A photoreport from the Purim Festival which took place at Kupa Synagogue on Wednesday evening. After a long break we finally got a chance to meet in a larger group in order to read the Book of Esther and to spend some time together. We were pleased to have the Community members as well as invited guests including Ukrainian Jewish refugees.
Dawid Kahane, born on 15th March 1903 in Grzymałów, was a rabbi with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Polish Army and a chairman of The Supreme Religious Council in Poland. He came from a family of rabbis who raised him in traditional religious spirit. Kahane studied in Berlin, Wrocław and Vienna, where he obtained his PhD title in Philosophy. He was a student of Israelitisch-Theologische Lehranstalt, too. After his return to Poland, he settled in Lviv. During the war, Dawid Kahane was a member of the Lviv rabbinate, while working at the religious department of Judenrat at the same time. He was a prisoner of the Janovski camp in Lviv. Kahane was saved thanks to Andrzej Szeptycki, the Greek-Catholic Metropolitan. After the war, he held the position…
On 13th March 2022, which marked the 79th anniversary of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, Tadeusz Jakubowicz, Chairman of the Board together with the representatives of the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow, laid flowers in places commemorating the extermination of Krakow Jews. The following guests were in attendance: Mayor of Krakow, professor Jacek Majchrowski, Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Religious Community in Katowice, Włodzimierz Kac, President of the Roma Association in Poland, Roman Kwiatkowski, Manager of the Krakow branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, habilitated doctor Filip Musiał as well as numerous Krakow residents. We are grateful for everyone’s presence on that day.
On Saturday, 13th March 1943, the Germans began the final liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. First, the ghetto was cordoned off by SS divisions, Police, Sonderdienst and the Blue police. Jews from the A ghetto were supposed to walk to Płaszów, while those from ghetto B were to be killed, despite being promised a relocation to Julag I. During the two-day operation, the SS men murdered a few hundred people located in shelters, hospitals and orphanages. Their corpses were transported to Płaszów, where other people, considered ”useless”, were being shot dead. The official total number of 2,000 victims killed in both, the ghetto as well as in Płaszów, does not seem to be exaggerrated, as the original number of 8,000 people who arrived at the camp increased up to over…
12th March 1682, marked in history as ”der grosjer Schülergeläuf”, was a day of serious anti-Jewish riots in Cracow. Janina Bieniarzówna thoroughy described these events in Volume 2 of Dzieje Krakowa (The history of Cracow) as well Majer Bałaban, in Volume 2 of Historia Żydów w Krakowie i na Kazimierzu 1304-1868 (The history of Jews in Cracow and in the Kazimierz District 1304-1868) It all stemmed from a Szachna who was sentenced to death by hanging, as a consequence of buying stolen ecclesiastical silverware. After executing the sentence, a group of students attacked and severly beat the Jews. Soon after that, other anti-Jewish riots broke out. The Jews took shelter in the Szara tenement house, while students, supported by local thugs, tried to break in there. As a result of…
