Field Guide to Jewish Warsaw and Kraków
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i i Field Guide to Jewish Warsaw and Kraków Contributing Editors: With a special section by Dr. Edyta Gawron Rabbi Boaz Pash, Chief Rabbi of Kraków Konstanty Gebert Helise Lieberman Magdalena Matuszewska Benjamin Matis Shana Penn Dr. Karen Underhill Dr. William Zeisel Sponsors: Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture WARSAW Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe ii CONTENTS Welcome 1 Poland’s Jewish Revival 4 Warsaw 13 Route 1 A walk into centuries of vibrant and varied Jewish life, literature, worship, and politics, and the first steps to the edge of despair. Nożyk Synagogue / Grzybowski Square / Warsaw of Peretz, Singer, and Szlengel The Gerer Rebbe / Edge of the Ghetto 17 Route 2 A path into the heart of darkness and despair, if only briefly, to remember and honor those we have lost, those who survived, and those who dared to save others. The Intersection / Karmelicka Street / Route of Memory and the Memorial POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews / Cemetery on Okopowa Street 33 Route 3 A stroll through reconstructed lost times, some ancient and others quite recent, which raise questions about renewal, authenticity of place, and the importance of cultural icons and continuity. Old Town and New Town / Castle Square / Royal Route / University of Warsaw Piłsudski Square / Saxon Garden 51 Route 4 Encountering past physical spaces and remembering human experiences, to help us imagine what no longer exists and to frame what has survived and thrived. Nalewki and Tłomackie Streets / Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street 63 FIELD GUIDE iiiiii iii Kraków 75 Route 1 A trek through seven centuries of Kraków’s Jewish community, from feudal magnificence to modern sophistication; from the beginnings of Ashkenazi culture LIST OF MAPS to the emergence of Jews as full national citizens. Old Town / Krzysztofory Palace-Kraków City Museum / Rynek Główny (Main Market Square) WARSAW Kamienica Szara (Gray Building) / Feintuch Family / Adam Mickiewicz Monument / Św. Anny Reference Map 12 (Jewish Street) 79 Warsaw Route 1 16 Route 2 A stroll back in time, from the Jewish confrontation with modernity and secularism Warsaw Route 2 32 to the roots of Ashkenazi culture and Kabbalah. Tempel Synagogue / JCC Kraków, Kazimierz / Szeroka Street, Kazimierz Warsaw Route 3 50 Remuh Synagogue and Cemetery / Tour within the Tour 89 Praga District 55 Route 3 Crossing a bridge to walk the streets where old Jewish Kraków made its last stand. Podgórze / The Ghetto / Ghetto Heroes’ Square / Pharmacy Under the Eagle Warsaw Route 4 62 Zucker Synagogue / Rynek Podgórski 111 KRAKÓW Reference Map 74 Route 4 Visiting lost cemeteries and the scene of crimes against humanity. Płaszów’s Jewish Cemeteries / The Labor Camp 119 Kraków Route 1 78 Glossary of Terms, Phrases, and Organizations 121 Kraków Route 2 88 Acknowledgments 126 Kraków Route 3 110 The Field Guide Team 127 Kraków Route 4 118 The Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland 129 Foundation Support 131 Partner Organizations and Cooperating Institutions 132 iv Welcome Welcome to Jewish Poland! The experience of coming to Poland to learn about the Jewish past, and to think about the present and future of Polish Jewry, can be a transformative journey. More than seventy years after the Holocaust and almost three decades after the fall of Communism, a visit to Jewish Poland is filled with a multitude of questions and myriad surprises. It brings to life complex emotions, from profound sadness to deep connections that may throw our preconceptions into startling relief. It invites us to examine our past, both personal and communal, and to consider what it is we care most about in Jewish culture, history, and traditions. 1 1 Jews visit Poland for many reasons: to see the towns where their families lived and perhaps touch their homes and gravestones; to visit the death camps where family members tragically died; to learn about European Jewish culture, or to enjoy the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, the world’s largest festival of its kind. But all visitors discover things they did not expect, and find their understanding of Jewish culture in Poland permanently transformed. Readers may have encountered some version of a conversation that runs: “I’m planning to take a Jewish heritage tour of Poland.” “A tour of what? There’s nothing left.” Not so! History doesn’t move. Poland is the birthplace of Ashkenazi, or East European Jewish, culture. To explore Jewish roots in Europe means to return to the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which are today’s Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. It is also true, however, that while history cannot be moved or changed it can be forgotten, intentionally or unintentionally. At every moment it is being recreated and reinterpreted. So it is with the history and heritage of the Ashkenazi civilization that developed