Making Pesach for Those Who Were Chased From Their Land

TJH Speaks with Sholom Ber Stambler, director of Chabad of Warsaw

By SuSan Schwamm

Rabbi Stambler, you grew up in Israel and have been in Poland since 2005. You and your brother, Rabbi Mayer Stambler, run Chabad in Warsaw. Around how many Jews live in Poland?

The answer to this question is that there is no answer.

After World War II, there was quite a flourishing of Jewish life in Poland. But during the communist regime and the different difficult situations, including two silent deportations that took place in 1957 and 1968, so many people left Poland, and those who stayed in Poland started to keep a very low profile. They’re not easily and openly telling everybody that they are Jewish. Sometimes, they hide it from their business partner or from their client or from their neighbors. Sometimes, they even hide it from their spouse or their children. So, we are discovering Jewish people in Poland all the time. You could say that in a big city, there is a bigger chance that someone will be brave enough to tell openly about their Jewishness, but the farther you get from the big city, the less there is a chance that they will speak up about it.

Even so, there are different numbers that are given out about how many Jews there are in Poland, though, and that ranges between 5,000 to 20,000 Jews in Poland.

We always try to find more Jews and then try to maintain the contact and show them that it’s no longer a shame to be Jewish. On the contrary – it’s popular and it’s interesting. And this is this is why there are many radio and TV shows which speak about the Jewish holidays. I try to deliver this message also over the media. I find many different kinds of Jews in different places, from physicians to politicians and businesspeople and also many people in the media world of Poland. Until the war, you could say that America was “wholesale” shlichus and we were “retail.” Another Jew, another Jew. We would reach one Jew at a time. Every Jew is a whole world, but since the war, it all became very massive. One day you could have a hundred people show up. You have to fit so many hundreds of refugees at one time. We never dealt with such big numbers of people before.

How has it been connecting with the Jews of Ukraine?

I must tell you that we have had the opportunity to get to know Jewish people from Ukraine who are really amazing people. We’re amazed by their courage, not giving up. They’re looking for success again, and are getting settled and are solving problems and not only crying about them. We are also seeing the amazing work which the Chabad rabbis have been doing in Ukraine for so many years – we never had the opportunity to see it up close. Every Jew who comes from Ukraine was active in the community, and his basic knowledge of Judaism is very robust. And in their Jewish identity, there isn’t any crisis. He’s a Jew, and he’s proud of it, and for him, Shabbos and Pesach and Purim and other traditions is just something natural. I would not expect that, being in this part of Europe, where I live. You don’t see it this way in Poland. You could meet a Jew and today he’s a Jew, tomorrow he says, you know what? It’s over. I don’t want to be a Jew. But in Ukraine, a miracle happened Jewish-wise.

Why do you think it’s like that?

I have no way of explanation. I know that the Rebbe was born in Ukraine. The Rebbe was born in Mykolaiv, and he grew up in Yekaterinoslav, which is Dnipro today, and you can actually see that the biggest success of Jewish life in Ukraine today is definitely Dnipro. It’s also a matter of mentality and also a lot of many, many years of work – the rabbis in Ukraine have been there between 20 and 30 years already. They did the work, and we see the fruit.

Do you feel that the atmosphere in Poland is a little bit more anti-Semitic than in Ukraine? No. It’s not a matter of anti Semitism. It’s a matter of mentality. And it’s a matter that the communist regime made it very, very difficult to be a Jew in Poland, and this is the relatively fresh memory which people are carrying with themselves. It’s not like something bad is happening now, and there is any limit on being a Jew. On the contrary, we make a menorah lighting in the Polish parliament every year.

And from all parties, you have a presence in the Polish president’s palace. It’s not about what is currently happening. It’s about memory, but not only memory from the world after the war. You know, 1968, it’s not such a long time ago for people who are a bit older and remember.

Have you ever had an experience with a Polish non-Jew who came over to and expressed regret about what happened to the Jews in Poland during the war?

I have met many Polish people who love Jews and respect Jews and regret any needless crisis with Jews and with Israel.

