27. Jewish Culture Festival

Saturday, June 24, 2017 - Sunday, July 2, 2017

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  • Saturday, June 24, 2017 - Sunday, July 2, 2017
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The upcoming edition of the Jewish Culture Festival will be dedicated to Jerusalem.

Mirror of the World

From the Jewish quarter via many countries of the diaspora, the Jewish Culture Festival leads us to a very special place sometimes known as the mirror of the world: Jerusalem.

What does Jerusalem mean for is residents, and what does it mean for others? Is it an earthly capital, or more of a heavenly one? What is the city’s history and present day? These are just some of the questions we will be answering during the 27th Jewish Culture Festival, although it will be no easy task – the organisers stress that Jerusalem is as much a city as it is a state of mind, emotions and feelings.

“The world is like a human eye. The white is like the ocean which surrounds the earth. The pupil is like the earth. The opening in the pupil is like Jerusalem,” we read in the Talmud. “Ten measures of beauty God gave to the world. Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest.” It is a city of three religions and one God, bearing marks of divisions and scars of wars and conflicts. It is a city where the sacrum intertwines with the profanum and the past with the present day; a city open to all nations, cultures and customs.

Musical riches

The openness and cultural wealth of present-day Jerusalem are reflected in music. Kraków’s Kazimierz district resounds with the singing of cantors alongside klezmer, electronic, jazz and folk music. The festival opens on 24 June with collective Fortuna Records, held at the unusual location of the square by the Market Hall (Hala Targowa), taking a nod to world-famous DJ events at Jerusalem’s largest market square Mahane Yehuda.

As usual, the main festival stage is the Tempel Synagogue: on Sunday 25 June, concerts kick off with a performance by Klezmer Small Stars featuring the instructors and participants in klezmer music workshops held during the festival. The same evening, cantors Tzudik Greenwald, Berel Tzuker and Moshe Fishel are joined by the Kolot Min Hashamayim in Memory of Shoshana Zilberstein Choir led by Rafael Biton during the concert Our Feet Are Standing In Your Gates, Jerusalem, taking us back in time to the temple’s finest days.

Cultural mosaic

The following days take us on a journey through Jerusalem’s multicultural districts. On 26 June, the Tempel Synagogue hosts Veretski Pass presenting a blend of Polish folk tunes and klezmer music, while Nowy Proxima Theatre welcomes Nitai Hershkovits – a young Israeli musician who rose to fame thanks to his collaboration with Avishai Cohen – bringing his project Time Grove intertwining jazz, folk and prog. On 27 June, Dudu Tassa shows off his innovative music genre he calls Iraq’n’roll, blending Israeli rock with traditional music of Iraq, and Paul Shapiro performs radical Jewish music inspired by the Torah on 28 June. The project Junum is brought to Poland for the first time by Shye Ben Tzur and Indian musicians from The Rajasthan Express on 29 June. On Thursday, we can also enjoy the Persian Night at Cheder – we will hear music of Jews from Persia while sampling traditional delicacies prepared following ancient traditions and generously seasoned with Middle-Eastern spices. Another piece of the multicultural mosaic comes on 30 June with the concert by Neta Elkayam, taking us on a journey to Moroccan Jews.

At Alchemia, the Israeli vocalist and producer Adi Ulmansky recreates the atmospheres of crowded clubs of Tel Aviv (27 June), while Gili Yalo from Ethiopia presents a fascinating blend of traditional African rhythms and contemporary sounds. And of course the favourite of festival audiences Ori Alboher makes a welcome return to Kraków: he brings his latest album to Nowy Proxima Theatre on 28 June, with the performance enhanced by visualisations depicting contemporary Jerusalem prepared especially by Kiritan Flux. The main event culminating the series of concerts by the finest Israeli DJs will be the cult Teder Weekender: Kraków Meets Tel Aviv on the Barka barge (30 June).

Tales from the Golden City

The Jewish Culture Festival also hosts meetings, lectures and workshops centring around the theme of Jerusalem. Halina Grzymała-Moszczyńska, Paweł Smoleński and Marcin Napiórkowski talk about the Jerusalem syndrome and whether the sanctity of a place can lie at a root of mental problems. The literary programme, prepared jointly with the Krakow Festival Office, features a meeting with the war reporter Wojciech Jagielski. We join Łukasz Orbitowski for a walk around Kazimierz in the footsteps of his childhood, and take part in bookbinding workshops.

The main exhibition of this year’s festival presents unique photos of Jerusalem displayed at the Dominican Church. Head to Józefa Street to hop into a specially designed car – it will take you on a journey anywhere in Jerusalem with a friendly local taxi driver, all thanks to a live internet stream! Finally, workshops with the collective Mi Polin held at the Vistula Boulevards will create a local version of the Wailing Wall – head to the courtyard of the Kupa Synagogue to leave your own prayer notes, which will be taken to the real Kotel after the festival.

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“Kraków’s Jewish Cultural Festival is a true reflection of the Jewish world – just like Jerusalem,” says Janusz Makuch, director of the festival. Let’s take a close look at both reflections and experience Jewish culture with our own senses by taking a pilgrimage to the gates of Jerusalem – the heart of the world. More festival events in the July issue of “Karnet”. (Justyna Skalska, “Karnet” magazine)

For whom: for children, for seniors, for families
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