Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The final concert Szalom na Szerokiej ( Eng . " Shalom on Broad Street") of the 15th Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow 2005

The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow ( Polish Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej w Krakowie ; English Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow ; Yiddish : יירשער קולטור - פעסטיוואל אין קראָקע) is an annual cultural event that has been taking place in the former Jewish district of Kazimierz every year since 1988 towards the end of June / beginning of July takes place. It is one of the largest festivals of its kind in the world.

Goal setting

The main aim of the festival is to bring the population closer to Jewish culture as well as the history of the Jews in Poland and the beliefs of Judaism , which played an important role in Poland before the Holocaust . The main idea of ​​the festival: “Dialogue as a way to mutual respect and understanding.” In addition to Jewish musicians mostly based in the USA , non-Jewish artists are also invited. On the other hand, the audience from Catholic Poland is predominantly non-Jewish and for the most part also the organizers of the Association of the Jewish Culture Festival (Stowarzyszenie Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej) and the more than fifty volunteers.

history

Krakow was considered a “typically Jewish city”, which in 1935 still had a proportion of one third Jews. Kazimierz, badly neglected before the fall of communism and with countless dilapidated houses, was the main district of Krakow's Jews until 1940. Today, however, the Jewish community in Krakow only has about 140 members. The average age is 74. It was in this environment that Janusz Makusch launched the Jewish cultural festival in Krakow in 1988 because his fascination with Jewish culture grew more and more. The main topics at the time were Yiddish film and academic lectures devoted to Polish Judaism. Back then it was held in a small cinema that barely fit a hundred people.

In the meantime, Kazimierz has largely been refurbished and several former synagogues have been renovated. The events are now taking place in over ten different locations within the district due to the increased interest, with music taking the central place of the festival. The 67-year-old head of the Jewish community Jakubowicz says: “The cultural festival has given the district new life.” The 19th edition of the festival in 2009 already recorded almost 30,000 participants, of which around 20,000 attended the final concert in Szalom na Szerokiej .

program

As part of the nine-day festival, over 200 events on the subject of Jewish culture have recently taken place. The focus is on concerts with Jewish folk music, especially Klezmer music and its variants. But representatives of Radical Jewish Culture (traditional Jewish music with jazz or punk elements), classical and Hasidic music also present themselves to the public. In addition, exhibitions, film screenings, lectures, excursions and workshops give the opportunity to get to know other aspects of Jewish culture than music. During the festival, non-Jews are invited to watch or even participate in Jewish prayers in the synagogues. The two most important and most popular events are the opening concert on the first Sunday and the closing concert Szalom na Szerokiej (German: Schalom auf der Breite Straße) on the last Saturday of the festival on Ulica Szeroka ('Breite Straße'), the main street of the (formerly) Jewish District of Kazimierz.

financing

The project is funded 50 percent from Polish sources, including official support from the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the City of Krakow, the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the Israeli Embassy in Poland. The other half comes from foreign foundations and sponsors. Through the patronage of various Polish media, the main events of the festival reach a wide audience. The small Jewish community in Krakow is actively involved, despite its limited possibilities, by making its synagogues available free of charge.

See also

Web links

Commons : Szalom na Szerokiej  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matti Goldschmidt in Folker : Jewish Culture by Non-Jews for a Non-Jewish Audience , April 2008, accessed on July 23, 2010
  2. ↑ 19. Festiwal kultury żydowskiej w Krakowie: Report  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Polish), accessed July 23, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.jewishfestival.pl  
  3. ^ Anne Seith in Spiegel Online Kultur : Folklore instead of History , June 25, 2005, accessed on July 23, 2010
  4. ↑ Matti Goldschmidt in Jüdische Zeitung : “Yiddish people” are not the goal ( memento of November 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), September 2007, accessed on July 23, 2010

Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 6 ″  N , 19 ° 56 ′ 54 ″  E