
Dating from the mid-16th century, this is Kraków's smallest but most active synagogue, with Shabbat services taking place here each Friday. Built by his father, it became the synagogue of one of Poland’s greatest Jewish scholars, Rabbi Moses Isserles (1530-1572) - better known by the Hebrew acronym ‘Rema.' A world-famous talmudist and posek, after his death and up until WWII, thousands of pilgrims would visit Isserles’ grave in the adjacent cemetery annually on the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer. In use until 1800, the cemetery fell into utter ruin during Nazi occupation with only a dozen tombstones surviving the war in their original state; among them was that of Rabbi Isserles, which many interpreted as proof of his miraculous power. After the war the cemetery was 'tidied up' with many of the intact tombstones being rearranged in straight rows, and fragments of those which could not be restored used to create a 'wailing wall' along ulica Szeroka. Today the cemetery and synagogue - whose modestly decorated interior features a reconstructed bimah and restored ceiling motifs - are an important pilgrimage site for devout Jews from all over the world.
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