The first mention of Jews in Milejczyce dates back to the 16th century. It talks about the conflict between Christian townsmen and Jewish people flocking to the town. The Jewish community was set up around the middle of the 18th century. Surviving documents mention “a brewery and a Jewish barn”. A cemetery was established in 1865 and the number of Jews in Milejczyce gradually increased.
In 1878, 1588 people lived in the town, 627 of whom were Jewish. In 1897 there were 1685 inhabitants and of these, 814 were Jewish. According to the census carried out in the interwar period, in 1921 there were 648 Jews living in the town. Just before the outbreak of the war, in 1935 the town had 2000 inhabitants, with a Jewish population of 894. After September 17, 1939 there were 1275 Jews in the town .
Jews lived mainly near the marketplace, and between the marketplace and the Jewish cemetery. The Rabbi lived right next to the synagogue. Near the synagogue there was a small prayer house and a bathhouse. The last Rabbi of Milejczyce was Rabbi Aron Izaac.
In the interwar period, Milejczyce was the main holiday resort for Jewish people, who came primarily from Białystok and Warsaw, but also from Western Europe. The town was considered a health resort; its forests had a healing effect on the respiratory tract which was supposed to help people with tuberculosis. In 1927 a big synagogue existing till this day was set up due to the large influx of Jewish patients. In the interwar period, around 2100 people lived here. One of the main sources of income was farming and selling food to people staying there for therapeutic reasons or to get some rest. The number of visitors during the season - mainly Jews - was between two to four thousand.
In 1942 a ghetto was set up in Milejczyce and around 900 Jews were placed there. At that time, around 90 Jewish houses were demolished.
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(...)
Farming
Farming and sheep-herding were the two main occupations of the ancient Israelites. All the major Jewish holidays were originally related to agriculture, connected to the harvests of various crops (yearly rituals). In medieval Europe, the Jews who were directly subject to the monarch and belonged to his treasury (servi camerae), settled primarily in the towns that were centers of the monarch's power.(...)
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(...)
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.(...)
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(...)
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