A Plait Of Cultures

Interview with Janusz Makuch – Director of the Jewish Culture Festival

This festival is a massive undertaking: interdisciplinary, multi-threaded, it’s not easy to describe, if only because of the sheer number and variety of events, including reaching the most diverse of audiences.
This is the most avant-garde festival of Jewish culture among all the world’s “old school” festivals... That is: without a doubt the festival’s standard is by far the highest. What we present here is, in my opinion, what is best in this culture at a given moment. I say at a given moment because this festival shows Jewish culture as it is today. One that draws from tradition and pays tribute to it, but doesn’t stop there. Tradition is treated as a source of inspiration to show how Jewish culture has been reborn after the Second World War and which directions it has taken.

Is there a pattern of coexistence between tradition and avant-garde in the Kraków festival?
This is clear from the programme, including how it develops: we very consciously start from the sources themselves, from prayers in the synagogue and concerts by cantors. Religion is the foundation of all Jewish music, and to this day the greatest inspiration for Hassidic and klezmer music. The beautiful school of the vocal art has been developed and perfected since 70 AD, when Titus’ army destroyed the second Holy Temple in Jerusalem. It was then, as a sign of mourning, that the Jews rejected instrumental art. Knowing this, we see later changes in their music as a logical sequence of events.

How does the Kraków festival compare to those that take place in Israel itself?
Israel is focused on what is vaguely called Israeli culture, in fact a mixture of the accomplishments of the many groups who have arrived there from many countries. On the one hand, it is an Americanised culture, subject to musical McDonaldisation, laden with toxic pop, while on the other saturated with ethnic, precious, and oriental tones. Because of the overbearing weight of rubbish it is sometimes hard to endure...

So I'm looking for that which is original and retains the original connection with the authentic trends in Jewish music, in all its assorted diversity: from Yemen, through Kurdistan, Tajikistan, India, Galicia, Ethiopia... not mutilated by pop arrangements. And so Israeli artists appear with us who don’t enjoy such great popularity in their own country as its “stars”. But anyone who should know about them, knows. We value sensitive, ambitious people with refined taste.

How does the festival affect the perception of Poland in Israel?
Those who come here are greatly impressed; the transmission of the final concert is watched and commented on. There is a group that come from Israel to the final every year, to dance with flags... For me, some time ago the festival stopped being just a phenomenal collection of purely artistic events. I hope that its annual appearance is conducive to producing some kind of educational process which may impact the mutual, mental transformation. Yes, it is very irrational, but if you look at it all with the knowledge that Jewish culture has been a permanent element of Polish and European culture for centuries, the 23 years of our festival is really just the beginning of the process. We have much to make up for – and here in Poland Jewish culture is primarily a Polish culture.

Especially here in Galicia...
Jews contributed to this civilisation and this culture. A few months ago I listened to a lecture by Professor Shlomo Avineri. And at one point he asked a question about Yiddish: “Since 3.5 million Polish citizens before the war spoke that language, don’t you think it was a Polish language?”.

I am pleased that fewer and fewer people call the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków a klezmer festival, because in this sense it is precisely a festival of Polish culture.

And it’s not only these two cultures that are inextricably intertwined here.
The ambition of this festival is to reflect the unlimited wealth of Jewish culture – not only the Ashkenazi, but also the Sephardic, created not only by Central European Jews, but also by those who were once banished from the Iberian Peninsula. We are talking about a constant mixing, a coexistence of cultures, a universal respect for individuality, a world of cultural pluralism. More than two years ago when we opened the Cheder, a phenomenal duo of Arab musicians performed as part of the Convivencia programme. Why not?

This is possible right here – in Kazimierz.
Kazimierz now radiates to the world the richness of a diverse, colourful Jewish culture. Ancient and contemporary, and from all corners of the world. This also allows the festival to continue to be reborn with new strength. I remember how, last year, Ilana Eliya, a Kurdish singer from Israel, announced her last song. In the Tempel Synagogue it was hot and stuffy, and suddenly, in the middle of this announcement, she lost consciousness. She collapsed on the stage. We were terrified and there was general consternation; we called an ambulance... and after a minute she opened her eyes, stood up slightly embarrassed, slightly annoyed with herself, she stood straight and proud, and sang the last song with her powerful crystal clear voice which sends a shiver down your spine. The ovation was never ended.

And this is it. It is a festival of life.