Krakow: Jewish growth amid the grandeur

Krakow is, without doubt, one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. You can take in works by da Vinci and Rembrandt, dine in  Michelin-rated restaurants and visit one of the finest surviving Jewish quarters on the continent. But locals will tell you it’s the people that make this southern Polish city so special.

“It might be a city of 800,000 people but we all know one another,” says veteran tour guide Marta Weigel. “You can’t walk down the street without recognizing somebody and we all know each other’s business,” she laughs.

Most Jewish visitors flock primarily to Kazimierz, a town once separate from Krakow but now just another district in the city. Kazimierz is home to seven restored synagogues, the burial place of Rabbi Moshe Isserlis, the 16th-century author of a famous commentary on the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), and a thriving Jewish Community Center. 

The main square in this Jewish neighborhood is surrounded by restaurants with Jewish, or Israeli-named eateries, offering Jewish-style cuisine. It contains a modest home where Helene Rubenstein spent her formative years before creating her cosmetics empire, and tucked away in a former synagogue lies a fascinating bookshop, with works focusing on Judaism, Israel, the Hebrew language, and the history of Jewish Krakow.

Over at the Jewish Community Center, the leadership sees the touristic development of Jewish Kazimierz as a boon, not necessarily because it has become a tourism Mecca for those interested in Judaism but rather because its development has signaled to Krakow residents of Jewish heritage that, perhaps, there is a place for them to develop their Jewishness within their own city – and that is where the JCC comes into its own.

“Young Poles are finding out that they have Jewish roots and we’re trying to bring them back into the fold,” says Krakow Jewish Community Center Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ornstein, a New Yorker, who followed his heart to Poland via the Israel Defense Forces and Kibbutz Yotvata. 

“More and more American Jews are visiting Poland. Historically, they would come here to learn about the loss, to go to Auschwitz, maybe to go to the Schindler factory. Now they realize that there is a reborn Jewish community here. It’s important when Jewish life is growing to somehow connect to that.” 

Indeed, up to 140,000 people visit the JCC each year. 

“We used to say it’s Auschwitz, period. Now we say it’s Auschwitz, comma,” says Ornstein, who is proud that the JCC has 850 members.

TALKING OF community, the residents of Kazimierz are of utmost importance to Izabela Chyłek, event and community manager at Hevre, a restaurant, educational center, and art space in a one-time synagogue and former dance hall. The name says it all for her.

“It’s taken from the original name of the synagogue, Hevre Tehilim, but the word itself means colleagues or friends,” says Chyłek. And that is the ethos of the venue – an opportunity to build a community for visitors and locals alike. The meeting spaces are free to rent and when, on four weekends a year, Hevre wants to host music gigs, the company pays for the immediate neighbors to go to a hotel for a couple of nights so as not to disturb.

Involving locals and tourists in the arts in all forms is something the city hall takes very seriously. While sipping seriously good coffee and tucking into the market-square-located Grey Goose restaurant’s eponymous dessert, we chat with Robert Piaskowski. He has the wonderful title of plenipotentiary of the mayor of Krakow for culture. 

On the one hand, tourists want entertainment in the downtown areas and on the other, as the city grows, residents are demanding more arts provision in the suburbs. As Piaskowski lays out the city’s vision, it’s easy to understand why it was chosen as European Capital of Culture in 2000. It’s not just about the opera houses and the grand theaters. The city sees opportunities to expand the arts everywhere. Galleries abound. There are free concerts right up to the city limits. The locals are a refined bunch. And with some of Poland’s most prominent higher education institutions, Krakow attracts 200,000 students every year.

For those interested in Jewish and Israeli culture, the summer Jewish Cultural Festival is the jewel in Krakow’s crown. Non-Jew Janusz Makuch has been running the festival since its inception in 1988. He is at pains to point out that the event is not just klezmer and hazzanut. As he pours Turkish coffee from a finjan purchased from a Syrian Jew in Jerusalem, he explains that on his first trip to Israel he was exposed to the many facets of non-Ashkenazi culture. And that is reflected in the festival. 

What began with just 100 visitors now attracts as many as 15,000 people to a single concert. The line-up of performers reads like a who’s who of contemporary Jewish artists: Chava Alberstein, Yanky Lemmer, Leopold Kozłowski, and Liraz, who performed with Iranian women who had to cover their faces for fear of reprisals back home.

Krakow has its own international airport currently handling 10 million passengers a year with direct flights to Israel and many European cities. The city’s tourism bosses see Krakow’s location as a mixed blessing. It lies between Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

As Piaskowski puts it, the challenge is to persuade tourists to stop for a few days in the city as they make their way from the camp to the mine. The truth is, it shouldn’t be too difficult a job. Krakow is a magnificent city,with something for every visitor: history, museums, entertainment, and a diverse gastronomy. It is most definitely worth a visit.

On Krakow’s doorstep: The Małopolska region

The city should be on anyone’s European bucket list but it is also the perfect stepping-off point for exploring the Małopolska region, known as Lesser Poland. On this occasion, we visited two great sites: the Wieliczka Salt Mine and snowy Zakopane, the gateway to Poland’s mountainous Tatras. 

Just 30 minutes outside Krakow, the mine is remarkable. It is enormous. It has a cathedral inside. It reaches a depth of 327 meters and its tunnels run some 287 kilometers. It also has tour guides who speak and sing in Hebrew. And should the need arise, you can get married in a 400-seater hall, some 130 meters below the surface. If you are tempted to lick the rock walls, stick to the white stuff – it’s pure, “self-disinfecting” sodium chloride.

It’s a couple of hours from Krakow to Zakopane. It’s well worth it – but be careful on the single lane road that rises steeply as you hit the Tatras. Zakopane is a wooden wonderland. Hills surround the town and seven tumbling brooks run through the pleasant town center. Take the funicular up one of the slopes for breathtaking views. The main shopping street, Krupówki, is rapidly becoming internationally famous.  

And over in the next town, you’ll find one of the finest restaurants in Poland. Michelin-listed Giewont, with its private cigar room, has a menu to die for with a drinks’ pairing that goes way beyond reds, whites, and rosés. You can order individual dishes but it’s the tasting menu that brings out the creativity of its chefs – including a fully vegan version, replete with kohlrabi tartare, beetroot velouté and the most amazing apple tart with almond ice cream.

Mark and David host The Jerusalem Post Podcast – Travel Edition. They were the guests of the Polish Tourism Organisation and Małopolska Tourism Organisation.