The Bastion of Tradition

The focal point of the exhibition in the Old Synagogue is ... Old Synagogue itself. Since its inception until the outbreak of World War II, it was the major Jewish synagogue of Cracow Jewish community. It was the center of religious and social life, the house of the spiritual knowledge of the rabbis and the secular authority of kahal seniors. After the tragedy of the Holocaust it ceased to serve as a prayer house, it was designated a new function: it became the seat of the museum of memory of centuries of rich Jewish history and culture in Cracow. All this makes the Old Synagogue not only the most valuable monument of Jewish sacral architecture but also the nursery and the mainstay of the traditional culture of Krakow Jews. It is also the best place for a museum exhibition on its own topic, appropriately named for the issue of the theme of the tradition.