Rabbi Michael Schudrich was born in New York City in 1955. He was educated in Jewish day schools in the New York area and graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1977 with a major in Religious Studies. He then attended Columbia University and in 1982 graduated with an MA in History. He received a Conservative rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and later received an Orthodox one through Yeshiva University.

From 1983 until 1989 he served as the Rabbi for the Jewish community in Japan. During his early years he took many people to Eastern Europe and met the remains of the Jewish communities in various places. He knew something had to be done and in 1992 he moved to Warsaw and worked with the Lauder Foundation until 1998. In 2000 he became the Rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz and in December 2004 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland, which is the position he holds until today.