[Page 13]

The history of Poland begins in the 10^th century with the legendary generation of Mieszko Piast as the ruler, descended from peasants who embraced Christianity. Boleslaw Chrobry, 992-1025, solidified the independence of Poland. The writings of Roman Wlodzimir Halicz, 1206, for the first time contain documents recording the title: ”Rex Galiciae et Lodomeriae”. We also find ol documents with the title Stefan II, 1124, King of Galicia. In the old historic Poland, Galicia was divided into four Wojewodztwa (counties): Krakow, Stanislawow, Lwow and Tarnopol.

Galicia was established as a political and geographic unit by Austria in 1772-1918. The name was taken from the Latinized form of the name of the territory ruled by the Duke of Halicz. The area is about 78,497 sq.km.

According to statistics dating from 1910, there were: 8,025,675 inhabitants in Galicia:

3,731,569	Roman Catholics
3,379,613	Greek Catholics
871,895	Jews
34,144	Lutherans

Dr. Wachtel at the Memorial to Josef Popper Lynkaeus in Vienna

“Traces of the earliest presence of Jews in Poland can be found in the glass window of the Wodzislaw Synagogue, dated in the year 1014. Jews came from Slavic lands in Western Europe in groups or as individuals. They did not immediately take up permanent residence, but came to trade and returned west with merchandise from Poland.

“The history of the Jews in Poland from Mieczyslaw I, 996, until the time of Wladyslaw Herman, 1089-1102, is obscure. During this time, Jews came from Bohemia, Hungary and Turkey. King Mieszko III imposed heavy fines on those who molested Jews

[Page 14]

or defiled their synagogues (1177, 1193-1202). Under Boleslaw Kaliski in 1264, Jews had certain privileges guaranteed them. There were 37 articles. These included: 1) Only the ruler had jurisdictions over the Jews; 2) The Mint could not imprison Jews under false pretence of counterfeiting; 3) Jews were protected against violence and vandalism in cemeteries; 4) Jews had judicial autonomy, etc.

“In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Jewish communities were founded at Przemysl in 1440, Tarnow in 1445, Rzeszów in 1447, Jaroslaw in 1464 and Jaslo in 1468”. (Dzieje Zydow w Polsce, Dr. Schipper, page 37, Lwow, 1926). (History of theJews in Poland, Dr. Schipper, page 37, Lwow 1926).

The Patent of the city of Rzeszów was dated January 19^th, 1354. We quote:

“By the grace of God, the King of Poland of the land of Krakow, Sandomierz, Sierads and Kujawy, the lord and successor of the Russians desiring to reward the services of Jan Pakoslaw, the successor Storzysk, who did not spare his life in the defence of Poland in the war with the Russians and the Tartars for the glory and welfare of these lands: Whereas it is proper rightly to reward the heroic defenders that they should not remain without recognition of their virtue, therefore we grant to Jan Pakoslaw and his heirs of both sexes, male and female, the possession and ownership of this City of Rzeszów with the entire region bordering on Russia as noted in the boundaries when the City was in the possession of the Russians.”

“We grant this region with all the rights and with full authority, with all existing properties and future settlements; with all farms, forests, lakes and rivers, together with the right to hunt and fish; with all the animals living thereon and with all the treasures in the earth thereof. The borders of this region shall reach to the hamlet of Dombrowa on the borders of Sandomierz and Lezajsk, further along the Russian land to the village and castle of Czudec (Tshudec)”.

“On this entire land, Jan Pakoslaw and his heirs shall possess all rights, authority of ownership and all manner of judiciary powers against violation of laws. We grant the right to build on this land castles and all manner of defensive structures with the object of defending life, limb and the possession of his properties. We also grant him and his heirs the right of taxation of pedestrians and vehicles.

To the City of Rzeszów and its environs, we grant freedom as based on the Laws of Magdeburg. That the city and its neighbouring villages may develop and renew itself, we free the inhabitants from all military and civil courts. The rule of law shall be administered by the local head of the village and the justice of peace.

Should the local heads of the village prove inadequate in the administration of justice, then judicial rights shall be administered by the lord of the land according to the Magdeburg Laws”.

From this document we may conclude that Rzeszów as a city existed as part of Red Russia prior to 1354. Historically, Rzeszów came into prominence in 1354 through the act of King Kazimir the Great and the knight, Jan Polkozik Pakoslaw. Later on, about the year 1462, the villages Ruska Wies, Pobitno, etc., were added to the district of Rzeszów. In 1390, the Parish Church (Kosciol Farny) was built by one of Jan Pakoslaw's sons.

In 1525, Count Mikolaj Spytek Ligenza took over Rzeszów to round out his possessions. A man of sturdy character and a benefactor to his subjects, he lived to be 100 years old. The second possessor of Rzeszów for over 150 years, was the family of Count Lubomirski. After 1761, the widow, Joanna, Baroness de Stein Lubomirska, ruled in the name of her minor children: Adolf, Jerzy and Franciszek. Under the Austrian crown, Count Jerzy Lubomirski acted as its representative. However, he led a dissolute life, borrowing money from Piarist priests and Jewish bankers. He was forced to see many of his properties to satisfy his creditors.

In the first period of her history and until the middle of the 15^th century, Rzeszów reached its highest development under the rule of Count Mikolaj Spytek Ligenza. The second phase from the middle of the 17^th century toward the end of the 18^th century, was under the rule of the house of Lubomirski. A decline then set in owing to the general political conditions of Poland and neighbouring countries.

The original seat of the city in the days of Jan Pakoslaw was the Staromiescie (Old City). Here, the first church, Kosciol Farny was built and around it many houses were erected. It is assumed that Jews settled in Rzeszów at the beginning of the 15^th

[Page 15]

century. However, they might reside only beyond the Mikoshka Brook in what is still known as the Nowe Miasto (New City).

In 1583 a local law was enacted whereby Jews might build homes of their own only if they already owned the land on which they wanted to build. Jews were also prohibited from offering higher prices to local craftsmen for consumer goods. They were, however, granted the right of appeal to the Lord of the Manor, or to the local Court of Jurisdiction.

Rzeszów burnt to the ground in 1472. It was rebuilt but was burnt again when occupied by the Tartars in 1502. At that time, the city was exempted from all taxation to help its restoration. In 1621, a fire broke out in the Market Square, destroying the whole city, including the Kosciol Farny (Parish Church), and all city documents. The city suffered not only from frequent fires but also from occupation by Tartars, Saxons, Cossacks and Swedes.

On August 3^rd,1760, Rzeszów was occupied by the forces of Major Chojnacki. The following entries, found in the papers of the Confederation with forces of Filip Radzimuski, make reference to several Jews:

“Cloth bought in the store of Shaymskowy, paid 2000 zloty; paid Rzeszower merchant, Zelman, 2140 zloty. On April 8^th, 1769, paid to Zysi Jakubow 196 zloty for linen and 116 zloty to Icek Abramowicz for iron and bricks/ 12 Zloty were also paid for a sword to Szlemie Faiglowicz; 72 zloty to the soap-maker, Hershkowitz, and 18 zloty for umber to Haskel. Enoch Michelow was paid 30 zloty for sheep skins”.

“The city councillors recommend that the elders of the Kahal (community) should pay these sums on their behalf.

“Signed, Antoni Chojnacki, August 4^th, 1769”.

Rzeszów as a city was private domain. Its citizens enjoyed considerable freedom until the beginning of the 17^th century, under the rule of the Lubomirski Family. Although universal education and dissemination of knowledge was proclaimed on August 1^st, 1743, by Count Jerzy Ignacy Lubomirski, actually, the citizens of Rzeszów continued to be restricted in their actions. They could not move freely from place-to-place in search of work. Neither Christians nor Jews could marry off their children, sons or daughters, without the prior consent of the ruling house by a decree dating 23^rd September, 1735. Even the sale of property from person-to-person, especially from Catholic to Jew, was restricted.

In the 17^th century, the general state of

The Square on a Market Day in 1910. In the center rear is the Town Hall.

[Page 16]

community and of its individual members, deteriorated and they became completely dependent on the will of the Lord of the Manor.

It is difficult to reconstruct the topography of old Rzeszów, so many were the changes wrought by time, fire and foreign invasions. Above all, the city expanded in all directions. The Old City lay near the Paris Church (Kosciol Farny) and the Market Square, amid fields, orchards, lakes and brooks. It was surrounded by the river Wislok and its arm , the Wisloczysko to the East; the Mikoshka and its tributary, the Przybysza flowing to the West. These streams also served defensive purposes. The Mikoshka separated the Jewish Quarter and cemeteries from the Old City, which was inhabited by the Christians.

Two bridges led across the Wislok. The main bridge led to the Lancut road while the smaller crossed the Wislok to the brick yards (cegelnia) and the road to Tyczyn. The Old City was surrounded by a wall with eight gates, which were bolted and locked every night. This was razed in the early part of the 18^th century.

In 1764, there were 172 houses in the old part of Rzeszów and 63 houses in the New City (Nowe Miasto). In the middle of the 18^th century, there were 250 houses in Rzeszów, 104 of which were owned by Jews. That number was registered in 1757 as owned by citizens or householders.

In the Market Square, around the year 1700, houses were owned by the families Nawrocki, Slicitinski, Baldorf, Boduszynski, Tharszewski, Zebrowski, Kotwicki, Elterlein, Neugebauer, Wolff. Jewish houses mentioned in 1728 were those of Wolf Moskowicz, Zitman, Kalman; the Beit Hadin (Jewish Court of justice), the residence of the rabbi and Beit Hamidrash (house of study) for older people.

