The Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora,
Poland Series: Lwów Volume
(Lviv, Ukraine)

49°50' / 24°00'

Translation of
Encycolpedia Shel Galuyot: Lwów

Edited by Dr. N.M. Gelber

Published in Tel Aviv: 1956


This is a translation from: Encycolpedia Shel Galuyot: Lwów; Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora,
A memorial library of countries and communities, Poland Series: Lwów Volume: Part I, Edited by Dr. N.M. Gelber,
Published by the Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora, Jerusalem - Tel Aviv: 1956

Note: The original book can be seen online at the NY Public Library site: Lviv


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Translator’s Note

When I undertook the translation of this volume of Yizkor Book, I did so both in order to find out about the history of the Jews of Lwów and in memory of Lwów’s Jews who found their end at the hands of the barbaric German Nazis and their indigenous sympathisers during WWII. In memory of the Jews whose past existence in the place was wiped out by destroying historical records and flattening historic Jewish cemeteries. In memory of those members of my paternal family who remained in Lwów when the Nazis invaded, in particular in memory of my grandmother, Antonina Ecker née Reiss.

Ever since the Molotov-Ribbentrop, German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of the 23rd August 1939, Lwów, or Lemberg, the capital of Galicia which had been part of Poland, became part of the Soviet Union, but today, as part of western Ukraine, it is known as Lviv. Nevertheless, throughout this translation I tried to keep the name of towns, districts and individuals as they were known and spelt during the period when Polish was the spoken language, a language in which the major historical research into the history of the Jews in the area was published.

During my translation of this work I received assistance in clarifying some names and expressions, and I should like to extend my thanks to:

Janek Wojczek, librarian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London.
Erla Zimmer, librarian at the London School of Jewish Studies, London.
Librarians at the Biblioteka Narodowa, Warsaw.

The anomalies which occur regarding some footnotes were transferred from the original text.

Throughout this translation the comments in square brackets were added by myself.

Myra Yael Ecker PhD.
Feb. 2023

Translated by Yocheved Klausner

 

I. History of the Jews of Lwów Dr. N. M. Gelber  
 
1. The Jewish Settlement – its Beginnings   21
2. The Community   45
3. The Trial against the Jesuits   53
4. Misgivings over Jewish Trade and Craft   69
5. The Community Outside the Town   85
6. Distinguished families   91
7. The Massacres of 1648 and 1649   101
8. The Transition Period   119
9. The Situation in the 18th century   137
10. The Autonomous Jewish Institutions of Lwów   155
11. The Austrian Occupation   167
12. Education and Culture   185
13. The Reign of Kaiser Franz I   197
14. The Haskalah Movement   215
15. On the Eve of Revolution   225
16. 1848   247
17. The Period of Transition to Constitutional Rule   269
18. 1868 – 1918   303
19. Notes [Are included at the end of the above chapters]   343
 
II. The Religious Life  
Rabbis and Heads of Yeshivahs Rabbi Reuven Margulies 391
The Religious Life of the Jews of Lwów Tzvi [Cwi] Karl 421
Synagogues and “Kloyzen” Ze'ev [Zew] Zohar 451
Architecture and Art of the Synagogues Jacob Pinkerfeld 477
Chassidism and Lwów's Community M. S. Geshuri [Bruckner] 481
Lwów's Chazanim [Cantors] M. S. Geshuri 491
The Jewish neighbourhoods (Topography) Dr. N. M. Gelber 509
 
III. The Cultural Life  
Characters and Personalities Dr. Zeev Pinot-Finkelstein 525
The Hebrew Printing Presses at Lwów Chaim Dov Friedberg 539
The Historians of Lwów's Jews Dr. N. M. Gelber 553
Lwów's Old Jewish Cemetery Rabbi Dr. David Kahana 569
 
IV. The Destruction and the Holocaust    
Annihilation of the Jews of Lwów Dr. P. Friedman 593
References and Bibliography   731
Appendices   735
First Day in a Death-camp Engineer O. Porat (Ochs) 749
The Final Days of the Leaders of Lwów's Jewry Yehoshua Shiloni (Shleyen) 753
 
Extermination of the Lvov Jews - summary Dr. P. Friedman

 


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