The first information about Jews in Bielsk Podlaski dates back to the end of the 15th century. In 1487 King Kazimierz Jagiellończyk leased the duty collection to two Jews from the town of Łuck. At that time the Jewish community in Bielsk Podlaski was small and was not organized. It was only in 1542 that an organized Synagogue Community came into being.
In the end of the 16th century in 1564 there was a conflict between Christians and Jews. Two years later Jews were given new privileges in town by King Zygmunt August. It did not last long though. The census from 1580 and the one from 1591 do not record any Jews in Bielsk Podlaski at that time. According to other sources the Synagogue Community existed there until the year 1662.
Renewed Jewish migration to Bielsk Podlaski took place in the end of the 18th century. As early as 1802 or 1803, Jews were given official consent to settle in town. In 1807 a new Synagogue Community was created and consisted of 31 members. Jewish people were slowly but surely migrating to Bielsk Podlaski. In 1847 the Synagogue Community of Bielski District numbered 298. In 1861 there were three synagogues or houses of prayer for 1,256 Jews. In 1878 Bielsk Podlaski had 5,810 inhabitants, of whom 3,968 were Jewish. In the beginning of the 20th century the number of Jews started to decrease. In 1938, the Jewish population made up 38 percent of all inhabitants of Bielsk Podlaski. Under the Russian rule the town hosted 6,000 of them. During the German occupation a ghetto was created for Jews from Bielski District, Narwia and Orla. After the dissolution of the ghetto Jews were murdered in Treblinka camp. Mosze Aron Bendas was the last rabbi in Bielsk Podlaski.
Most of the Jewish shops and houses were around the marketplace and the town hall. Jews lived at main streets of Bielsk Podlaski – Mickiewicza, Szkolna, Bóżnicza, Wąska, Widowska and Ogrodowa Streets. The main town synagogue was made out of wood, stood in the center and was surrounded by a couple of houses of prayer that were pulled down after the war. Not far away there was a Hasidic synagogue. An old Jewish cemetery, to be utterly destroyed in years to come, was located in the center of the town. A new cemetery was established next to the main road towards the town of Brańsk.
In 1898 the old main synagogue was replaced by a new wooden one. It was named Jafe Einan (Beautiful Eyes). The huge building had a span roof with roof tiles and underwent a few restorations. In the beginning of the 20th century the building was rebuilt for the last time only to be dismantled during the war.
Next to the main synagogue at Orla Street there was an old one named after its establisher and sponsor – Icł’s Beth Midrasz. The building was atypical as its entrance steps led down as in a cellar. Supposedly a magnificent aron kodesh (the Torah arc) was placed there with its beautiful engravings of instruments used in the temple in Jerusalem. The members of the synagogue consisted mainly of poor craftsmen.
At Bóżnicza Street (Synagogue Street) the third synagogue called Shaarey Zion Beth Midrash was located. This wooden building was erected to replace the old one that burned in the First World War. In the vicinity of the synagogue there were baths, Talmud and Torah school, a yeshiva and an orphanage.
In 1889 Jowel Landau and Tanchiel Grodziński built the fourth synagogue at Rynkowa and Puszkina Streets.
Between WW I and WW II there were arrangements to build another synagogue yet they were never carried out.
Community
[Polish, gmina; Yiddish, kahal; Hebrew, kehila]
A form of organization in Jewish communities. The term has two meanings: it refers to a group of Jews having their own internal organization, including self-government and authorities; it also means the body of authorities governing this group.
Jewish law and tradition, along with government legislation, were the two main factors(...)
Community
[Polish, gmina; Yiddish, kahal; Hebrew, kehila]
A form of organization in Jewish communities. The term has two meanings: it refers to a group of Jews having their own internal organization, including self-government and authorities; it also means the body of authorities governing this group.
Jewish law and tradition, along with government legislation, were the two main factors(...)
Community
[Polish, gmina; Yiddish, kahal; Hebrew, kehila]
A form of organization in Jewish communities. The term has two meanings: it refers to a group of Jews having their own internal organization, including self-government and authorities; it also means the body of authorities governing this group.
Jewish law and tradition, along with government legislation, were the two main factors(...)