The archaic character of the city can best be seen in the houses of worship, Christian and Jewish. The oldest is the Kosciol Farny (Parish Church), built of brick and stone in early in early Gothic style, 1390-1443. It was rebuilt in 1754. The Bernardine Church on the Ulica Krakowska was built by Count Mikolaj Spytek Ligenza, 1627-1629. It replaced an old wooden church. Nearby was a convent also built by the above-named. The church is very picturesque, with beautiful frescoes on the inside walls.

The economic condition of Rzeszów was quite favourable until the end of the 17^th century. In 1720, Rzeszów had 1300 inhabitants; Ruska Wies 250; Pobitno 250; Wylkowija 80; and Staroniwa 200. On the outskirts lived a scattered 200 people.

In 1605, Count Mikolaj Spytek Ligenza founded a hospital with 20 beds, near the chapel and the cemetery, to be maintained by the city and private legacies.

The Church of Piarsts, build in 1658, was in what is at present called Ulica 3-go Maja (Third of May Street). The Piarist Fathers were brought to Rzeszów by Count Jerzy Lubomirski. They accumulated enormous wealth through legacies and became the money-lenders of the city, giving loans to the gentry, to Jews and Christians. Adjoining the church was the Collegium, the oldest school in Poland, which later became the first Gymnasium (Latin Grammar School) in Rzeszów. It taught the Humanities and served as a Teachers' Seminary.

The Two synagogues in Rzezszow, built in the 17^th century and in the early part of the 18^th century, are in brick and stone with pointed Gothic roofs. In 1906 an addition was built onto the Old Shul (Synagogue) to support and strengthen the walls. The monumental character of both Shuls, however, can be seen and felt in their interiors. The Old Shul was twice destroyed by fire – first during the invasion by Rakoczy and then in the 17^th century, by the Cossacks. It was rebuilt in 1671 with money loaned by the Brotherhood of the Rosary of the Parish Church (Kosciol Farny), as well as a loan from the Church Brotherhood of Slocina. The Shul burnt down again in 1842, and was rebuilt with funds donated by members of the Jewish community. The Neue Shul (New Synagogue) was built in 1705-1710). The Building List of the city of Rzeszów names the Jews, also the Church Brotherhood, as providing the monies for construction.

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Rzeszów enjoyed considerable political autonomy – the beginnings of which are recorded in the acts of the 16^th century. At the head of the city was the Magistrat (Mayor). After the year 1673, the regency of the city rested in the hands of five councillors. The Courts had seven benchers at the top of which, including the Magistrat, was the Burmistrz (Proconsul) who was either a Doctor or at least a Bachelor of Law. These were elected by popular vote. At the end of their term, they were usually re-elected if there were no

[Page 17]

grievances against them.

The Lubormirski Palace housing the District Court.

In 1714 the Jewish community charged on of its members in the civil courts with engaging in forgery and alchemy.

In 1757, the nobleman, Wojciech Zawisza loaned 500 zloty to the Jew, Jonas Abramowicz. When Zawisza died, his widow sued Abramowicz for payment, but he claimed to have paid the debt to the deceased. The widow brought suit before the court, noting the difficulty of the problem. She proposed to lay the claim before a Board of Arbitration composed of 2 Jews and 2 Catholics. After two sessions, the litigants settled the case amicably.

About 1685, Kiba Abramowicz charged Jzndrzej Zabroczyk, Nozdrza and the village elder (wojt) Zmisnikowski and Lasota with having murdered Rachmil Abramowicz.

Early in the 18^th century, the following charge of blasphemy was brought against the Jew, Shmul Dubinski: In a discussion over a glass of beer, Dubinski came to speak of God: “Our God”, he said, “is older than yours”. Rising from his seat, Shmul opened the window, pointed to the terra cotta figure standing beside the road, and said: “In this clay you believe, this clay which was made by Skaczypek?” The reply was: “This is only an image”. Shmul answered: “Why did he let himself be crucified?” The Christian replied: “Do no dispute the fact, God is God, and do not question the crucifixion because He was kind and compassionate, to bring us salvation from sin”.

The case came to court, Shmul was found guilty according to the Magdeburg Code, Article 65, Leges Capitales, Cap.65 and was sentenced to have his tongue cut out and be burnt at the stake.

The Guilds date their origin to 1439. The relevant document was given by Malgorzata z Rzeszowskich, wife of Jan Moscicki and heir to the property of Dynow and Rzeszów. The Shoemakers' Guild dates back to 1516 under Mikolaj Rzeszowski. The Tailors' Guild was dated April 19^th, 1671. The author of the relevant document is Hieronym August Lubomirski. The Coopers' Guild (barrel-makers) was incorporated on 30^th December, 1699. The Barber-Surgeons' Guild dates from 20^th January, 1699, and imposed many restrictions against non-qualified Jewish healers. Any Jewish doctor who desired to settle down and practice his profession in Rzeszów, had to undergo examination before the heads of the Guilds and the elders of the Jewish community. Jewish and Christian practitioners were aoblied to become citizens of the city and pay allotted taxes. Jews might

[Page 18]

reside only in Ulica Zydowska or Plata Judaeorum (Jews Street), or else in the New City (Nowe Miasto).The dues Jews had to pay to the guilds were twice as high as those paid by Christians because Jews did not pay for the maintenance of the Church.

The Blacksmiths' Guild was formed on March 17^th, 1701. The German Guild embracing various crafts was founded on March 17^th, 1714. It was called the German Guild because its members had immigrated to Poland from Germany, bringing new crafts with them. Membership was open to Christian Poles and Jews as well.

The Potters', Masons' and Carpenters' Guilds were formed on October 8^th, 1718 under the charter of Ignacy and Alexandra Lubomirski.

The Furriers' Guild was formed on December 9^th, 1686, mostly by Jewish workers who resided in the New City (Nowe Miasto), which was developed in the early 16^th century.

The Butchers' Guild was chartered on February 24^th, 1728, though it had existed in a loose form until 1704 from the time of King Kazimierz the Great. Rzeszów was an important livestock trading centre for cattle brought from Hungary and Russia.

The Baker's Guild was formed on July 24^th, 1728.

The Fishermen's Guild dated from October 20^th, 1725. Its members were permitted to fish in rivers and lakes in and around Rzeszów and were allowed to sell only in the eastern corner of the Market Square.

The Brewer's Guild was founded in 1757.

We must note that Rzeszów was a private domain of the families Ligenza and Lubomirski, who were the sources of all rights and privileges for its citizens and other inhabitants.

The aim of the Guilds was to achieve a high degree of excellence in craftsmanship, to train apprentices and help provide work for their members. No brother of a craft was to take on more work than he could accomplish alone.

The members of the Guild called each other Brothers and rendered one another assistance in case of need. The prosperous ones had to aid the less fortunate. This was especially so among the bakers. Each master was permitted to employ only one apprentice for a term of two to three years. The Bakers' Guild had a special section for Jewish members, and apprentices had to pass special examinations for baking in accordance with Jewish dietary laws. Examinations were usually held in March, before the Passover (Pesah) holidays. Four Jewish members were admitted to the Guild between 1734 and 1754. In 1734-1754 the butchers admitted Jews as members of their Guild. Membership was open to Jews among the barber-surgeons, butchers and bakers. Jews were allowed to have six stalls (yatki), while the bakers had eight stalls. They might each employ six journey-men and one apprentice.

Of special significance was the Jewish Furriers' Guild in the New City (Nowe Miasto), which received a special grant in 1686. They were obliged to have their flag, arms, dry powder and muskets, and were under the orders of the Lord of the Manor.

Conditions changed in the 18^th century when Count Jerzy Lubomirski abolished Count Ligenza's regulations of 1640 and those of Wladyslaw Prince Ostrogski, which prohibited Jews from possessing and owning property in the Old City.

While Jews had not one single tailor in 1647, we note that Jews often engaged in litigation with Christian cloth merchants, with other tailors and with merchants from Gdansk and the East.

In 1757 there were 26 Jewish jewellers in the Old and New parts of the city: 19 tailors; 6 cap-makers; 4 butchers; 4 furriers; 4 physicians (cyruliki); 4 embroiderers; 3 haberdashers; 2 knife and scissors grinders; 1 seal maker and engraver and 1 wood turner.

In 1673, we find Jews exporting fish to Warsaw. One Jozefowicz was pre-eminent in this.

In 1718 the Jews of Rzeszów signed a contract with the businessman, Jan Moliochur, to deliver 551 and ½ stones (1 stone = 32 pounds) of wax, also various cloths, gold and silver products. In 1617 we find the Jew, Jakub Gerno as a        travelling salesman for the firm Piotr Johnston of Warsaw.

From 1726 Rzeszów had seven yarmarkts (sales fairs) yearly, each one named after a particular saint of the Catholic Church. They were held on April 23^rd, June 24^th, July 21^st, August 21^st, August 30^th and December 4^th and 21^st. There were also special market days on Tuesdays and Fridays, when farmers brought their produce to Rzeszów and bought consumer goods from the local merchants.

[Page 19]

Hotels owned by Jews were in the New City (Nowe Miasto). One was owned by the Zelmanowsky family, others by the families of Lachmanowicz and Lewka Zelichowicz.

The most important store in 1773 was that of the widow Neugebauer, where one could buy almost any household article. There were many small Jewish shops in the 17^th century owned and operated by Jewish women.

