It is unknown when the first Jews arrived in Jedwabne. Julius Baker and Mosze Tzinowitz write in The Jedwabne Memorial Book: “when Jedwabne received town rights in 1736, many Jews moved to the town from Tykocin. But we know from other sources that, already in 1664, a few Jewish families had come to Jedwabne. They settled there probably because of the weekly markets.” According to The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, an important development of the Jewish community in Jedwabne occurred at the end of the 18th century. In 1808, 325 Jews inhabited the town, constituting 68 percent of all residents. Apart from trade, the Jews of Jedwabne were occupied with, among other things, tailoring and honey and alcohol production.
During the 19th century, the number of Jews in Jedwabne had radically increased from 324 people in 1827 to 1,941 in 1897. At the end of the 19th century, as much as 77 percent of Jedwabne residents comprised people of Jewish background. As a result of economic emigration to America and expulsion of Jews from Jedwabne by the Russians during World War I, the number of the town’s Jewish residents had drastically decreased. The national census of 1921 noted only 757 Jews in Jedwabne.
The tragic events of 10 July 1941 closed the history of Jewish settlement in Jedwabne.
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(...)
Jedwabne
The word "Jedwabne" has a number of meanings and connotations. The first of these is the small town in the northern Podlasie region, north of the Narew River and west of the Biebrza. The name also stands for the pogrom that took place in that place. It was one of about twenty locations in that small region where massacres of Jewish civilians took place in 1941, after the Germans entered(...)
Jedwabne
The word "Jedwabne" has a number of meanings and connotations. The first of these is the small town in the northern Podlasie region, north of the Narew River and west of the Biebrza. The name also stands for the pogrom that took place in that place. It was one of about twenty locations in that small region where massacres of Jewish civilians took place in 1941, after the Germans entered(...)
Jedwabne
The word "Jedwabne" has a number of meanings and connotations. The first of these is the small town in the northern Podlasie region, north of the Narew River and west of the Biebrza. The name also stands for the pogrom that took place in that place. It was one of about twenty locations in that small region where massacres of Jewish civilians took place in 1941, after the Germans entered(...)
Jedwabne
The word "Jedwabne" has a number of meanings and connotations. The first of these is the small town in the northern Podlasie region, north of the Narew River and west of the Biebrza. The name also stands for the pogrom that took place in that place. It was one of about twenty locations in that small region where massacres of Jewish civilians took place in 1941, after the Germans entered(...)
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