First full-time rabbi in Krakow since Holocaust

This blows my mind.

Krakow, Poland, now has a rabbi. For the first time in 60 years.

I became familiar with Krakow through reading Schinlder’s List, the excellent and heartbreaking novel by Thomas Keneally. It was a hard book to read; the Holocaust is a dreadful demonstration of the depths of cruelty to which we all as fallen human beings can sink. The Jewish population of Krakow was obliterated by the Nazis in the late 30s and 40s.

But still it amazes me that Krakow is just now getting a full-time rabbi.

The organization reported that of the 1,000 Krakow residents who are Jewish, only 200 are members of the Jewish community. Since the fall of Communism in 1989, people in the city have begun to uncover their Jewish roots.

The city is filled with “hidden children,” Jews adopted by Catholic families during WWII who have only recently began to reconnect to their Jewish roots.

“In a place where the Germans sought to erase all traces of Judaism, and nearly succeeded, it is gratifying to see that Jewish life still endures,” said Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund.

“Many of Poland’s ‘hidden Jews’ are seeking to reconnect with the Jewish people, and we must do what we can to help them return. Six decades after the Holocaust, the best revenge is to rebuild Jewish life and to bring as many of these people back as possible,” he said.

[Hat tip: NRO’s Corner]

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