Before the Ukraine war, what sort of programs did you have for the Jewish community in Warsaw, and how many Jews did you feel you were able to reach through those programs?

Well, we have a Chabad House here in Warsaw. We have a synagogue, mikvaos, a soup kitchen, and we have a special program of study of rabbinics here in Poland. Those students who came to study rabbinics travel around Poland for weekends to other locations and get to know Jewish youth and Jews of all ages. We do a lot of conferences, Shabbatons, and special holidays programs. But I can tell you that in Poland, it’s a lot of individual work. You get to know someone, develop the relationship, and he will get you to another Jewish person. And so on and so forth.

That’s a lot of work. But as you said, every Jew is a world. When you came to Poland around 20 years ago was there any sort of kiruv program or rabbi there at that time?

The Jewish community was there. And there is the chief rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, who is doing a great work.

You’re based in Warsaw. Are their Chabad houses in other cities in Poland?

There is a Chabad House led by Rabbi Eliezar Gurary in Kraków.

Based on your experiences, are there any specific mitzvos or experiences that you feel sparks the soul of a neshama that’s sleeping in a Yid? Do you feel that there’s any mitzvah that they really connect with?

You know, we are Chabad. In most of the cases, the first mitzvah that I will do with a Jew is actually tefillin. I have many stories and many experiences by so-called accident, but it’s really a divine intervention. I meet a Jew in a place which I didn’t expect, and we put on tefillin. And at that moment, I understand why I had to be there at that time.

Generally, holiday times are times which people like. Chanukah is the most popular holiday. We usually make a concert of some chazzanim and singers who come from around the world. And this is very popular, and we could have many, many hundreds of people who come to listen.

Polish Jews are very connected to the cultural part of Judaism and less on the “heavy” religious plan.

Every year, we make a menorah lighting in front of the Palace of Culture. The Palace of Culture is a very known, big building in the city center built by Stalin, and it is such a powerful, huge building that even though nobody likes Stalin, no one decided yet to demolish it. We do in front of this building, which symbolizes that Stalin was here, but he’s no longer here. It has a huge impact.

That is very powerful. Let’s talk about Pesach. I’m sure throughout the years you’ve held huge Sedarim. Tell me about what Pesach was like over the past few years before the Ukraine war.

Well, before the Ukraine war, we had the main Seder on the first night of Pesach in a hotel in Warsaw, and we would have about 100 to 150 local people with between 200 and 400 tourists, and it was nice. We would also send, with the help of the Chabad headquarters, some yeshiva bochurim to other smaller cities to make sedarim in many places in Poland.

But since the war started, we’re talking about a totally different story. Last year, it was in the middle of the period when we had a huge hotel for hundreds of refugees who lived with us, some of them from the beginning of the war. Some of them stayed here; some of them had to be here for a few weeks before they could make Aliyah. And we made a huge Seder for them in a huge hotel.

This year, we are renting a huge hotel outside of Warsaw – the entire hotel is dedicated only for refugees who have come from Ukraine. Generally, men from Ukraine cannot cross the border, but there are special permissions that they can get if it’s for a short period of time. Some families will use that special opportunity for Pesach so they can celebrate Pesach in the proper way and enjoy the meals with us and their families. There will also be refugees who already live in Poland who will join. You can’t believe how they are looking forward to this opportunity.

You are housing and feeding all these refugees for all eight days of Pesach?

Yes. Right now, we have 200 people who registered, and we are expecting many more to come. And this is on top of many other refugees who already have their home here or can’t come to the hotel, so we send them a Seder kit and kosher for Pesach products so they can celebrate Pesach properly both physically and spiritually.

You sound very calm for somebody who is organizing Pesach for hundreds of people.

It’s a huge help that those people from Klal Yisroel who live outside of Poland care so much and support us. We are appreciative of the help that they send to us.

What about logistics? How many pounds of matzah are you ordering? How many chickens?

My wife is way better at the details than I am, but I know that we ordered about 1,500 kilos of beef and 3,000 kilos of chicken. We are looking to know from our teams whether this is enough or not. We have wine and grape juice and everything needed so no one will go hungry.

