Security concerns relating to the situation in the Middle East have forced Kraków’s annual Jewish festival, which is one of the largest in Europe, to cancel the public concert that is normally the centrepiece of the event. The decision was made after consultation with the police.
The Jewish Culture Festival has been taking place since 1988 and is seen as an emblem of the revival of Jewish life and culture in a country where Jews once made up 10% of the population but were almost completely wiped out in the Holocaust.
Each year, the main final concert, known as “Shalom on Szeroka Street”, sees a huge crowd gather in the former Jewish district of Kazimierz to listen to music, in particular the klezmer music that was once common in the region.
However, on Thursday the organisers of the festival, which is taking place between 23 and 30 June, announced that they were cancelling the concert to ensure “the safety of viewers and listeners”. Other elements of the festival, including 15 smaller concerts, are still planned to go ahead.
🎺🎷🎼#Szalom! Szalom! Szalom alejchem! Tańce, #śpiew.y, #zabawa, #warsztaty to wszystko w #Krakow.ie na #FestiwalKulturyŻydowskiej. Tego #klimat.u nie da się przenieść w inne miejsce! Tylko na #Kazimierz.u🥰Tylko na Szerokiej🎸🎻#tradycja #historia #koncert #kultura #edukacja pic.twitter.com/wdUcwtEelA
— Kraków (@krakow_pl) July 1, 2019
“This year’s Jewish Culture Festival takes place in a very complicated political and social situation in Israel and the Middle East,” they wrote. “Although we do not engage in politics, unfortunately it sometimes affects us and influences our decisions.”
“The situation in the Middle East provokes many people to extreme behaviour, and we do not want to expose you to danger or even discomfort during a concert whose message is peace,” added the organisers.
Having consulted with the police and other security services, “we found that we were unable to guarantee the safety of the several thousand concert participants in Szeroka Street, with its gardens, narrow entrances and a huge amount of technical equipment”.
At last year’s festival, Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, appeared on stage during the “Shalom on Szeroka Street” concert alongside an Israeli flag.
Letters signed by thousands of people have called on Poland's leading universities to end cooperation with Israeli institutions.
In response, hundreds of other students, academics and Jewish leaders have signed a counter-letter opposing such a boycott https://t.co/b4VlOICgFK
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 17, 2024
Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that prompted Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Poland has seen both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests, though the former have been more common and larger. None have seen any violence.
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Main image credit: Jewish Culture Festival (press material)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
