2nd Day in Krakow - Saturday, June 27, 2009
Posted Jul 2, 04:38 PM by Ellie Shapiro
Festival Director Ellie Shapiro is currently at the 19th Jewish Cultural Festival in Krakow, Poland and then goes on to Lublin and Ukraine with the 2008 JMF Ark Project. She is periodically sending back reports to share with friends of the Jewish Music Festival. Read on!.
I wake up and head back to the Tempel Synagogue for Shabbat morning services, about a five minute walk across Szeroka Square, where a week from today, the free outdoor finale will take place. As this is my fourth time here, my path spurs recollections. . As I cut across the empty lot smelling of freshly cut grass, beside the synagogue, I picture Josh Dolgin frantically trying to get his sampling machine to work, several years ago, as precious seconds ticked away. In the end, other Festival musicians filled in live for the machine, and saved the show.
I make it back to the Eden Hotel, however, for Benzion Miller’s famous cholent. The people I sat with the night before are happy to see me. Amira, this time, is joined by her Brazilian friend. It turns out the friend’s family originally came from Egypt, and that her father had been a cantor in Sao Paolo. It meant a lot to her to hear the Moroccan Israeli cantor Emil Zrihan sing melodies similar to what she remembered from childhood.
At 10:03 pm, the Melave Malkah event took place at the Tempel Synagogue to officially mark the end of Shabbat. I got there early to get a seat and sat next to a couple from Norway. He was a Jewish composer named Paul Goldstein, originally from the States, and his wife, Ulla, an English teacher. She started to cry when the cantors sang Adon Olam. That melody, she explained, gets her every time. The small sanctuary was overflowing. The Festival director, Janucz Makuch, asked who understood English. The very few who responded mostly seemed to be non-Jewish Poles. They went crazy when Cantor Benzion Miller sang Kol haolam kulo, gesher tsar me’od in Polish. The words, by Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav mean the entire world is a very narrow bridge. The main point is not to be afraid.
-Ellie Shapiro, Jewish Music Festival Director
1st Day in Krakow - Friday, June 26, 2009 3rd Day in Krakow - Sunday, June 28, 2009