olympic Games popular is as busy as the chief rabbi but he still finds time to get involved in the restoration of jewish cemeteries like the one in creep off in southern poland the cemetery was completely neglected for years. Challengers are going to try and improve things here 1st or launch an appeal on facebook we already have permission ive been busy and otherwise i have come to get this fixed up much sooner. Popular wanted to clear the cemetery. And restore its former dignity. Several months and a lot of hard work later its reopening theres a new memorial plaque listing the jewish residents of this small village who were killed by the nazis for rabbi shoot to make the commitment of these volunteers is especially appreciated. Our presence here. Memory. Bridger is a book of life for the group of reason was closed after several centuries in august 9th d. On principle because the nazis started writing for the priest i would like to ask chief rabbi of poland michael shrewdly so few words. But if they had not stood on the one hand my heart is broken down there on the other hand im very happy today. Its a broken because the jewish people have grieved we were killed simply because they were jewish parts and. I would like to think our mayor for his words so called is not you said that we must oppose anger and we must oppose hatred when it is still small in before to spread. The book. At the same time and my heart is happy. Who would have thought when the war ended 74 years ago that respect would be shown to the dead in this Jewish Cemetery once again so. That the mass graves would be marked and remembered. Oh good muscle the double mostly clear. In 142. 00 the nazi regime finalized plans to exterminate the entire Jewish Population of europe as in group of german troops dissolve the jewish ghettos in towns and cities throughout poland the jews were murdered on the spot or transported to extermination camps projects like darrius populace try to establish the names of the victims so that they are not forgotten. I. Mean. There are initiatives like this all over poland for the past 30 years the restoration work has been focusing on a few more towns or villages each year michel shooter it considers this one of his key tasks. Relatives of the people buried in poland often come from overseas to visit the cemeteries including from the u. S. Part of your family is going to my 3 kids my new for you here my sister my brother in law. My wife hiding out there somewhere. Special masters this whole point you call them ok let me talk about having the holocaust and thats essential let me have it. Its an obligation of every good to not only jews that germany is really the publisher of every with human being remember what happened the knowledge of it but if you think about that then perhaps the 1st thing we should do is make sure that every victim of the holocaust has a grave and more and more others demand for the best of our ability will never get closed youll have a grace 462800 amps that initially thought it was you on 100 more like 30. Nor even want to theres a tremendous value why. Its sometimes said that michael shooter is the rabbi of both the living and the dead in poland. The man whatever it is that he has in mind we visit if you want to and lukash and their 3 children as well and now as i was the budapest for Students Exchange and and hes english teacher was very very happy when he and he came back and she was like all very Good Progress after that because there was she it was no chance to speak you know polish. You want to is an actress and recently appeared in a swedish film her husband lukash is a theater director and has been working in slovakia the couple value their International Contacts look ask admits that living openly as a jew in poland sometimes makes her feel insecure. What was a very tragic moment after war you have to do is after all right. Was the 68 because it was the moment where. My family heard go go go out from poland 968. 00 brought further trauma to polish jews leading communist Party Figures blamed the student protests at the time on a zionist plot triggering months of anti semitic incitement many jews who had survived the shoah now fled the country. However my life our war was the person 1st person who told me that marys know and to some it isnt in poland but now and i am talking to myself where you and i is and where and. Antisemitism is prevalent throughout the world it may be worse im told the better but its prevalent. A lot its there with the Catholic Church a lot has to do with just internet age speech and all the things there is a but the result is that the for sure ainge way antisemitism in poland propelled more jewish kids into our school. And its true that theres a lot of systems you i wouldnt say that all members of the church participate in the dialogue in the same way because i wouldnt say that all members of the church are without prejudice that this song may be actually probably some are prejudiced but these are really exceptions to the overall picture that. Name unit going thinking of the 2nd Vatican Council which is how to direct influence of the atmosphere in poland and developments here and im sure i never believe me but i have the feeling that something great is happening if you like that it can and should the coming in. The Jewish Community center or j c c brings together warsaws 5 congregations its sunday brunch for jews and gentiles the food is good and its a popular Meeting Place parents can relax while their kids learn handicrafts. Rabbi she tric