Remuh Cemetery

The Remuh Cemetery, also known as the old Jewish cemetery of Kraków in Cracow, Poland, is a Jewish cemetery established in 1535. It is located beside the Remuh Synagogue at 40 Szeroka Street in the historic Kazimierz district of Kraków. Rabbi Moses Isserles (ca 1525-1572) is buried there along with his family. Other notable burials include Mordechaj Saba, also called Singer, head of the Kraków Talmudic Academy from 1572-1576; Joseph Kac, head of the same academy in 1576-1591; Nathan Nata Spira (1583-1633), Kraków rabbi and head of the Academy from 1617-1633; Jozue ben Joseph (1590-1648), also head of the Academy; Joel Sirkes (Bach, 1561-1640), rabbi of the Kraków Jewish community and head of the Academy; Gerszon Saul Jom Tow Lipman Heller (1579-1654), rabbi of the Jewish communities in Vienna, in Prague and of the community in Kraków from 1643-1654, a rector of the Kraków Talmudic Academy from 1648-1654; Isaac Landau Lewita, rabbi of the Kraków's Jewish community from 1754-1768; Isaac Halewi, Kraków's rabbi and head of the Talmudic Academy from (1776-1799).

In 1800 the cemetery was closed and a nearby New Jewish Cemetery in Kraków at 55 Miodowa Street was built. Izaak Jakubowicz, donor of the Izaak Synagogue is buried there. During the German occupation of Poland, Nazis destroyed the cemetery, tearing down the walls and selling the tombstones for use as paving stones. The tombstone of the Ramah is one of the few that remained intact. The cemetery has undergone a series of post-War restorations. As is common in contemporary Poland, tombstones found in use as paving stones have been returned and re-erected, although they represent a small fraction of the monuments that once stood in the cemetery.