History
Jewish community before 1989 – Ukraina / Львівська область (obwód lwowski)
The town located 56 km from Lviv, Chodorów (old name - Chodorostaw, Chodorów Staw) is mentioned in chronicles in 1394, Due to its location was it built in the region between the Dniester and its tributary Łuhu - Chodorów always had the importance of defense. As indicated by the old name of Chodorów Staw (Pond), near the town actually several large ponds are located (Chodorów and Otynewicki outside the town). Some derive the name of the town from the male name of Fedor, so the old name becomes understandable Fedorów Staw.
However, the castle dating from the time of settlement on the site early slavic Chodorów is earlier than it was bringing to the area of the Greek name Fedor. Of course, it was a placement of the White Croats, as Chodorów lies within their probable capital - Stilśkie estate today.
Chodorów has not always been a city. It was in 1436 when it was given the Magdeburg law, and it since became a "free city" under its own government.
In Chodorów was a castle which was rebuilt in time for residential building and the beginning of the twentieth century had all the signs of a Renaissance palace.
Roman Catholic Parish was established in Chodorów at the beginning of 1460: that's when the owner of this land magnate Jerzy Chodorowski founded in the wooden church. The first temple was destroyed during the Polish-Turkish war in the years 1620-1621. Next, the wood, burned down during the wars of the seventeenth-century
The first documented evidence of Jews settlement in Chodorów comes from 1633
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the third wooden church was founded by Chodorowski Family and their successors Cetnerowie counts. It had three altars (St. Trinity, All Saints and St. Cross).
Brick church, which survived until our times, has been built during the Austrian times, was founded by successive owners Chodorów - Rzewuscy, designed by Florian Richter. The church was rebuilt several times, in 1903 took place following the consecration of the church dedicated to All Saints.
Next rebuilding took place between 1834-1935, led her architect Ławrentij Dajczak. Was added then still a chapel with an symmetrical altar of St. Gregory, founded by Grzegorz Woliński. Today the interior of the church is quite modest.
In the neighborhood of Chodorów, in the village Otyniowice on November 11, 1873 the famous Polish painter of mid-nineteenth century, Artur Grottger was born. His name was given to a secondary school in Chodorów until 1939.
Due to the number of Jews in the city in 1913, the first mayor-Jew of Chodorów was Dr. Zigmund Greenstein.
When in Chodorów the Jewish community appeared, the patrons of "serving the state" or "King's Men," as Jews were called then, were the local magnates. The wealth of the municipality provides known around the world today Chodorów's wooden synagogue, Kahal built in 1651, even the permanent seizure of Turks, Tartars and Cossacks, caused by wars of Khmelnitsky, did not prevent this. In 1722, the painter Jisroel ben Mordechay Lisnicki created in it his magnificent paintings in polychrime.
The author of one of the best guides in Galicia Mieczysław Orłowicz says that these paintings shortly before writing his vademecum were restored by the painter Batowski at state expense. Unfortunately, today this a masterpiece no longer exists, as well as the famous wooden synagogue. Its mock-up by Leo Kramer is in the Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv.
The wooden synagogue had typical form for this time - a curved roof with a couple of almost oriental shape, porches, stairs. In the middle of the curved ceiling, creating a great area for the painter. Thanks to good black and white photographs of the synagogue in Chodorów the electron renovation was possible and today we can again admire this wonderful product of Jewish architecture.
One of the most prominent figures of the Jewish world related to Chodorów, is Izaak ben Zebi Aszkenazi. He was a rabbi and Talmudist. Aszkenazi was born somewhere in the territory of Ukraine or Belarus in the middle of the eighteenth century for a while he was a rabbi in Chodorów, then in Lviv, where he died May 5, 1807, he is the author of the treaty of Or ha-Ner (Light of the Lamp), commentary on the homilies (homilies, Lemberg, 1788) and Torat ha-Kodesh (Sacred Love) and the commentaries Zebahim (Lemberg, 1792).
In Chodorów, rabbis were also representatives of the famous Żydaczewska dynasty of tzaddikim, which derives its origins from Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Eichenstein Safrin, who died in 1800, a representative of the Hasidic dynasty was, above all, Rabbi Jechoszua Geszel Eichenstein, son of Rabbi Alexander Żydaczewski Yom Tov Lipa.
Chodorów's pride in the nineteenth century was known throughout Galicia Teichmann hotel, located near the train station, where for many years large Jewish weddings were held in for Jews from Galicia, Bukovina, and Hungary.
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