Jonathan Blaustein
Go Back to Poland!
2024-
Selected Edit Image Titles
1. Nestie, from Kherson, who fled Kyiv in 2022 and settled in Kraków. We made this
photograph in the street light illumination, after eating Vietnamese food in Kazimierz.
(2025)
2. Ivy growing on the walls outside the Old Synagogue, which is now a museum in
Kraków. (2025)
3. Transport ships on the Baltic Sea, heading towards Gdańsk, which was still called
Danzig when Hitler attacked in 1939, kicking off World War II. (2024)
4. Vlada, an artist, and Ukrainian refugee from Dnipro, moved to Kraków with her
husband Petro in 2022. Vlada, who is half Jewish on her father’s side, changed her last
name several years ago, at his urging, so she wouldn’t be easily identifiable as Jewish.
(2025)
5. Ivy growing over gravestones in the New Jewish Cemetery next to the train tracks in
Kraków. (2025)
6. A painting installation inside the Old Synagogue museum in Kraków. It is a busy
tourist attraction in Kazimierz. (2025)
7. A sign for a tour company offering visits to the Auschwitz death camp, and more.
(Apparently.) Right next to the Vistula river in Kraków. (2025)
8. Yaakov and Yitzchak, from Israel, in the graveyard behind the Remuh Synagogue,
which is still in operation, and open to the public. When reached by email, they said they
really enjoyed meeting Jews from around the world on their trip to Kraków. (2025)
9. Lights illuminating the painted ceiling in Remuh Synagogue in Kraków. (2025)
10. Bezalel, the chef at a kosher restaurant next to Remuh Synagogue, in front of the
ivy behind the back courtyard in Kraków. He didn’t speak English, and the finger guns
were his idea. (2025)
11. Helena Czernek, a Warsaw artist with Jewish ancestry, inside Mi Polin, her gallery/
museum space right next to a preserved section of the old Warsaw Ghetto Wall. Helena
makes mezuzah, Judaica art items, and also did a graffiti project in conjunction with the
Nozyk Synagogue in Central Warsaw. (2025)
12. Covered-up graffiti (which was both Pro and Anti-Israel at one point,) around the
corner from the excellent Kebab King restaurant in Central Warsaw. (2025)
13. Inside Pope John Paul II’s All Saints’ Church in Central Warsaw. (2025)
14. A safety barrier outside the Nozyk Synagogue, featuring the graffiti project designed
by Helena Czernek. There are police on duty at all times, outside the synagogue, and
Goliat Security officers as well. (2025)
15. A prayer book on a lectern, inside the Nozyk Synagogue in Warsaw. (2025)
16. An Israeli flag, hung from the women’s section in the Nozyk Synagogue in Warsaw.
(2025)
17. Religious, right-wing protesters marching through the Old Warsaw Ghetto. (2024)
18. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joshua inside the St. Nicolas Church in central Gdańsk.
(2024)
19. A security camera capturing the ghostly atmosphere along the Royal Route in
Gdańsk. (2024)
20. An old man lifts his face to the sun, enjoying a quiet moment along the promenade
in Sopot. (2024)
21. A sculpture of the Pietà in St Mary’s Church in Gdańsk. (2024)
22. Hotel room view, on the MDM Square in Warsaw, (which was built by the Soviets,)
minutes before I left for the airport to travel 25 hours home to New Mexico. (2025)