Keep Jarden Jewish Bookshop Alive in Cracow Poland
From the fundraiser on GoFundme by Erica Lehrer, author of several Jewish-Polish books, including Lucky Jews.
Help save the Jarden Jewish Bookshop with a donation today. With your help, we can keep the doors of this venerable institution open. The Jarden Bookshop has been an anchor of Jewish heritage revival and community vitality in Kazimierz, Kraków’s historic Jewish quarter. Our goal is to raise USD $10,000 ($14,000 CAD) to cover the bookshop’s rent and emergency basic income over the next 12 months while they work to develop their online sales and distribution capability during COVID-19. If we pull together, we can stop one of the pillars of Jewish cultural resurgence in Poland from disappearing.
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One of the first Jewish cultural spaces in newly democratic Poland, Jarden quickly turned into much more than a bookshop: it became an institution. Jarden served as a safe haven for still-closeted Jews who needed a place to explore their identities at a time when the broader urban environment was not yet welcoming. When there was no place else to “land” in the marginalized quarter, the bookshop provided a rare point of orientation for regional or foreign visitors looking for tourist information, genealogical guidance, an ear to tell a life story to, sometimes a shoulder to cry on.
