Bne Emuna Synagogue

The Bne Emuna Synagogue (Hebrew: Children of Faith) stands in Kazimierz, on the corner of Rabina Meiselsa 17 and Plac Nowy 5. Built in 1886, it is entered in the heritage register. It is a different building from the Old Synagogue, which is about 300 m away.

History

The synagogue was built on the initiative of the Bne Emuna Jewish Prayer and Charity Society, to a design by Jacek Matusiński. During the Second World War the Germans devastated the interior and set up a carpentry workshop here. After the war the building continued to serve as a carpentry shop, later a warehouse, and from the early 1980s it stood empty and decayed. In 1988-1993 the Judaica Foundation carried out a renovation and extension under the architect Dariusz Gruszka. The Jewish Culture Centre was opened here on 24 November 1993. In 2001 an application was submitted for the return of the building to the Jewish Religious Community in Kraków.

Architecture and interior

The brick building on a rectangular plan has Neo-Romanesque forms with Moorish elements. Above the main entrance there is a triangular pediment, and the windows are closed by semicircular arches. In the main prayer hall, today a lecture hall, there survive the niche of the Aron ha-kodesh (Torah ark) with a fragment of the entablature, a yahrzeit plaque and part of the reconstructed ceiling polychromy. On the south wall hangs a painting by Vincent Capraro, “Jews from Vught”, dedicated to the concentration camp in Vught in the Netherlands.

Practical information

• Address: Rabina Meiselsa 17, Kraków-Kazimierz.
• The sources do not say when the interior is open to visitors or who manages the building today, so check this before your visit.