The 32nd Jewish Culture Festival was recently held in Poland, from June 28 to July 2. The festival was hosted in Kazimierz, Krakow’s Jewish Quarter, and boasts the largest presentation of contemporary culture created by Jews around the world. Over 30,000 participants from around the world, Jews and non-Jews alike, presenters and visitors, took part in almost 300 events over the course of the festival, including workshops, lectures, discussions, tours, concerts and other musical events. The activities were located in different venues around the town, which historically was a vibrant center of Jewish life.

Each year since its inception, the festival has adopted a specific theme around which the five-day events and artistic exhibitions revolve. This year’s theme was RUAH (air), and completed the four-year cycle exploring the four basic elements which comprise the world—earth, fire, water and air. In 2019 the festival explored the theme of earth through multiple aspects of art and live performances. In 2021, fire was explored, followed by water in 2022. This year RUAH was explored through multimedia art installations as well as a diversity of musical performances.

Director of the Jewish Culture Festival, Janusz Makuch, elucidated the theme. “RUAH appears in Tanach almost 400 times.Torah is compared to the element of water, the source of life for every religious Jew, pouring with a pure stream into their hearts and minds. RUAH is the breath of life for each word, the center of the spirit, inner energy of life, space for freedom, both between the living letters of the Torah and between people.

“It is solely up to us what we do with the common air which we breathe together, irrespective of place, religion, politics or race. That is why, in creating the festival, we search for the common values in the Jewish world, a connecting element, a bond for our separate characteristics and personalities. At our festival, we learn to breathe within the space of mutually respected values.”

Teaneck resident Ksenija Kostic-Pecaric viewed her participation in the 2023 Jewish Culture Festival as a personal celebration of 20 years since her graduation from the Pedagogical University-Department of Art and Education in Krakow, from where she earned a master’s in fine art in 2003.

Living in Krakow with her family from 1997 to 2004, Pecaric was involved with the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in bringing back Jewish culture and traditions to the local Polish-Jewish community. During those years, her paintings and linocuts were used in publications as illustrations for Shabbat Zemirot, Megilat Esther and other translations of Jewish texts into Polish, facilitated by the Lauder Foundation. Her first exhibition at the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow took place in 1998.

At this year’s festival, Pecaric’s artwork, entitled “Calligraphic Forms Washed in Golden Sunshine” was exhibited in the Galeria Szalom. Her works explore the meaning of words, names and symbols in biblical texts and Jewish tradition. Concepts such as mazal, adam and adama, significant dates in the Jewish calendar such as Rosh Hashanah and Elul, and biblical figures such as Adam and Chava, Aharon, Moshe and Yosef are woven into colorful, intricate backgrounds. Among the visitors to her exhibition were faculty members from the Pedagogical University who had guided her through her studies. Also visiting were individuals whom the Pecaric family had known during their work with the Lauder foundation from 1997 until 2004.

Pecaric was born into an artistic family in Yugoslavia, now Serbia. Her mother was her first art teacher, instructing her in ceramics, painting and design. She advanced her studies in design while living in Serbia and Croatia, followed by a year of studying photography in Prague. Arriving in New York in 1993, she was introduced to Hebrew calligraphy while studying Jewish religion and culture. After returning to the U.S. from Krakow in 2004, Pecaric continued to exhibit her artwork locally and internationally, in solo and group shows, which she has done now for over 25 years. Her work appears in private collections globally. Pecaric has taught art to all age groups at local Jewish and public elementary and high schools. Her expertise includes printmaking, painting, collage, photography and ceramics.

Pecaric was excited and honored to be part of this year’s Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow’s Jewish Kazimierz. “I see the festival as raising awareness of the rich Jewish culture of Poland which existed before the Holocaust. I realize that the festival has become an expression of support for Jewish art and culture by Jews as well as non-Jews, which is so crucial in a world in which antisemitism is beginning to rear its ugly head, especially throughout Europe. I met many individuals not of the Jewish faith who want to identify culturally with our Jewish heritage. Through the myriad experiences and exhibits available during the festival, they were able to connect with newfound knowledge and respect.”

Ksenija Kostic-Pecaric’s work can be seen on Instagram and contacted @pecaricksenija.