over nearly a millennium Street musicians during the annual Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków. on Polish lands. While Polish Jewish culture has found new life in many 1945 in New York City at YIVO, a great repository of Jewish historical parts of the world, the appreciation of its roots is on its way to being lost documents from Central and Eastern Europe. “The Eastern European era or forgotten. The discussion about the relevance of Poland as a site can become a source of inspiration for all of us,” he told his American for Jews to visit, or for those interested in Jewish culture and Jewish audience. “A day will come in which the hidden light of the Eastern education, raises questions about how we understand our own history European era will be revealed. This era was the Song of Songs (which and how we envision our role in constructing meaningful connections to according to the rabbis is the holiest of Holy Scripture) of Jewish history Polish Jewish heritage and transmitting them to our children. in the last two thousand years. If the other eras were holy, this one was Reconnecting with Our Heritage the holy of holies.” During the half-century after Heschel gave this speech the political Not only can we reconnect with Jewish history and culture by visiting realities of the Soviet-dominated People’s Republic of Poland made Poland in ways not possible in America or Israel, but such visits are it very difficult to explore and maintain a connection with the Jewish transformative. They have a deep and lasting impact on how individuals heritage in the country and to uncover the treasures that lay beneath relate to their own European Jewish heritage and explain and transmit the postwar surface of a rebuilt Poland. Between 1945 and 1989 the Jewish identity to their children and friends. Jewish culture and Jewish heritage and history of Poland were rarely Philosopher and rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel spoke to the same discussed in public. Today, however, almost three decades after the conviction over half a century ago, in a public lecture that he gave in transition to democracy, Jonathan Ornstein, the director of the Kraków WELCOME 2 Jewish Community Center, argues that there is no country in Europe Poles who are committed to teaching about the Jewish past of their where citizens are more knowledgeable about Jewish culture or more towns and cities. welcoming to Jews than Poland, no European city where it is more comfortable to be a Jew in public than Kraków. Why Is This Guide Different from All Others? Visitors find two elements of this process particularly surprising. First is We based this guidebook on the model of the Passover haggadah, which the fact that Jewish communities exist and are growing in many Polish relates the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The haggadah begins by cities, and that young people are growing up in Poland comfortable with setting the scene with a brief introduction and then poses four questions, their identities as Polish Jews. Museum exhibits, publications, and tour which in turn help shape the direction of the narrative. For each question guides in English make it possible to become immersed in Polish Jewish there may be many answers, or perhaps the question will lead to more heritage in ways that were impossible three decades earlier. Second is questions. The purpose is to engage each person in the journey, offering that scores of non-Jewish Poles have embraced their role as stewards of insights into the story and illuminating the paths, both physical and Jewish heritage and history. Visitors often take tours led by non-Jewish spiritual, that may be followed. Shabbat dinner hosted by JCC Kraków during the Jewish Culture Festival, summer 2014. (JCC Kraków) FIELD GUIDE 3 Our story contains dramatic moments, traumatic events, cultural achievements and social innovations, and describes many remarkable people. Like the haggadah it poses Discussion Topics questions that hold our attention and help move us to reflection. and Questions We are storytellers, and we offer a contemporary haggadah of the story of Jewish Poland. We raise questions about the past and present and we offer, if not definitive answers, at least new ways of thinking about the issues. Throughout the guide we pose Our guidebook tells a story of two great cities and their Jewish communities and questions that visitors often raise, as well as some of our begins by setting the scene, in an opening section entitled “Poland’s Jewish Revival.” own. We offer them as opportunities for discussion and To tell our story we travel across nearly a thousand years of history, but our goal is not reflection and for challenging assumptions. to write history. We are storytellers, and we seek to provide a contemporary haggadah For educational tour groups, the questions may serve of the tale of Jewish Poland, an experiential journey framed by unique narratives, as the basis for group discussions and for the sharing of commentaries, and questions.