In the 16th century Lublin was one of the most important centers in the world for the development of Jewish culture. There was a leading Hebrew printing house and a famous yeshiva, where Samuel Luria, called Maharshal, taught. The Council of Four Lands, the only Jewish parliament in the Diaspora, met here. From the end of the 18th century Yaakov Yitzchak Horowic, one of the first Hasidic tzaddiks, famous as the Seer from Lublin, lived and taught here.
Here, in the very heart of Jewish Lublin, the German occupiers established a ghetto during World War II. In 1942, the residents of the district were murdered and the buildings razed to the ground.
During the walk, which leads through empty spaces around the Lublin castle, we will learn the history of Szeroka Street, 'which was really wide', the central artery of the district, and Nadstawna Street, famous for its numerous cheders, Jateczna Street, where the most important synagogues of Lublin were located and where the outstanding Yiddish poet Jakub Glatsztejn was born, as well as Krawiecka Street, full of small wooden houses and great poverty. We will learn about the tragic fate of Lublin Jews during the Holocaust. We will also find out how the now non-existent Jewish district is still present in the urban space.
