Poland: At a historical and impressive ceremony on Sunday, the first of its kind since WWII, 10 rabbinical students were ordained as rabbis. The newly ordained rabbis had completed their studies at the ‘Semicha Institute’ reestablished in 2005 by the Lubavitcher emissary, Rabbi Sholom Ber Stambler.

The event was honored with the presence of the chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv – Jaffa, The scholarly Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau, who delivered a moving and penetrating address, and who, similarly to the other rabbis, stressed the fact that the Nazi invasion left no remnant of Judaism in Poland and that only recently has the country experienced a Jewish revival.

“This ceremony takes on a historical dimension”, said Rabbi Stambler, “For many years, Poland served as the world center for Jewish studies and a foundation of Jewish codes. During the Holocaust, most of the 3.5 million Jewish residents of Warsaw were killed by the Nazis. The fall of the Communist regime in Poland in 1989, engendered Jewish revival and now, for the first time, Jewish rabbis are being ordained in the country.

The ordination ceremony was covered widely by the mass media. Among the rabbis and guests present at the event were Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik, Rabbi of Milan and member of the presidential committee of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, Rabbi Yitzchak Yehudah Yaroslavsky, secretary of the Lubavitcher Rabbinical Court in Israel, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the chief Rabbi of Poland and Rabbi Eliezer Gurary, the emissary to Cracow, Poland.