Kazimierz
Encyclopedia
Kazimierz is a historical district of Kraków
(Poland
), best known for being home to a Jew
ish community from the 14th century until the Second World War.
river. The northern branch of the river (Stara Wisła - Old Vistula) was filled in at the end of the 19th century, connecting Kazimierz with Krakow proper.
Three early medieval settlements are known to have existed on the island. The most important of these was the pre-Christian Slavic
shrine at Skałka (“the rock”) at the western, upstream tip of the island. This site, with its sacred pool, was later Christianised as the Church of St. Michael the Archangel
in the 11th century and was the legendary site of the martyrdom of St. Stanisław
. There was a nearby noble manor complex to the southeast and an important cattle-market town of Bawół, possibly based on an old tribal Slavic gród
, at the edges of the habitable land near the swamps that composed the eastern, downstream end of the island. There was also a much smaller island upstream of Kazimierz known as the “Tartar Island” after the Tartar
cemetery there. This smaller island has since washed away.
On 27 March 1335, King Casimir III of Poland
(Kazimierz in Polish) declared the two western settlements to be a new city named "Casimiria" (later “Kazimierz”) after him. Shortly thereafter, in 1340, Bawół was also added, making the new city’s boundaries the same as the island. King Casimir gave his city streets in accordance with Magdeburg law and, in 1362, defensive walls. His settled the newly-built central section primarily with burghers, with a plot set aside for the Augustinian order next to Skałka. He also began work on a campus for the Cracow Academy he founded in 1364, but Casimir died in 1370 and the campus was never completed.
Perhaps the most important feature of medieval Kazimierz was the Pons Regalis, the only major, permanent bridge across the Vistula for several centuries. This bridge connected Krakow via Kazimierz to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the lucrative Hungarian trade route. The last bridge at this location (at the end of modern Stradom Street) was dismantled in 1880 when the filling in of the Old Vistula river bed made it obsolete.
(reigned in Poland 1386-1434), however, relations had deteriorated and pogroms began to occur with increasing frequency. As part of the re-founding of the Cracow Academy, starting in 1400, the Academy began to buy out buildings in the old Jewish district. The Jewish community moved to the area around modern Plac Szczepański. During the last decade of the fifteenth century anti-Semitism
led many Jews to move out of Kraków to nearby Kazimierz. There, they built a Fortress synagogue
, the Old Synagogue (Kraków)
. In 1494 a disastrous fire destroyed a large part of Kraków. Raging populace soon attacked the Jews, blaming the fire on them. In 1495 the Polish king John I Albert of Poland
expelled all Jews from Kraków, resettling them to the old Bawół district of Kazimierz. For its own defence against Christian raids, the kahal
petitioned the Kazimierz town council for the right to build its own interior wall, cutting across the western end of the older defensive walls in 1553. Due to the growth of the community, the walls were expanded again in 1608. Later requests to expand the walls were turned down.
The area between the walls was known as the Oppidum Judaeorum, the Jewish City, which represented only about one fifth of the geographical area of Kazimierz, but nearly half of its inhabitants. The Oppidum became the main spiritual and cultural centre of Polish Jewry, hosting many of Poland’s finest Jewish scholars, artists and craftsmen. Among its famous inhabitants were the Talmudist Moses Isserles
, the Kabbalist
Natan Szpiro, and the royal physician Shmuel bar Meshulam.
The golden age of the Oppidum came to an end in 1782, when the Austrian Emperor Joseph II
disbanded the kahal. In 1822, the walls were torn down, removing any physical reminder of the old borders between Jewish and Christian Kazimierz.
In 1791, Kazimierz lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Kraków. The richer Jewish families quickly moved out of the overcrowded streets of eastern Kazimierz. Because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath
, however, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues in the old Oppidum, maintaining Kazimierz’s reputation as a “Jewish district” long after the concept ceased to have any administrative meaning. By the 1930s, Kraków had 120 officially registered synagogues and prayer houses scattered across the city and much of Jewish intellectual life had moved to new centres like Podgórze
.
In a tourist guide published in 1935, Meir Balaban
, a Reform rabbi
and professor of History at the University of Warsaw, lamented that the Jews who remained in the once vibrant Oppidum were “only the poor and the ultra-conservative.” However, this same exodus was the reason why most of the buildings in the Oppidum are preserved today in something close to their 18th century shape.
