The orthodox Jewish kehilla of Warsaw has picked a rav
as their spiritual leader. He will be the first official
Warsaw rav since the holocaust.
HaRav Boruch Rabinowitz will serve as the new rav. A man with
a diverse background, Rav Rabinowitz was born in Russia,
raised in Denmark and studied at yeshivas in Israel. The
driving force behind the appointment, as well as being its
financial backer, were the Joint and the Lauder Foundation,
headed by Ronald Lauder, current chairman of the Conference
of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Lauder is deeply
involved in philanthropic activities pertaining to Jewry in
the newly independent countries of Eastern Europe.
The Warsaw kehilla is composed of several hundred
Jews, the bulk of them young ba'alei teshuvah. The
number of new ba'alei teshuvah in Poland is constantly
on the rise, with great numbers of previously assimilated (or
at least acculturated) Jews returning to Yiddishkeit. The
need for a major rabbinical figure to guide and help them
along their newly chosen path, could hardly have been
greater. Until the vacuum existing in Warsaw had been filled,
the full brunt had fallen on Polish Chief Rabbi Menachem
Joskowitz, whose zeal and notable accomplishments in
Yiddishkeit and kashrus had earned him well-deserved
fame.
