Karolina's Kraków: Kazimierz

This is Kazimierz, Kraków's traditionally Jewish neighborhood. At one point, Kazimierz was a different town than Kraków itself! This particular building was once home to the Jewish Council. Karolina's friends, the Trzmiels, would have worshipped at the Old Synagogue--the oldest synagogue that still exists in Poland. The Old Synagogue was built in the 1600s and continued to be used until Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Today, it is a museum dedicated to Jewish history and culture in Poland. This building was used by men as a place to pray and study Torah (the "Old Testament" of the Bible). You can still see the Magen David (Star of David) on the outside. The Jewish community was a fixture in Kazimierz for almost seven hundred years. Here, you can see a model of a traditional wedding in the 1800s. 

There is still a Jewish community in Kraków, but it is very small. After World War II, most Jewish Poles who survived the Holocaust left the country and immigrated to places like the United States, Canada, and Israel.