Source: JTA
The JCC of Krakow has received a $500,000 grant from the New York City-based Eric and Erica Schwartz Family Foundation, the largest single grant awarded to a Krakow Jewish organization in the last 20 years. The funds will support the creation of an Early Childhood Center at JCC Krakow located in Kazimierz, the heart of the city’s Jewish district. It will be the first full-time that a pluralistic Jewish nursery school will be open in Krakow since before World War II. The school is scheduled to open in fall 2017 with a soft opening earlier.
The Early Childhood Center, to be named “Frajda” meaning “joy” in both Yiddish and Polish, will be a Jewish pluralistic nursery school serving the growing number of young Jewish families in Krakow. Frajda will provide a comprehensive Jewish curriculum focusing on the holidays, history, and Jewish identity. The newly designed, state-of-the-art space is being created in consultation with leading Jewish early childhood experts from Poland, the United States, and Israel.
JCC Krakow was opened in April 2008. It has quickly established itself as the focal point of Jewish life for the city’s residents, as well as thousands of visitors from around Poland and the world every month. Today it has over 600 active Jewish members, including 75 Holocaust survivors.
Read more at JTA.