Klezmer in Kraków: Kitsch, or Catharsis for Poles?

Abstract

The road signs in Krakow pointing to Kazimierz call it Old Jewish Town. But how Jewish is this place now?The houses and the synagogues are still here, but the population of this Jewish shtetl, which at the same time was part of Krakow, is now gone. Before World War II around seventy thousand Jews were living in Kazimierz, and now the whole Jewish commu nity in Krakow amounts to only 180 people (Szulc 2002). As Suzanne Weiss (2003) puts it: Krakow you can find a good kosher meal, a number of klezmer bands, Jewish cabaret, art exhibits and folk dancing. The only thing you probably won't find?unless you look very hard?are Jews. With the disappearance of Jews from Kazimierz, the city district quickly degenerated and the whole area fell into disrepute for being particularly dangerous. In 1945, after the district had been completely emptied and deso lated, the post-War authorities started to settle the local proletariat there. The synagogues were used for storage, the houses were not renovated for decades. Kazimierz slowly turned into the poorest and most neglected district of Krakow (Szulc 2002). Members of Poland's most famous klezmer group,