Tour of Kazimierz

Our second day of touring the city included a tour of the Jewish quarter of the city. We first ate lunch at a place called Bagel Mama which I think was started from some people who came from New York. I got a mozzarella and tomato sandwich on a bagel which was pretty good. Next, we met up with our tour guide and started our tour in the only active synagogue left in Krakow. It was under construction when we went but we were able to see the place where the Torahs were kept. I had to put on a yamaka (yurmulke) when when I was in the synagogue and then when we went to the cemetery. At the cemetery, we were able to see the grave of Rabbi Moses Iserles who is known for writing the daily laws for Ashkenazi Jews. There was also a sad remembrance of World War II there with a wailing wall made out of the remains of broken grave stones. To finish touring Kazimierz, we toured a few museums about Jewish history in Poland and we walked through an alley way where a scene from Schindler's was filmed.

Then we walked over the Wisla river to the section where the Krakow ghetto was during the war. In the square there, they had an art piece of many empty chairs to symbolize the emptiness after the war. We heard about a few of the gruesome stories that also happened in the ghetto, and then walked to the actual factory that Oskar Schindler ran during the war and saved 1200 Jews. It was a very interesting day.