Klezmer in Poland today

After silence, a revival

After the destruction of Jewish life in Eastern Europe in the Holocaust, klezmer lost its audience. It was revived in the United States from the late 1970s. By the 1980s and 1990s that revival had spread to Europe and inspired new interest in Germany, France, Poland and Russia. In Poland the revival came to a country where most of the prewar Jewish community had been murdered, as the Kazimierz guide on this site sets out.

The festival of 1988

In 1988 Janusz Makuch and Krzysztof Gierat decided to remind the public of Poland's Jewish history, and the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków grew out of that. Its stated aim is to show the diversity and beauty of Jewish culture from around the world. It is held in Kazimierz, and its programme includes concerts, exhibitions, plays, lectures, workshops and tours of synagogues, cemeteries and the former ghetto in Podgórze.

Shalom on Szeroka Street

The festival's best-known event is the closing concert, which the organisers call the most famous, even iconic, event of the festival. It is held outdoors on Szeroka Street, and on that Saturday night the plaza in front of the Old Synagogue fills with more than ten thousand people. The concert features klezmer music. The festival is held in early summer, so plan around it if you want to hear klezmer at that scale.

The last klezmer of Galicia

Leopold Kozłowski, born in Przemyślany in 1918, was known as the last klezmer of Galicia. His grandfather and father played in klezmer bands. After surviving the war he settled in Kraków and studied at the State Higher School of Music. He worked as a music consultant on Schindler's List, where he also had a cameo, and he performed almost to the end of his life. He died in Kraków in March 2019, aged 100, and was made an honorary citizen of the city.

From weddings to concert halls

Klezmer was born as wedding and community music, and Wikipedia stresses that traditional occasions, not the concert stage, have always been its main venue. A concert, such as the one on Sławkowska Street, is therefore a different setting from the music's first home. It lets visitors hear the tunes and the style, but it does not recreate a wedding, and it is worth knowing the difference before you buy a ticket.

The Galicia Jewish Museum

The Galicia Jewish Museum in Kazimierz, at Dajwór 18, shows a permanent exhibition called Traces of Memory. The exhibition is based on many years of research and photography, begun at the end of the 1980s, and presents a contemporary look at the Jewish past in Poland. The museum also lists cultural events, including concerts, meetings with witnesses to history and curatorial tours, so it is a useful second stop for visitors who want the story behind the music.

Jewish-themed Kazimierz

After Schindler's List was filmed largely in Kazimierz in 1993, the quarter drew attention from around the world. Restoration of historic sites followed, as did a boom in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops. Some Jews moved to Kazimierz from Israel and the United States, and the Jewish population has grown a little. It is fair for visitors to ask who an offer serves and what exactly it sells, and to choose accordingly.

What “Jewish-style” means

The concert at Sławkowska 14 is billed as a Jewish-style klezmer concert. That wording describes a performance in a musical tradition, played in a historic building by conservatory-trained musicians. It does not mean a community event, a religious service or a teaching programme. A good way to hear it is as music that keeps a tradition audible, and a good way to understand where it comes from is to spend time with the history it grew out of.

Read next: Kazimierz: Kraków's Jewish quarter in brief

How to listen well

A few habits help. Read a little about the forms first, such as the doina and the freylekhs, so that the slow and fast pieces make sense. Listen for the bent notes and sighs that mark the style. Do not expect a set list, because the ensemble chooses on the night. And leave room afterwards: the Galicia Jewish Museum, the festival and the old synagogues each say more than fifty minutes of music can.

Read next: What is klezmer? Tunes, dances and history