Cracow
Winds of Change

Though the Jews enjoyed the favor of the Polish nobility for several centuries, the peasant class resented them, and the Church despised them as a matter of doctrine. By the 17th century, the Jews lost the favor of the nobility also, and anti-Semitic violence intensified. Yet against this backdrop rose the Chassidic movement, sweeping Polish Jewry and sustaining them through one of the bitterest exiles in history.