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GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich

The Jewish

Response

e remember Tisha B’Av followed by 45 years of Soviet oppression, humanists, and everything in between
because we cannot forget. is to rebuild. Our response is to find the – all of these forms of Judaism grew and
We cannot forget what hap- sparks of redemption hidden in the ashes thrived in Poland 100 years ago. Today we
Wpened in 586 BCE or in 70 CE, of destruction. As the prophet Zechariah have the historic opportunity to give back
the dates of the destruction of both Batei (3:2) states: ׁש ֵא ֵמ לָּצ ֻמ דּוא ה ֶז אֹול ֲה, “for this is to the grandchildren, great-grandchildren
HaMikdash. And Tisha B’Av also mourns an ember plucked from the fire.” and great-great grandchildren of those Jews
many other tragedies in Jewish history and After all the destruction in Poland, after
even today. who proudly lived their Judaism back then.
all the tragedies, our Jewish response is to
But that is not the main message of Tisha rebuild our community and support our We are today’s ׁש ֵא ֵמ לּ ָצ ֻמ דּוא, the “ember
B’Av. Although we are obligated to mourn, beloved Israel. plucked from the fire.” The Jewish response
to fast and to remember, that is only part of Many of the Jews in our community did not to destruction, the meaning of Tisha B’Av,
our obligation. is to ignite and inspire every Jew to be part
know they had Jewish roots when Com-
The Rabbis state: ד ַלֹונ ׁש ּ ָד ְק ּ מ ַה תי ֵּב ב ַר ָח ׁש םֹוי ְּב munism collapsed in 1989. Their parents or of the Jewish people once more.
ִ
ֶ
ל ֵאֹוּג ַה, “On the day that the Beit HaMikdash grandparents were too traumatized by the
was destroyed, the Mashiach (redeemer) was Shoah to be able to pass on this information
born.” to their children during the Soviet oppres- Rabbi Michael Schudrich is the Chief
sion. Since 1989 though, thousands – and
In the ashes of the destruction are the perhaps tens of thousands – of Poles have Rabbi of Poland.
sparks of redemption. uncovered their Jewish roots.
Simply stated, the Jewish response to Now, once again, they have a
destruction is to rebuild. After the destruc- chance to be part of the Jewish
tion of the second Beit HaMikdash, Rabban people. Not all of them want
Yochanan ben Zakkai asked the Roman to connect to Judaism
authorities to give him “Yavne and its schol- but many do. The Jewish
ars.” No one can imagine the pain, the dev- response is to welcome
astation Rabbi Yochanan must have felt. He these newly discovered
saw the burning of the Beit HaMikdash. And Jews back into Am Yisrael,
yet, in the midst of mourning, he is already to encourage them to be
beginning to rebuild. part of our global Jewish
Throughout history, following the Crusades, rebuilding.
the Chmielnicki massacres as well as count- We cannot change the number of
less other tragedies, what was the Jewish Jews murdered during the Shoah.
response? To mourn, and – at the same time We can change the number of Jews
– to rebuild. disconnected and lost. And that
is what we are doing today in
Following the nearly total annihilation of
European Jewry during the Shoah, what was Poland.
the survivors’ response? They rebuilt their On Tisha B’Av,
homes and built the most beautiful families; we remember
they rebuilt their communities and even, the horrors and
after 2,000 years, succeeded in rebuilding the destruction that
Israel. pushes us to regroup and
build even more intensely. No matter
The response to destruction is to build anew.
where you live, no matter how you
And this also applies even to our small, observe your Judaism or what your
vibrant Jewish community of Poland. Here Jewish identity is – from Chassidism
in Poland, our Jewish response to the Shoah, to secular Yiddishists, from Zionists to

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