Main events were held at the Museum of Mazovian Jews in Płock and included a Service of the Word at Płock Cathedral, attended by Ryś and Rabbi Boaz Pash of the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw.
Israel's ambassador to Poland, Yaakov Finkelstein, speaks during the Day of Judaism event on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Szymon Łabiński
An exhibition titled Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust, produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, was put on display at the cathedral.
A separate exhibition, The Płock Judaica, opened at the Diocesan Museum, accompanied by a panel discussion focused on memory, faith and hope.
This year’s Day of Judaism—the 29th such event—was held under the motto "Your people will be my people and your God my God," drawn from the Old Testament’s Book of Ruth.
Ryś said the event aims to remind Catholics of the Church’s teaching that Judaism is the root of Christianity, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He said the Polish Bishops’ Conference, the central authority of the Catholic Church in Poland, plans to issue a pastoral letter on Christian-Jewish relations to be read in churches on the fifth Sunday of Lent.
He cited Pope John Paul II’s description of Jews as "our older brothers" and Pope Benedict XVI’s reference to them as "our fathers in faith."
The programme also included a commemorative walk through Płock, highlighting sites linked to the city’s Jewish history.
Płock Bishop Szymon Stułkowski has said the Day of Judaism provides an opportunity to reflect on the shared history of Poles and Jews, to honour those murdered by Nazi Germany during World War II, and to pray for peace.
Before World War II, Płock was home to about 9,000 Jews, roughly one-third of the city’s population. Of the around 300 who survived the Holocaust, most emigrated in the decades that followed.
A small synagogue dating to the early 19th century survived the war and now houses the Museum of Mazovian Jews.
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Source: IAR, PAP