In 1696 Count Ignacy Lubomirski revoked the edict that Jews might not settle in the old part of the city. They were also permitted to buy and own property.

A good many handicrafts were connected with merchandising, so many Jews were not subject to the rules of the guilds.

In the 17^th century, Rzeszów had 2400 inhabitants. In the 16^th century, during the reign of Count Ligenza, there were 7 Jewish houses in the neighbourhood of the Old City. The synagogue and cemetery were in the New City, beside the Mikoshka Brook.

The number of Jews increased in the first half of the 17^th century, after the New City (Nowe Miasto) was founded. Until 1648, no Jew was permitted to buy or own land or a house in the Old City. This edict was revoked by Count Lubomirski. The first Jewish tailor in the Old City was one Hersiek Abramovicz. He bought his house from the Catholic citizen, Lwowski.

Under Count Ligenza, Jews were subject to various city regulations. They had to render various services to the city and pay special additional taxes.

The first land for a Jewish cemetery was purchased in 1689 from Pawel Zglobinski for 3200 zloty. The Jewish hospital was built at the north-west corner on land which is now the Ulica Zielona. In 1691, the Jews purchased additional land from one Wojciech Narwicki.

At the end of the 17^th century, Jews from Germany settled in Rzeszów, among them a certain very prosperous M. Izakowicz.

In 1728 there were 16 houses in the old Market Square (glowny rynek), which were owned by Jews. They were mostly public buildings like the School, the Court of Justic (Bet Hadin) and the house of the rabbi. Since the holy day of Corpus Christi was celebrated in the market-place, it was considered sacrilegious to permit Jews to settle there.

Secondly, Jews had to pay double taxes to maintain their own religious institutions.

By the 18^th century, much of the local commerce was in Jewish hands. The names of merchants at the time were 65% Jewish, 35% Catholic. In 1762 there was only one Catholic merchant in the main Market Place (Glowny Rynek).

When the New City (Nowe Miasto) was first established, Jews formed their own community on the basis of the old charter of the hereditary owners. The Jewish community had a dual function, worldly and spiritual: The education of children and the adjustment of disputes and litigation among Jews. At the head of the community (Khal) was a committee composed of 12 members, divided into 3 groups each of which served for 4 months in an administrative capacity. The spiritual phase was under the guidance of the rabbi; and a third was the school and the gathering of taxes.

The 12 members of the Kahal might not be related to one another but from 1746, relationship through a deceased wife was admissible. The term of service was one year. In 1757, the function of the rabbi was limited to teaching, delivering sermons and rendering judgments. In 1758 the name of the rabbi was Berek Lewkowicz.

The election of the rabbi had to be approved by Count Lubomirski. The salary was 4 to 8 zloty/week and gifts for Sabbath and holidays. Rabbi Herszko Radomski had an income of 120 zloty/year, plus gifts and donations.

The rabbi had judicial powers. His decisions were public. Penalties were monetary, public prison or public ban. All judgments were announced publicly in the synagogue.

The administration of the school was composed of four members of the synagogue. In 1751, the function of administration was separated from that of the rabbi.

The Jewish community possessed the power of taxation by two older members elected by popular vote. Since the power of taxation depended on the estimate of Jews' wealth, it touched the very base of the economic structure. The tax collectors, therefore, had to declare under oath that they would obey the ordinances of the community and use their powers of appraisal in the most honest manner.

They would abide by their knowledge and conscience, concluding the oath with “so help me God, the holy Adonai Amen”.

[Page 20]

The assessment could be appealed to the Lord of the Manor.

1. “Merchants' sales tax from weekly gross sales in the 17^th century amounted to 24 groshen/100 zloty.”
2. “From ritual slaughter. Income from kosher meat. This was source of income for the Jewish community since time immemorial.”
3. “In the 18^th century, the excise tax (monopole) on tobacco was in the hands of the Kahal. It amounted 800-1,000 zloty/year and was paid to the owners of the licence.”
4. “Jews could sell alcohol only on a licence owned by a Catholic, which they leased. In addition, they had to pay a special tax to the Kahal”.

In the 17^th century, Jews conducted their affairs in Yiddish, thus forming a separate body within the state.

Never in the official acts of Poland were the Jews referred to as a lower order, only as a separate entity. However, once a Jew settled in Rzeszów, he could not change his place of domicile without permission from the civil authorities. Once settled in Rzeszów, he had to take an oath of loyalty to Prince Lubomirski. Jews had to share the same duties as Catholic citizens, e.g. maintenance of highways, bridges and defensive walls. Theirs was the maintenance of roads from the Baldorfowka (now Baldachovka) across the Market Square (Rynek) of the New City and the bridge crossing the Wislok.

At the beginning of the 18^th century, Jews received 100,000 zloty from church brotherhoods. These loans were taken in the name of the Kahal Elders to repair the Old Synagogue and to build the New Shul (New Synagogue). The loans were taken in perpetuity, as an obligation assumed by the Jewish community as a whole.

Conversion of Jews was rare. The records of the Parish Church (Kosciol Farny) from 1753-1765 shows that 15 Jews had themselves baptised. The families Majewski, Dobrowolski, Nowicki, Czerwiecki, Wrzeszniowski, Koppelnow and Jakubowski, are descendants of Jews. In 1767 there were 121 Jewish families with full rights of citizenship; 172 subtenants and 49 free and unattached Jewish residents. Calculating about five souls to a family, we may estimate about 1105 Jews. Of them, 94 had no definite occupations; 29 were tailors; 27 gold and jewellery workers; 26 innkeepers; 31 merchants and traders; 12 bankers; 10 cap-makers; 10 school teachers; 10 weavers; 6 embroiderers; 6 furriers; 5 barbers; 4 musicians; 4 woodworkers; 4 butchers; 4 bakers; 2 engravers; 2 spinners; one tilemaker; one soap-maker; and one painter. 23 were in receipt of public relief; 8 were domestic workers; 4 brokers (maklers). The number of the latter was limited by a public ordinance of the Lord of the Manor.

Banks were originally established in 1580 by the Church Brotherhood. In the beginning, loans were made against pledges of movable goods such as jewellery, etc. In 1720 loans were made on personal guarantees of co-signatories. Between 1784 and 1794, borrowers were the nobility, Jews and Germans, visiting Rzeszów and Tyczyn on business. Jewish bankers included Jakub Holtzer who came to Rzeszów from the Tyrol in 1781 and Chaim Wachtel in 1793.

The above notes were taken from Franciszek Blonski's book: “Piec Wiekow Miasta Rzeszów. XIV-XVIII Panstowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa 1958. (Five centuries, XIV-XVIII, of the City of Rzeszów, published by the State Department of Education, Warsaw, Poland, 1958).

On the square not far f rom the City Hospital where the Fish market was held every Thursday and Friday, known as Plac Mickiewicza, stands a monument to Adam Mickiewicz, 1798-1855, the Polish poet and author.

Both these monuments were erected by the city fathers with the financial aid of members of the Jewish community during the last years of the 19^th century.

The most fashionable and oldest part of Rzeszów was built on a hill with the Parish Church (Kosciol Farny) and the 17th century Tower dominating the city. In early times, it was inhabited mainly by non-Jews.

[Page 21]

The section of Rzeszów where the Jews first settled in 1447, is located in a depression at the foot of the old residential district, with the Wislok to the east and a stone bridge leading to a road toward Lancut (Landeshut) which was settled by Germans. To the west of Rzeszów is Sendzisow, south-east Przeworsk; Czudec north-east and Tyczyn south-east.

In 1890 Rzeszów had about 13,000 inhabitants, half of whom were Jews. There were 10 physicians, 7 midwives and 2 pharmacists in 1886. In 1924, the County (powiat) of Rzeszów had 100,000 inhabitants. At this time, Rzeszów City had 30,000 inhabitants, of whom half were Jews. The Department of Health was well organized with a city hospital which was completed in 1937. Part of the finances for the Jewish hospital were provided by the United Rzeszówer Relief Committee of New York, the Rzeszówer Young Men's Social Benevolent Society, the Reisher-Korczyner Shul and the Rzeszówer Society of Newark, New Jersey.

The Jewish Hospital, a most modern institution, was completed in 1937; too late, alas, to be of service to our people as shortly Rzeszów was invaded by the Germans and the entire Jewish population was annihilated by the Nazis.

“In 1767, Schultes describes Rzeszów as the small Brody and praises the craftsmanship of the Rzeszów Jewish jewellers, who carried on a lively commerce with Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin and St. Petersburg. Jews were even guardians of the mint for the king. Bredelski in his travels through Galicia (Eine Reise, 1803) calls Rzeszów the Jerusalem of Galicia.

Culturally, Rzeszów occupied a high rank among the cities of Galicia, Politically, the district of Rzeszów embraced Lancut, Ropczyce, Kolbuszowa, Nisko and Tarnobrzeg. (Reference: Slownik Geograficzny Krolewstwa Polskiego, Tom X, Warszawa 1889).(Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, Vol. X, Warsaw, 1889).

The first census taken around 1600, records 1680 souls living in Rzeszów, who paid taxes known as grybowe. Jews around that time were Icko Mercides and his brother, Josef. The Jewish inhabitants were known as “Incolae” with the general term applied to them: “Communitas Judaica Civitatis Rzeszówiensis”. In 1607 the Jew, Bienas, was appointed by Count Ligenza as Collector of Taxes. In 1613, Izayasz Markowicz and Abraham Mydlarz were granted a licence to distil alcohol. The latter was a resident of Tyczyn. In 1617, the Jews, Joachim and Jakub Rewla, were granted permission to trade in the main market place (rynek glowny). In 1615 the first Cantor, named Wolf, was noted as the official reader for the Jewish community.

