Kazimierz, Krakow's Jewish Old Town

On a trip through Eastern Europe, this was my third Jewish quarter in less than a week. I was starting to get the idea. Jews did not live mixed into the society as a whole in these cities. They had their own neighborhoods, where it was not unusual at all to have several synagogues on the same block. Kazimierz was founded as a separate town by King Kasimir the Great in 1335 and was named after this king. In 1495 King Jan I Olbracht transferred Krakow Jews to the nearby royal city because of rising anti-semistism, which gave rise to its once bustling Jewish quarter and a major European center of the Diaspora for the next three centuries. With time it turned into virtually separate and self-governed 34-acre Jewish Town, a model of every East European shtetl, within the limits of the gentile city of Kazimierz. As refugees from all over Europe kept coming to find the safe haven here, its population reached 4,500 by 1630.

After the Second World War, Kazimierz, mostly deserted by its pre-war Jewish population, was re-populated, but it was not refurbished. it had been ruined during the war, and few original inhabitants returned, It was repopulated by the poor and the sometimes criminal elements during the Communist era. Many old buildings became empty shells. However, since 1988 a popular annual Jewish Cultural Festival has drawn Krakovians 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. Not only that, there are also Jews from Israel and America. Kazimierz with Krakow, is having a booming growth in Jewish population recently.

It is said that the key to the understanding of the popularity that Kazimierz enjoys today is its unbelievable and lasting tolerance: two religions existed here for centuries in harmony. It is in Kazimierz that the massive, Gothic churches of St Catherine's and Corpus Christi sprung up alongside synagogues. Kazimierz is a hub of artistic endeavors.