Area rabbi helps Polish Jews return to their severed roots

by Jill Huber
NJJN Bureau Chief/Monmouth

Thanks to a Rumson rabbi, 18 Polish men and women have returned to their withered roots and reclaimed the Judaism of their parents or grandparents.

On June 12, Rabbi Harry Levin, religious leader of the Open Synagogue in Rumson, presided over the ritual immersion of the 18 Poles, most of whom reside in the Warsaw area. The ceremony, held at the Bug River on the Belarus border, marked the full conversion to Judaism of those whose mothers were not Jewish, and a return to the Jewish fold for those raised in non-practicing Jewish homes.

Also taking part were Rabbi David Sperling of New York, a Bible scholar, and Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik of Panama’s Congregation Kol Shearith Israel, a Reform congregation.

The conversion was the culmination of a process that began two years ago, when Levin was traveling through Poland with his daughter. Prior to the trip, friends in Warsaw had informed him that many Poles were freely expressing their desire to convert or acknowledge their Jewish faith.

Upon his arrival in Warsaw, Levin met with a group of Poles at the Beit Warszawa Synagogue. He felt an immediate connection with the group members, many of whom expressed a strong desire to embrace their Jewish heritage in a country that has repressed Judaism for decades, he said. Many had Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers; others were born to Jewish parents but had never engaged in religious practices.

“So many exhibited a strong, spiritual sense of being Jewish,” Levin recalled. “They had overcome 40 years of repression by their government and the near obliteration of their identities by the Nazis. Now that there was a sense of freedom in their country, these brave people did not want to waste a single ounce of freedom — they had waited for it all their lives.”

Some had been unaware of their Jewish heritage; because of the religious persecution under the Nazis and the anti-Semitism of later Polish governments, their families had kept their Judaism hidden for reasons of personal safety, Levin explained.

After the country became more democratic, however, many sought to learn about their Jewish heritage. Others told Levin about their desire to undergo the actual conversion process. As a result, a two-year process of dialogue and biblical study began, while Levin made plans to set up a beit din, a religious panel of three rabbis to supervise a ritual conversion.

In 2005, Levin received a call from the group members, who said they were ready to become Jews by choice.

“The movement to convert was still growing; it seemed stronger than ever,” he said. “It had truly come alive. I knew something very special was happening here.”

Levin returned to Poland last month, accompanied by Sperling, a Conservative-trained rabbi who taught at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where Levin was ordained, and Kraselnik, whom Levin met several years ago while traveling in Panama.

Levin began filming many of the beit din interviews and eventually condensed 12 of them into Souls from Fire, a 45-minute DVD.

“These were not lives that emerged from the ashes,” he said. “Their souls are on fire — they are vibrant and alive.”

The stories that emerged during the interviews reflected tragedy, triumph, spiritual growth, and the endurance of the Jewish soul, Levin said.

In the film, Jan Weinsberg, who was born in Poland and had always known about his Jewish heritage, explains how he moved to Belgium in 1968. He lived in Israel and Canada before returning to Poland several years ago, where his desire to embrace his religion emerged. He credits the growing interest in conversion taking place around him with inspiring his own religious awakening.

Asia Soltana’s family kept secret the Jewish connections on her father’s side. “You would only tell your closest friends that you were [Jewish],” she says in Souls from Fire. “There was a sense of shame for being part of this religion. It had to be overcome. It was so wrong.”

Souls from Fire also includes the story of Marek Mrozowski, who recalls a childhood event that altered the course of his life. “I was playing with a Jewish friend and got locked in their basement,” he says. “I kept calling out, ‘You Jew, why did you close this door?’ I yelled this over and over again.”

Then, his friend’s mother opened the cellar door.

“Her eyes were full of tears; she was shocked that I was saying this,” Mrozowski says. “She asked why I was talking in this way, since I was also Jewish. But I never knew that I was Jewish until that moment.”

Hearing these stories and traveling in Poland reminded Levin of what had motivated him when he founded the Open Synagogue three years ago; the name was inspired by chapter 18 of Genesis, he said.

“The doors to Abraham’s tent were open in all directions,” said Levin. “Regardless of the direction they came from, anyone who wanted to raise their consciousness of God could find what they were looking for. But the applications even went beyond that; like the Jews of ancient times who stepped out of their homes to seek spirituality, the Jews I met in Poland stepped out into the world for the same reason.”

Their inner strength also enabled them to acknowledge and conquer their concern regarding others’ reactions to their newly established Jewish identities, he added.

“Fear and religious persecution had been rampant in Poland for so many years, but the inner strength of these people never wavered, nor did their desire to openly proclaim their Jewish heritage,” said Levin. “I was part of a process that helped guide the brave people of Poland to their conversion to Judaism. The fact that this could take place in a country that had suffered years of oppression was remarkable.”

(Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of Souls from Fire may contact Levin. There is no charge for the DVD.)