POLAND-JEWISH CULTURE FESTIVAL Old meets new at this year’s Krakow Jewish Culture Festival

Record ID: 148402

  • Title: POLAND-JEWISH CULTURE FESTIVAL Old meets new at this year’s Krakow Jewish Culture Festival
  • Date: 29th June 2015
  • Summary: "BERJOZKELE" PERFORMING
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA56MHXSZNIB5OMR3NS9I4NEJKI
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Contemporary Jewish artists meet the classics at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow's historical Kazimierz district.
    Jewish Culture has been present in Krakow, one of the oldest cities in Poland, since the 14th century and no other place in Europe conveys a sense of pre-war Jewish culture better than the Kazimierz district - revived in the last decade after its inhabitants perished in the Holocaust and decades of neglect by Poland's post-World War II authorities. As a result, Kazimierz has become a major tourist draw for those who want to rediscover Jewish culture as it was centuries ago.
    Every year, the Jewish Culture Festival puts on hundreds separate events featuring dozens of performers and thousands of participants from all over the world. The festival is a span of a symbolic bridge where Poles and Jews meet to strengthen the process of understanding and reconciliation, organisers say.
    This year, the 25th edition of the festival gathered stars of traditional Jewish music and young contemporary artists, creating a mix of modern arts. Music performances were accompanied by film screenings, presentations, art exhibitions and stories told by those who still remember past Jewish life in the city.
    "So, on the one stage you can meet the Hazonus orthodox people, but tomorrow the one of the Hazon, Hazon Yaakov Lemmer will play with the most avant-garde klezmer, new klezmer from New York. So this is combination of the traditional art and very, very contemporary. So the most important thing that the Jewish Culture Festival -- I want to emphasise this again -- is a living Jewish culture, so we are following the life, and life has been changed a lot," festival director Janusz Makuch said.
    In its present form, the festival not only introduces living Jewish traditions, but also offers a share in their creation. One of the artists, singer Ola Bilinska, said they have become part of Poland's contemporary culture, just as they were pre-World War II.
    "In Poland for over a dozen years we have seen a significant and beautiful trend of new Jewish music. We can also see a return, as we say 'revival', of Yiddish language," Bilinska said.
    "I have talked to the people from UK who are surprised that they meet so many Poles without Jewish roots fascinated by this (Jewish) culture, fascinated by this part of Polish history. I am also fascinated that songs I sing now in Yiddish were sung in Warsaw before the war (WWII) by 40 percent of the population," she added.
    Every year the festival culminates in a giant open air concert on Szeroka Street, the main street of Kazimierz. After 25 years the festival became a symbol of tolerance, pluralism and celebration of Jewish culture in Poland.
    One of the festival's stars, world famous photographer Ryszard Horowitz, stressed that links between Polish and Jewish cultures have existed for centuries and have now been brought out.
    "It's a reminder of the ties, culture ties between both people, you know, between Jews and Poles, and everything is kind of interwoven, interlocked and it's nice, you know, to bring it out and speak about it in the open," Horowitz said.
    The history of Kazimierz can be traced back to 1335 when it was officially founded for Jewish settlers on what used to be an island outside of Poland's capital Krakow by King Kazimierz the Great. After it was awarded merchant rights the area prospered and became one of the most influential Polish towns.
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