Polish radio broadcasts in Hebrew

Poland's public radio station has begun broadcasting a daily programme in Hebrew for Israelis, many of whom have roots in Poland.

The 30-minute programme - Kol Polin (Voice of Poland) - is part funded by Poland's foreign ministry.

Jewish culture is undergoing
a revival in Poland

The head of the radio's Hebrew section, Michael Hermon, said people should know about Jewish life in Poland, and "not only museums and concentration camps".

Before the slaughter by the Nazis, some 3.5 million Jews lived in Poland.

They formed Europe's biggest Jewish community - but most of them were wiped out in the Holocaust in World War II.

Israeli tours always visit the former Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka but often they have no contact with Poland's living Jewish communities, Mr Hermon told the BBC.

Today it is estimated there are 30,000 people with Jewish roots living in Poland.

Because the communist authorities stifled discussion about Jewish life, people have only been rediscovering it in the last 20 years.

Synagogues have reopened and new rabbis have been appointed. There are even cases of Poles brought up as Catholics, discovering their parents or grandparents were Jewish.

27 Mar 2007