The Jewish History of Krakow

The Weiss-Livnat International MA Program
in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa Blog

Our students meeting with students from the Jagiellonian

While in Krakow, we visited the Jewish Studies students of Jagiellonian University. At the Jewish Studies Center, in the heart of the vibrant Jewish Quarter in Krakow, the students study Yiddish, Jewish History specifically in Poland, and the Holocaust. We divided into small groups and met with a selection of students. We talked about different research projects and research ideas, they exchanged resources and angles for their studies. It was a pleasure to meet with these scholars and learn a Polish perspective on the Holocaust.

Our students with students from Jagiellonian University

After our meeting with these students we explored the lively Jewish Quarter in Krakow. In the streets you can find markets, which have been preserved since pre-Holocaust Poland. You can also find bookshops selling books in Yiddish and Hebrew.

Our group in the Remah Synagogue

Many of the synagogues in the area have been converted to museums and are no longer active, but they still tell the long story of Jews in Poland. Many of the buildings there have murals of Jewish life with Yiddish text. Though there aren’t many Jews left in Krakow, their lack of presence is noted, it is not ignored. The people of Krakow keep the memory of the Jews that used to live amongst them alive.

The next day we took a tour through Krakow. First we stopped at the Remah Synagogue and the accompanying cemetery. The synagogue was named after Rabbi Moses Isserles, whose name abbreviated is Ramah. Rabbi Moses Isserles was an eminent Polish Ashkenazi Rabbi, and talmudist.

Our group at the grave of Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller.

Another important rabbi, Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, was buried here in the back of the cemetery in a lowly and otherwise forgotten part next to Yossele the Holy Miser. The Rabbi asked to be buried next to him as a great honor. Yossele the Holy Miser is something of a Jewish legend from the medieval ages. According to the lore, Yossele the Holy Miser was the richest Jew in Krakow, but he refused to give tzedakah (charity) to the synagogue or those less fortunate, or so they thought. After Yossele the Holy Miser died the community buried him in the back of the cemetery, thinking he was a stingy and greedy man. Much to their surprise he had been providing for less fortunate families all over the city. Many families came to the Rabbi and said they had been given mysterious weekly allowances on their front porches. It became apparent to the Rabbi that Yossele the Holy Miser had been anonymously giving to them over many years. Many consider this form of tzedakah, anonymous giving, as the highest form of charity. According to the story, the rabbi of this story was Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller, and this is why he asked to be buried in the back of the cemetery, next to Yossele the Holy Miser.

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Researcher gives seal of approval to 53 biblical characters’ existence

RICH TENORIO

Lawrence Mykytiuk looks for ancient personalities who have made an impression — be it on a signet ring or a monument

Biblical characters that Lawrence Mykytiuk claims to have verified. Clockwise, from left: Sargon II; Cuneiform prism describing the restoration of Babylon by Esarhaddon; a relief of King Sennacherib from his palace in Nineveh; Tiglath-pileser III from the palace at Nimrud. (Public domain)

Thanks to a researcher’s unique system, 53 individuals in the Hebrew Bible have been proven as genuine historical characters through material evidence of their existence. The system’s creator, Lawrence Mykytiuk, an associate professor of library science at Purdue University, calls it “a way to develop historicity.”

It sounds like an unlikely project: a professor in the Midwest verifying ancient names from the Mideast. Yet Mykytiuk’s training as a librarian and interest in the Bible help him do what he says on-the-scene archaeologists are too busy to — pore through journals and books, scrutinize inscriptions discovered on digs and attempt to match names in the historical record with names in the Bible.

Mykytiuk’s system relies on three criteria: A biblical name must match the name on an authentic inscription, with no possibility of a forgery (thus ruling out items from the antiquities market, he said). The names — in the Bible and on the inscription — must match in terms of setting and time period. And, in perhaps the most exacting category, Mykytiuk looks for matches of at least three specific details identifying an individual, such as name, father’s name and title.

Lawrence Mykytiuk identifies ancient Biblical characters through their personal seals. (Courtesy)

“If it matches the same three mentions in Scripture, it’s a virtual certainty,” Mykytiuk said. “There might be a few people with the same name, father’s name,” he added, “but same title? That’s stretching it. I consider it a virtual certainty, either a dead ringer or virtual certainty.”

He does note in a PowerPoint presentation, however, that verifications of biblical names do not guarantee verifications of biblical events involving these individuals.

Developed over 25 years, Mykytiuk’s system is arguably successful. Studying 94 inscriptions, he has verified kings, pharaohs, high priests and scribes, among others.

All of the names are male, although he said he is “hoping to identify a woman from an inscription. Not yet.”

Verified characters include eight kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and six from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. One is King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who fought in the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BCE — an event that eagle-eyed Mykytiuk noted in both the Book of Kings and on an image of the Kurkh Monolith.

“There was only one Israelite king at a time who could have fought [in the battle],” Mykytiuk said. “Bingo. There was a match between the inscription and the Bible.”

Mykytiuk’s oldest verification is another sovereign — King David himself, from 1000 BCE. He found a match between the protagonist of Samuel I and the “House of David” wall inscription at the Tel Dan excavations in northern Israel.

“‘King of Israel’ was in one line,” Mykytiuk said. “The next line read ‘Melech Beit David.’ It was in Aramaic, by the enemies, the Arameans, who conquered Tel Dan and indicated a victory monument, a stele, a big sign in stone. The Israelites reconquered it, and smashed [the stele] to pieces that they used to make a wall.”

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