Synagoga Izaaka Jakubowicza, Kraków

Synagoga Izaaka Jakubowicza is a Baroque Orthodox synagogue in Kraków’s Kazimierz district, opened in 1644 through the patronage of banker and community leader Izaak Jakubowicz. Its restored interior preserves painted Hebrew prayers and ornate plasterwork, while its history records wartime destruction and the courage of Maximilian Redlich.

Synagoga Izaaka Jakubowicza is the historic synagogue on the corner of Kupa and Izaaka streets in Kazimierz. It opened in 1644, built by the Italian architect Giovanni Trevano in the Baroque manner—a seventeenth-century style made for drama and ceremony. Its benefactor was Izaak, or Ajzyk, Jakubowicz: a merchant who led Kazimierz’s Jewish community and served King Władysław the Fourth as a banker.

An inscription inside credits his wife, Brajndla, with prompting the foundation. The plain masonry outside once concealed an exceptionally lavish interior. Notice the staircase and arcaded porch above the entrance: they lead to the women’s gallery and were added later.

Within, conservation uncovered seventeenth-century painted Hebrew prayers, while the vaulted ceiling carries Baroque plaster wreaths and garlands. The synagogue’s story also holds devastating losses. During the German occupation, the Nazis wrecked its furnishings, including the central bimah and the Torah ark.

On the fifth of December 1939, Maximilian Redlich refused an order to burn Torah scrolls and was shot outside the entrance. After decades of changing uses, fire damage, and restoration, the building returned to Kraków’s Jewish community in 1989 and again serves as an Orthodox synagogue.