Day 5 - Poland - Ben
After an emotionally-taxing 4 days in Poland, learning about the atrocities of the Holocaust, a change of mood was approaching. Our first Shabbat on IST was to be spent in Krakow, a city which once had a large, thriving Jewish population.
We were dropped off in Krakow’s Old Town, where we spent the next few hours exploring the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz. The Jewish history of the area has long been a major draw for tourists, which is visible in slightly gimmicky stores and restaurants which sell Jewish dolls and Jewish food.
However, the commercialised facade of Kazimierz quickly disappeared as we entered the 16th Century Remah Synagogue, a small yet spectacular shule with ornately designed features.
The synagogue, founded by Rabbi Moses Isserles, is one of two shules which remain active in Krakow, and is attached to an ancient cemetery. The cemetery is home to the grave of Rabbi Isserles, among other great scholars.
We continued to walk down the cobblestone streets of Kazimierz, towards the Galicia Jewish Museum. Excited by the relief from the bitter cold, our large group poured into one of the museum’s exhibition rooms and we took our seats. Eventually, an elderly woman walked into the hall, and quietly sat down at the table at the front. It was announced that the woman, named Ms Miroslawa, was a Polish ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, whose family hid a young Jewish girl in Krakow during the Holocaust. Aided by an interpreter, she began to tell her story to an inspired and enraptured audience. Ms Miroslawa’s family sheltered a young Jewish Cracovian girl named Miri, who escaped the Nazi deportation of the Jews from Krakow’s ghetto. What was perhaps the most moving, was that both Miri and Ms Miroslawa remain in contact to this day.
We returned to our hotels and prepared for Shabbat, which began at around 4pm. We walked through the Kazimierz district and entered the Tempel Synagogue, a breathtakingly beautiful structure which is Krakow’s second active shule. The walls of the synagogue are covered with intricate designs, all centred around an awe-inspiring Aron HaKodesh. We brought in Shabbat with joy and excitement, and returned life to an area whose community spirit had been stolen by the Nazi regime. Every moment in the shule was an act of defiance; a proof of the fact that the Jewish people live on, despite Hitler’s attempt to eliminate us.