If your wife, Dina, also from Israel?

Yes. We came here four months after we got married. Before we came here, some friends were wondering how we could come to such a place, with the history and anti-Semitism. Our stay in Poland lasting so long is a big surprise. We see that there are Jews who really need this help. And we see tolerance from our Polish neighbors. And in a way, also, our community is growing because of the refugees who come from Ukraine.

A year ago, when Putin invaded Ukraine, the world was shocked. You live in Poland, which is a neighboring country, and your brother lives in Ukraine. What were your feelings when you heard that war broke out?

My brother, Levi, who lives there was actually making a wedding for his oldest son in Dnipro and it was supposed to take place on the third or fourth day of the war. And the kallah was from Russia. In the end, they made the wedding – organized in just three days – in New York.

What was I feeling when I heard the news? I couldn’t connect it. Everyone in Poland was scared because we thought that maybe we were next. You couldn’t go to the bank and get some cash because all the cash was gone. But other than that, I didn’t think about it too much until I got phone calls and WhatsApps and knocking on the door. Then I understood that maybe Putin wasn’t here, but the refugees have come.

I had no experience with this. Nobody prepared me to do such kind of help. And like I said, we managed. Here, you have to pay a lot of money for refugees who have arrived or are going to Israel. Some people came really scared. One guy lost his mind from what he was going through, and whenever he saw an airplane, he was afraid that this was a Russian missile. Until we got him to Israel, this was really hard. He needed psychologists and psychiatrists and physicians.

And remember that it was the time of Covid. So in our hotel, people had to be isolated because of Covid. And then there were some people who were isolated in the Airbnbs that we rented for them. It was amazing how the local Jew- ish people, volunteers, really mobilized themselves and looked after every individual.

How did you mobilize? There were throngs of people coming to your community and knocking on your door and ringing your doorbell.

You have to automatically think differently. You’re not looking for one apartment. You are looking for 10 apartments. And when you get a good team of volunteers, and many phone calls from abroad of people who want to help, it works. There was no time to think and no time for feelings.

Of those refugees, have most of them moved on to Israel?

We have about 1,000 refugees who left our hotel to go to Israel. Others went to different places in Europe; some of them went to America and Australia. And some stayed here in Poland.

How do you communicate with them?

My parents come from the Soviet Union of Ukraine and Russia, and I heard Russian in my life before. I find myself speaking to them in Russian, which they appreciate a lot.

Many of them also speak English. They also find the Polish language similar to Ukrainian, so they are managing very nicely. The communication is good. We also give them some courses in English and Polish and Hebrew.

People have to understand. A war, it’s not a matter of news. News has the character that after a few weeks, it’s no longer news, and it’s not on the top line, and people could avoid it. But the truth is that the pain of the world is now even stronger. People are tired. People have no power, and they really need help. In the beginning of the war, I would get phone calls from America: How can I help? Can I come volunteer? Can I send you some money? Can I send you some gifts or whatever? Those calls are missing now. That’s why we are making this campaign now for funds. We need the money. We went on this project of this hotel for Pesach, for instance, not knowing that we have the money, but we did know that there is the need. For us, the need is a good enough reason to act. And we are asking our brothers and sisters, please help. Right now, we’re seeing a surge of $2 million in our budget since the start of the war.

There are families that are staying here since the start of the war. We have gotten them apartments for free for the first year that they’re here. We gave them furniture. We’re helping them to make a living. And they’re here every day to daven, every morning and every evening.

We are just the boots on the ground here. These refugees are our brothers and sisters – and are all of Klal Yisroel’s brothers and sisters. We are just living with them. They come to us and they knock on our door, but at the end of the day, they are really asking every Jew in the world to help them. It’s not something that especially belongs to us. Without people like you, we cannot do it. This is something which is above and behind our resources. We don’t have local people here who can support us. Baruch Hashem, in the past, we had managed to get money from different donors mainly from the United States. But in the last three, four months, it’s almost like it’s silence.

People are used to the headlines, but they don’t realized that after each serious bombing in Ukraine, we have another wave of refugees coming.

By Mindi Werblowsky, LCSW