Response to the appeal against presentation of Jew in nativity scene play

Kraków, 24th April 2023
BD-0610-45/23

Rabbi Michael Schudrich
Chief Rabbi of Poland

and

all signatories of the Letter to the Mayor of the City of Kraków dated 18th April 2023 regarding “the depictions of the character of the Jew in Kraków Nativity scenes and plays.”

In reference to the Letter dated 18th April 2023 submitted to the Mayor of the City of Kraków, prof. Jacek Majchrowski, I hereby relay the Museum of Kraków’s position on the case at hand.

The Museum of Kraków undertakes significant actions to document and recount the multicultural heritage of the city and also promotes the ideas of tolerance and pluralism. In its exhibitions and publishing and educational projects it builds a vision of the city community based on the values of solidarity and mutual respect. The staff of the Museum believes in the value of an open and inclusive society, free of discrimination and hate speech.

For more than 60 years the Museum of Kraków has also been telling the story of the Kraków Jews, presenting Jewish culture and religion through the work undertaken by various branches of the Museum, through publications, and educational activities. The aim of this work is to preserve Jewish memory, history, and heritage in our city, and also to help today’s inhabitants of Kraków to better know and understand the complexity of the urban heritage.

The Museum looks after one of the biggest Judaica collections in Poland, holds direct care of the memorial sites of the Jewish and Polish nations, and runs four branches directly devoted to the heritage of Polish and Kraków Jews. As an institution, we supervise Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory, the Eagle Factory, the Old Synagogue, and the KL Plaszow Museum.

The Museum of Kraków has a special duty and responsibility towards the city which as a result of the Second World War had lost so many Jewish inhabitants, the city which each day retrieves bits of the memory of the times before the Holocaust. Through involving in our endeavour to tell this story various organisations and representatives of the contemporary Jewish community in Poland and abroad, we strive to build this process with sensitivity, taking into consideration all parties.

The Museum of Kraków specialises in studying the historical and identity-forming processes of the inhabitants of Kraków. Therefore, we are aware of both the heritage of a centuries-old symbiosis of Jewish and Polish communities, and the conflicts that are often marked by anti-Semitism. For many years, we have strived to approach the multidimensionality of this issue with awareness and sensitivity, also taking cognisance of the need to take various opinions into consideration. This makes the Museum’s responsibility to counteract any forms, stories, and attitudes that could be considered as anti-Semitic even greater.

Referring directly to the content of the Letter dated 18th April 2023, I would like to inform that on the 31st of March 2023, the Museum of Kraków initiated a discussion about the depiction of the character of the Jew in Kraków Nativity plays and scenes through organising a debate on the subject. Experts on the subject and representatives of Jewish organisations in Kraków, including some of the signatories of the Letter in question, were invited to participate in the debate. The Museum of Kraków believed that a culture of discussion – and most of all an exchange of opinions, feelings, and experiences of the participants of the debate who represent many communities – is the only appropriate path to mutual understanding, allowing also for setting in motion the process of change that the sides of the debate deem necessary.

During the meeting, it was unequivocally agreed upon that the recording of the Nativity play includes content of an anti-Semitic nature and should be removed. The content of the Nativity play script is historical and is undoubtedly a testament to the anti-Semitic narration that should not be distorted[AK2] . However, it should be accompanied by an appropriate commentary.

During the meeting, the Authors of the play – the Malik family – accepted the arguments postulating that the narration of the play should be changed, while remaining open to arguments of other participants of the debate. The Authors of the play also explained their intentions – the above-mentioned content was to show the problem of anti-Semitism, with the aim of criticising such attitudes. The Malik family understood the use of this historical text as a contemporary memento. Yet, open to the argumentation of other participants of the debate, the Malik family agreed that the chosen method is not the right one, and that the play should not be performed in such a form. The Malik family’s openness to arguments and conciliatory stance exhibited in these talks shows above all else their high social competencies.

The recording of the Nativity play was instantly removed from the Museum of Kraków’s webpage. The Museum fully agreed with the diagnosis of the problem and the solutions needed and declared its commitment to greater awareness in the future, so that similar content never goes without an appropriate curatorial commentary. In our opinion, a collaboration between the Museum and the representatives of the Jewish community in terms of preparing this kind of joint commentaries – already systematically implemented for many years – is a good practice.

The unacceptable extract from the video recording of the Nativity play should also be clearly separated from the Nativity Scene Contest organised by the Museum of Kraków. The Nativity play was not a part of the Nativity scene exhibition. It’s worth emphasising that the rules of the Nativity Scene Contest impose a duty on the jury to exclude from the contest any works that could be deemed as injurious to any social group. In the 80 editions of the contest in which approx. 10 thousand Nativity scenes were judged, the jury had to invoke that rule only several times. What should also be highlighted is that since 1937 we have not noted any allegation of anti-Semitic content in the Kraków Nativity Scene made by any Jewish organisation. The characters of neighbours, including Jews, that occasionally appear in the Kraków Nativity Scene are a sign that Kraków is a city of many cultures and religions.

The issues concerning the Nativity play performed by the Malik family described in the Letter indicate that further dialogue is needed and are an important signal to us that the challenges of counteracting discrimination require constant intervention.

Together with the Kraków City Council and the Council for Equal Treatment we will work towards developing a joint concept and solutions to counteract discrimination and foster equality in the organised events. To that end, and to address this subject, meetings of the Plenipotentiaries of the Mayor of Krakow for Equality Policy and for Culture will take place in the near future.

The Museum declares full transparency and close collaboration of its branches with the departments of the City Council and other organisations and institutions in terms of information, communication, and education of all parties involved, as well as social engagement with regard to work on the subject of difficult heritage.

CC:

Prof. Jacek Majchrowski – Mayor of the City of Kraków
dr hab. prof. UJ. Andrzej Kulig – Deputy Mayor of Kraków for Social and Municipal Policy
Katarzyna Olesiak – Director of the Department of Culture and National Heritage of the City of Kraków
Robert Piaskowski – Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Krakow for Culture
Nina Gabryś – Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Krakow for Equality Policy