Friday night in Kazimierz

After settling in, we went to the Jewish Community Center (JCC) down the street.  The Director of External Relations, Jenny, spoke to us about the history and role of the JCC in the community.

Prince Charles of Wales
donated the funds for the building.

Megan wrote about her feelings at the JCC:

Nearly every time I shared with people that I was traveling to Poland, the response was usually confused. “Poland? But why?” Now we are in Kraków—43 miles from Auschwitz and  I started to doubt my emotional capacity to comprehend to horrors awaiting me. Then we, our travel group, went to a Shabbat dinner at the Kraków Jewish Community Center and the most delightful cognitive dissonance shift occurred. I was cheerfully greeted by a Jewish community that bears the face of the Holocaust by intentionally planting joy. Their mission is to create a welcoming, vibrant, flagship community center full of life and hope for the next generation of Jewish people to establish their families. The JCC is brightly painted, with large windows facing the outside. It is staffed by young people and hosts weekly yoga and art classes, Shabbat dinner, workshops, and it arranges health care, groceries and special classes for the 60 aging Holocaust survivors in Kraków. The JCC actively supports the annual Jewish Cultural Festival held in Kazimierz, with tens of thousands of visitors.

Afterwards, we went to the Friday night Shabbat service at the Izaak Synagogue, and we returned to the JCC for a Shabbat dinner.  

Matthew wrote about how the experience affected him: 

It was surely an eye opening experience. This was because growing up in the Conservative Movement in American Judaism, I was used to an integrated service where men and women sit together along with their families and the prayers leaders also include men and women.  However, the Izaak Synagogue held an Orthodox service that is lead only by respected male members of the community.  It was hard to know whether the man who led it was the synagogue rabbi.  According to Jewish law, you do not need to have a rabbi to lead a service as long as there are 10 men who are of Bar Mitzvah age (13) or more -- that creates a quorum, or minyan.  Any of them can lead the service.  The prayers were so participatory (for those men who knew them) that it seemed like a group of men led the service.  In my Conservative synagogue a known cantor or rabbi leads the services.  Also, one of the men gave a sermon in Hebrew, which probably was not understood by many of the attendees. 

Our Shabbat dinner at the Krakow JCC (here in Kazimierz) was awesome. There was so much diversity there! The JCC Director told us that at the dinner were people from Poland, New Zealand, South Africa, China, and the United States.  This was the best part of the evening because it was nice to see everyone so happy and socializing with each other, and to me that is the best part of Shabbat. It made me proud to see that there is a reviving Jewish life and identity not only in Krakow but in the country of Poland. 

At the dinner we heard an elderly woman, who had been a child during the Holocaust, share a lesson from the Torah.  During the meal, we laughed and dined together.  For Megan, Matthew, and probably many of us, it was inspiring to witness a community empowered by the hope for a happier future. Who knew Poland would be the place we would witness the joys of living— even in the face of death.