Michael Schudrich has organised the prayer amid the developing war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas, which mounted a shock attack from Gaza last Saturday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
In a statement shared with reporters, the Jewish religious community in Warsaw said: “The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, would like to invite all good-minded people, believers and non-believers, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Arabs, Russians and members of all other nationalities, to take part in a collective public prayer for peace.”
The service is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday in front of the King Sigismund Statue in Warsaw, the statement added.
“May the shared God of Jews, Christians and Muslims be willing to hear our prayer,” it concluded.
On Monday, Schudrich led a special service in honour of the war-torn state of Israel at the Nożyk Synagogue in the Polish capital.
Guests included Israeli Ambassador Yacov Livne, the US ambassador to Warsaw, Mark Brzezinski, and Wojciech Kolarski, an aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda, among others, the PAP news agency reported.
Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel at the weekend killed 1,300 people, with a further 150 kidnapped into the Gaza Strip, British broadcaster BBC reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, over 1,400 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes last weekend, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel on Friday ordered everyone in north Gaza, some 1.1 million people, to relocate to the south of the Strip within 24 hours "for safety and protection," as it proceeds with its military operation against Hamas, according to the United Nations.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, KAI, BBC, UN
