Kazimierz is the historical district of Krakow that was home to a large Jewish community from the fourteenth century until the World War II. The Jewish town was founded in 1335 by King Kazimierz the Great, who granted Jews fleeing persecution in Germany and elsewhere the right to settle in Poland. When Jews were expelled from western Krakow in 1495 to make room for the construction of Jagiellonian University, they were forced to moved to Kazimierz, which subsequently became a divided town with Christian and Jewish sections. Over time, Kazimierz became a main spiritual and cultural center for Polish Jewry. During the war, the Jews of Kazimierz were deported to the Podgorze ghetto just across the river, and most were later killed in German death camps in occupied Poland.
The synagogues that remain in Krakow serve primarily as museum exhibits and tourist attractions, such as the Old Synagogue and the High Synagogue, pictured below. The Remu synagogue, which also draws tourists and charges a fee for entrance to the building and adjoining cemetery, actually has a small but active Orthodox congregation. However, there is no rabbi serving the area, so the activity of the synagogue is limited.
It is only during the last three or for years that the district of Kazimierz has begun a dramatic renovation and resurgence in business and tourism in the area. There is construction everywhere (including just under my window this morning), and the area has become a popular destination for tourists, especially Jewish tourists who come here to see remnants of "the world that was." The above photo shows a detail from the original iron fence that surrounds the courtyard of the Old Synagogue (now museum).
These signs appear all around Kazimierz and direct tourists to sites of interest in Jewish history.
This area in front of the Old Synagogue was one of the main locations for the film, "Schindler's List." The scene of the liquidation of the ghetto was shot here.
Parts of the original wall and the Hebrew inscription are exposed here in the Old Synagogue.
Above: two exhibits from the musuem of Jewish life and culture in the Old Museum. The sculpture and photograph show a student working with a religious teacher. Below, pre-war marriage and divorce contracts are displayed. The marriage contract is called a "ketubah," and the divorce document, always granted by the husband to the wife, is called a "get."
The interior of the Old Synagogue.
At the Remu Synagogue, with a small active congregation (but no rabbi), a religious Jewish tourist kisses the curtain that covers the Torah scroll in the tiny meeting room.
The entrance to the Jewish cemetery adjacent to the Remu synagogue.
The cemetery is crumbling, but cared for by the community of the Remu synagogue.
During the war, Jewish cemeteries all over eastern Europe were demolished, and the gravestones were broken up and used to pave streets. Often, headstone fragments were transported to concentration camps, and prisoners were forced to use them to pave the roads of the camp. Here, pieces of headstones were recovered in Krakow after the war and preserved in this memorial wall.
The High Synagogue (or Tall Synagogue) was built in 1556-63. Today there is no congregation here, but the interior is preserved and serves as a small photography museum of Jewish life in Krakow before the war and today.
Detail of the original synagogue wall recovered in the High Synagogue. During and after the war, synagogue buildings were often used for other purposes and the walls were whitewashed. In the High Synagogue, an impressive area of color and inscription has been revealed.
The doorway of my hotel in Kazimierz. The hotel building was originally a Jewish home or establishment, and this is the original door frame. During the war, Jews were not allowed to display mezzuzot, so were forced to pry them away from the doorframes (or Nazi soldiers did it for them). Here you can see the indentation where there was once a mezzuzah. The preservation of such shadows of Polish Jewish life is common in Kazimierz.
Israeli tourists at the wall of the Old Synagogue.