On March 20^th, 1606 Count Ligenza requested the Jews to sign an agreement. The head of the Jewish community declared in his own handwriting “that Jewish householders were to pay an additional tax of 6 grywne, and sub-tenants 3 grywne. They are to provide a guard to keep order during the yarmarkts (fairs), during religious processions, etc”.

Jews settled in the valley at the foot of the hill on the left bank of a small rivulet, known as the Mikoshka, a brook covered with masonry around 1890, which served to carry sewage from the upper part of the city and also from the Jewish slaughterhouse. It joined the Wislok near the railroad, beyond the city limits to the north-east. Between the Mikoshka and the left bank of the Wislok and closer to the former, were a cluster of Jewish public buildings. These were the Alte Shul, the Bet Hamidrash, the Klaus, the slaughterhouse and three cemeteries, which had constituted the earlier centres of Jewish life. Behind the Alte Shul and near the Bet Hamidrash was a small cemetery containing less than a hundred graves. Nearby was the Teppergass, the Melamdimgass and also various clusters of small log houses which were chiefly occupied by Jews. In the course of time, the Jewish population increased in number and houses of prayer (shtiblekh) and a large number of schoolrooms (Hedarim) for the education of children were established. Attendance at Heder began at the age of three. In the winter, many of us children often had to be carried to Heder where we often carried lanterns with candles to light our way. Life for us children had a spiritual quality and the acquisition of learning and good manners (Derekh Eretz) towards our fellow-men, especially our elders, imbued our young lives and made us content with the hard lot and economic poverty most of us had to endure.

Well-known instructors (Melamdim) toward the end of the 19^th century were the Rozwadower Melamed, who taught children from the age of three

[Page 22]

years. He taught the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph Beth, Prayer Book and the rudiments of Bible study.

Asik Wasser took the instruction of advanced Humash, while Moshe Launer taught the Bible with Commentaries by Rashi and Targum, (an interpretation and paraphrase of the Bible in the Aramaic of Judea). The latter excelled at telling legendary stories about the personalities mentioned in the Bible. His wife, Haya, was known as “Haya the Dunkerin”. She was the authority on the rituals and practices to be observed by women in their periodic visits to the ritual bath (Mikva).

Mendel “Bonz” was our Melamed for Baba Metzia and Baba Kama of the Talmud. More advanced studies in Talmud were under the tutelage of Noah Grad, “Noyekh Melamed”. There were many other Melamdim in Rzeszów. Every Jewish child should have received basic instruction in reading and writing Hebrew and Yiddish; while the secular languages, Polish and German, were mandatory through the Public School system of Austrian Galicia.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, the United States Government introduced a literacy test as a prerequisite for immigration into the country. The reading and writing of Yiddish or Hebrew were then accepted as meeting this ruling. Even the lowliest among Jews was able to read his daily prayers in the Siddur, and could write in Yiddish.

Guardians of the laws, rules and regulations of Jewish community life were at that time the Government-approved Chief Rabbi, the Satanover Rav, and his associates in the Shuls and the Bet Din, the Jewish autonomous judiciary.

The Readers in prayer (Baalei Tefilla) and Readers of the Torah Scrolls as well as the Cantors, were subject to the approval of these religious authorities.

Leibele Blumenkranz was then the Hazan (Cantor) in the Alte Shul. In the Staedtische, the Reader was “Zisie”. Moshe Amkraut was the Hazan of the Neue Shul.

Of the Hassidic Tsadikim in Rzeszów, Rabbi Lazar Weissblum (Reb “Luzerl”) 1838-1920, was well-known. He was a descendant of Rabbi Melech Ridniker and a grandson of the Rabbi Elimelech of Lezansk (1717-1786). Reb Luzerl maintained his own House of Worship and Study, as well as facilities for housing Hassidim who came from far and wide to listen to his learning and his wise counsel. As a counsellor for troubled minds and a healer of human ills, he was eagerly sought by Jews and alike. His was an intuitive and practical healing art, rooted in Hebrew lore and the experiences and teachings of rabbis in times gone by.

A saintly personality, a man who walked humbly with God and men was Reb Hersh Yakov Glicklich. He himself led a life of privation and poverty, but went about the city soliciting alms which he distributed to widows, orphans and gentle folk who concealed their distress and poverty. No one ever refused to give Hersh Yakov at least a token gift. His own meagre livelihood was earned as a Scribe and restorer of damaged Torah Scrolls, Tefillin and Mezuzzas.

There was hardly a Jewish youth in Rzeszów who could not have served as a Reader in a Congregation, or in reciting the Torah. There were also many non-professional readers who performed these services with love and dedication, and received no remuneration.

There were the families of Moshe Shlome Laufbahn (1848-1910), Samuel (Shmuel) Laufbahn (1836-1906), who was also Gabbai (warden) of the Bet Hamidrash and his golden-voiced son, Selig Laufbahn (1880-1942).

There were many small cantors of religious worship and Biblical and Talmudic study and learning housed in private dwellings. Often, they held no more than a score of people, with a separate section behind a curtain for worship by women. These small Houses of Study were frequented by followers of the Hassidic leaders and holy men known as Tsaddikim (righteous or holy men).

Many of the Shtiblekh (rooms) were frequented by members of the same trade or craft. Some were dedicated to social service, like the Burial Society (Hevra Kadisha), Society for Visiting the Sick and Aged (Hevra Bikur Holim), and Free Loan society (Hevra Gemilath Hesed). The Hevra Zekenim helped maintain the Home for the Aged. The Orphanage was a voluntary, loosely organized institution depending on communal and private support. It was mainly administered by the wives of the more prosperous Jews.

The old Jewish hospital was a three-room cottage located at the entrance to the Old Cemetery at the corner of ulica Zielona.

Jewish life in Rzeszów, before it was overwhelmed by a rampant and greedy mercantilist, had its roots in Torah study, in a “way of life” (Orah Haim). In spite of immediate economic necessities,

[Page 23]

Staff and children of the Workers' Children's Home

In our youth we were constantly admonished and impressed with the need for learning good manners (Derekh Eretz) and being properly dressed. To be well-dressed during the Sabbath and Holy days was considered an obligation and a virtue in men, women and children. Learning was so highly esteemed that it was the highest aspiration of youth. A learned young man, no matter how low his economic status may have been, was eagerly sought as a husband for the daughters of even the wealthiest families. The present writer recollects that the scholarly son of one of the Jewish porters (tregers) in Rzeszów married the daughter of an ancient and very prosperous family.

The spirit of the time among Jews during the early youth of the present writer of these notes, was often manifested in conversations among Jews when they met in the market place for business or social purposes. They greeted one another with out ancient historic “shalom”, and after inquiring about one another's health as well as the health of the family, they chatted or transacted their business, concluding their social hour with the words such as: “Now let us speak Torah”. That was the spirit of our people around the turn of the 19^th century.

Jews in Poland were engaged in small farming as tenants for the Polish gentry. They were also engaged in various handicrafts and silver and goldsmith work as far back as the 16^th century, when Armenians came travelling merchants from the Turkish domain and strong competitors to the Jews.

Under King Sigismund III, the guilds attempted to have the rights of the Jews to work on and to sell silver and gold, revoked. On March 22, 1627, however, the Jewish guild received certain additional privileges. Gradually the Armenian craftsmen lost their standing and at the beginning of the 18^th century, we find a well-organized Jewish guild of silver, gold and brass craftsmen. In Rzeszów, a small Jewish community founded in the year 1447, we find craftsmanship developed so highly that in the years 1757-1765, there were 27 master silver and gold craftsmen, and watchmakers employing many people who, in the course of time, developed their art so well that the methods and style of their handicrafts became known in many parts of Europe as: “Made in Rzeszów” or “Rzeszówer Gold” (Zloto). In the first half of the 19th century, they sold their wares in various

[Page 24]

Isaac ben Joseph Wachtel died 1934

Among the silversmiths of Rzeszów was one known by the name of Josef Wachtel of Tarnow “Yosel Turner” 1771-1842. He came to Rzeszów with his parents, learned the craft of a silversmith and became a member of the guild. Some of his Jewish ceremonial objects, stamped with the government hallmark for the quality of the metal, and also with his own initials on them, still exist today. When the Austrian Government under Josef II decreed that all subjects adopt family surnames, “Yosel Turner” was given the name Wachtel. He was the ancestor of the present writer.

Josef Wachtel (“Yosel Turner”) became the ancestor of numerous families in Rzeszów bearing the name Wachtel. In the year 1890, they numbered thirty families with eighty males among them, all with the same family name. Yosel Turner's son, Isaac Wachtel 1794-1873, (“Itshe Targownicer”), together with other members of the Kehilla had the Stadtshul renovated and repainted at their cost after a fire in around 1850. In recognition of this deed, the elders of the Jewish community had the names of the donors inscribed on tablets with white lettering on a blue background, which were hung along the walls of the “Alte Shul”.

The name of Isaac Wachtel was engraved on the tablet which hung on the east wall (Mizrah wall) to the left of the Holy Ark.

