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West of Szeroka, along ul. Miodowa, on the corner of ul. Podbrzezie, is the Synagoga Templu (Tempel Synagogue), a magnificent, Neo-Renaissance construction founded in the 1860s by the local Association of Progressive Jews, with whose modernist, reforming theology it was long identified. This is the second of the two synagogues in Kazimierz still used for worship today. The synagogue interior is a grand affair, the large central hall surrounded by the women's gallery, erected on decorated iron supports, and graced by ornate wall decorations and some lavish stuccowork in the ceiling. In the centre sits the bimah , and beyond it the white marble altar, separated from the main body of the interior by a decorated screen wall. Illuminating the whole building is a glowing set of 36 stained-glass windows restored in the 1970s, and visible only from the inside, featuring geometrical motifs alongside characteristic floral and plant designs. Opening hours are unpredictable, as the synagogue is closed for renovation, with no clear date for completion. At least during regular work hours, however, a small contribution to the caretaker should grant you access. When work's finished the place is likely to be stunning. Southeast of here, ul. Warszauera brings you to the Synagoga Kupa (Kupa Synagogue), built in the 1640s with funds collected from the local community. The first of the synagogues to be reopened as a functioning religious building after World War II, it's again not easy to get in to see this one without prior arrangement. If the caretaker is around to let you in, the renovated interior shows few traces of its former character, the only surviving decoration being the zodiacal paintings covering the ceiling and beams of the gallery, and a seventeenth-century stone plaque below one of the windows. The exterior of the building stands flush against the old defensive walls of the area which you can see from around the corner on ul. Kupa. Continuing west along ul. Warszauera brings you to plac Nowy, the former Jewish marketplace and still referred to popularly as such. In the middle of the bustling square, stands the old round covered market hall, little changed in appearance from its previous Jewish incarnation, when the building housed its own ritual slaughterhouse. West of the square along ul. Meiselsa, is the sparkling new Jewish Cultural Centre at no. 17 (Centrum Kultury Zydowskiej; Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; tel 012/430 6452), a clear expression of the revival of interest in Kazimierz. Located on the site of a former prayer house, the smart new centre was opened in November 1993, complete with plush conference rooms, library and other support facilities. After a slow start the place seems to be finding its feet among the local community, although it's aimed more at visitors. Regular conferences and exhibitions make it always worth looking in to see what's going on, especially if it's hot, when the soothing air conditioning and genteel cafe-bar provide a welcome respite from the rigours of the city. Overall there's no doubting the serious intentions of the organizers, who describe their central aim as being to "ensure that the experience of Kazimierz is an encounter with the presence of Jewish culture". If future plans to develop a kosher restaurant, offices and eventually a hotel materialize, the centre looks set to become a major fixture in the district. Finally, through the tunnel underneath the rail track at the far eastern end of ul. Miodowa lies the Nowy Cmentarz (New Cemetery; Mon-Fri, Sun & Jewish holidays 9am-6pm; entrance through no. 55), a little-visited site that succeeded the Remu'h as the main Jewish burial site in the early 1800s. The contrast between the two places is striking. A quiet, brooding place of leafy, overgrown walkways and crumbling clusters of ornately carved monuments and tombstones, the cemetery is among the most powerful testaments to Jewish life in the district. In among the mausoleums of the great and good of Habsburg-era Kazimierz, for example, you'll find memorials erected after World War II by relatives of those who perished in the concentration camps, many of them simple tablets recording the names and dates of murdered family members. To the right of the entrance gate stands a memorial to local victims of the Holocaust.
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