Rabbi cites 'large and small reasons' for refusal to attend prayer meeting

Rabbi of Warsaw and Łodz, Michael Schudrich, has said that he will not be taking part in a joint service of prayer for the Jews murdered at Jedwabne. In a letter to primate Jozef Glemp, he explained his reasons for not attending the service on May 27th. "One of our biggest Jewish holidays starts at the same time," he wrote. When journalists asked him whether his refusal was connected with the primate's description of the Jewish religion as a "strange folklore", an opinion expressed in an interview with the Catholic Information Agency (KAI), Rabbi Schudrich said, "There are large and small reasons behind every decision." In his letter he also expressed the hope that rumors of anti-Semitic publications being sold in the Church of All Saints in Warsaw where the meeting was to be held, would prove unfounded. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp.1,5) M.K.