Religia i patriotyzm. O Kazaniach Izaaka Kramsztyka

Abstract

Izaak Kramsztyk (Kramstück) is one of the Jews who embody the existence of the Polish-Jewish community of the second half of the 19th century. He was born in Warsaw in 1814 as a descendant of a poor family. In 1832 he joined the Warsaw School of Rabbis, which was established to spread the education and sense of citizenship among the Jews living in the Polish land. Having completed this school, he was employed in it as a teacher of religion and Talmud, conducting classes in Polish. His personal situation was also becoming stabilized: in the late thirties he married and after several years became the head of a large family. He earned his living with a teacher's salary and low paid private lessons. At that time he attempted to introduce the Polish language to the spiritual life of progressive Jews, which at the beginning aroused surprise, resentment or even resilience. There were among him, however, also Jews who – excited with the slogans of Haskalah – were planning to introduce certain orders on the Polish lands, more specifically, in Warsaw, which would be in contrast to the traditional orders – in the administrative, educational and spiritual dimension of their communities. Izaak Kramsztyk became one of the representatives of the reform of civic and spiritual Jewish life, giving his sermons in the Polish language in a newly established synagogue on Nalewki Street. The first reactions to these actions were very turbulent.