Born in
New York City to a
Polish-Jewish family. Schudrich lived in
Patchogue, New York, where his father served as a pulpit
rabbi. His grandparents emigrated to the United States from
Baligród,
Poland, before World War II. Educated in
Jewish day schools in the New York City area, Schudrich graduated from
Stony Brook University in 1977 with a Religious Studies major and received an MA in History from
Columbia University in 1982. He received Conservative
smicha (rabbinical ordination) from the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America and later, an Orthodox smicha through
Yeshiva University from Rabbi
Moshe Tendler. He served as rabbi of the
Jewish Community of Japan from 1983 to 1989. After leading Jewish groups on numerous trips to Europe, Schudrich began working for the
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation and resided in Warsaw, Poland, from 1992 to 1998. He returned to Poland in June 2000 as Rabbi of
Warsaw and
Łódź, and in December 2004 was appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland. Schudrich has played a central role in the "Jewish Renaissance" in Poland. Schudrich is a member of the
Rabbinical Council of America and the
Conference of European Rabbis. In
Kashrut he cooperates with the
Orthodox Union, the
Chief Rabbinate of Israel and other
Kashrut organizations. Schudrich has been a Polish citizen since November 3, 2005, and now holds both American and Polish citizenship. On May 27, 2006, Schudrich was assaulted with what appeared to be pepper spray in central Warsaw by a 33-year-old man. According to the police, the perpetrator had ties to "Nazi organizations" and a history of football-related hooliganism. Schudrich hit back, and the attack on him brought condemnation from Polish media and politicians. Schudrich had been invited to travel on the aircraft that
crashed on 10 April 2010 near
Smolensk, Russia, killing 96 people including Polish president
Lech Kaczyński. He refused as it would have violated the
Jewish Sabbath, a decision which saved his life. In February 2018, Schudrich entered into discussion with the
Parliament of Poland with the hope of amending a proposed animal-rights law that would restrict kosher slaughter in Poland. During the same month he implored with Jewish leaders to refrain from boycotting Poland over the "Holocaust law", which criminalizes any public statements that the Polish nation was complicit in Nazi war crimes. ==See also==