The day will begin with joint prayers "for the Jews, the citizens of Płock and the victims of the Shoah," led by Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, head of the Council for Religious Dialogue of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, and Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Michael Schudrich. Photo: IAR/Łukasz Kowalski
The commemoration will also include a Service of the Word at Płock Cathedral, with the participation of Cardinal Ryś and Rabbi Boaz Pash of the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw.
The cathedral will host an exhibition of photographs and archival materials titled Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust, produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Płock Bishop Szymon Stułkowski said at a news briefing that the Day of Judaism offers a chance to reflect on the shared history of Poles and Jews, to give thanks "for all that was good," and to pray for the city’s residents murdered by Nazi Germany during World War II, as well as for world peace.
The motto of the 2026 Day of Judaism—"Your people will be my people and your God my God"—is taken from the Old Testament's Book of Ruth.
Płock was home to one of Poland’s oldest Jewish communities. Before World War II, about 9,000 Jews lived in the city, accounting for roughly one-third of its population. Of the around 300 Jews who survived the Holocaust, most emigrated in the 1950s and 1960s.
A small synagogue dating back to the early 19th century survived the war and has since been adapted to house the Museum of Mazovian Jews.
(mk/gs)