Photos from Kazimierz

	My first full day in Krakow, Alicja took me on a walking tour of Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter in Krakow. Before WWII, the Jewish population of Krakow was over 60,000. Today, less than 200 Jews like in Krakow. As a result, all but one of the original synagogues has been turned into museums. This is the exterior of the Progressive Synagogue. This building, like every Krakow synagogue, was looted and desecrated by the Nazis. Very little remains on the inside, as the art works have been all but destroyed. The only person in the Synagogue is a kindly old man who collects the 5 zl. fee for entering the synagogue, where you are allowed to take pictures. You also have to wear a paper yamakul out of respect.
	The interior of the synagogue was nearly lightless, so this is the best picture I could take of the interior.
	Inside the Izaak Jakubowicz synagogue, there was an art display. This was a sculpture of Jews, walking down a barbed wire incline.
	This is all that remains of the Ark. The central space where the Ark would have been kept has been filled in with plaster. Below is a gust book. Today, Izaak Jakubowicz synagogue is mainly an art museum.
	This is a good example of some of the preserved art on the wall of the synagogue, which restorers have managed to plaster around.
	This is the Ark of Temple Izaaka, a place where Hassidic Jews still come to pray at today. The Ark is roped off.
	One of the walls of the synagogue. The art is barely readable today.
	This is the alter, which is surrounded in the debris that the Nazis left behind. The black and white, checkered floor has been restored in most parts, but around the Ark and the Alter, the rubble remains out of respect.
	This is the Ark of the Old Synagogue, built in 1407. It remains the best preserved of Krakow's synagogues.
	All the recovered artifacts of the desecrated temples have been collected here for display.
	This is the exterior of the Old Synagogue. The open courtyard is often used by children playing soccer when the museum is closed.
	This is the entrance to the New Synagogue, called the Remu. It was closing for lunch, so I returned after the break. There was a group of young Israeli students touring Kazimierz as I was there. Here, they are leaving the synagogue.
	The most moving place for me, the New Cemetery just outside of Kazimierz was where I went for the hour the New Synagogue was closed. This is the monument, constructed out of broken headstones, and dedicated to the dead Jews whose memory was defiled here by the Nazis.
	This is a close-up of the base of the monument, showing the piecemeal headstones that make it up.
	This is a shot of the entrance to the cemetery, where the grounds are still kept up. The Jews who still live in Krakow are buried here, like their ancestors before the war.
	Most of the cemetery looks like this: with ivy and scrub bushes covering the remains of the desecrated places. Here you can see the overturned headstones, just as the Nazis left them.
	This is a shot of how overgrown the cemetery is in its deeper parts.
	It is hard to visualize, but these scrub grasses were as high as my waist.
	This is one of the newer stones erected here. You can see the Hebrew above, followed by the Polish below.
	A much older piece of tombstone, as it lay, slowly being covered by nature. The cemetery itself was remarkable place. The trees there were very old, and they created a thick canopy in many places, which traps the moisture in. Though I was there at 12:00, when the sun was high in the sky, there was a constant light rain, as the wind blew the thick dew off of the heavy branches. It was over 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside the cemetery, but the cover was so thick inside, that the temperature was 20 degrees colder.
	This was a small, narrow path that I took around the exterior of the cemetery. On the edges of the cemetery, the graves had to be placed end to end, so as to accommodate the newer bodies, since the space of the cemetery has remained the same.
	This is one of the open areas in the cemetery where the Nazis did most of their damage.
	A rather touching attempt to restore a head stone split in half by the Nazis
	Many of the graves only bear the base, as the tops were destroyed by the Nazis.
	Back in a remote corner, I spotted this forgotten tombstone. Barely visible, you can see the faint outline of an old Nazi swastika, painted on the tomb after the Nazis broke off the top of the grave stone.
	This is a close-up of one of the numerous snails that lived in the highly damp environment. The snails themselves were rather large. This one was the size of my hand.
	When the tombstones were too large to easily destroy, the Nazis just scratched out the wording with the chisels. Here, you can see the deep gouges in the tomb faces.
