Reform Jewish leaders in Poland said Thursday they were launching a nationwide union of Reform Judaism.
More than 100 members of Poland's Reform community voted to create a union called Beit Polska, which will submit registration papers to the Interior Ministry next week, group president Pawel Szapiro said.
Rabbi Burt Schuman, who leads Beit Warszawa, the union's largest community, said the decision reflected the "incredible dynamism" and appeal of Reform, or Progressive, Judaism in Poland.
"People were looking for a contemporary Judaism ... to experience Jewish practice, Jewish culture and our great tradition of Torah and rabbinic text" while finding meaning and guidance for living in today's world, Schuman said.
The new community, with members across Poland, will be served by Schuman and Rabbi Tanya Segal, the country's first full-time female rabbi.
Schuman said Beit Polska was not competing with another nationwide group of Jewish communities dominated by the Orthodox branch of Judaism.
"With diversity and more Jewish options, everyone benefits," he said. "As more and more people of Jewish ancestry emerge from hiding or the shadows, they have rich and diverse ways of expressing their Judaism."
Before World War II, Poland was home to a Jewish community of nearly 3.5 million, Europe's largest. Following Nazi Germany's invasion in 1939, most were murdered in Nazi-run death camps such as Auschwitz.
