Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Beit Polska

Liberal (Reform) Judaism has a long history in Poland.  It began in 1803, just two years after its founding in Germany in 1801.  While the Jews of the shtetls maintained their Orthodox traditions, the urban (and urbane) Jews of Warsaw and Krakow embraced the Enlightenment ideas of Moses Mendelssohn, to be a Jew in the home and a citizen in the street.  Ironically, while many of the upper-class German Jews (Guggenheim, etc.) came to America and made their mark on the Jewish communities, in Poland it was the opposite.  The assimilated Jews stayed and ultimately perished, while the shtetl Jews in the east, torn by Cossack pogroms from Russia, emigrated in large numbers.

Over the past 10 years, Liberal Judaism has been making a comeback, in large part because of WW II and then the communist years.  Families who were able hid their Jewishness during the war, and then continued to do so under Soviet domination.  Now hundreds and perhaps thousands of elderly Poles are sharing their secrets on their death-beds.  Teens and young adults are suddenly discovering that they have Jewish heritage, and a surprising number of them are embracing that heritage.  Jewish studies is a growing college major.  Each year dozens of Poles come to the Jewish community, many seeking formal conversion.  The established Jewish community in Poland is very small - hundreds, perhaps a thousand who affiliate.  The problem is that, by and large, the Orthodox community wants nothing to do with the folks rediscovering their roots.  They generally say something to the effect of "Bring us some paperwork showing your Jewish roots and then we'll talk."  The nascent Liberal community is much more welcoming.

Sponsored by the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), of which our own URJ is a member, 9 liberal synagogues in Poland have come together to form Beit Polska; effectively a Polish URJ.  [Sad to say, even in this tiny community there are politics; the liberal congregation in Krakow refuses to affiliate]  These synagogues are teaching Jews and potential Jews alike about the beauty of Judaism.  The Polish Jewish community, over 1000 years old (!), and so nearly extinguished, is beginning to grow again.  Beit Polska, led by the largest congregation, Beit Warshava, has just published a new siddur, in Hebrew, Polish, and Polish transliteration, the first since WW II.  (The service I created for Jake's bar mitzvah makes use of these translations and transliterations.  I'm indebted to Beit Polska and Rabbi Gil Nativ for sharing them with me.)

On Monday night I had dinner with Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, an American rabbi sent here several years ago by the Reform movement to help with the renaissance.  He is here four months each year, and is one of the driving forces in all areas of liberal Jewish life here.  The diversity of support for the movement is remarkable; one of our dinner companions, and a member of the board of Beit Polska, was Princess Irina who is Austrian, and a gentile, but who loves both Poland and Jews.  Over dinner she urged me to see Poland with open eyes during my stay here.  "There is so much good happening; I think you'll be surprised."

So far, I have been surprised, very pleasantly so.  Apparently the Princess is a regular customer at this restaurant.  As soon as she walked in, the piano player broke into an extended medley of Israeli and klezmer songs, ending with Hatikvah.  I don't know if any of the other patrons recognized the music, but sitting at a restaurant in the middle of Warsaw, hearing the Israeli national anthem brought tears to my eyes.

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