Monika Krawczyk, CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) reports the welcome news that FODZ’s project to restore the two-synagogue complex in Krasnik, in southeast Poland near Lublin, has just received a grant of nearly $2 million from the European Union.
The grant is given, however, on condition that FODZ raises $650,000 in matching funds — and FODZ will soon be launching a campaign to raise this funding.
Monika writes that FODZ initially applied for an EU grant for Krasnik in 2011, but it was rejected. Then, in 2012, apparently based on the successful FODZ restoration of the synagogue in Zamosc, which is now used as a cultural and educational center, the Krasnik project was promoted to the waiting list.
Now, Monika writes, apparently following the success of an international academic conference on Jan Karski and the Holocaust that was held in Zamosc in November and organized in cooperation with Lublin University, “we were upgraded to the level of official award of the grant.”
FODZ has signed an agreement with the Krasnik Municipality under which the town will undertake to maintain and run the site for 25 years after completion of the restoration, while the synagogues are and will continue to be owned by FODZ.
The first phase of the restoration was carried out in 2010. It included:
– dismantling the floors, stairs and ceilings built in the 1980s;
– securing the foundations;
– constructing new ceilings;
– constructing new staircases;
– horizontal and vertical insulation;
– reinforcing the walls;
– constructing a ferroconcrete ?band? around the buildings;
– restoring the roof constructions;- new covering of the roofs;
– applying new external plaster and painting the elevations;
– installing anti-breaking window woodwork in the Great Synagogue.
Regarding the site and the project, FODZ reports:
The synagogue complex in Krasnik consists of two buildings. The larger, baroque synagogue with fragments of precious polychromy still preserved inside, was erected in the 17th century. The second, smaller synagogue, was probably built in the 1st half of the 19th century.
As a result of social debates, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, along with the Municipal Council, prepared a coherent function plan of the synagogue complex, meeting the needs of the local community. That is why the main idea of the center is the promotion of multi-culturality.
In the building of the smaller synagogue there will be a modern multimedia library and a lecturers? room, joined with the multimedia Museum of Jews of Krasnik and the Krasnik Region. The second, bigger building will combine several functions: it will contain a center for the local non-governmental organizations dealing with culture, and a hall designed for concerts, conferences and exhibitions. One of the annexes for women, located on the balcony of the bigger synagogue, will serve as a working room for art courses.
Activities conducted in the restored synagogues will involve our local partners: the Municipal Council of Krasnik, the Town Public Library, the Center of Culture and Promotion, the “Za Brama” Foundation and the Voluntary Work Center.
The Foundation already takes up numerous educational activities, aiming to involve the inhabitants of Krasnik in taking care of multicultural heritage of their town. Over the last four years five Krasnik schools participated in the ?To Bring Memory Back? program, created and implemented by the Foundation. Within the program, young people discover multicultural history of their town, learn about the fates of the Krasnik Jews as well as Jewish tradition and culture.
The synagogues in Krasnik form part of FODZ’s Chassidic Route — you can download a PDF brochure on Krasnik and its Jewish history HERE
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1 comment on “EU grant for the Krasnik, Poland synagogue complex”
Just only what Krasnik needs, roads are old and very destroyed maybe since second world war there was no improvement, driving through Krasnik you may loose your axel or damage your car.
Most buildings are grey or brown and the bricks are falling apart, other Poland’s cities look colorful and inviting and Krasnik looks like Jewish getto from 1940’s looks like from another era, shame on you Mr. Major and others running this neglected city.