(More exclusive pics taken by YW reader HERE.) Hundreds of Polish Jews broke into joyful applause as the country’s chief rabbi unveiled the first restoration work at what was once a famed center of religious learning, an emotional moment in the revival of Poland’s small but growing Jewish community, as Rabbi Michael Schudrich and two other Jewish leaders unveiled the name of the school, Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin.

Before World War II, Lublin was home to a large Jewish population that made up about 40 percent of the 100,000 residents. The city was sometimes called the Jewish Oxford and the Polish Jerusalem because of its long tradition of learning. The Chachmei yeshiva opened in 1930 and operated until the 1939 invasion by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II.
When the Nazis took over Lublin, they stripped the interior and burned the vast library in the town square. Many of the former yeshiva students were killed in the nearby Majdanek death camp, as well as other camps that the Nazis set up across occupied Poland.

(Photo’s taken by YW Reader / News Source: AP)