Jewish Kraków (Kazimierz)

Introduction

Jews probably lived in Kraków already in the 11th century. The first documented evidence of their presence here is from the 13th century. They enjoyed a wide range of freedoms following a charter issued by Bolesław the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland, in 1264. That charter, known as the Statute of Kalisz, was ratified by later kings of unified Poland and came to define the situation of Polish Jews in the subsequent centuries. King Casimir III the Great, who ratified the statute in 1334, took Jews under his special protection and let them play an important role in the economy of his kingdom’s capital.

Jews of Kraków originally lived near the Wavel Hill. Later they settled around today’s Świętej Anny Street, which came to be known as Judengasse. In 1364, King Casimir III established the Jagiellonian University, the main building of which was located on the Jewish street. Consequently, many Jews had to move further north, to the area of today’s Szczepański Square and Świętego Tomasza Street.

Jews also lived in Kazimierz, an independent city southeast of Kraków, founded by King Casimir III in 1335. Although some Jews settled here already in the 14th century, their first arrival en masse took place after their expulsion from Kraków by King John I Albert in 1495. Relations between Jews and local Polish townspeople had soured in the last decades of the 15th century. Jewish bankers were accused of usury and impoverishment of many Poles, and there were various conflicts about trade. Jews were blamed for the fire that ravaged a large part of Kraków in 1494 and were subsequently targeted in a wave of pogroms. The establishment of a Jewish ghetto in Kazimierz served to avoid such instances in the future.

Jews settled in the northeastern part of Kazimierz, on the site of the medieval village of Bawół, located around today’s Szeroka Street. Their community here grew significantly in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1553, the Jewish area was separated from the rest of Kazimierz by walls, which were expanded in 1608. The area between these walls covered only about one fifth of the territory of Kazimierz, but was home to nearly half of the city’s inhabitants.

The Jewish town of Kazimierz was one of the main spiritual and cultural centres of Polish Jewry in the early modern period. Numerous synagogues and yeshivas were located here, together with the houses of powerful Jewish bankers and merchants. It was home to many of Poland’s finest Jewish scholars, such as Moses Isserles and Nathan Nata Spira, as well as artists and craftsmen, exerting influence wide beyond the city limits.

In the 19th century, under the Austrian rule, Kazimierz lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Kraków. The walls around the Jewish town were torn down. Richer Jews began to move from the overcrowded streets of eastern Kazimierz to the other districts of the city. Nonetheless, the reputation of Kazimierz as a Jewish neighbourhood remained.

During World War Two, most Jewish inhabitants of Kraków (including Kazimierz) were relocated by German occupying forces into the ghetto in the Podgórze district. Most of them were killed during the liquidation of the ghetto or in death camps.

After the war, Kazimierz was devoid of Jews and largely neglected by communist authorities. Its synagogues, looted or destroyed by the Nazis, stood in ruins or were used for various secular purposes for many years.

The key event that brought Cracovians back to Kazimierz was the Jewish Cultural Festival. It was first organized in 1988 and its purpose was to educate people about Jewish culture, history and religion. International attention came in 1993, when Steven Spielberg shot a big part of his Schindler’s List here. Since then many historical sites have been restored and many Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, souvenir shops and bookstores have opened in Kazimierz. It has become a fashionable district of Kraków. The Jewish Cultural Festival has become one of the most celebrated Jewish festivals in the world.

In the compilation of these portfolios, my main source of information was the Virtual Shtetl portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (POLIN), located in Warsaw.

Sites

In these portfolios I will introduce the Jewish architectural heritage of Kazimierz. I will not include Jewish sites in the other districts of Kraków in these portfolios. Also, my emphasis is on historical sites. I will show some Holocaust-related monuments of Kazimierz, but I believe that the sites representing the annihilation of Jewish life in Kraków during World War Two deserve a separate portfolio.

These portfolios are fairly representative. They show all the major historical synagogues as well as some major and minor 19th-century synagogues of Kazimierz. The portfolios also include all the Jewish cemeteries of Kazimierz. The list of secular buildings could be expanded with structures such as the Landau building, houses where famous Jewish personalities (Mordechai Gebirtig, Helena Rubinstein, etc.) lived, houses with a mezuzah at the entrance, and so on. The portfolios also do not include the exhibits of the Galicia Jewish Museum.

Old Synagogue | Szeroka 24 | 15th century (1407 or 1492?); Mateo Gucci, 1557-1570; 17-18th centuries; Jan Ertl, 1888-1889; Jan Sas-Zubrzycki, 1891; Zygmunt Hendl, 1904-1910, 1913-1914 & 1923-1925; Józef Jamroz & Józef Ptak, 1956-1959
Remah (Remuh) Synagogue | Szeroka 40 | Stanisław Baranek, 1557 or 1558; August Pluszyński, 1829; 1882; Herman Gutman, 1933; Stefan Świszczowski, 1958-1968; 2008-2013
High Synagogue | Józefa 38 | 1556-1563, or after 1563; 1657; late 1880s & before World War Two; 1969-1972
Wolf Popper Synagogue | Szeroka 16 | 1620; 1813, 1827, 1860, 1898, 1904, mid-1960s & 2005
Kupa Synagogue | Miodowa 27 & Warszauera 8 | 1643; 18th century; 1830-1834; 1861; late 19th century; 1920s
Izaak Jakubowicz Synagogue | Kupa 18 | Giovanni Battista Trevano, Francesco Olivieri or Jan Laitner, 1638-1644; other modifications – 18th to 20th centuries; entrance porch with stairs – Zygmunt Prokesz, 1924
Kowea Itim le-Tora Synagogue | Józefa 42 | 1810; Łazarz Rock, 1912-1913
Tempel Synagogue | Miodowa 24 | Ignacy Hercok, 1860-1862; Teofil Lamyrski, 1868; Jan Ertl, 1883; Beniamin Torbe & Fabian Hochstim, 1893-1894; Ferdynand Liebling & Jozue Oberleder, 1924
Bobov Synagogue | Estery 12 | 1871
Bne Emuna Synagogue | Meiselsa 17 | Jacek Matusiński, 1886
Chewra Thilim Synagogue | Meiselsa 18 & Bożego Ciała 13 | Nachman Kopald, 1896; Salomon Jonkler, 1931
Great Mikveh | Szeroka 6 | first mention – 1567; current look – early 20th century
Szeroka Street Jewish shops | Szeroka 1
Okrąglak: Jewish slaughterhouse | Plac Nowy 11 | Jan Rzymkowski, 1899-1900; Józef Weinberger, 1927-1928
Bosak Building | Plac Bawół 3
Szeroka Street Jewish Cemetery | 15th or early 16th century (?)
Old Jewish Cemetery (Remah (Remuh) Cemetery) | Szeroka 40 | 1533-1552; last burials – c. 1850
New Jewish Cemetery | Miodowa 55 | 1800; enlargement – 1836