Close to 2,000 boxes of matzah were delivered to the Jewish community in Poland ahead of the Passover holiday.
The “special delivery” was arranged by the non-profit Shavei Israel at the request of Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich. It included 1,692 boxes of standard machine-made matzah, 90 boxes of machine-made shmura (“guarded”) matzah, and 45 boxes of handmade shmura. The matzah will be distributed to nearly a dozen Jewish communities throughout Poland, including Bielsko-Biala, Gdansk, Katowice, Krakow, Legnica, Lodz, Lublin, Poznan, Szczerczin, Warsaw and Wroclaw.
“As more and more Poles discover their Jewish roots, Passover especially speaks to them as a celebration of freedom and the end of slavery or occupation,” said Schudrich. “Matzah represents that freedom and every Jew wants to have his box of matzah for Pesach.”
He said Passover has special meaning in Poland, where the Jewish community were liberated 74 years ago from the Nazis and then again 30 years ago from the Soviet Union.
“Matzah is our symbol of these both ancient and contemporary liberations,” the rabbi said.