יום חמישי י"ח באדר ב תשפ"ד 28/03/2024
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  • The Mission Continues

    As in the past so it remains today - we were and still are under the selfsame commitment to adhere to the directions of the Gedolei Yisrael, who stand guard against breaches of purity threatening our camp. When we were required to ask – we asked. When we were instructed to depart – we left. The moment we are summoned back to raise the flag, every other consideration is pushed to the side and we answer: We are ready!

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בראי היום

  • Harav Yisrael Friedman zy”a, the Rebbe of Husyatin

    מוטי, ויקיפדיה העברית

    The ancestral chain of Harav Yisrael Friedman, the founder of the Husyatin chassidic court, originates with the holy Baal Shem Tov. The Husyatin chassidus has its roots in Galicia and eventually came to Tel Aviv, during the turbulent years between the two World Wars.

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  • Maccabi'im Gravesite

    In honour of Chanukah, we will discuss a fascinating, ongoing investigation attempting to establish the place of burial of Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol and his family.

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Reflections

The Ancient Jewish Community of Krakow

Thousands of years’ worth of Jewish history lies hidden beneath the cobblestoned streets of Krakow; years in which the vibrant community cast its effervescent glow over the rest of Europe. Until the rise of the Nazi beast put an end to this golden era

Motty Meringer 20/08/2009 12:06

 In the south-west of Poland, on the banks of the Vistula River, lies the teeming city of Krakow. Almost one thousand years ago Jewish refugees arrived there following the expulsion of Jews from Czechoslovakia. The Jewish community grew rapidly, and became one of the foremost Jewish communities in Europe. Many influential Jews lived there - amongst them the wealthy Fishel family who were famous bankers, and the Jew Levko who had close ties with the Polish monarchy. The Jews’ success was a thorn in the side of their gentile neighbours, and under the leadership of representatives of the Christian Church a slew of riotous pogroms began. In the year 5255 (1495) the Jews of Krakow were driven out, and the exiles settled in the city near Krakow called Kazimierz, or ‘Kuzimir’ as it was called by the Jews.

In the city at that time there was already a Jewish community and Jewish institutions, and the exiles of Krakow joined this community. The area where the Jews were concentrated was surrounded by a wall, and was termed ‘Jew’s Town’. The exiled Jews did not surrender their burgeoning trades that they had developed in Krakow, and would travel each day from Kazimierz to Krakow in order to maintain it. The community continued to expand until the ‘Jew’s Town’ could not contain so many residents and many tried to acquire land outside the area. In response the local clergy, together with Christian businessmen who were worried for their livelihood, began carrying out pogroms and blood libels, in which many Jews were killed Al Kiddush Hashem. The congestion in the city served as a fertile breeding ground for many contagious diseases, which necessitated the building of a Jewish Hospital in the ‘Jew’s Town’, which did not anyway suffice and many died in these epidemics. Eventually the city of Krakow expanded and joined the city of Kazimierz which itself became a suburb of Krakow, but the prohibition against the settlement of Jews in Krakow still remained in force, so most Jews resided in the area of Kazimierz.

In the town of Kazimierz during this period there was already an established Jewish community with its own institutions, and the exiled Jews of Krakow now joined this kehillah. The Jewish community of Kazimierz lived in a separate area enclosed with a wall, and this are was known to all as ‘Jews’ Town’. The exiled Jews of Krakow did not wish to give up the flourishing trade that they had cultivated in their original place of residence, and they would make daily trips into Krakow to maintain their businesses. The Jewish population of Kazimierz now increased to such an extent that the area available for residence in ‘Jews’ Town’ was insufficient, and many Jews began to attempt to purchase land beyond its boundaries. The leaders of the church fought against this development, together with the christian artisans who feared for their livelihoods, and the Jews began to be the victims of pogroms and blood libels, in which many of the community were murdered al kiddush Hashem. The crowding in ‘Jews’ Town’ gave rise to the outbreak of epidemics, which in turn necessitated the opening of a Jewish hospital within the ghetto. However, the sheer numbers of sick overwhelmed the available resources, and many of the sick perished. The city of Krakow expanded over time, and it absorbed the town of Kazimierz which now became a suburb. The ban on Jewish settlement in Krakow remained in force, and so most of the Jews stayed confined in the area of Kazimierz.

