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July 14, 2000/11 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 52, No.44
Wedding represents Polish Jewish rebirth
RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WROCLAW, Poland - When Curt Fissel stomped on glass after his wedding, the congregation erupted into loud applause and a resounding chorus of "Mazel Tov!" But the joyous response went far beyond heartfelt good wishes to Fissel and his bride, Ellen Friedland, both of Montclair, N.J.
Their emotional nuptials took place Sunday, July 8, in the historic, partially reconstructed White Stork Synagogue, which just four years ago was a ruin. It was the first Jewish wedding there in 36 years, and it marked a symbolic milestone in the life of the small but reviving local Jewish community.
"This is a sacred moment in Jewish history," said Rabbi Michael Monson of Montclair's Congregation Shomrei Emunah, who traveled to Wroclaw from New Jersey to perform the ceremony.
"It is a statement to the world that the Jewish people, wherever we may be, are alive and well."
Jerzy Kichler, Wroclaw-based president of the Union of Jewish Congregations in Poland, called it a "kind of miracle."
Fissel, a photographer, and Friedland, a political reporter for the New Jersey Jewish News, decided to marry in Wroclaw to make their personal joy a public celebration - not just of a united Jewish peoplehood, but of the rebirth of Jewish life in Poland since the fall of communism a decade ago.
The near-capacity congregation included as many as half of Wroclaw's estimated 600 to 1,000 Jews, nearly 200 non-Jewish townspeople and about 30 friends and family of the bride and groom from the United States and Israel.
Also present were representatives of local Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox churches, as well as the U.S. consul from Krakow and the German consul from Wroclaw.
Local television, radio and newspapers covered the event, which began with the signing of the ketubah (wedding contract) and ended with a party featuring klezmer music, Israeli dancing and a kosher buffet prepared in the Jewish community kitchen.
"Our wedding is about more than a personal union bridging different lives and families," said Friedland. "It is also about a union bridging different Jewish communities, and it is about a union bridging different times in Jewish history."
The couple first came to Poland about four years ago.
There they expected only to learn about Jewish death - the annihilation of 3 million Polish Jews during the Holocaust; the death camps; the devastated shtetls, cemeteries and synagogues.
They were amazed to find small Jewish communities that had begun emerging after the fall of communism. They became deeply immersed in chronicling - and championing - this still fragile rebirth.
Fissel, meanwhile, born a Christian, reclaimed his own distant Jewish roots and converted to Judaism.
"My Jewish roots are seven-and-a-half generations back," he said, "but with my conversion I reconnected my Jewish soul to Judaism."
Their documentary film, "Poland: Creating a New Jewish Heritage," was completed in 1997.
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