Creatures of Every Kind (PL)

An author meeting with Monika Krajewska discussing her book „Zwierz wszelkiego rodzaju” („Creatures of Every Kind”), published by Austeria, at the Austeria Bookshop at 16 Szeroka Street in Kraków.

Jewish ritual art is teeming with creatures that live on land, in water and in the air. The most common are lions, deer and eagles, but there are also squirrels, bears and elephants. They have taken up residence on Hanukkah lamps and besaminki, shields and Torah crowns. The painted walls and vaults of synagogues, as well as the wooden Torah arks, were a veritable paradise for them. Their origins are ancient, stretching back to Greece and Mesopotamia; lions, leopards, bulls, gazelles and peacocks have survived on Middle Eastern synagogue mosaics from the Byzantine period. Metaphors from the animal kingdom can be found in the Bible, particularly in the Psalms and – in great abundance – in the Song of Songs, where ‘the beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag’, and the beloved’s hair is ‘like a flock of goats descending from the mountains of Gilead’. Animals also appear in prayers and liturgical poems, in parables and folklore. Their ubiquity in art does not make them easy to interpret; it is often impossible to say with certainty whether they serve as symbols or have been used as ornamentation sanctified by tradition – unless the accompanying verse suggests the association.

Moderation: Zofia Hartman.

The event is part of the 35th edition of the Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków.

The meeting will take place as part of the Fundacja Miasto Literatury’s project „Krakowskie Księgarnie na Medal”. Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.