For a week I found myself emailing Rabbi Eliezer Gurarye, active community Rabbi in Krakow, asking him to speak at the upcoming “Young Rabbinical Forum” in Krakow. The connection was cut off several times due to “Urgent questions” from a community member. At last he had a few minutes of quiet and we spoke.

“Your hands are full!” I said to him. “Baruch Hashem” He said. For those who don’t know, at the beginning of the Jewish year, the Rabbi requested to pray according to the requirements of the halachic laws. As a result, the community board of directors fired the Rabbi, in addition to other sanctions performed against him.

As soon as the RCE heard of this they sought aid from the Chief Rabbis of Israel and other influential European Rabbis following this facetious act. The Rabbis united and sent letters to the board of directors insisting on retracting the dismissing, but the board did not cooperate. Rabbi Gurarye still had many members come and ask his advice and answer their questions in Beit Chabad even though he was not official anymore.

Despite his dismissal, Rabbi Gurarye wanted to host the “Young Rabbinical Forum” that will be on 12-14 of Tammuz in Krakow, the city where the Rama gave over his rulings to the Ashkenazi Jews. “When the Jewish community will see Rabbis come from all over Europe to support their local Rabbi, they will be greatly impressed and hopefully we will see results” he said

Besides the support and getting together, what can a young Rabbi gain from the conference?

That is a great question. Support is important, but the Young Rabbinical Forum will provide tools in various areas. Each participant speaks about the dilemmas he is going through, presents the problem and requests a solution, or if he was able to resolve it himself, reveals it to all the participants. All these discussions provide tremendous assistance to continue and recharge our batteries. The forum supplies the problems and the solutions.

I have participated in several of these conferences and I gained a great deal from them. I thought that a lot of the things brought up in the forum would have nothing to do with me but at the end were a big necessity and assisted me. The conferences gave me strength, so I didn’t feel helpless or panic. I knew that I had the backing of the RCE. This is all my point of view. If you look from the general perspective, the panels and discussions at the forum are rich with content, thanks to the professional experienced and well known lecturers provided by the RCE Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, General Director Rabbi Arie Goldberg, Rabbi Avraham Aba Torezky and Deputy Director General Rabbi Yosef Bainhaker organize for us. Each lecturer is a specialist in his field.

Let’s talk about what to do and what not to do in the Jewish community amongst non-Jews. What are the limits? What is the list of priorities? What does the job entail? How do we raise fund? How do we know what activities appeal to the youth as opposed to the elder members? These and much more that are relevant and strategic to the young Rabbi will be discussed at the conference.

The upcoming Forum will focus on children’s education in the Diaspora. This is one issue that all Rabbis seek advice. Even if the children have a set up school framework, it is still not Haredi and creates a challenge for the parents. There are many Rabbis that once their child reaches 13 they send them to Israel, which is difficult in itself. These and more will be discussed in the Forum.

Rabbi Naftali Roth, chairman of the ‘Chassidic Educational Center’, will provide answers in child education, guidance to parents and educators, and managing periods of crisis. Rabbi Roth is a leading professional and has myriad experience in the field.

Besides all this, each conference will update the Rabbis with the latest issues. They will be instructed what to reply and learn what conclusions to draw in relevance to each issue.