Views of pre-war Kazimierz can be seen in the opening scenes of the classic, Yiddish movie, Yidl mitn Fidl, or Yidl with His Fiddle , which was filmed in 1936, directed by Joseph Green
and Jan Nowina-Przybylski, and stars Molly Picon
.
During the Second World War, the Jews of Krakow, including those in Kazimierz, were forced by the Nazis
into a crowded ghetto
in Podgórze, across the river. Most of them were later killed during the liquidation of the ghetto or in death camps.
However, since 1988, now a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival
has drawn Cracovians back to the heart of the Oppidum and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland’s historic Jewish community. In 1993, Steven Spielberg
shot his film Schindler's List
largely in Kazimierz (in spite of the fact that very little of the action historically took place there) and this drew international attention to Kazimierz. Since 1993, there have been parallel developments in the restoration of important historic sites in Kazimierz and a booming growth in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops.
A Jewish youth group now meets weekly in Kazimierz and the Remuh Synagogue
actively serves a small congregation of mostly elderly Cracovian Jews.
2. Gothic
St Catherine's Church
3. Gothic Corpus Christi Church
4. Baroque
Church on the Rock (Skałka), the site of Saint Stanislaus's martyrdom
5. Municipal Engineering Museum
, now housing a Jewish History museum
7. Remuh Synagogue
, still active
8. High Synagogue
9. Izaak Synagogue
10. Kupah Synagogue
11. Tempel Synagogue
, still active
12. Old Jewish Cemetery in Krakow
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
(Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
), best known for being home to a Jew
History of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
ish community from the 14th century until the Second World War.
Early history
The district of Kazimierz in Krakow is defined by the old shores of an island in the VistulaVistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
river. The northern branch of the river (Stara Wisła - Old Vistula) was filled in at the end of the 19th century, connecting Kazimierz with Krakow proper.
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
shrine at Skałka (“the rock”) at the western, upstream tip of the island. This site, with its sacred pool, was later Christianised as the Church of St. Michael the Archangel
Michael (archangel)
Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...
in the 11th century and was the legendary site of the martyrdom of St. Stanisław
Stanislaus of Szczepanów
Stanislaus of Szczepanów, or Stanisław Szczepanowski, was a Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by the Polish king Bolesław II the Bold...
. There was a nearby noble manor complex to the southeast and an important cattle-market town of Bawół, possibly based on an old tribal Slavic gród
Gord (Slavic settlement)
Gord is a medieval Slavic fortified settlement. This Proto-Slavic word for town or city, later differentiated into grad , gard, gorod , etc. The ancient peoples were known for building wooden fortified settlements...
, at the edges of the habitable land near the swamps that composed the eastern, downstream end of the island. There was also a much smaller island upstream of Kazimierz known as the “Tartar Island” after the Tartar
Tartar
Tartar may refer to: *An alternative spelling of the name Tatars, an ethnic group in present-day Russia.* Tartars, the name of the athletic teams from 1927–1999 at Wayne State University in Detroit.*Tartar sauce*Tartar on teeth, hardened dental plaque...
cemetery there. This smaller island has since washed away.
On 27 March 1335, King Casimir III of Poland
Casimir III of Poland
Casimir III the Great , last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty , was the son of King Władysław I the Elbow-high and Hedwig of Kalisz.-Biography:...
(Kazimierz in Polish) declared the two western settlements to be a new city named "Casimiria" (later “Kazimierz”) after him. Shortly thereafter, in 1340, Bawół was also added, making the new city’s boundaries the same as the island. King Casimir gave his city streets in accordance with Magdeburg law and, in 1362, defensive walls. His settled the newly-built central section primarily with burghers, with a plot set aside for the Augustinian order next to Skałka. He also began work on a campus for the Cracow Academy he founded in 1364, but Casimir died in 1370 and the campus was never completed.
Perhaps the most important feature of medieval Kazimierz was the Pons Regalis, the only major, permanent bridge across the Vistula for several centuries. This bridge connected Krakow via Kazimierz to the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the lucrative Hungarian trade route. The last bridge at this location (at the end of modern Stradom Street) was dismantled in 1880 when the filling in of the Old Vistula river bed made it obsolete.
