Mi Polin Bronze Mezuzah - KRAKOW, UL. MOSTOWA 8

This joyful fiddler will welcome all who enter with warmth and a lifted spirit. Crafted in cast bronze and includes the kosher prayer.

This mezuzah is a part of the Mi Polin "Mezuzah From This Home" project, which commemorates the Jewish life of pre-war Poland by taking mezuzah casts from the door frames of once-Jewish homes. They symbolize the emptiness of now-vacant homes, the remembrance of those who lived there, and the reclaiming of the mezuzah, which for years remained empty but now can fulfill its role again.

Each mezuzah is cast in bronze, with a Shin and the place where it was cast engraved on the side. It has an open space in the back for a scroll. (Use the drop-down menu to purchase your mezuzah with or without a scroll.)

This bronze cast commemorates the Steiner and Lednitzer families, and the trace of a mezuzah on a doorfra­me in apartments 18 and 19, 8 Mostowa Street.

8 Mostowa Street was built between 1868 and 1873 as a tenement house, probably designed by Jacek Matusiński. The building's owner was Abraham Lednitzer.

From 1926 to 1934 only 4 Jewish residents lived in this tenement: Uebersfeld Estera, Gross Hallassa, Bloch Ruchla, and Zweig Salomea. According to a list of prayer houses in pre-war Kraków, the prayer house of Chana and Abra­ham Lednitzer was in No. 8's backyard. This prayer house was built in 1907 by the Lednitzer Fa­mily.

During World War II, Nazi Germans devastated the buil­ding, and it was no longer a prayer house. Today there is a workshop in this place. No one is allowed to enter the building.

Dimensions: 5.25 inches (L)
Material: Bronze
Made in Poland.

Mi Polin, meaning “from Poland” in Hebrew, is the first brand that designs and produces Judaica in Poland since the end of World War II, the Holocaust, and forty-five years of Communism. This contemporary design studio specializes in Jewish objects, branding for Jewish institutions, and graphic design. Their design refers to "hiddur micva" (a Slavic transliteration of “mitzvah”), which demands that ritual artifacts be beautiful, while also emphasizing their multi-faceted nature. Mi Polin was founded by Aleksander Prugar and Helena Czernek.