Projekt Polska: Sobota w Krakowie (A Saturday in Krakow)...

On our first free day in Poland, Saturday (Shabbat), I ran about 3 miles around the old city wall of Krakow, along the paths of the Planty (today a grassy park, but once the medieval city’s moat). I then walked to Kazimierz (about a 25 minute walk from the hotel) and listened to a Polish Pimsleur lesson along the way. I may or may not have pretended to be on the phone with somebody so when the lesson told me to say, “I have already been in Krakow for 5 days” or “I want to go to Warsaw,” I would loudly repeat, “Jestem już w Krakowie na pięć dni” or “Chciałabym pojechać do Warsawę,” secretly hoping everybody would think I was Polish ;). Thus with random, mispronounced Polish phrases coming out of my mouth, I made my way to the Galicia Jewish Museum to listen to a lecture by Professor Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblet, director of the future Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich (Museum of the History of Polish Jews) which is scheduled to open sometime in 2013. She walked her audience through a 3-D tour of what the interior of the museum will look like as it details the thousand-year rich Jewish heritage in Poland.

After the lecture, and a restful stop at the BagelMama shop next door, we headed over to the Jewish Community Center (JCC) to listen to a panel comprised of Erika Leher, Sławomir Krapalski, and Jonathan Ornstein, entitled “Remembering the Jews.” I have used Krapalski’s works in several of my own research papers, so it was fascinating to listen to him in person, albeit in a jam-packed room, on the fourth floor of an un-air-conditioned building, with the sun outside heating the building to a sticky 85 degrees. With my left hand rapidly fanning the sweat dripping down my face, my right hand wrote feverishly the following information. Kapralski, a sociologist by training, opened the discussion with a question: “What are the reasons for Poles to be interested in Jews?” He began by describing the two waves of interest in Jewish culture in Poland. First, there was an idealized picture of Polish-Jewish relations when they lived together, yet there was no place for the Holocaust here, and a second wave of interest that includes the Holocaust, acknowledging (and regretting) Jewish death and taking that experience and trying to recreate Jewish life, despite the obvious absence. Kapralski called Poles “to bring back real history, understanding the difficult past, and the increased tourism.” As Poles currently try to regain their identity with the new political (and historical) discourse of the Holocaust in a post-communist setting, they will have to include the different memories of a people lost. After all, multiple sites in their country (such as Bobowa) mean something completely different (and in the case of many towns and former shtetls, often something more) to Jews than to Poles.

I felt like I was only left with questions. Is it even appropriate for Poles to celebrate Jewish life? Because memory is related to identity and defining oneself, and that memory is a social process, what is the meaning of Jewish revival, by Jews in Poland, but especially by non-Jews? Is Jewish revival in Poland a “relic of the past”? An oxymoron? What is the meaning for Jews related to Polish culture? There is this skepticism with ways foreign Jews relate to Poland. What does it mean for Poles to be positively engaged with Jewishness?

Since the fall of Communism, Poland has experienced an upsurge of “Jewish tourism.” Yet to what extent has this tourism caused more harm than good? One cannot glue the experience of the Holocaust in Poland and the Jews together (as so often done in Israeli curriculum, especially with the March of the Living trips, which focus on sites of Jewish death). The March of the Living materials still do not mention modern-day Poland, so the experience of the Israelis visiting Poland is limited to the Holocaust and sites of death; there is no mention of present day Jewish life or Polish improvements. The reduction of Jewish life in Poland is misleading, and in the worst cases can lead to anti-Polonism. Although dialogues are starting to change this landscape from explicit negativity towards Poland to one focused on the persistence (and perseverance) of Jewish life. When groups can still mourn and remember the loss of life, while not having the latter be central to students’, teachers’, an/or visitors’ narrative, then I think real progress, learning, and dialogue can finally take place.

Jonathan Ornstein, the director of the JCC and who used to live in Israel, also feels that the March of the Living message seems to emphasize that “Poland is a place of the past” and “Israel is a place of the future” which reminds us that there is still a long way to go. The way humans remember and understand a space changes if they think a viable community remains or if it doesn’t. Visitors need to know that Jewish presence has not died in Poland. Ornstein continued this discussion in a private meeting with our group the next day (Sunday, July 8). He reported that Krakow has the highest percentage of non-Jews interested in Jewish culture, and one really should not (can’t!) separate Polish and Jewish, since they have been intertwined for 1,000 years. The Jewish Community Center in Kraków, which opened in 2008 after a donation from Prince Charles, celebrates Jewish life and focuses on overcoming the past, which Ornstien declares as a vital message for the whole world. It is interesting because while it is getting more and more difficult to be Jewish in Europe today; in Poland, it is actually getting better and easier—a fascinating deduction given the history. On the other hand, given the divisions within Judaism, many orthodox Jews might not see Jews who do not follow Kosher, understand Hebrew, or rest on the Sabbath as Jewish. Yet in the situation of Poland, when you have people in their 20s and their 30s finding out for the first time in their life that they have Jewish roots (i.e. from a grandparent who his his/her identity under Communist repression), what do you do? They are Jewish yet if all these demands are suddenly imposed on them from an outside, stricter Jewish leadership, these ‘new’ Jews may be discouraged from exploring their heritage. Thus in Krakow and Warsaw, and other places where small pockets of Jewishness are growing, it is more about (according to Ornstein) breaking down the walls of what was “denied” to them and it is not fair to have all these expectations for what they are to already know, believe, practice, etc. Because Judaism has to be at the most basic level for this new community, “the JCC is Krakow is more essential to Jewish life for the community than any other JCC in the world.”

Ok, back to Saturday, I had to leave the question and answer section with the lecturers early to meet one last time with Jan Gross, but I knew the topics broached during the past 40 minutes were just the beginning of continuing discussion (debate even) over the kitschy revival of things Jewish in Krakow and the appropriateness. All of the Jewish hotels and restaurants and stores in Kazimierz definitely give off a Disneyland Jewish culture vibe, and one will not find Shomer Shabbat Jews (those who keep all of the Sabbath commandments) present at the festival’s closing ceremonies on Saturday. Then again, the Kraków Jewish Cultural Festival, is a festival put on by non-Jews for non-Jews.

My second ‘meeting’ with Jan was just as eventful, albeit in a different way. What started out as a café conversation about his work, potential thesis ideas of my own, and teaching the Holocaust in Poland, was interrupted by loud cheering from the bar next-door. Jan asked me if I had been following the Wimbledon matches (I haven’t seen a tennis match in probably a decade). He said this one would be a good one to see, and sure enough, we joined the rowdy (and slightly, or not so slightly, drunk) Polish crowd next door and watched Agnieska Radwanska play Serena Williams in the final Wimbledon set. I was probably the only American in the bar, but of course I wanted Agnieska to win. Sadly, Serena (who is twice Agnieska’s size) had the upper hand and won the tournament.

Later that evening, I finally sat down to my first (and much-anticipated) plate of Polish pierogi. I was joined in this momentous occasion by Suzanne, Zach, Chris, and Mike. $4 and 12(!) pierogis later, I ambled over to the final concert of the Jewish Cultural Festival (termed the ‘Jewish Woodstock’) with the group. Swept away by the Klezmer-inspired music and vocals of The Aleav Family from Israel (and Mike’s [in his words, “Bukhari”-inspired] dancing skills: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=613581031870). I easily forgot that I had been standing for several hours packed between a crowd of a thousand or so people in Kazimierz’s old square.