Szejrit Bne Emuna Synagogue in Kraków

The Szejrit Bne Emuna Synagogue is a former prayer house and Talmudic school at Bocheńska 4 in Kazimierz in Kraków. The building has survived, but has not served as a synagogue for a long time, and today it is used by a university.

Construction and name

The synagogue was built in 1914 to a design by Henryk Lamensdorf. The name in Hebrew means The Remaining Children of Faith. A Talmudic school also operated in the building.

After the war

During the Second World War the Germans devastated the synagogue. After the war the building was practically undamaged, with only some ceilings and window panes missing. It was taken over by the Temporary State Administration, which set up a furniture warehouse there, while the cellars were used by the Union of Lesser Poland Cooperatives as a grain store.

What has survived

Nothing of the original furnishings has survived that would indicate the former character of the building. The only characteristic element is the semicircular tops of the ground-floor windows. In the 1990s the building was renovated and given over to health service premises and a teaching point of the Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University.

Practical information

• Address: Bocheńska 4, Kraków-Kazimierz.
• The building is used by a university, so the interior is not intended for visiting.
• Nearby, about 400 m away, stands the Old Synagogue, where visits are organised.