The Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, a Jewish cultural and educational centre, was created in 2008 as a result of an initiative of the Prince of Wales. The main aim of the JCC is to strengthen, grow and ensure the viability of the Jewish community in Krakow. It brings together people of Jewish background as well as those interested in Jewish culture, religion and traditions.
The Centre hosts regular exhibitions, shows, festivals, film screenings, book promotions and lectures on the topics of Judaism, Chassidism, Jewish law and religious principles. Every week a kosher Shabbat dinner takes place and on Jewish holidays the JCC organises meetings, parties and other celebrations. Main activities promoted and maintained by the Centre include: Hebrew lessons, Yiddish lessons, English lessons, Spanish lessons, Yiddish singing workshops, genealogical workshops, educational workshops, belly dancing, Israeli dance, yoga, and Krav Maga. While the centre is planned to be a place of cultural events, as well as a place for the Jewish community and its organisations to meet, the building also serves the inhabitants of Krakow as well as tourists. It contains offices, conference halls, a restaurant, an internet café and a doctor’s surgery. Physiotherapy rooms are planned.
The basement of the centre houses the Remuh library which was created by the “Czulent” Jewish Association in June 2005. It is the only Jewish library in Krakow that is open to all. It contains over 2000 books including Israeli prose, the Torah and Talmud, memoirs, albums, comics, handbooks and dictionaries.
In June 2002, Charles, the Prince of Wales, visited Krakow and during a meeting with the Jewish Religious Community in Krakow he learned that the community lacked a place to meet outside of the synagogue. The Prince promised to help, and together with World Jewish Relief and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, funded this establishment.
The formalities associated with obtaining the permission to build the Centre took a while, so it was a few years later, on November 14, 2006 that the inauguration ceremony for the building of the Centre was celebrated at the Tempel Synagogue. Construction of the 4-storey, 850-square-metre Centre was completed in 2008 at a cost of 10 million zloty. On 29 April 2008, HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall came to Krakow to formally open the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow.