A walk around the picturesque Jewish quarter of Cracow (Kazimierz (Krakow, Poland))

Member Name: Praskipark

Product:	Kazimierz (Krakow, Poland)
Date:	04/05/09 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A Very Picturesque area to find out about Jewish life

Disadvantages: Sad to see the cemetry overgrown and not loved

People who read my reviews will probably know that I have a fascination with Jewish areas and Jewish history. I am not Jewish and none of my Polish in-laws are and I am not particularly religious so I don't really understand why I have acquired this thirst for knowledge regarding Jewish history. I do live in a Jewish area of Warsaw called Wola but it isn't Warsaw I am going to write about today - it is one of the Jewish districts of Cracow - Jewish Kazimierz.

There were other Jewish districts, Podgorze and Plaszow and it was in Podgorze where Oscar Schindler ran his factory during the war although Spielberg didn't film in this area. Instead he chose to film in the area I am going to write about, Kazimierz, probably because it is much more picturesque and has more of a movie quality to the area.

Like I say there were other districts but the exodus of richer Jews from the narrow streets of eastern Kazimierz preserved an older and more picturesque look. The absence of the original Jewish inhabitants has been balanced out by a growing artistic and Bohemian community.

Let's step into the Ghetto

From 1608 until 1822, long, tall walls ran along Bozego Ciala, separating the worlds of Jew and Gentile. Now the ghetto is open to all, but the community has vanished as completely as their walls. If you stroll down ul. Meiselsa (ul. means street and this street is named after a Rabbi who supported Polish independence), take a peep through the gate to your right and you will see one of the prettiest alleys in Kazimierz. At the corner of the square, is an old prayer house which is now a Jewish Cultural Centre. Sadly, there is not much Jewish culture in Cracow today; the centre is mostly for the benefit of Poles who are curious about their former neighbours.

New Square or Jewish Square is shown on most Polish maps as Plac Nowy (New Square) and if you get stuck and need to ask directions, remember to ask for Plac Zydowski which is the Polish name for Jewish Square as this is the universal name and anything else will get you strange looks from the locals.

On Sunday mornings a busy clothing market is held here and on other days a very sedate vegetable market occupies the stalls. On warm, summer evenings, in spite of the law against drinking on the street, bars and cafes spread out into the square to form one large beer garden. The elderly generation who live in the housing around the square have been known to throw potatoes at loud party- goers. Or so I am told but I have seen no evidence of this. If you are a spirit drinker then Alchemia is a good spot to have a drink or if you are a tea totaller then pop into Les Couleurs cafe for a piece of quiche and a coffee.

If you walk in a clockwise direction around the square you will come to the corner of ul. Izaaka. Here you will pass a small cafe named Singer (pronounced 'zing-ger') after the famous Singer sewing machines that serve as tables in the cafe. In the mid 1990's it was one of the first places to draw nightlife down into the Kazimierz again. It has cultivated an artistic gloom ever since and remains a mainstay.

In front of the cafe rises the Baroque Isaac's Synagogue which has been painstakingly renovated to recapture some of its earlier charm. This was the most grandiose of Cracow's synagogues and it is the largest. The rich merchant Izaak Jakubowicz received the King's permission to build the synagogue in 1638, but at first it stood empty because the priests of St. Lawrence's Church (which has now disappeared) protested they could not carry communion wafers within sight of a synagogue.

Synagogue Izaaka was devastated by the Nazis. Several layers of frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries have since been restored in patches around the main hall. The ceiling and women's gallery are decorated with Baroque stucco. Since completion work was completed in 1995, the synagogue has acted as a private gallery. Short documentary films are shown about pre-war Kazimierz and the other main ghetto, Podgorze.

At ul. Szeroka or otherwise known as Wide Street you will reach the easternmost edge of medieval Kazimierz and in my view, is the heart of the ghetto. Here, the Old Synagogue or Stara Synagoga closes off the square. This is the oldest synagogue still standing in Cracow but is no longer a house of worship. It is a branch of the Historical Museum which shows everyday life in the Jewish Ghetto before the Holocaust. Most of the original furnishings were destroyed by the Nazis. The iron bimah (pulpit for reading the Torah) is a reconstruction of the 16th century original. In front of the synagogue are two monuments: one to Kosciuszko, who on the spot raised Jewish support for his uprising in 1794, the other to Poles executed here in 1943 (all Jews had been removed from Krakow earlier that year). Just past the synagogue is a reconstructed fragment of city wall. Beyond this point , Kazimierz's island was too swampy for stonework. The bank close to the old Synagogue is sometimes mistakenly identified as the Synagoga Na Gorce (Upstairs Synagogue) that once stood here. A renowned bastion of kabala mysticism, it was torn apart by treasure seekers looking for alchemists' gold after the war.

If you wander down to the other end of the street on the right hand side, behind an iron gate, is the rather drab and gloomy Popper's Synagogue, now stripped of all decoration and converted into an art centre. On the left hand side of the street is Remuh Synagogue, small in size but a giant in Jewish culture. This is Cracow's only active Orthodox synagogue and was founded by Israel ben Josef Isserles in 1553 for his son, the prodigious Rabbi Moses Isserles whose initials in Hebrew spell his popular name 'Remuh'. It serves a small, elderly congregation, augmented on the Sabbath and holidays by pilgrims from all over the world.

The grassy plot at the centre of the street was once a Jewish cemetry. Later, a legend arose that it marked the spot where Sabbath breakers were swallowed up into the earth. A stone stands in memory of the many lives lost in the Holocaust. The tall elegant building at the end of the street is the Landau Palace, once home to one of the richest families in the Oppidum. The low building to the right was the mikveh (Jewish ritual bath house).

Now to the final part of my tour and one that saddens me greatly - the New Cemetry. As you enter through the gate on the right you will see in front of you a ghostly reminder of Cracow's lost Jewish community. The New cemetry slumbers in magnificent decay. Although improved considerably from its nadir in the 1980's the new Jewish cemetry seems terribly overgrown and uncared for compared to the immaculately groomed Catholic cemetries and I have to say that this is the case in Warsaw also. Apart from the strangling vegetation and broken narrow alleyways, there is graffitti and vodka bottles strewn in dark corners of the graveyard.

The New Cemetry opened in 1800 when Remuh cemetry was closed and was built outside the walls of the Kazimierz and the ghetto. This is now Cracow's only active Jewish cemetry; you will find recent graves of the rapid dwindling community to the right of the entrance. In two places monuments are assembled from the broken tombstones of Cracow's other Jewish cemetries, now gone. The Nazis used Jewish tombstones to pave the roads in the Plaszow concentration camp. What could be recovered was brought here.

You can reach the cemetry by passing under the railway at the narrow underpass on ul. Miodowe. Visitors are expected to cover their heads. If you have no head covering, you can hire a small paper hat from the porter.

I know a lot of people find walking through cemetries a bit morbid but I find it a peaceful experience and the walk around the Jewish Kazimierz is very picturesque, much more than the Jewish quarters in Warsaw. In Warsaw I always feel as though I am walking on graves and there is a ghostly feel about the Ghetto. Perhaps, it is because I live in Warsaw and am more aware of its history. When I visit Cracow even though I feel like a visitor I am still always drawn to the Kazimierz - I find it a magical and extremely interesting place to visit.

Summary: A Fascinating Area