Rema Synagogue
| Remah Synagogue Synagoga Remuh |
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| Basic information | |
| Location | Szeroka 40 St., Kazimierz, Kraków, Poland |
| Affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
| Rite | Ashkenaz |
| Status | Active synagogue |
| Leadership | Rabbi Boaz Pash |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Stanisław Baranek |
| Architectural type | Renaissance |
| Completed | 1557 |
The Remah Synagogue, (Polish: Synagoga Remuh), is named after Rabbi Moses Isserles c.1525–1572, known by the Hebrew acronym ReMA (רמ״א, pronounced ReMU) who's famed for writing a collection of commentaries and additions that complement Rabbi Yosef Karo's Shulchan Aruch, with Ashkenazi traditions and customs. Remah Synagogue is the smallest of all historic synagogues of the Kazimierz district of Kraków. It is currently one of two active synagogue in the city.
According to one popular tradition Israel ben Josef, the grandson of Moshe Auerbach of Regensburg, founded the synagogue in honor of his son Moshe Isserles, who already in his youth was famed for his erudition. A more plausible motive for the synagogue's origin stems from the Hebrew inscription on the foundation tablet which reads:
Husband, Reb Israel, son of Josef of blessed memory, bound in strength, to the glory of the Eternal One, and of his wife Malka, daughter of Eleazar, may her soul be bound up in the portion of life, built this synagogue, the house of the Lord, from her bequest. Lord restore the treasure of Israel.
This implies that the synagogue was built in memory of Malka, the wife of Israel ben Josef. The year 1552 was a very difficult time for the family of Israel: his mother, wife, and daughter-in-law, the first wife of Rabbi Moshe Isserles, and probably other family members died in the epidemic that hit Kraków that year, in addition to numerous Jewish inhabitants of Kazimierz. Israel ben Josef was a wealthy banker who settled in Kraków only in 1519, following the expulsion of Jews from the German city of Regensburg. Another tradition maintains that the synagogue was founded by Rabbi Moshe Isserles himself in memory of first wife Golda, who died at the age of twenty.
The Remah Synagogue was built in Kazimierz, then a suburban village outside Kraków, located on the right bank of the Vistula River, immediately to the south of the Royal Castle on the Wawel Hill. Kazimierz had a Jewish community since the late 15th century, transferred from the budding Old Town by King Jan I Olbracht following a fire in 1495. It soon became the main Jewish neighborhood in the region and one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. Originally called the "New Synagogue" to distinguish it from the Old Synagogue, (Stara Bożnica), the Remah Synagogue was built in 1553 at the edge of a newly established Jewish cemetery (today known as the "Old Cemetery") on land owned by Israel ben Josef. This date is stated clearly on the foundation tablet. Nevertheless, the royal permission by King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland was obtained in November 1556, after long opposition from the Church. As it is hard to believe that the construction actually began without the royal permission, the inscription should therefore be understood as possibly referring to the date when the decision to build a second synagogue in Kazimierz was taken by its founder. The first building of the synagogue, probably a wooden structure, was destroyed in a fire in April 1557, but following a new permission granted by King Sigismund II Augustus, a second building of masonry was erected in place in 1557 after the plans of Stanisław Baranek, a Kraków architect. The original late Renaissance style edifice underwent a number of changes during the 17th and the 18th centuries. The current building traces its design to the restoration work of 1829, to which some technical improvements were introduced during the restoration of 1933 conducted under the supervision of the architect Herman Gutman. During the Holocaust, the synagogue was sequestered by the German Trust Office (Treuhandstelle) and served as a storehouse of firefighting equipment, having been despoiled of its valuable ceremonial objects and historic furbishing, including the bimah. However, the building itself was not destroyed. In 1957, thanks to the efforts of the local Jewish community and of Akiva Kahane, the Joint Distribution Committee representative in Poland, the Remuh Synagogue underwent a major restoration that reestablished much of the pre-war appearance of the interior.
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