The city of Krakow was graced over the years by many rabbonim who were gedolei Yisrael, who settled there and stood at the helm of the Yeshivah and headed the Beis Din. Among these rabbonim were Rabbi Yaakov Pollak ztz”l, who was renowned throughout Poland for the pilpul method of learning which he originated. In addition, Rabbeinu Moshe Isserles ztz”l, the Rema, served as rav of the city – he was the descendant of one of the most prominent families of the city, and his seforim became fundamental works for any student of Torah. The brother-in-law of the Rema, Rabbi Yosef Katz ztz”l, also lived in Krakow and was widely held in his own time to be the greatest lamdan in all of Poland. For a short period of time, Rabbi Meir ztz”l, the Maharam of Lublin, taught in the local yeshivah, and he married the daughter of the Rosh Yeshivah and Av Beis Din Rabbi Yitzchak Katz ztz”l – afterwards, he went on to serve as rav of Lublin. From in the year 5379 Rabbi Yoel Sirkis ztz”l served as rav of Krakow, who is known as the Bach (from his commentary ‘Bayis Chadash’ on the ‘Arba’ah Turim’.) After him Rabbi Yehoshua Charif ztz”l served as rav, the ‘Maginei Shlomo’, and later still, Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller ztz”l, the ‘Tosefos Yom Tov’, served as Rosh Yeshivah and later as rav of Krakow too. The Tosefos Yom Tov in fact chose to mark the day of his appointment as rav (the first of Av in the year 5403) as a festive day for himself and all succeeding generations for eternity.

The Krakow Yeshivah attracted the greatest talmidim from the length and breadth of Poland. Great gedolim led the yeshivah, for example Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Margolios ztz”l and Rabbi Nosson Nuta Shapira ztz”l, the ‘Megaleh Amukos’. Of him it was said that he merited to see Eliyahu haNavi in person. Among the talmidim of the yeshivah numbered Rabbi Gershon Ashkenazi ztz”l, the author of the sefer ‘Avodas haGershuni’; Rabbi Shabsai Cohen ztz”l, known as the Shach from his halachic work ‘Sifsei Cohen’; and Rabbi Mendel Orbach ztz”l, the ‘Ateres Zekeinim’.

In fact, numerous seforim would have to be written in order to do justice to the many great talmidei chachomim of the city of Krakow. Two Jewish printing presses were established in Krakow which printed many seforim for the benefit of the talmidim of the city and the rest of the Jewish world.

At the end of the eighteenth century ce the map of Europe underwent many alterations. The kingdom of Poland was diminished in size and its lands were divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia. The city of Krakow itself was split into two. The main part of town remained in the truncated Polish state, and the area which included Kazimierz, where most of the city’s Jewish population was resident, fell to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and became part of Galicia. This development dealt a heavy blow to the livelihoods of the Jews there who had done business with the Polish part of town. Now, after the division, they were prevented from trading across the new border. During this period the city of Krakow began to open up to Western Europe and the winds of the Haskalah began to blow through it. In opposition to this, a pure influence arrived in the city in the person of the Rabbbe Rabb Elimelech of Lizhensk zy”a who opened his beis medrash in Krakow. In addition, Rabbi Klonimus Kalman Epstein zy”a, the ‘Maor v’Shemesh’ also fixed his abode in Krakow, and these two towering figures began to spread the light of Chassidus in the area.

In fact, it was not a simple process to introduce Chassidus into this part of the world. Apart from the opposition of the Haskalah to everything that had a connection to kedushah, lehavdil also the pious Jews of the city were initially opposed to the new movement, and the Beis Din of Krakow under the leadership of the Av Beis Din Rabbi Yitzchak haLevi Landau ztz”l pronounced a cherem (excommunication) on Rabbi Klonimus Kalman and forbade anyone from approaching either him or his chassidim.