“Itshe Targownicer”, the great-grandfather of the present writer, was a grain dealer who, until 1875, operated a flour and grist mill in Babica, near Czudec (Tshudec). It was a water-driven mill and at his death, it was taken over by his sons, Jakob Wachtel 1828-1916 known as “Wawrzyk” and Solomon (Zalman) Wachtel whose son, Dr. Henryk Wachtel, was a councillor in the Kehilla of Rzeszów. He was killed by the Nazi in 1939.

“Jewish artisans worked in wrought iron. They were also shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, cabinetmakers and wood turners, and in later years, tinsmiths, makers of utensils for kitchen and home, soap and candlestick makers. They were also weavers, wood carvers, printers, pocketbook makers and embroiderers. Of the embroiderers, the most famous was Moszko Aftarz who, in 1627, was elected Hetman to present the Jewish community together with two hetmans for the Catholic inhabitants. Hews were obliged, under Ligenza, to help defend the city against attack or internal disorder. Every Jewish family had to have as many arms in the house as there were adult men in the family; also, a supply of ammunition. The act “de non tolerandis Judfaeis” was never known to have been in force in Rzeszów”.

From “Zabytki Historycyczne Zydow w Polsce”, by Dr. Majer Balaban, Warsaw, 1929, pages 12,16 and 83. (Notes on the History of the Jews in Poland by Dr. Meir Balaban, pages 12,16 and 83).

In 1711, Czar Peter the Great of Russia and King August II met in Rzeszów.

In the middle of the 18^th century, Rzeszów had 3,000 inhabitants. A census for military service was made by the then Austrian Government.

[Page 25]

In 1772, Rzeszów was incorporated with Galicia under Austrian rule.

In 1629, the elders of the Jewish community, under the leadership of hetman (military division commander), Moszko Aftarz, took an oath according to the Polish juridical testament, “that they would faithfully perform their constitution duties as tax collectors and guardians for the maintenance of proper weights and measures”. The original document is to be found in the Archives of the City Councillors.

In the Archives of the Rzeszówer Museum, there is a document (n°150, dated 16^th January, 1686) granting permission to the Jews to build a synagogue in the Nowe Miasto. The document assures the Jews the same rights and protection as Jews enjoyed in the Old City. The money to build the synagogue was loaned the Jews as a mortgage in perpetuity by the Convent and the Brotherhood of the Saint Bernardine Church. According to Penckowski, this mortgage was never repaid and remained in possession of the Convent until 1946.

“In music, Jewish companies, though not numerous, gradually developed throughout Poland. Thus, we find in Rzeszów four Jewish musicians in 1765 with the privilege to play granted by the Polish city fathers. Christian wedding feasts were often celebrated for eight days and Jewish musicians were called upon to play during these festivities.”

“Since the settlement of Jews in Rzeszów and the building of their houses of worship were outside the city limits, Jewish artisans had to organize to defend the synagogue and Jewish inhabitants in case of attacks by the non-Jewish population or other enemies. This was also a duty of the Christian population.”

“The Furriers' Guild of Rzeszów had in its statutes: “the right and duty to have their own flag, a supply of arms and ammunition, 45lbs of dry powder to defend the Neue Shul”. The Old Shul in Rzeszów was also built for defence, as was seen by the small tower at the entrance to which was through one of the many bastions. There was also a small prison room in the cellar where minor offenders were incarcerated. (Balaban, p.65).”

“Rzeszów was a pioneer in the development of petroleum when oil wells were discovered in Gorlice and Rimanow. Jewish merchants and bankers of Rzeszów assisted in the development of the first petroleum refinery in the world built there in the year 1853 when crude oil was shipped between Jaslo and Rzeszów. Ignac Lukasiewicze, born on March 23^rd, 1822, was the inventor of the petroleum lamp. Petroleum helped the extension and development of the tile and brick industry, also of woodcarving which was engaged in extensively in Kolbuszowa”. (From Rubach Ludomir, Rzeszów, Poland, 1954).”

“The Alte Staeditsche Shul and the Neue Shul in Rzeszów, like those in Przeworsk, Luck, Lancut, are a world innovation in the construction of houses of worship. In them, the arrangement of piers (pillars) was carried to an ultimate and most magnificent conclusion. In the Alte Shul, built in the early part of the 17^th century in late Gothic style, the four round pillars have been completely merged in the Bima stone (the Almemar) and again in the vaulting above. However, the ceiling remains broken in a series of vault-like low domes and the four columns could apparently be removed without damage to the self-sufficiency of the Bima or ceiling.”

“It is the Neue Shul on the Wola, (New Cit), built in the Baroque style of the beginning of the 18^th century (1705-1710), which completes the invention. Here the four-square piers rise into a stone canopy over the Bima and merge into one central support for the ceiling by sending out four ribs which sweep to the four corners of the room. As a result, the hall is a single unit; the Bima a rising jet and the walls descending sheets of stone. It is at once expressive of the Jewish cult in which communal prayer and the reading of the Law – rather than choir music and sermons – dominate the service and is unlike anything seen in other houses of worship.”

“The prototype for the innovation of the four-pillared Bima, (Almemar) is the Stadtshul (Alte Shul) in Rzeszów. The outer view of the synagogue in Rzeszów is adapted to its place in the environment of the Jewish group of houses around and near it”. (See Der Zirkel, Architekten Zeitung, Deutsche, Boemische Synagogen from 11^th to the beginning of the 19^th century, page 45, table VII, Ing. Professor Dr. Alfred Grotte, Berlin, 1915).

As in many other Polish cities, the Jews were permitted to build their synagogues only outside the city walls; and thus, we may explain the provisions for their defence. All windows of the synagogues in Rzeszów were built high up for defence and also in order to ensure that the worshippers were not

[Page 26]

distracted by events in the streets. The walls were thick and buttressed with flattened roofs, if it was necessary to defend the Jewish community against attack.

“The Neue Shul is a truly artistic specimen of baroque architecture. The pillars were placed in the centre, as in the Alte Shul, but the capitals were finished in a more ornate manner, and they were fused with the vaulting of the ceiling. The four pillars come closer together in the centre so that they form, more or less, a baldachin to the Bima (The Almemar). The synagogue extended above the roofs with masonry crenelations for sharpshooters along the roof. Massive buttresses calculated to stop a cannon-ball, and walls thick enough to discourage a siege, again witness to the protective interest of the Poles – now forgotten- in their Jewish subjects. German and Spanish Jews could have put to frequent use the synagogues in Rzeszów, Zolkiew, Buczacz, Husiatyn, Tarnopol, Luck, Dubno and Kamieniec-Podolski. The blind arcade above the cornice is characteristic of the exterior, and within are generally found another blind arcade, of four central columns rising into the vaulting (of course, quite foreign to town halls), a great stone Bima and often traces of mural paintings. Handsome brass candelabra and a brass platter wrought with a nude Adam and Eve were suspended from the centre vaulting between the four columns in the Alte Shul”. (From “A World Passed By”, by Marvin Lowenthal, Harper Brothers, New York and London, 1933, pages 366-367, 369, 373).

According to Dr. Balaban, “the synagogue in Lancut, six miles east of Rzeszów, was built according to the plans of the Rzeszów New Shul”. (Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft zur Erforschung Juedischer Denkmaeler. Vol. VII/VIII, 1915, Leipzig, Germany, pages 44 and 45).

The Staedtische or Alter Shul was the main body in a complex of public buildings and houses of worship. It was the heart of the Rzeszów Jewish community. A Weibershul (a separate room for women to worship in) was built onto it in the early part of the 19th century, and obscured the beautiful architecture of the shul. Built onto the shul to the west was the Bet Hamidrash, facing a narrow street which led to the main entrance of the Alte Shul. South of the Bet Hamidrash, also built onto it, was the Klaus which was a house of worship and Talmudic learning and also served as a shelter for Jewish way-farers who came to Rzeszów from other parts of the land. There they could find a few hours sleep on the bare and hard benches until daybreak when, after morning prayers, they went about their business or to the yarmarkt (county fair). The Klaus never

Restoring the Ruins of the Synagogue

[Page 27]

closed its doors; it was open day and night for anyone wishing to pray, study, or seek a few hours of shelter. To the rear of the Klaus and built onto it to the north, was the Shnaider and Baecker (tailors' and bakers') shul. In the rear of these was the Jewish slaughterhouse which drained into the Mikoshka, and faced an open square, to the north of which stood the very beautiful Neue Shul. This group of buildings, arranged from the outside, almost like a Star of David, had in the centre, a small open court to admit light and air in the rear of these various buildings. This, at the same time, was the very first Jewish cemetery in Rzeszów, holding only a few graves (about eighteen) of people gone by.

The second oldest Jewish cemetery in Rzeszów covered two large city blocks. It was situated on the right bank of the Mikoshka, facing the Neue Shul on the left bank. In the middle of the 19^th century, a street, ulica Zielona, was cut through it and connects a highway leading through the Wola market over the Wislok to Lancut in the east, Tyczyn south-east and by way of Ruska-Wies, to Glogow and Kolbuszowa to the northwest.

In this lower part of Rzeszów outside the walls of the main city, all other Jewish homes radiated around the group of buildings with the Alte Shul as the heart.

