Krakow’s Kazimierz neighborhood

The Wall Street Journal had an article, In the Shadow of the Holocaust, a Jewish Community Begins to Take Root  about Krakow’s Jewish community growing again-today about 1,000 Jews as a result of confessions of elder relatives, genealogical research and DNA testing.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust-a-jewish-community-begins-to-take-root-11636822801?st=707itlsjxfr4n5t&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

Even though the Wall Street Journal is a subscription service, the above-link is for sharing for those without a subscription per the WSJ.

Far more Jews were killed in Poland than anywhere else during the Holocaust. In 1939, Poland was the center of Jewish life in Europe, with its roughly 3.5 million Jews representing a 10th of its population. In Krakow, a quarter of the city was Jewish. Six years later, about 3 million of them had been killed. The vast majority of survivors fled the country.

Today, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the country’s chief rabbi said, there are at least 20,000 Poles taking some part in Jewish life, plus tens of thousands more who have Jewish roots but don’t know it.

Even after discovering Jewish heritage, many Poles remain reluctant to identify as Jewish in a country where, for half a century, doing so put them in mortal danger.

In Krakow, the JCC has a preschool and a Sunday school. Two chapters of Hillel, a group for Jewish young people, operate across the country.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee