Feb 8, 2015
More interesting than YBC tbh. (Kol isha warning to bochurim?)
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More interesting than YBC tbh. (Kol isha warning to bochurim?)
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Jews in Krakow Before the War - Discussion with Dr. Edyta Gawron, specialist in prewar Jewish life in Krakow
When we look at Jews in Krakow before the war, we see diversity and many accomplishments.
One of the main accomplishments of Jews in Krakow was the first ever Orthodox school for girls. Sarah Schenirer loved Jewish tradition and in 1917 started this phenomenon of Beis Ya'akov schools. This movement has grown immensely over the years. When Sarah died in 1935, more than 200 Beis Ya'akov schools were teaching approximately 35,000 girls. One of her students was Rebbitzen Vichna Kaplan, founder of the Beis Ya'akov schools in America.
Pictured here is the second graduating class of the Bais Ya'akov in Lodz, Poland in 1934. (Source: Yehudis Bobker, Sydney, Australia)
Another accomplishment was Jewish sport clubs. This had an enormous impact on Jews in Krakow and, even today. One was Maccabi and the other was Yushenka. Maccabi coordinated with the Krakow clubs. They were enormously active, even representing Polish sports abroad.
Zamosc, Poland. Group phootgraph of Maccabi sports team members, 1924. From the Yad Vashem Photo Archive.
How did this influence the situation today? You may see when in Krakow graffiti that says Krakow Juden-Gone. She mentioned this because it is not necessarily anti-Semitic as much as it is competing sports clubs!
Attending Hebrew Gymnasium was very popular. it offered classes in Polish literature. the caliber was so high that some Polish Christians were jealous of the opportunity.
Krakow, Poland, 1963, The co-educational Hebrew Gymnasium at 5 Brzozowej Street. Photo from Yad Vashem Photo Archive.
Cracow, Poland, 1933, The graduating class of the Hebrew Gymnasium. From the Yad Vashem Photo Archive
By 1939 Krakovian Jews knew something was going on. at this time, some Krakovian Jews began to prepare to escape. The main idea was to escape to the East. When Poland was attacked, indeed many tried to escape to the East.
As we know, most Krakovian Jews were killed. Over 1,000 were saved by Schindler; the other survivors managed to be liberated from camps either in Germany or Poland. Some managed to survive in hiding. Some with help of non-Jews. Some by hiding in forests.
What happened when to Jews after 1945? The street we were on yesterday in Kazimierz was completely empty. Jews were afraid to return. Those that tried going back, they couldn’t. Their homes already had new inhabitants. It turned out the emptiest area was the properties that were taken over by Germans. Now these places were abandoned so Jewish refugees returned there.
The Jewish Historical Commission’s main goal was to collect information about those who survived and those who perished. The hope was to be able to use the information as evidence in trials. There were actually quite a few trials against perpetrators in Krakow. The proceedings tried a number of functionaries of the Auschwitz concentration camp and sentenced Auschwitz camp commandant Rulf Hoss and others to death. During his trial, when accused of murdering three and a half million people. Hoss replied, "No. Only two and one half million -- the rest died from disease and starvation." And, it was quite important for Krakow’s Jews to attend these trials. Survivors felt they needed to be there to be witnesses and they also felt they needed to pay homage to these who were murdered. It was also important for non-Jews to attend these trials because anyone who lived in Poland then knew what was going on. The trial was one of the first trials where the word “genocide” was used. Hoss was hanged on April 16 immediately adjacent to teh crematorium of the former Auschwitz I concentration camp. He was hnanged on gallows constructed specifically for that purpose by the SS.
I remember standing by this site when I was there on the March of the Living.
In 1945, there were pogroms in Europe. On August 11, 1945 in Krakow, one Jew who had survived Auschwitz was murdered and five injured. This actually took place where we were yesterday in the Kazimierz Quarter. The Kupa Synagogue (picture below) was set on fire. Homes were broken into and attacked.
From 1945 onwards, emigration to Israel and elsewhere increased.
Today, the population of Poland is 38 million. How many Jews are there today in Poland? The Chief Rabbi of Poland gives 3 numbers:
· from the Polish Census: 1,055
· from Jewish organizations: 6-7,000
· the estimate of Jewish origin: upwards of 30,000
The Agudah and Misplaced Values
The Beis Yaakov school, a Haredi girls primary school in the Israeli city of Emmanuel has been denying admission to any girl from a Sephardic family. They refuse to even entertain the idea of admitting a girl who is not Ashkenazic. This blatant case of racism found its way to the Israeli Supreme Court and the court fined the Israeli Beis Yaakov system 5,000 NIS a day until the school agrees to integrate. The response from the Haredi rabbinic leadership has been unequivocal opposition to the idea of allowing Sephardic girls into the school. Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, the preeminent rabbinic leader of Haredi Ashkenazi Jewry in Israel, called for protests against the Supreme Court. He furthermore said that he would be willing to sit in prison rather than allow Sephardic girls into the Beis Yaakov school in Emmanuel. He compared the efforts of the Israeli court to end racism to the Czarist Russian anti-Semitic authorities. The elite rabbinic leadership (the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah) of the American branch of the Agudas Yisrael convened an emergency meeting to discuss their response. The head of this rabbinic group, the Novominsker Rebbe, issued a statement on behalf of the organization essentially agreeing in whole with the response by their Israeli counterparts. They affirmed the position that one should rather sit in jail than send their Ashkenazic daughters to school with Sephardim. This should be compared to a recent proclamation by the very same Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah on the subject of the ordination of a female Orthodox rabbi. They condemned the agreement reached between Rabbi Avi Weiss, one of the rabbis who ordained her and the Rabbinical Council of America, a rabbinic body representing Modern Orthodox and Centrist rabbis. They specifically condemned the decision of the Rabbinical Council of America to acknowledge the value of women's leadership in Orthodoxy and to not outright reject the notion. [Specifically the following quote: The RCA reaffirms its commitment to women's Torah education and scholarship at the highest levels, and to the assumption of appropriate leadership roles within the Jewish community.] They declared that any synagogue that has a woman in a leadership position is not Orthodox. The very same organization that supports blatant and outright discrimination in the Jewish community condemns Orthodox women who want to teach Torah and serve as a spiritual, halakhic and moral guide for the Jewish community. Even if one finds personal resonance in the Agudah's condemnation of female leadership and does not see it as an obvious case of sexism, how can anyone ever take them seriously? They have lost all moral standing and respect by openly supporting discrimination solely on the basis of one Jewish racial background over another.