To the east of the narrow street which led to the entrance of the Alte Shul, stood a row of houses, the residence of the Chief Rabbi whose appointment by the Kahal, had official approval from the Government. There were also the houses of the Shammas (beadle), the ritual slaughterer (Shohet) and other functionaries of the Jewish community. The Shamas of the Alte Shul was not only the guardian of the shul and of the Torah Scrolls and ceremonial objects. It was also his function in the early years of the Jewish community and until the beginning of the 20^th century, to summon Jews to the synagogue. In the morning before dawn, he would go from house-to-house with a wooden mallet, would give two short raps on the doors, followed by one longer rap to summon people to prayer. If the Shammas gave only two raps on the doors in the morning, this informed the Jewish community that one of their members had died the day or night before. On Fridays, shortly after midday, the Shamas would appear in the market places to remind the trades people in a loud voice that the holy Shabbath was drawing near and that they should finish their business rapidly and close their shops.

During the writer's youth, the Shammas of the Staedtische Shul was Goldstein (Moshe Shammas), a kind and scholarly man who was much loved by all the people of Rzeszów, especially by us young boys. One of his sons, Jacob Goldstein, was a very respected member of the community. Moshe Shammas' mallet, which he used for summoning people to prayer (klappen in shul arain), was a work of art, carved from one piece of wood.

“The Jewish People, it is averred, produced no masterpieces, in particular no architectural ones. If over a period of two thousand years, it did create such treasures, nothing substantial has survived. And so, it is said, we have nothing at all left. Late discoveries attested to in a lecture by the archaeologist, Professor Dr. M.I. Rostovtsef, before the Historical Society in Warsaw in 1935, showed evidence of exquisite work in paintings, music, sculptured ornaments and designs on Jewish tomb-stones in many parts of Poland. Rzeszów was known for works in textiles, silverwork, embroidery, gilding of different shades, crowns for the Torah, Rimonim and multiplicity of allegorical subjects, which testify to Jewish craftsmanship”. (Count Georg Lukomski, 1884 – Jewish Art in European Synagogues, Hutchinson & Co., Publishers, London and New York, 1947). A pastel painting of Rzeszów Shuls by Count Georg Lukomski is in the Jewish Museum at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.

Jewish life in Rzeszów, as in many other cities in Poland before and after the Partition of 1772, was centred around the Bet Hamidrash, the Shul and houses of learning, where the study of Torah and the moulding of the individual life according to the tenets of the Torah was uppermost in the lives of the individual as of the Kahal. Jewish courts in Rzeszów were based on similar ones in other parts of Poland, and developed within the structure of the Kahal. They can be classified thus:

Cases of one Jew against another were tried within the Kahal; Cases in which a Christian was the plaintiff and a Jew the defendant, were tried by the Wojewoda; Cases in which a Jew was the plaintiff and a Christian the defendant, were tried by the peers of the defendant.

[Page 28]

The inhabitants of Rzeszów and many of its Jews participated in the struggles of mankind for political and religious liberties. We find them fighting in the ranks during the Revolts of 1830, 1848 and 1863.

The Revolutionary Movement of 1848 formed a National Committee which included many Jews. Its meeting was convoked on 27^th May of that year. In June the same year, Jews took an active part in electing delegates to the Austrian Parliament.

Toward the end of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Jewish handicraftsmen, manufacturers, merchants and bankers reached a high state of development and affluence. But this was only a short interval before the shifting of social, political and economic conditions and the outbreak of the two World Wars, which brought their complete annihilation.

Jews in Rzeszów were then active in all phases of production and in the sale of consumer and durable goods. They engaged in banking, foreign exchange and the import and export business. Jews were builders, bricklayers, masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers and wood-turners. Since ancient times, they had been shoemakers and tailors, umbrella makers, glaziers, smiths and wrought-iron workers; cap and hatmakers, furriers, spinners and innkeepers. Around the year 1890, three hotels in Rzeszów were owned and operated by Jews. These were: Hotel Drei Kronen, Hotel Krakowski and Hotel Luftmashyna, the last being the oldest of all.

Some of the master mechanics are worth mentioning: First because of their craftsmanship and more specifically because of their character and integrity. The Adler brothers were wrought-iron workers; Anmuth, Josef Helfer, Haskel the Blechernik and Vortrefflich were tinsmiths, makers of household utensils and roofers; the family of Both and Wind were among the glaziers who did private work and worked in houses and municipal buildings. Moshe Yosef Flaumendorf and Abraham Jakhimowicz were cap makers; Elias (Elly) Goldstein had a shop for tools and metal utensils. He was also an inventor with several patents to his credit. Danie Farber (Daniel Kraus) was a dyer of textiles and cloth materials. The tradition of gold, silverwork and watchmaking for local use and export was carried on by the families of Launer, Pologe, the son of the Hebrew teacher, Moshe Launer and Shaul Schiff.

The house painters of this period were an especially gifted category of craftsmen, skilled in the mixing and applying of oil and water colours. Some of their mural work in homes, public buildings and synagogues were reminiscent of ancient Pompeian art. Well known at the end of the 19^th century were Israel Ducker, an artis in lettering with gold leaf and colours; Mailekh Platzer, Osias Grad (“Shyie Maler”) 1833-1920, was a man of considerable artistic talent and a quiet scholarly gentleman. Together, they renovated and repainted the Alte Shul and the Neue Shul, restoring them to their old splendour shortly before the outbreak of World War I.

Among the master tailors, one should remember Berish Schwartz (“the Schwartze Berish”) of the Ulica Rozanka. Sakhye Shster, Beinish Shuster. Stern and Pelzling were makers of fine shoes to measure. Beinish Shuster's son was by vocation, a fire fighter, a member of the local fire brigade (“strasz pozarna”). He was their bugler. The family of Moshe Shtrickmaker, Moshe Shipper, were spinners of yarns and ropes, using imports of cotton, help, jute and sisal. Moshe Shipper and his brothers were ardent Zionists, scholars and also active in local politics. Abe Appelbaum and Haim Wald were merchants and founders of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) and subsequently members of the World Zionist Organization. They too were scholars, well-versed in Scripture.

The Zinneman and Elias (Elly) Reich families, the latter of the Polarnia, were soap and candlestick makers. Moshe Lion and his wife Hinde, were both active in imports and selling petroleum, turpentine, soaps and candles.

At the periphery of the city were some horse-driven flour and grist mills, which ground grain between upper and lower millstones. They were driven by horses tethered to a long wooden pole. The horses walked for hours with blinders over their eyes to prevent them becoming dizzy as they were treading the circle.

The Jewish farmers were mostly tenants, lessees, known as arendars or share-croppers of the Polish gentry. Some small farms near the city limits were owned and operated by Jews. One was owned by Josef and Malke Rost, 1830-1896. It lay near the left bank of the Wislok by the District Courthouse and the Chestnut Tree Promenade (“Pod Kashtanami”), sloping down to the river, and was

[Page 29]

known as the “Haivel”. This Rost family raised their own crops, some sheep and milk cows. The present writer remembers that when visiting the Rosts on a very cold winter day, he saw that they kept the young calves or sheep in their own living rooms. One of the Rost family's daughters was married to Mr. Braun of the textile firm, Kahane and Braun.

There were other cowsheds of milk cows in pastures near the Wislok leading from the Teppergasse. Wolf Steuer was a milkman who churned his own kasher butter and sold milk.

Jews were also found on the Targowica (trading centre) among the cattle and horse dealers. The timber and lumber business in the 90's was carried on by Josef Drucker (“Yossel”and his family) on a scale large enough to have the district of their business known as the “Druckerowka”.

Shymon Tovye Mintz had a lumber yard and brick kiln (“Cegielnia”) on the road to Ruska-Wies, while (Leibish) Leon Bloch from Dzikow, 1865-1904, and his son Henrich (Henek) 1892, were dealers in lumber near Polarnia.

It was Motesh Eckstein, a devout Hassid, who was the supreme merchant and industrialist and city councillor in Rzeszów. About 1890, he installed the first electric light and power in Rzeszów to operate his sawmills and other enterprises.

Motesh Eckstein

“There was one branch of handicrafts in which there was certainly no need for Jews to have recourse to Gentile assistance. This was embroidery. In every branch of the textile industry, from time immemorial, the Jews have been profoundly interested. This, rather than finance, was their characteristic employment and even in the dark ages, ‘Jewish Weave’ or tapestry was famous. Jewish women were famous for their embroidery.”

“Rzeszow gave its name to gold, known as “Rzeszower Gold”, which was used by jewellers for the manufacture of various precious articles”. Slownik Jezyka Polskiego, Vol.V, page 1816, Warszawa 1912. (Dictionary of the Polish Language).

Itshe Spiegel, his son Sholom and grandson, Hersh Spiegel (1875-1916?) were the larger merchants of notions (Tselnik). Yitzhak Landau and Neufeld were the best-known tobacconists, holding the Austrian Government monopoly license for the wholesale distribution of cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco and snuff, which was very much in demand among the older generation at that period.

Diamant, Tishler, Norbert (Nukhem) Wachtel Senior and Rappaport were dealers in school and other books; sellers of paper goods, typesetters and printers.

There were two optometrists among the Jews. One of them had come there from the United States at about 1898.

Around the year 1890, there were representatives of Austrian chain stores: the Moedlinger Shoe Factory, managed by a certain J. Froehlich; a men's clothing store, Helman Cohn & Sons from Vienna, managed by a Mr. Z. Fertig. Until then, all clothes and footwear were made to measure by local craftsmen.

Contrary to the beliefs of many Christians, Jews engaged in all branches of productive, manual and menial labour. They were artisans, craftsmen, carriers of loads (porters), and transporters of parcels (“frakhters”) to distant cities. These services reduced the time and the cost of commercial transport.

