Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow is an annual event organised since 1988 in the once Jewish district of Kazimierz. The festival aims to popularise Jewish culture, history, and faith, which flourished in Poland before the Holocaust.
Cheder – the cultural centre of Jewish Festival in Krakow
Jewish Culture Festival is organised in close collaboration with such institutions as Jewish Community Centre of Krakow and Galicia Jewish Museum. Although the festival traditionally takes place in June or July, there is a number of events accompanying it throughout a year. The vast majority of those is organised at Cheder cafe. The word “cheder” in Yiddish means a primary Jewish school – and Cheder cafe is the very heart of the Jewish Culture Festival. The community around the Jewish Festival in Krakow wants to familiarise people with the Jewish culture, primarily in the modern sense, but also the more traditional. Cheder regularly houses workshops and meetings, as well as Shabbat meals to keep the Jewish Culture Festival alive all year long.
27th Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow
This year’s Jewish Culture Festive will take place between 24 June and 2 July 2017. The leitmotiv of this year’s edition is Jerusalem. As a multi-layered city, Jerusalem reflects not only the richness of the Middle East, but is an explicit reference point to all of the world’s history and tradition. The organisers of the Jewish Culture Festival aim to show the complicity of Jerusalem through this year’s programme, including festival’s iconic concert series Shalom on Szeroka Street, performances of klezmer music in Tempel Synagogue, lectures, and meetings with authors and photography exhibition.
The exact programme of 27th Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow is yet to be published.