Kazimierz

After our day at Auschwitz, we returned to the hotel and rested. Later Ania and Monica picked us up 

and took us to Kazimierz where a big concert marked the end of an annual two week Jewish Celebration. We had a delicious supper in Bagelmania. We met the American  owner who has lived in Europe for many years and is the caterer for the French Open. I learned that bagel is a golf term.

Nice Menus

The concert was packed and we had such fun!

The next morning, we toured Kazimierz.

In 1335 King Casimir (Kazimierz) the Great founded a separate town on an island South of Krakow which eventually became part of the mainland and an independent Jewish City with a long and rich history. Legend says that Casimir loved the beautiful Jewish Esther and protected her people.

 In 1978 Kazimierz was put on the UNESCO list of protected sites. And in 1993 Steven Spielberg    filmed Shindler's List here and that put Kazimierz on the tourist map.

When we were here in 1988-89,  I enjoyed walking down Grotsky Street to shop in Kasimierz. Ania took me to a linen store where I bought the beautiful white linen that became the curtains in the upstairs bedroom. and I also shopped for meat in this market. The round cupola behind the reddish roof is over what was I the meat market. 

There it is  behind Kevin and I remember seeing butchers and the big haunches of raw meat. On this day we only saw it in the distance as we were keeping up with our travel group.

 I loved walking around Kasimierz looking at the beautiful old but crumbling buildings. I remember taking a lot of photos of Jakuba Street sign to send to Jacob. I also remember the many old synagogues. There are seven. Today our group toured the Old Synagogue which was founded around 1407.

Today this synagogue is a museum remembering the history and culture of Krakow's Jews.

I loved finding this quotation by the Polish hero Kosciusko, defender of human rights who also fought with the Americans during the American Revolution. 

We walked down into this  beautiful old synagogue.

There is much to read and see.

One of many old maps here explained by the lovely Marcelina.

This is the oldest panorama of Krakow (1536) as seen from Krakus Mound. In the foreground are the defensive wall and gates of Kazimierz; Wawel looms large in the background  and the two towers of St Mary's are on the right.

An arial view of Krakow and Kazimierz

Old paintings--this one by Abraham Messer

Object displays like these Mezuzahs 

Dioramas showing Jewish traditions

Photographs--this one by  Roman Vishniac who took beautiful and sensitive photographs of Jewish culture before the Holocaust. Many of these photographs were given to the Cooper Library by his daughter. The photographs also illustrate Isaac Bashevis Singer's childhood memoir A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw.

We walked over to Remuh Synagogue founded in 1556 and today the smallest and only active synagogue in Kazimierz. It was used as a military storehouse for the Germans during WWII 

And behind the synagogue is this old cemetery that we had visited in 1989. Many important rabbis are buried here--one is Moses Isserles Remuh who wrote the commentary known as Tablecloth which contains the rules for everyday life for the Askenazi Jews.

This beautiful wall is made of broken tombstones.

A beautiful reformed synagogue.

Listening to Marcelina and lovely folk music

And outside again

 

Reenacting a scene from Schindler's list--Later we visited Schindler's Factory which is now a museum that tells the story of Krakow during WWII.

Outside we walked into the city center