By nature, I'm like Seder horseradish

Interview with Janusz Makuch, creator and director of the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow

Very soon we will be celebrating the beginning of the 18th edition of the Jewish Culture Festival. The first Festival, held in 1988, was a modest event, consisting of a cycle of lectures and screenings of films in Yiddish. Today, it is a several-day-long event and the largest Jewish festival in the world. Do you feel fulfilled? Maybe you still have some unrealised ideas in your head?
Yes, it is one of the largest Jewish festivals in the world, but it is not its nine-day length that is the key. What is even more significant is the fact that the event is perceived as a symbol of positive changes in the Polish-Jewish dialogue. In this sense, I do not feel fulfilled, because taking into consideration the almost one-thousand-year-long presence of Jews in Poland, the Festival, which has only been celebrated for 20 years, is obviously immature, and therefore bound to develop and improve.

Looking through the programme of concerts prepared for the Festival, one is likely to get the impression that the organizers have decided to showcase all the possible varieties of Jewish music. What is the innovative input of such a combination of Synagogue chants, tunes popular in pre-war Europe and jazz avant-garde projects? Which of these trends seems most interesting to you?
Jewish music is not only - as the ignorant tend to think - klezmer music, exactly like Polish music is more than just Highlander music... The combination you are referring to presents and makes the audience aware of the long and diverse musical panorama, which has reflected the Jewish world for ages. Thus, we are interested in the broadest possible spectrum of this world, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, both in terms of their traditional and avant-garde aspects. This is why, during our festival, both cantor chants and Jewish hip-hop resound in perfect harmony. For me personally, the diverse Chassidic music is the most interesting element...

The Festival is not only comprised of concerts, exhibitions and lectures. There are also many workshops, including cooking workshops. Are there any Jewish dishes you are particularly partial to?
The workshops are the most important thing, as they show us the everyday aspect of culture and give people the possibility to co-create it. I love the cuisine of Galician Jews from Borough Park in Brooklyn and that of Persian Jews from Jerusalem.

Life writes its own stories. I cannot imagine that all those years of preparing all the editions of the Festival have passed without any funny situation. Maybe you could share some anecdotes from the past with our readers.
By nature, I am very gloomy, bitter and as pungent as Seder horseradish. It is hard to be funny when I am around. Many years ago in Israel, a Pole shouted upon noticing me: "Oh, Jesus, this must be Theodor Herlz*!” Well, but that happened last century, I was younger then and I had a long dark beard. However, I will remain a spiritual descendant of Herzl until the Messiah comes. And maybe even after that. If anything funny happens this time, I will tell you about it next year.
* Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist who founded modern political Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland. His pamphlet The Jewish State (1896) proposed that the Jewish question was a political question to be settled by a world council of nations.

Karnet 6/2008