Kraków’s Kazimierz is a special place, because it has been shaped by the close neighbourhood of Christianity and Judaism lasting for several centuries. The Jews came to Kazimierz in the 2nd half of the 14th century, and till the first years of the 19th century they had lived there in the separate “Jewish town” whose limits largely followed today’s Miodowa, Św. Wawrzyńca, Wąska, Józefa and Bożego Ciała Streets. It was an autonomous enclave governed by rabbis and elected elders that recognised only the king’s supremacy held on his behalf by the Kraków voivode.
Only in the course of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century the Jews gradually dominated the entire Kazimierz, as well as the neighbouring district of Stradom. In the 2nd half of the 19th century the Jews took a large part in the expansion of the district as investors, construction entrepreneurs and architects. Their social and economic activity was fully triggered by granting them equal civic rights in 1867. The culturally assimilated Jewish intelligentsia more and more often decided to live outside of Kazimierz.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War Kraków was inhabited by over 64,000 Jews, that is, about 25% of its entire population. Till 1939 the Jews had created a well-developed social infrastructure aiming at the fulfilment of interests and aspirations of the minority. It was largely formed in Kazimierz which was a notably Jewish district of Kraków and the natural social base for the majority of Jewish organisations and institutions till the end of the inter-war period. It was the place of operation of political parties of all shades representing the Jewish population in the Polish Parliament, educational, charity, cultural, artistic and sports organisations. Kazimierz concentrated the religious life of the Kraków Jews. They prayed in six big Orthodox synagogues (Old, Remuh, High, Issac’s, Popper’s and Kupa) and the progressive synagogue of Tempel at Podbrzezie that were supported by the Commune, and in many prayer houses belonging to various religious associations and private persons.
Let us enumerate places related to the past of the Jewish community of our City.