World
Polish city criticised after holding foam party on Jewish cemetery
The site is an important Charedi pilgrimage site and is estimated to have hundreds of dead bodies
June 7, 2023 09:06
1 min read
The site is an important Charedi pilgrimage site and is estimated to have hundreds of dead bodies
June 7, 2023 09:06The chief rabbi of Poland has angrily condemned the authorities of an eastern Polish city after they held a children's foam party on the site of Jewish graves.
Town officials in the city of Kazimierz Dolny filled the site of a Jewish cemetery with suds for an event to mark "Children's Day" on June 1.
The Polish chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he was outraged by the mayor's decision to host the event on the former cemetery and post about it on his social media.
He added: “We offered a really nice solution that would involve us helping to fund a new playground and moving the cemetery to an empty field nearby.
"But they keep stalling or canceling meetings and it seems like the town just doesn’t care.”
In his letter to the mayor of the eastern Polish town, Schudrich said that the foam party “puts into question whether further talks about the site make sense, and casts doubt on whether, regardless of religion, both parties are guided by common values drawn from it.”
A few hundred Jews are estimated to be buried at the site, which was demolished more than half a century ago when Poland was part of the USSR and is now a children's playground.
During the demolition of the cemetery, the bodies were not moved and remain underneath the now playground.
The site is also believed to host the grave of Rabbi Yehezkel Taub of Kuzhmiri, to which members of the Modzitz Hasidic sect make an annual pilgrimage.