Jewish Kazimierz
Jews had played an important role in the Kraków region economy since the end thirteenth century. The Jewish community in Kraków had lived undisturbed alongside their Christian neighbours under the protective King Kazimierz III. By the reign of King JogailaJogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...
(reigned in Poland 1386-1434), however, relations had deteriorated and pogroms began to occur with increasing frequency. As part of the re-founding of the Cracow Academy, starting in 1400, the Academy began to buy out buildings in the old Jewish district. The Jewish community moved to the area around modern Plac Szczepański. During the last decade of the fifteenth century anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
led many Jews to move out of Kraków to nearby Kazimierz. There, they built a Fortress synagogue
Fortress synagogue
Fortress synagogues are synagogues built to withstand attack while protecting the lives of people sheltering within them.Fortress synagogues first appear in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth in the sixteenth century at a time of frequent invasions from the east by Ottoman, Russian and Walachian...
, the Old Synagogue (Kraków)
Old Synagogue (Kraków)
Old Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Kazimierz district of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Poland, and one of the most precious landmarks of Jewish architecture in Europe...
. In 1494 a disastrous fire destroyed a large part of Kraków. Raging populace soon attacked the Jews, blaming the fire on them. In 1495 the Polish king John I Albert of Poland
John I Albert of Poland
John I Albert was King of Poland and Duke of Głogów .-Life:John was the third son of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, and Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of Albert II of Germany. As crown prince, he distinguished himself by his brilliant victory over the Tatars at Kopersztyn...
expelled all Jews from Kraków, resettling them to the old Bawół district of Kazimierz. For its own defence against Christian raids, the kahal
Shtadlan
A Shtadlan was an intercessor figure starting in Medieval Europe, who represented interests of the local Jewish community, especially those of a town's ghetto, and worked as a "lobbyist" negotiating for the safety and benefit of Jews with the authorities holding power...
petitioned the Kazimierz town council for the right to build its own interior wall, cutting across the western end of the older defensive walls in 1553. Due to the growth of the community, the walls were expanded again in 1608. Later requests to expand the walls were turned down.
The area between the walls was known as the Oppidum Judaeorum, the Jewish City, which represented only about one fifth of the geographical area of Kazimierz, but nearly half of its inhabitants. The Oppidum became the main spiritual and cultural centre of Polish Jewry, hosting many of Poland’s finest Jewish scholars, artists and craftsmen. Among its famous inhabitants were the Talmudist Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles
Moses Isserles, also spelled Moshe Isserlis, , was an eminent Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek, renowned for his fundamental work of Halakha , entitled ha-Mapah , an inline commentary on the Shulkhan Aruch...
, the Kabbalist
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
Natan Szpiro, and the royal physician Shmuel bar Meshulam.
The golden age of the Oppidum came to an end in 1782, when the Austrian Emperor Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
disbanded the kahal. In 1822, the walls were torn down, removing any physical reminder of the old borders between Jewish and Christian Kazimierz.
In 1791, Kazimierz lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Kraków. The richer Jewish families quickly moved out of the overcrowded streets of eastern Kazimierz. Because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, however, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues in the old Oppidum, maintaining Kazimierz’s reputation as a “Jewish district” long after the concept ceased to have any administrative meaning. By the 1930s, Kraków had 120 officially registered synagogues and prayer houses scattered across the city and much of Jewish intellectual life had moved to new centres like Podgórze
Podgórze
Podgórze is a district of Kraków, Poland, situated on the right bank of the Vistula River. Initially a village at the foot of Lasota Hill was granted city status by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1784 and has become Royal Free City of Podgorze...
.
In a tourist guide published in 1935, Meir Balaban
Meir Balaban
Majer Bałaban was one of the most outstanding historians of Polish and Galician Jews, and the founder of Polish Jewish historiography.-Early years:...
, a Reform rabbi
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
and professor of History at the University of Warsaw, lamented that the Jews who remained in the once vibrant Oppidum were “only the poor and the ultra-conservative.” However, this same exodus was the reason why most of the buildings in the Oppidum are preserved today in something close to their 18th century shape.
