Polish Radio wishes listeners and readers a happy Jewish New Year.

Jews in Poland are celebrating Rosh Hashanah or the start of the new year 5771 today.

An important part of the two day holiday is supper with symbolic foods, which include apples and honey to symbolize a sweet new year.

Rosh Hashanah is the day of judgment and of remembrance, says Rabbi Shalom Ben Stambler from Chabad-Lubavitch movement. During the next ten days prayers will be said and the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram’s horn will be blown.

“When we play the shofar it’s a reminder to God that if not us, then our forefathers devoted their life to religion and that’s why we deserve a good new year”, the rabbi told Polish Radio.

Before World War II, Poland had the second biggest Jewish community in the world, numbering 3.5 million. Jews constituted about 10 percent of the country’s population. Most of them perished in the Holocaust and today, the Jewish community in Poland is estimated at between five and 20,000. (kk)