“Dr. Wilhelm Turteltaub, Austrian physician and poet, was born in Rzeszow in Galicia. At the age of 15, he wrote a comedy in imitation of Kotzebue's ‘Sorgen ohne Not’. In 1830, he entered the University of Vienna to study medicine and received his doctor's degree in 1840, collaborating at the same time in the periodicals: “Zuschauer””,

[Page 30]

“Wanderer” and “Sammler”. In 1841, he practiced medicine in Rzeszow. In 1835, his work: “Wiener Fresko-Skizzen” was published. His one-act comedy “Der Nachtwandler bei Tage” was produced with success in the Leopolstaedter Theatre. At that time, he made the acquaintance of Saphir who induced him to contribute to his periodical: “Der Humorist”. In 1847, his “Nur Eine loest den Zauberspruch” was played in Vienna and various other cities of Austria and Germany. His: “Ein Abentuerer and “Der Jugendfreund” were produced in the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna. In 1859, Turteltaub edited “Die Wiener Volksbuehne”. Bibliography: Der Juedische Plutarch; Wuerzbach Biographisches Lexicon; (the Jewish Plutarch; Biography Dictionary, wierzbach). Jewish Encyclopaedia, Funk and Wagnalls, Publishers, New York and London, 1905, Vol. XII, page 291.

Coal as fuel for heating and cooking was introduced in Rzeszow around 1885. Until that time, wood and charcoal were used as fuel. Coal, lignite, brown coal and anthracite were brought from Ostrawa, Moravia. It was looked upon as a miracle that stones, black stones, should burn, give fire and heat homes and workshops. Many brick and tile stoves had to be rebuilt to obtain a proper draft for the combustion of the treacherous coal gas, which caused many deaths through asphyxiation.

The cultivation of fish, especially carp and pike, developed into a lucrative local and export trade to the U.S.A. around the middle of the 19^th century. One of the leading Jewish fish dealers was Moshe Aaron Staub (1858-1941), who died in New York. His five sons and four daughters, their husbands and their children, are active members of Rzeszow Y.M.S.B. society, and also form their own family circle, which has been meeting ever so often, thus maintaining the family cohesion which was basic to old-world culture.

It may be of interest to tell in this place that one of Moshe Aaron Staub's grandsons, Paul Staub, the son of Martin Staub of New York, was among the first four United States Army soldiers who linked up at the end of World War II, on April 25^th, 1945, with the Soviet Russian Army at Torgau on the Elbe in Germany. Paul Staub was a corporal in the Command Post of the First Battalion, 273^rd Infantry Regiment. Stan Staub, another grandson of Moshe Aaron, a son of Max Staub of San Francisco, California, was a naval officer at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. He volunteered and enlisted in the United States Navy in September 1941, and met his death at the age of 24 during the early part of the war, flying a bomber plane in the South Pacific. Stan Staub was a graduate of the University of California at Berkely.

In about 1896, Baron de Hirsch Trade School was opened in Rzeszow. There were three instructors teaching geometry, algebra and drawing, woodwork, art metalwork (Kunstschlosserei), and rudimentary principles of architecture and mechanical engineering; also, machine design and wrought-iron work. The teachers were Samuel Goldman of Stanislawow, Rudolf Klarinet of Kolomea and Piontkowski of Rzeszow. One of its best-known graduates, who later studied architecture in the United States, was Frank Grad, 1883, of Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A., the son of Osias Grad (Shyie Maler) and Mindel the Malerin, 1837-1934. Frank Grad and his sons, one an architect, the other a civil engineer, are leading builders of Government office buildings, military installations and many public and private buildings.

Among the Jews of Rzeszow were many unskilled labourers who eked out a day-to-day, hand-to-mouth existence. Many of them were porters (tregers) often carrying loads which were much heavier than the weight of their own bodies. Some owned a horse and wagon.

Like other small cities all over the world, Rzeszow had its share of village characters. Outstanding was the “beloved vagabond”, the charming neier-do-well, the jester and clown, “Shabse der Loifer” (endurance runner). He was a delightful storey-teller of a great imagination, with great delusions of grandeur. In his youth, he joined an itinerant circus or show that periodically made short visits in Rzeszow. When not employed in circuses, he gave performances of endurance: - runs, running many times around the market place of the Nowe Miasto, dressed in circus tights, with a clown cap and bells on his head. In his old age, he acted as messenger and package carrier for the merchants of the city. He often acted as a “watch in the night” in houses of mourning. He was a most likeable character and in spite of his abject poverty, was full of laughter and humour.

Rzeszow, like the rest of the world, began to develop industries to produce consumer goods. Before industrialization, before the import of large quantities of consumer goods and the

[Page 31]

division of labour which wrought drastic changes in the economy and the lives of the people, the Jewish community and the farming population around, the city formed an almost complete and self-sustaining entity. The peasant brought the produce of the earth to the city; grain, poultry, cattle, vegetables, fruit, etc., wood for fuel and building; and the Jewish merchants and handy-craftsmen supplied the city and rural inhabitants with durable and consumer goods.

The peasants brought the produce of the earth to Rzeszow. They sold it and with the proceeds, they bought consumer goods, textiles, building materials, etc.

Eggs preserved and stored in lime were exported to Germany and England, as were beans, peas and dried mushrooms; wicker baskets and furniture were brought from Rudnik and shipped the world over. Salke Korngut was an exporter of eggs and other food products. One of his daughters was the wife of Dr. Nathan Birnbaum (Mathis Acher).

The Greenspan brothers dealt in and exported raw hides. Mr. Wistreich exported rabbit skins for hatmakers in Europe and America.

There was no phase in the economy of Rzeszow to which Jewish handicraftsmen and merchants did not contribute their share for the welfare of the community. The handicraftsmen (Baalei Meloches) were a distinct group. They were trained in Jewish Biblical lore, often in the Talmud, too, before they learned a trade. Their lives and their work were moulded by Jewish religious tradition which made them a distinctive ethical group, differing from the tradesmen and shopkeepers. They had their own craft organizations and their own welfare groups (Gemilat Hesed Societies).

Toward the end of the 19^th century, the merchants of Rzeszow occupied an important position in textiles, in the building industry and in small luxury consumer goods.

The banking houses had international connections as loan and discount houses, etc. They were the first to introduce the telephone around 1890.

They were Lerner and Sons, Isaac Schoenblum and Sons, Aloizy Froehlich, Moshe Geschwind, 1846-1913, and Matzner and Holtzer. Jacob Holtzer was Privy Councillor of Commerce to the Government of Austria.

There were many Jewish physicians. The first was Dr. Wilhelm Turteltaub, then came Drs. Lecker, Rotter and the dean of them all, the elderly Dr. Segel; also Dr. Elsner and Dr. H. Kraus. Dr. Josef Teller was chief of the Jewish Hospital. Of the next generation of doctors and lawyers, many were graduates of the Rzeszow Gymnasium. Some came from surrounding towns, but most were native sons of Rzeszow. Dr. Siegel, who resided at the corner of Grunwaldska and Bernardynska Streets, was a captain-surgeon in the 40^th Rzeszower Regiment of the Austrian Army. Dr. Neufeld, son of the tobacco merchant, was a veterinary surgeon, stationed with the Austrian Cavalry at Agram, now Zagreb.

Popular folk medicine was practiced by some of the barbers, known as Feldtshers (Cyrtuliki). Such were Mr. Ehrlich (“der Toorner Roife”), Kalman Goldman and Mandel the “Roife”. Roman Sommer and Strasser were dentists. The therapeutics of the “Feldtshers' included the application of leeches (bloodletting), and “bankes” (cupping). Bankes were small glass cups with rounded rims, into which an alcohol flame was inserted to expel the air. This caused a vacuum and it was then quickly pressed on the ailing part to adhere to the tissues and draw blood there.

There were two officially accredited Jewish midwives, Tshevele Both and Gitel Goldreich. Kalman Drucker was a well-known circumciser (mohel) and matchmaker (shadhan).

Two Christian gentlemen of the older generation, Dr. Jablonski, who was at one time mayor of the city, and Dr. Zagorski, were both city health officers. The latter resided in the New Market-place of the New City (Nowe Miasto), over which he had jurisdiction.

The practice of law was engaged in by Dr. Kahane, Dr. Binder and Dr. Fechtdegen, Dr. Wilhelm Hochfeld, Dr. Marek Pelzling, Dr. M. Schneeweis, Dr. S. Reich and Dr. W. Wachtel.

Among the many houses of worship toward the end of the 19^th century, one was almost unique. It was called the “Fortschrittsverein” in the ulica Rozanka (Progressive Synagogue). It was housed in an apartment and Messrs. Samuel Dinner and Blazer were the Elders (Gabbais). The progressiveness of this synagogue consisted in a somewhat shorter service on the Sabbaths, while, instead of wearing a headgear with nine fur-tails (shtraimel), the worshippers wore tall silk hats.

Jews were always temperate people in their eating habits, drink, etc. Their social life outside

[Page 32]

the family, synagogue and House of Study was to be found in various mead and wine inns (Meth and Weinshenken) where men would sit for hours over a glass of drink, sipping it slowly and eating cooked chickpeas (Meth or mead is a fermented drink of water and honey). During these hours, people would converse on business or Torah.

