The Rabbinic Association of Poland, an organization that was very active in pre-Holocaust Europe, was officially revived on Saturday in Lodz. Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger took a part in the historical event. 
Rabbi Metzger and Rabbi Schudrich signed a special Rabbinic Association founding scroll.
Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and seven other Polish rabbis, as well as Jewish community lay leaders and activists, gathered to inaugurate the renewed organization. Attendees came from cities such as Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz and Wroclaw, among others.
Ceremonies surrounding the association's renewed life began on Thursday of last week at Warsaw's Nozyk synagogue, the only Jewish place of worship in the Polish capital to have survived the German occupation.
On Friday, Rabbi Metzger met with members of the Jewish community in the city of Wroclaw, where the rabbi's mother lived prior to World War II. Rabbi Metzger's father immigrated to Israel from Warsaw.
"We believe that there will come a day when God will take the bones and create life from death," Rabbi Metzger commented. "We have to give strength to the Jewish community here. There are a lot of people who didn't even know they were Jewish. We want to tell them: 'Come and discover your roots.'"
On Saturday night, Rabbi Metzger and Rabbi Schudrich signed a special Rabbinic Association founding scroll along with the other community rabbis of Poland who joined the organization. The ceremony was included as part of an annual conference for "Hidden Jews" organized by Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that assists "lost Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. About 150 participants from across Poland came for the conference.
There are now between 3,500 to 15,000 Jews or people who identify as Jewish in Poland. Prior to the Holocaust, the country was home to around 3 million Jews, around 10 percent of the total population at the time. Half of all Jews killed by the Nazis and their collaborators were from Poland.