Who is a Jew in Cracow?
/ Impact of the Lauder Foundation / Kazimierz – The Former Jewish Quarter / Synagogue Restoration Questions / Current Polish Attitudes Towards Jews Cracow was one of the two capital cities of former Galicia, together with Vienna (see JL No. 356, “The Jewish Community of Vienna”), and like Vienna, it too offers examples of splendid Hapsburg architecture. Here we look at present-day Jewish life and culture in another Jewish community which, in the light of its history, exists against all the odds. This account describes the rituals of the elderly, the potential for tourism, and the involvement of international organizations, as well as questions of Jewish identity, the problem of antisemitism, the ambivalent attitudes of Poles towards Jews, and attitudes towards the Holocaust. 85 Percent of Polish Jewry Murdered Jewish settlement in Poland can be traced back more than 1,000 years, and by the middle of the sixteenth century, 80 percent of world Jewry lived on Polish lands. Between the six
