Krakow Shul Hopping; Leah

Krakow: Shul Hopping

To start off our day in what was once the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, we sat and sang a nigun. A nigun is a repetitive tune or melody with no words. Next, we headed to our first synagogue; The Beit Knesset Rama. The Beit Knesset Rama is still an active synagogue today. Rama is one of the most famous Ashkenazis of all time and he wrote the Mapah. Next to the synagogue is a graveyard where many important people in our history were buried, including Rama. There is a Midrash that says when the Nazis invaded and destroyed the synagogue and graveyard, the graves could not be broken. The next synagogue we visited was Isaac's synagogue. It was built in 1638 by a very wealthy family. The same family that built it also gave a loan King Kashmir who invited Jews into the community. The synagogue has high acoustics and had arches, baroque style. It was a crowned jewel of the Jewish community. Chabad went around and identified all the prayers written on the walls of the shul.   Reb Jekel taught us, you don't have to go far and wide to find your riches.

Then we hopped over to the synagogue I felt the most connection to; The Kupa synagogue for the poor. The shul was built for the poor people of Krakow. It took 50 years to raise enough money to open the synagogue, but it was just as decorative as the others that we visited. On the wall was a painting of twelve loaves of bread to represent the twelve tribes and giving to the poor. We visited The Temple next. Members of the Reform Judaism named the synagogue The Temple and this caused controversy because the orthodox believed the only temple can only be in Jerusalem. It was built between the years 1860-1862 and was constructed to look like a church to attract more people. When members of the Hassidic community would pass by they would spit on it because they didn't except it. The Temple is decorated with an abundance of gold and red and special services can still be held there, but it is no longer active. Lastly, we went to the Alt Shul. The synagogue was built in 1407 and every time a new Rabbi would join the community, the would parade them up and down the streets of Krakow. The Alt Shul is fairly large and consisted of a synagogue and a tower for prisoners. The Shamash of the Menorah was a person. This person also had the role of spreading the news throughout the town. If he knocked twice it meant danger and if he knocked three times it meant safety. All five synagogues were very decorative and had similar decorations.

Later in the afternoon, we followed in the Jewish people of Krakow's steps. We walked over the love bridge in silence and continued until we arrived into the ghetto. In the ghetto, we learned about the pharmacy on the corner where Jews were delivered messages and medicine to help them survive. Then we sat in the memorial of all the chairs and went around answering impossible questions. There was not one question that any of us will ever be able to truly answer because we did not live through the horrors they did. We then went to Schindler's Factory where Dsol talked about the Righteous Among The Nations. Then the Shabbat festivities began. We went to dinner at the Jewish community center. There we learned the importance of having a JCC in Poland. Our night ended after services.

The synagogue I enjoyed the most was the Kupa Shul because of the reasons for created it our the most meaningful to me. What temple did you enjoy visiting the most and why?