Ghetto
A designated area of a city in which Jews were permitted to live. Ghettos were sometimes surrounded by a wall and had gates that would be closed for the night, and were sometimes called "Jewish cities" or "Jewish quarters". The term "ghetto" probably was probably first used in the sixteenth century, though its origins are unclear. The most popular theory speculates(...)
Ghetto
A designated area of a city in which Jews were permitted to live. Ghettos were sometimes surrounded by a wall and had gates that would be closed for the night, and were sometimes called "Jewish cities" or "Jewish quarters". The term "ghetto" probably was probably first used in the sixteenth century, though its origins are unclear. The most popular theory speculates(...)
Kazimierz
[Yiddish, Kuzmir]
A city founded in the fourteenth century by Kazimierz III the Great; by the early nineteenth century, it had became one of Krakow's constituent neighborhoods. According to the historical records, Jews had been living in Kazimierz since 1389. The Community's population began to grow in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, when Jews who had been forced to leave(...)
Rabbi
[Hebrew, rabi = my master]
A scholar who is an expert in the Scriptures and religious questions. A rabbi is a yeshiva graduate who has been issued a smicha [Hebrew, authorization] upon completion of his studies, which grants the right to teach and decide disputes of a religious nature regarding Jewish law.
A rabbi was the religious leader of a Community, and one of its officials.(...)
Synagogue
[Greek, synagogé = assembly], beit kneset [Hebrew, house of assemblies]
The building in which Jews pray, known in Polish as boznica.
The synagogue is the focus of religious life, and to some extent also for the social life in traditional Jewish communities. Its institutional origins reach back to antiquity, most probably to the period of the Babylonian captivity, when the(...)
Synagogue
[Greek, synagogé = assembly], beit kneset [Hebrew, house of assemblies]
The building in which Jews pray, known in Polish as boznica.
The synagogue is the focus of religious life, and to some extent also for the social life in traditional Jewish communities. Its institutional origins reach back to antiquity, most probably to the period of the Babylonian captivity, when the(...)
Synagogue
[Greek, synagogé = assembly], beit kneset [Hebrew, house of assemblies]
The building in which Jews pray, known in Polish as boznica.
The synagogue is the focus of religious life, and to some extent also for the social life in traditional Jewish communities. Its institutional origins reach back to antiquity, most probably to the period of the Babylonian captivity, when the(...)
Synagogue
[Greek, synagogé = assembly], beit kneset [Hebrew, house of assemblies]
The building in which Jews pray, known in Polish as boznica.
The synagogue is the focus of religious life, and to some extent also for the social life in traditional Jewish communities. Its institutional origins reach back to antiquity, most probably to the period of the Babylonian captivity, when the(...)
Talmud
[Hebrew, Instruction]
After the Bible, Judaism's most important book. It contains commentaries on the Holy Scripture, rabbinical discussions, moral instructions and parables. These cover subjects such as the essence of God, cosmology, the afterlife, resurrection, the Final Judgement, the Messiah, the essence of man, the human soul, sin and repentance, reward and punishment, faith and prayer,(...)
Torah
[Hebrew, "instruction", "law"]
The Five Books of Moses [Greek, Pentateuch], which constitutes the main part of the Hebrew canon of the Holy Scriptures. The Torah contains the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and is also commonly known as the Chamash. In Hebrew, these books are known by their first few words, thus: Be-reshit [Hebrew, "In(...)
Torah
[Hebrew, "instruction", "law"]
The Five Books of Moses [Greek, Pentateuch], which constitutes the main part of the Hebrew canon of the Holy Scriptures. The Torah contains the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and is also commonly known as the Chamash. In Hebrew, these books are known by their first few words, thus: Be-reshit [Hebrew, "In(...)
Treblinka
Treblinka I
The labor camp Treblinka I was founded in 1941 in the forests along the Bug River, to the east of Warsaw on the rail line from Malkinia to Kosow Lacki. The prisoners were put to work in the gravel pit and the forest, and on a farm. They were primarily Poles, and also Polish Jews. During the period when Treblinka was a death camp, the percentage of Jewish prisoners in the labor(...)
Yeshiva
[from the Hebrew, "to sit"]
A religious school for older boys. After finishing cheder, at thirteen or fourteen, they could continue their schooling, studying the Halakhah [Hebrew, "the way"] contained in the Talmud. They remained in the yeshiva until they married. Some of them were granted a smicha [Hebrew, "authorization", i.e., rabbinical ordination], giving(...)
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