Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków

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Lesson Transcript

Culture Class: Holidays in Poland, Lesson 22 - Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow

Hello, and welcome to the Culture Class- Holidays in Poland Series at PolishPod101.com. In this series, we’re exploring the traditions behind Polish holidays and observances. I’m Michael, and you're listening to Season 1, Lesson 22. Jewish Culture Festival in Cracow. In Polish, it’s called Festiwal Kultury Żydowskiej w Krakowie.

In this lesson, We will discuss a truly one-of-a-kind event, one that and has taken place every summer for over twenty years. It’s the Jewish Culture Festival, held in Cracow, which is the largest event of its kind in the world.

Now, before we get into more detail, do you know the answer to this question-

Why does the Jewish Culture Festival take place in Cracow's Casimir district?

If you don't already know, you’ll find out a bit later. Keep listening.

The Jewish Culture Festival was first organized in Kazimierz, a district of Cracow, in 1988. Back then it was a small-scale event, which focused primarily on a science conference, or konferencja naukowa, concerning the meeting point of Polish and Jewish culture. Over time, this small event turned into a famous worldwide festival, held every year in June.

Each year, about 30,000 visitors come from all over Poland and around the world to Cracovian Casimir, in order to present elements of Jewish culture, both the modern and traditional. And so, in a few days visitors have a chance to take part in many paid or free workshops, including Hebrew calligraphy, in Polish hebrajska kaligrafia, Jewish cuisine, as well as dance, art and paper crafts.

Outside of the workshops, a lot of concerts take place, including klezmer music concerts, which is is a type of Jewish popular music, or concerts of cantors, who are singers who honor the religious rites, and also a DJ Party or impreza z DJ-em. During each festival, visitors have the opportunity to take part in more than 200 concerts, exhibitions, performances, film screenings, lectures and debates, each of which aims to familiarize people with Jewish culture.

Each year, the highlight of the festival is a concert called Shalom on Szeroka Street, which draws an audience of over ten thousand people. The concert is an overview of various types of Jewish music and lasts for seven hours.

Now it's time to answer our quiz question-

Why does the Jewish Culture Festival take place in Cracow's Casimir district?

The Jewish Culture Festival takes place in Kazimierz, the reason for this being that since the fifteenth century, it has been home to a large number of Jewish people, which led to the development of Jewish culture and architecture in the area.