Views of pre-war Kazimierz can be seen in the opening scenes of the classic, Yiddish movie, Yidl mitn Fidl, or Yidl with His Fiddle , which was filmed in 1936, directed by Joseph Green
Joseph Green (actor)
Joseph Green , born Yoysef Grinberg, a.k.a. Josef Grünberg, Joseph Greenberg and Joseph Greene, a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1924, was an actor in Yiddish theater and one of the few directors of Yiddish language films; he made four films including A brivele der mamen and...
and Jan Nowina-Przybylski, and stars Molly Picon
Molly Picon
Molly Picon was an American actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller....
.
During the Second World War, the Jews of Krakow, including those in Kazimierz, were forced by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
into a crowded ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
in Podgórze, across the river. Most of them were later killed during the liquidation of the ghetto or in death camps.
Post-War Kazimierz
After the Second World War, Kazimierz, mostly deserted by its pre-war Jewish population, was populated by the poor and the sometimes criminal elements, becoming a backwater area with a reputation for being unsafe at night. Many old buildings were not repaired after the war devastation and became empty shells. At least one synagogue building was torn apart by scavengers seeking hidden Jewish treasure.However, since 1988, now a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival
Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków
The Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków is an annual cultural event organized since 1988 in the once Jewish district of Kazimierz by the Jewish Culture Festival Society headed by Janusz Makuch, a self-described meshugeneh, fascinated with all things Jewish...
has drawn Cracovians back to the heart of the Oppidum and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland’s historic Jewish community. In 1993, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
shot his film Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
largely in Kazimierz (in spite of the fact that very little of the action historically took place there) and this drew international attention to Kazimierz. Since 1993, there have been parallel developments in the restoration of important historic sites in Kazimierz and a booming growth in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops.
A Jewish youth group now meets weekly in Kazimierz and the Remuh Synagogue
Remuh Synagogue
The Remuh Synagogue, , is named after Rabbi Moses Isserles c.1525-1572, known by the Hebrew acronym ReMA, רמ״א, who's famed for writing a collection of commentaries and additions that complement Rabbi Yosef Karo's Shulchan Aruch, with Ashkenazi traditions and customs. Remuh Synagogue is the...
actively serves a small congregation of mostly elderly Cracovian Jews.
Christian part
1. Market Square (Wolnica) with a town hall, now housing an ethnographic museum2. Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
St Catherine's Church
3. Gothic Corpus Christi Church
4. Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
Church on the Rock (Skałka), the site of Saint Stanislaus's martyrdom
5. Municipal Engineering Museum
Jewish part
6. Old SynagogueOld Synagogue (Kraków)
Old Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Kazimierz district of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest synagogue building still standing in Poland, and one of the most precious landmarks of Jewish architecture in Europe...
, now housing a Jewish History museum
7. Remuh Synagogue
Remuh Synagogue
The Remuh Synagogue, , is named after Rabbi Moses Isserles c.1525-1572, known by the Hebrew acronym ReMA, רמ״א, who's famed for writing a collection of commentaries and additions that complement Rabbi Yosef Karo's Shulchan Aruch, with Ashkenazi traditions and customs. Remuh Synagogue is the...
, still active
8. High Synagogue
High Synagogue (Kraków)
High Synagogue is an inactive Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Kazimierz District of Kraków, Poland. It was called the High Synagogue for many centuries for it was the tallest synagogue in the city. It was built in 1556-1563...
9. Izaak Synagogue
Izaak Synagogue
The Izaak Synagogue or Isaac Synagogue, formally known as the Isaak Jakubowicz Synagogue, is a Prayerhouse built in 1644 in the historic Kazimierz District of Kraków, Poland. The synagogue is named for its donor, Izaak Jakubowicz , also called Isaac the Rich, a banker to King Władysław IV...
10. Kupah Synagogue
11. Tempel Synagogue
Tempel Synagogue
The Tempel Synagogue is a Reform Jewish synagogue in Kraków, Poland, in the Kazimierz district. The Moorish Revival building was designed by Ignacy Hercok, and built in 1860-1862 along Miodowa Street. The temple, with its tall central section flanked by lower wings, is designed on the pattern of...
, still active
12. Old Jewish Cemetery in Krakow