In the course of the nineteenth century ce the Haskalah began to infiltrate the Krakow community to a greater extent. The government, seeing a matter of national interest in the absorption of the Jews into mainstream culture, encouraged the maskilim in their efforts, by passing laws against the wearing of distinctive Jewish clothing and against traditional Jewish education, which struck at the heart of the transmission of authentic Judaism. It was also at this time that the decree limiting Jewish settlement to the region of Kazimierz was repealed, which also contributed to the disintegration of the Jewish communal structure. The city’s rabbonim tried valiantly to resist the changes, but they were not always successful. Around the year 5623, Harav Shimon Sofer, the son of the Chasam Sofer, was appointed as rav of Krakow, and he decided that in order to preserve authentic Judaism in the city and surrounding area, a decisive split had to be made between the maskilim and the pious Jews. With the support of the Admorim of Belz and Sadigura, the organisation ‘Machzikei haDas’ was founded. Rabbi Shimon was chosen as its representative in the Austrian parliament, from where he fought against the domination of the maskilim and their claim that they comprised the main Jewish community – the aim of Machzikei haDas was to secede and form an independent community of their own.

During this period, the Krakow kehillah numbered over twenty thousand people, and continued to grow. At the beginning of the First World War, there were more than thirty thousand Jews in the city, and more than two hundred shuls and batei medrash.

At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, more than sixty thousand Jews were living in the area, and more than twenty thousand refugees flooded into the city in addition. After the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was implemented, Poland was once again divided, this time between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia; Krakow fell to the German wolves. Before the war had broken out, Germany had already claimed that a large part of Poland should rightfully belong to them, and had demanded an additional portion of Poland to serve as a ‘Generalgouvernment’. This area was to be set aside for ‘undesirables’ such as Jews and Gypsies, who would be transferred there until it was decided what to do with them. Krakow was specified as the capital city of this ‘Generalgouvernment’, and its ruler was the Nazi war criminal Hans Frank yimach sh’mo. Frank saw as problematic the large concentration of Jews in Krakow, and he called for their expulsion even before the war broke out.

Between the dates 10th Iyar and 11th Av in the year 5700, the Jews of Krakow had the opportunity to leave the city together with their possessions. More than ten thousand Jews availed themselves of this opportunity and departed; most headed for the eastern section of Poland which was then under Russian control. In the winter of the year 5701 the forcible expulsion of the remaining Jews of Krakow began. More than forty thousand Jews were exiled, and they were only permitted to take with them fifty kilograms of possessions per person. Thirty thousand Jews remained in the city, of whom some five thousand were illegal residents. Those who officially remained in Krakow were recognised by the Nazis as essential workers for the German war effort, and they were concentrated in a ghetto area which was established for them, where they were forced to work in various areas.

In the Krakow ghetto a Jewish underground was formed, to battle against the Nazis. They took as their inspiration the undergrounds of the Warsaw and Bialystok ghettoes, whose members had fought the Nazis. Their most notorious exploit was the attack on the ‘Café Tzignaria’, outside the ghetto walls where many of their operations took place. This coffee shop was the place where many Nazi officers would gather, and the underground attacked it with hand grenades and Molotov cocktails which they tossed inside. Twenty Germans were killed and many more were injured. After this, the Germans cracked down on the underground and arrested most of its members, who were then executed.

On the 15th of Tammuz in the year 5703 the Nazis began to liquidate the Krakow ghetto. Transports of Jews were sent to the extermination camps – it took several months before the ghetto was emptied of its Jews barring eleven thousand of them. These included two thousand who were classified as incapable of labour and they were gunned down in the streets. An additional thousand were sent to Auschwitz, and the rest who were deemed suitable for forced labour were sent to the Plashow labour camp.

The Jewish ghetto of Krakow was destroyed, and this was the climax to the history of the Jews in this city, a glorious past stretching back some thousand years. Hashem yikom damam.