	This is a shot that gives a sense of how densely packed this cemetery is. As I walked through the cemetery, the only living person there, I felt the mass of Krakow Jewish history there, buried under centuries of earth. In this shot, you can see how some of the tombstones seem to be sinking and disappearing into the ground.
	A view looking out towards the cemetery wall, sowing the ruins within.
	This is just to the left of the main entrance to the cemetery. Nestled right up against the cemetery wall is a tire manufacturer.
	This is back inside the Remu (New Synagogue) after lunch. Certainly the smallest of the synagogues, this tiny area preserves some prewar prayer books.
	The tiny sanctuary, only some 15 x 20 square feet, was cordoned off in the middle by a fence, surrounding the altar. This is the tapestry covering the area where the Ark used to rest.
	This is a shot inside the tiny, fenced-in altar.
	This is the Old Cemetery in the grounds behind the Remu. It was opened in 1552 and closed in 1800. Since then, only very prominent Jews have been buried there, none since the war. This is a shot overlooking the back half of the cemetery. Only the tombstones nearest the synagogue remain intact. The other stones were unearthed and either destroyed or used as paving stones in the nearby Plazow concentration camp. Most of the evidence of the 350 years of Krakow's Jews remains lost underneath the overgrown grounds.
	This is perhaps the most famous grave in the Remu Cemetery. Here is buried Lippman Heller (1579-1654) who was a famous Talmudic scholar, the chief Rabbi of Krakow, and the Rector of the local Rabbinical College. To this day, visiting Jews pay their respect by placing stones of remembrance around his grave, which can be seen here. In the front of the grave rests a tiny, metal box, which protects the lit candles of remembrance against the elements. The pitcher at the top of the stone indicates that Heller was a Levite, a descendant of the tribe of Levi, who were the priests of the Jews.
	Another example of how overgrown the cemetery is.
	This is a contemporary Kurhan, erected at the Old cemetery, which shows the metal box for candles in the foreground.
	This is a close-up of the "Wailing Wall," which was constructed out of both stone fragments destroyed by the Nazis and stone fragments discovered just under the ground when the cemetery was renovated in the 1950's
	Another view of the wall.
	This is another example of the current overall restoration project to help preserve the Old Cemetery. These shields have been placed over the tops of some of the more quickly deteriorating graves to help protect them from weather and erosion.
	This is a wide shot of the Wailing Wall.
	This is beside the main entrance. These are other tomb fragments that have not yet been incorporated into the Wailing Wall
	This is the exterior wall of the Old Cemetery with the humble synagogue to the left. Behind it, you can see one of the many Christian cathedrals that dwarfs the synagogue.
	This is a small monument in the central park of Kazimierz. The Old Synagogue is directly behind, while Remu is to the left. To the right is the remains of the Wolf Popper synagogue. Like the rest of Krakow, religious houses of worship are on almost every block. On this tiny square, there were four synagogues, and two churches. In Krakow proper, often I could stand at the entrance of one Cathedral and toss a stone to the next one. The rest of this square is populated with Jewish Restaurants, a Jewish Bookstore, and many outdoor cafes where you can hear Klezmer music every day. According to Alicja, Kazimierz has become the hot night spot for Krakow's young adults.
	This is a sad and yet refreshing sight. As you walk along the street, passing various store fronts, you come to an outdoor cafe that fronts a lovely courtyard through a gate, which houses an art museum. As this sign indicates, this art museum is all that remains of the Wolf Popper Synagogue, completely destroyed by the Nazis. After the war, the synagogue was never rebuilt, so the Krakow Cultural Center, with the blessings of the Jewish Denominational Council, put an art museum there. What is sad is that most of the details of the synagogue have been lost.
	Above the gated entrance to the courtyard, you can still see the sign for the synagogue in Hebrew.
	This is the interior of Alef, the most famous Jewish restaurant, hotel, and artistic cafe in Kazimierz. In the background is the upright piano where the resident klesmerist, Leslaw Lic plays daily. I bought his CD, which is good. While I was having coffee there, he played many American favorites, mixed with Jewish favorites, for a large Jewish party in the back. He played "New York, New York" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

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