25th Jewish Culture Festival celebrates Jewish quarters around the world

The event, which runs until July 5th, celebrates a quarter (a “Jewish quarter,” the organizers joke) of a century of bringing a variety of cultural and intellectual events to Krakow highlighting the city’s long, complex relationship with Judaism.

Frank London
New York-based Klezmer musician Frank London

134 artists, lecturers, and instructors have come from Israel, USA, Hungary, Germany, Austria, and of course Poland to locations around Kazimierz to host concerts, workshops, talks, tours, and more, with a total of 300 events. The theme this years is the concept of a Jewish quarter itself as it has manifested historically and today in urban spaces around the world.

They hope, too, to bring attention to Krakow’s “forgotten Kazimierz” of communist times—often overshadowed by the prewar areas—through an art exhibit hosted in an abandoned apartment owned by a family who now live in Israel. Also, they have built a “FKŻ Quarter”: a small “quarter within a quarter” beside the oldest synagogue in the district, designed to serve as a public space for literature, dancing, discussion, art, and play.

More information, including a full program of events, can be found in English on the Festival’s official website.

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