Photographs of synagogues from the project “There’s no Such Thing as an Innocent Eye“ by Wojciech Wilczyk Museum of the history of Polish Jews

The synagogue (Greek: sinagein – to gather) is the most important building for confessors of Judaism. It serves as a place of prayer and gathering of members of the congregation; it may also be the seat of the formal religious community. In Hebrew, it is called a “beit knesset” (house of assembly), in Yiddish a “shul” (school), in Polish „bóżnica” or „bożnica” (a place devoted to God – transl.). More information about synagogues can be found at: https://sztetl.org.pl/en/glossary/synagogue.

Before World War II, in most cities in Poland, there were more places of prayer, not only the main synagogue. It was a consequence of the strength and diversity of the Jewish community. Some of its members would attend the Orthodox synagogue, others the progressive one; the Hasidim prayed in the so-called shtibl, often arranged in apartments.

Of the thousands of synagogues and houses of prayer that existed in the Second Polish Republic, only a few have survived to this day. Most of them perform different functions today, some are unused and ruined.

Between 2006 and 2008, Wojciech Wilczyk photographed about 300 preserved synagogues. While working, the author noted down passerby comments. This allowed him to create not only a documentation of the condition of the buildings, but also a record of how they were perceived by local residents. The result was the album “There’s no Such Thing as an Innocent Eye”, released in 2009, and an exhibition of the same title. In 2015, Wojciech Wilczyk took more photographs for this project for the exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews: “(nie)widzialne / (in)visible” (see W. Wilczyk, „Niewinne oko nie istnieje. “There’s no Such Thing as an Innocent Eye”, Łódź 2009; https://www.polin.pl/en/news/2015/09/04/wojciech-wilczyk-niewidzialne-invisible).

Wojciech Wilczyk is a photographer, poet, essayist and art critic, exhibition curator, and lecturer at the Academy of Photography in Krakow. His artistic work can be identified with the socially committed current in photography. By documenting places and events, he shows various faces of Polish reality.