Remuh Synagogue

About

The Remuh Synagogue stands at 40 Szeroka Street in the heart of Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter of Krakow in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Kazimierz was for centuries one of the most important centres of Jewish life in central Europe, and the Remuh shrine takes its place among the small cluster of surviving synagogues that line the streets around the square.

The congregation is Orthodox in its rite, continuing the tradition of Ashkenazi Jewish prayer that took root in Kazimierz from the late Middle Ages onward. The synagogue's name preserves the memory of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, known by the acronym Remuh, the great sixteenth-century halakhic authority and author of HaMappah whose teaching shaped Ashkenazi practice for generations and whose burial place lies in the adjoining Remuh Cemetery.

Though small in scale, the Remuh Synagogue has been one of the longest-active places of Jewish prayer in Kazimierz. It survived the upheavals of the twentieth century and continues today to serve the Jewish community of Krakow as a centre of worship, study, and remembrance, set amid the streets and stones of one of the oldest Jewish quarters in Europe.

History

The synagogue was built by the banker Israel ben Josef in memory of his wife Malka, who died in the plague that struck Kazimierz in 1552, and it takes its name from their son, Rabbi Moshe Isserles, known by the acronym Remuh, who became one of the foremost halakhic authorities of Ashkenazi Jewry. The foundation tablet bears the date 1553, though royal permission from King Sigismund II Augustus was not granted until November 1556 after opposition from the Church. The first, wooden building burned in a fire in April 1557, and the present stone synagogue was raised that same year. Rabbi Moshe Isserles himself is remembered to have prayed within its walls, and a plaque today marks the place where he stood.

Significance

The Remuh is bound above all to the memory of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, whose commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch became a standard of practice for Ashkenazi Jews worldwide, and whose grave in the adjoining Remuh Cemetery has drawn pilgrims for more than four centuries, especially on his yahrzeit. Its survival through the devastation of the twentieth century makes the synagogue a living testimony to the endurance of Jewish life in Kazimierz. It continues today as the main synagogue of Kraków's Jewish community, holding daily and Sabbath prayer.

Architecture

Modest Renaissance-era Kazimierz synagogue architecture, rebuilt in masonry after an early fire