Poland hosts largest gathering of rabbis since Holocaust

[bemildred]

WARSAW — Dozens of rabbis from across Europe have gathered in Warsaw for the largest meeting of Jewish religious leaders in Poland since the community was virtually wiped out during World War II.

This year's Conference of European Rabbis will focus on a range of issues affecting European and global Jewry, including attempts in Europe to ban the Jewish method of religious slaughter of animals.

But, the rabbis will also discuss the problem of validating the Jewish identity of people who have not practiced Judaism in two or three generations. This has become an issue in countries like Poland, where many people with Jewish ancestry were so traumatized by the Holocaust and postwar anti-Semitism that they lived secular or Christian lives for decades and are only now again embracing a Jewish life.

Over the last 30 years, the Jewish population in Poland has grown from just a few thousand to over 20,000, the conference said.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/poland-hosts-largest-gathering-of-rabbis-since-holocaust-1.393146