Michael Schudrich

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Rabbi Michael Schudrich (b. 1955) is the chief rabbi of Poland. He was born in New York City to a Polish Jewish family from Baligród.

Rabbi Schudrich is a graduate of SUNY Stony Brook, and Columbia University, and received rabbinic ordination from Jewish Theological Seminary of America and later, an orthodox rabbinical ordination through Yeshiva University from Rabbi Moshe Tendler. He served as rabbi of the Jewish Community of Japan from 1983-89.

Following numerous trips to East Europe leading Jewish groups to those countries, Rabbi Schudrich began working for the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and spent 1992-1998 residing in Warsaw, Poland.

He returned to Poland in June 2000 as Rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz, and in December 2004 was appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland. Rabbi Schudrich has played a central role in the "Jewish Renaissance" in Poland.

Rabbi Schudrich is a member of the Rabbinical Council of America and the Conference of European Rabbis. In Kashrut, Rabbi Schudrich cooperates with the Orthodox Union, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC) and other Kashrut organizations.

On May 27, 2006 Rabbi Schudrich was assaulted in broad daylight by a hooligan in Warsaw ^[1] The hooligan in question was soon captured, and severly punished by the polish authorities, to prove that there is no place in Poland for anti-semitism.

[edit] Conversions Controversy

In May 2006 Rabbi Schudrich was accused by an Israeli newspaper that he participated in a Conversion where one of the participant Rabbis - Rabbi Haim Druckman - signed falsely his presence. This raised doubts on the Halachic validity of the whole procedure. ^[2]. In addition, according to the Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur - a committee founded by tha late Antwerp Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth to oversee the validity of conversions - his graduation from the Conservative Seminary, and his heading a conservative pulpit in Japan, disqualified him from presiding over conversions under Chareidi standards . ^[3].

[edit] References

^ Elie Wiesel Accuses Poland - commentary by Adam Michnik
^ News first Class. In english: A New Conversion Scandal, by Jonathan Rosenblum, Yated Ne'eman:[1] [2]
^ New Israeli-European Conversion Scandal[3]