Organization opens center in Poland amid Jewish revival

WARSAW, Poland – A major Jewish organization has opened its first chapter in Poland, the most recent sign of a Jewish revival in the Central European nation that comes even as Jews have been recently fleeing Western European nations hit by Islamic violence.

Hillel International, the largest Jewish student organization in the world, celebrated the opening of a branch in Warsaw on Monday.

Leaders of the U.S.-based group and members of Poland’s Jewish community hailed the group’s expansion, saying that reaching young Polish Jews would help the further growth of Jewish life in Poland, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community before the Holocaust.

Rabbi Yossie Goldman, Hillel’s director of global expansion, said: “We are celebrating today the renaissance of Jewish life in Poland, for Hillel is the future of the Jewish people.”