Kosher supervisors trained in Poland for the first time since the Holocaust
Poland's new kosher supervisors
Shavei Israel’s ongoing involvement and support for the Hidden Jews of Poland has resulted in an unprecedented development: last week, 17 Polish Jews were officially certified as kosher supervisors – for the first time since the Holocaust. The new supervisors graduated from a three-day training seminar that was held in Lodz and organized by Shavei Israel.
If you were to look back just a few years, it would be hard to imagine a Polish Jewish community as flourishing, proud and unafraid that the demand for locally produced kosher food would rise so precipitously. But it has, and we expect that these new graduates will quickly be integrated into Poland’s growing kosher food industry, which also supports a rise in Jewish tourism to Poland in recent years.
The new supervisors are all in their 20s and 30s and have been studying the laws of kashrut for some time with Shavei Israel’s emissaries in Poland, Rabbi Boaz Pash and Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis. Subjects covered include the separation between milk and meat products; the handling of the kitchen before and during Shabbat; and the laws pertaining to food on Passover, among others.
The seminar itself was conducted by Rabbi Dov Landau, a Gerrer Hasid who flew in from the city of Bnei Brak in Israel. Landau is a senior kosher supervisor in Bnei Brak and teaches at Yeshiva Sefas Emes. Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Shudrich oversaw the training program.
Enhancing kosher supervision in Poland is not just a practical matter for specific food products; it serves a more spiritual goal. “Most Polish Jews grew up unaware of the laws of keeping kosher,” says Michael Freund, Shavei Israel’s Chairman. “By training a cadre of kosher supervisors, we are helping Poland’s Jews to reconnect with their heritage.”
Polish Jews made up half of the six million victims of the Holocaust. Of those who survived the Nazi onslaught, most emigrated following the creation of Israel in 1948 or during anti-Semitic campaigns in the late 1950s and 1968. Since the communist regime crumbled in 1989, there has been a rise in the number of Polish Jews returning to their roots.
Let us extend a warm welcome to Poland’s first kosher supervisors – an important step along the way towards providing important tools, knowledge and resources to the tens of thousands of Hidden Jews in the country who are slowly but surely rediscovering and re-embracing their heritage.