In the summer, there were many inns at the periphery of the city limits, where whole families went promenading in the green to the Glemboka of the Raab family, the Kshaki of Sternlich and the Matshkowka of Wiesenfeld. A glass of beer or a jug of sour milk with black bread and butter, covered with thin slices of black radish (retekh), were the high points of these Jewish Third Sabbath the high (Seudah Shelishit), the acme of culinary indulgence of these simple folk. However, not the eating but the conversation, huma relations, were the essence of these meetings in the green on Sabbath afternoons at Minha time (afternoon prayer).

Two coffee houses were frequented by the Jewish intelligenzia: Café Klappholz, near the railroad station, known for its billiard players and its evening entertainment, (Café Chantant), and Café Europa on the Ulica 3-go Maja (3^rd of May Street). The latter was the meeting place of many Jewish doctors, lawyers and students and of some businessmen. Polish, German, French and English periodicals were always available. From England came the London News and the Globe. These were in great demand. Die Welt, edited by Dr. Theodor Herzl, was there, while Yiddish and Hebrea papers from Warsaw and Russia were also available for every guest.

The quest for knowledge, for information, apart from reading the Holy Scriptures or secular books, was manifest in the chain subscription to periodicals by groups of families. Thus, the family which received a newspaper by mail when it arrived in Rzeszow, paid a bigger share of the subscription; the second family paid less; until five or more families had read one issue during the week.

Jewish life in Rzeszow at that period followed the traditional ways, and was rooted in Torah. Politically, Jews participated little in the affairs of the time, except as these affected the city, and particularly as they concerned the Jewish community. The political ideals found what was perhaps their best expression in Torah and in the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion), with Messrs. Abba Appelbaum, the sons of Yiddele Horowitz, Haim Wald with his sons, and Dr. Felix Hopfen, as their most learned and articulate exponent's.

Nahum Sternheim, 1880-1942? a writer of popular Yiddish verse, was the troubadour of the Rzeszow Zionist Organizations. Many of his songs and verses found their way beyond Rzeszow to Yiddish-speaking peoples everywhere, also to the U.S.A., etc. He died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Gradually, the spirit of “The Enlightenment” penetrated the Jewish community. Parents in large numbers began to send their children beyond the mandatory primary schools to secondary schools (Gymnasia) and the Universities. It seemed to be a badge of distinction to send a son to the Gymnasium and the University. Jewish youth found its way to what was then the only Gymnasium in Rzeszow, and to the Universities of Krakow, Lwow and Vienna.

Around 1890, there were less than fifty Jewish students in the eight classes of the old Gymnasium on ulica 3-go Maja. Dr. Lercel was then its director. In the first-year class of 1891, the Jewish students were: Glaser, Felix Hopfen, Kuba Kalter, Plappinger, L. Sternlich and the present writer, Issac Wachtel

Dr. Felix Hopfen

[Page 33]

(Dr. Henry I. Wachtel), 1880 - , son of Josef Wachtel senior, 1853-1934, son of Jacob.

Though attendance at Gymnasium on the Jewish Sabbath was mandatory, Jewish students were exempt from writing on the Sabbath and Jewish Holidays. On Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), we were exempt from school attendance.

Jewish religious instructions were received for an hour a day on several week-days during the school year. Attendance was mandatory. Ther instructor in Bible and Jewish History as Zygmunt Kammerling, who also kept the vital statistics of the Jewish community.

Prof. Zygmunt Kammerling

In 1880-1885, no Jew worked or kept his shop open on the Sabbath, but by 1890, two Jewish shop-owners kept their businesses open on that day. The number of non-observers of the Sabbath increased with the penetration of the “Enlightenment”. However, the general spirit of the Holy Sabbath and other holidays prevailed. Most shops closed their doors and men, women and children in their festive clothes, were seen going to and filling the House of Prayer. A spirit of quiet and calm prevailed in the city, as if all of Rzeszow were an entirely Jewish city. The Shekhina (Divine Presence) seemed to us children to hover over the Jews of our city.

The Jewish community, as noted above, was a self-sufficient organism which satisfied the spiritual and economic needs of its own constituents, and also the economic needs of the land workers (peasants) and the general population of Rzeszow, composed mostly of government functionaries and artisans. Peasants brought their produce to sell to or barter with Jews for consumer and durable goods or goods imported from other parts of the world. In Rzeszow there was hardly any friction or intense economic rivalry between Jews, peasants, Christian shopkeepers or Government functionaries. Each group had its own sphere of activity, as though marked and delineated by destiny.

The advent of newer ideologies and a different political and economic orientation, the industrialization of society and the shifting of classes in the social structure gave rise to intense political and economic pressures, which were eventually directed against the visible competitor, the visible minority, the Jews.

Antisemitism as a racial or political phenomenon was not known in Rzeszow. True, there was prejudice and discrimination as between Jews and Catholics. These, however were based chiefly on religious grounds. They were not an important factor in the daily relations between the Christian and Jewish people, between the peasants and their Jewish neighbours on the land, or in their relations with the Austrian Government functionaries.

In the early history of Poland, Jews were, for obvious reasons, under the personal protection of the kings. Later on, they were more or less so under the rule of the House of Habsburg. There were many important reasons why Austrian officialdom kept a quasi-protective eye on the Jews in their domain.

The rise of “Kolka Rolnicze”, cooperative buying and selling organizations, the subsequent development of the “Kolka Przemyslowe”, mercantile and industrial buying and selling groups, the rise of a large bureaucracy and other while-collared functionaries within these organizations, brought tension between these and the Jewish people, whom they considered as interlopers and competitors. They were the catalysts in the ferment of political, economic and racial antagonism.

Anti-Jewish sentiments and antisemitism took on a new complexion. It became a militant organized movement which first used the silent boycott and then went on to political and economic measures to eliminate the Jew from his historic position in Poland.

The tranquillity of life in Rzeszow, as in many other parts of Poland and the world, had been shaken to its foundations years before the outbreak of World War I. The cataclysm that eventually

[Page 34]

swept over Europe, aside from the influence exerted by theoreticians of Racial Antisemitism like Joseph A. Gobineau, 1816-1862, and the German racists, Houston Steward Chamberlain, 1855-1927, whose books are said to have been zealously studied by Hitler, seem to have been latent in the various ideals for socio-economic betterment which were rooted in a materialistic interpretation of history and Man's place in society as an economic unit.

The upsurge of political nationalism throughout the western world also brought Poland a mixture of ideologies which led to tensions among the various ethnic groups. However, all were directed against Jews, the visible minority.

After Austria granted the peoples of Bohemia and Galicia the right of organized, permanent public assembly, organizations emerged under the name of Sokols (Falconers). These were ostensibly athletic organizations, housed throughout the land in permanent buildings, Sokol Halls. They were uniform-wearing groups with flattened head-coverings known as “Konfederatka”, and uniforms similar to those worn by the legionaries of the times of Taddeusz Kosciuszko. Ostensibly training for physical culture, they were in fact preparing for future political and military activities. The Sokols became front organizations for anti-Austrian and anti-Jewish activities.

Two great ideal penetrated Jewish life in Rzeszow at the end of the 19th century. The call for the creation of a Homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine came with the publication of the book; “Der Judenstaat” by Theodor Herzl, 1860-1904, and with the convocation of the first World Zionist Congress in 1897 at Basle, Switzerland. The Jewish community of Rzeszow, like Jews the world over, were electrified and responded with fervent enthusiasm to the hopes of a new Homeland. Zionist groups were formed in Rzeszow. At long last, a concrete ideal, a goal to work for had been given to youths and elders.

“Die Welt”, a journal founded and edited by Dr. Theodor Herzl and other Jewish Zionist publications, became standard reading for many of us.

Almost simultaneously with the Zionist ideal for a Jewish Homeland, the socio-political idea for the betterment of the lot of the working people penetrated the thinking of the masses in Rzeszow. Social Democratic though was first made known in Rzeszow by the Jewish Dr. H. Lieberman, a lawyer from Przemysl, who practiced his profession there, and by his friend and disciple, Dr. M. Pelzling, a native of Rzeszow. These movements, the Zionist and the Socialist, came as if by an act of destiny simultaneously with the rise of the Kolka Rolnicze and Kolka Przemyslowe; two ominous manifestations directed against Jews in Rzeszow as in many parts of Galicia and Poland. Among the leaders of the local Socialist group “Sila” (Strength), of the Polska Partja Socialistyczna were some Jewish workmen, Dukatenzeiler, a housepainter, and Kellman, a tailor, also Dr. M. Pelzling, the lawyer.

In about 1897 (?), the first Congress of the Polska Partja Socialistyszna was held in Lwow. A separation took place within the ranks and it was decided that Jewish workmen should form their own groups. The result was that Christian Socialists remained within the “Sila” (Strength) Organizations, while the Jewish socialists formed their own groups known as “Bruederlichkeit” (Fraternity).

One might well ask: Why is it that with the rise and wide acceptance of these high ideals for the socio-political and economic betterment of the condition of man, tension throughout the world had increased, racial prejudices still prevailed and the threat of man's inhumanity to man, the threat of total annihilation, became global?

1. I am grateful for much of the material in these notes to Mr. Zbigniew Radziewics, Director of the Department of Education and Culture of the City of Rzeszów. He was kind enough to mail to the New York Public Library, for my use, the book: “Dzieje Miasta Rzeszowa “(History of the City of Rzeszów to the end of the 18^th century) by Professor Jan Peckowski. Published by the Community of the City of Rzeszów, printed by Edw. Arway, 1913.Back

  Rzeszów, Poland     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2025 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 05 Sep 2025 by JH