SCRIPTA JUDAICA CRACOVIENSIA Vol. 13 (2015) pp. 41–53 doi:10.4467/20843925SJ.15.004.4226 www.ejournals.eu/Scripta-Judaica-Cracoviensia The AssociATion of Progressive Jews in KrAKów And iTs synAgogue in The LAsT QuArTer of The 19 Th cenTury Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) Key words: progressive Judaism, Kraków, Galicia, Tempel synagogue, 19 th century, preacher, Moritz Duschak, Samuel Landau Abstract: This article presents the history and religious views of the Kraków’s Association of Progressive Jews in the last quarter of the 19 th century, a favorable period in the history of this group. The article discusses certain aspects of the history of this milieu (legal status, authorities, inances, growth), social work it undertook, and the religious life of the Tempel synagogue. Spe- cial emphasis was put on the sources of religious standpoint of progressives, on the scope of the religious life, and the preachers’ activities (Moritz Duschak and Samuel Landau at that time). The article contributes to the research on Progressive Judaism in Polish lands and to the religious his- tory of Galician and Krakovian Jewry. The aim of this article is to describe the history and religious life of the progressive milieu in Kraków in the last quarter of the 19 th century. The milieu of progressive Jews existed in Kraków since the 1840s until the outbreak of the Second World War. Kraków’s progressives, like progressive Jews in other cities in Polish lands (e.g., Lvov, Warsaw), 1 organized as an association, and prayed in their own synagogue (Tempel), which was built in 1861. Previous research on Kraków’s progressive milieu concentrated on the decade from 1864 until 1874 2 and later on the activities of Ozjasz Thon, who was appointed a preacher in Kraków Tempel in 1897. 3 The period of the last two decades of the 19 th century has never been the object of deeper scholarly interest; perhaps this is the reason why in the literature it has been called a “period of stagnation.” 4 It appears, however, that the opposite is true. Not only were the years 1874-1897 a time of signiicant growth for the group of progressives, which almost tripled during this time, but they were also a period of stabilization of synagogue life. Moreover, the late 1870s and 1880s saw a vivid development of social initiatives of progressives – many new charitable associations were founded or launched in these decades, and Kraków progressives became active members of other, non-Kraków-based institutions such as the Israelitische Allianz zu Wien and Agudas Achim in Lvov. 5 1 On the development of the so-called progressive Judaism in Polish lands, cf. Corrsin 2000; Galas 2011. 2 The most comprehensive research on this period was conducted by Hanna Kozińska-Witt, cf. Kozińska- Witt 1999a; 1999b; 2000; 2011. See also Mahler 1934. 3 The literature on Thon is relatively rich; the newest studies on him cf. Galas, Ronen 2015. 4 Galas 2011, p. 10. 5 On the inluences of Agudas Achim on Kraków progressive circles, cf. Maślak-Maciejewska 2014.