In 1771, there was a synagogue or prayer room (which was confirmed in a document dated 30 October 1810 by the community elders Abraham ben Akiba and Salomon ben Jacob). The city authorities gave official approval for the synagogue on 22 February 1782.

The community in Książ was not particularly large. In 1797, 73 Jews lived here, in 1840 - 219, in 1849 - 200 (approx. 20%), in 1857 - 200, in 1871 - 182, in 1880 - 153, in 1890 - 141 (30 families), in 1895 - 113, in 1901 - 100, in 1905 - 91, in 1907 - 52 (12 families), in 1913 - 43, in 1921 - 14 (1.5%). Between 1834 and 1835, there were only eight naturalized Jews, including the sub-rabbi Baruch Moses Jaskulski. In 1842, naturalization patents were granted to 10 Jews and toleration patents to 38. During the revolt of 1848, three Jews were members of the Polish National Committee (Jakub Hirsch, Fabian Bernstein, Matulke Gotlob), and two more were members of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety (Polish: Rewolucyjny Komitet Bezpieczeństwa). Jewish doctors (Sigismund Dembitz, Elias Wachtel) treated wounded insurgents, for which they were later arrested.

The wooden synagogue building burned down in 1848 during the shooting that led to the town fire. Jewish homes were also destroyed (52 families lost their homes), a school and the community archive. The new brick synagogue and school were opened on 4 October 1849. It was located at today's Wolności Street (Polish: ul. Wolności). In September 1921, after the community was depopulated, the building was sold to the town. It was devastated during World War II. After the war, the authorities demolished the synagogue and used the acquired timber to build a fire station for the voluntary fire brigade. The community also had a ritual bathhouse built between 1867 and 1868, and a Jewish school. 25 pupils used it in 1893 and 15 in 1899; the teachers were: M. Thilo (1887), J. Goldberg (1899) and Löb (1905). In 1905, the school was closed for lack of pupils.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the municipal authorities were: Mordechai Kantorowicz, M. Kunz, Julius Tuch, S. Baruch, S. Jaroczynski, J. Kallmann. Two brotherhoods were also active: Chevra Kadisha funeral brotherhood (Chevra Kadischa Verein) and Ner Tamid synagogue brotherhood (Ner-Tamid Verein). The first was headed from 1899 by Baruch Jaroczynski, the second by Louis Kwilecki.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery was established in the Old Polish period, probably in the 18th century, although an earlier date cannot be excluded. Community documents that could have settled the issue were burnt in the town fire of 1848. With a trapezoidal plan, the cemetery was located on a plot of land currently owned by the State Forests (Forestry Commission of Jarocin) between Gogolewska and Zakrzewska Streets, approximately 0.5 km from the town in the direction of Zakrzewice. From 1888, it was surrounded by a fence. It is known that among others, Schie (Yehoshua) ben Abraham Hepner, who died on 25 Nisan 5632 (i.e., 1872) at the age of over 100 years, was buried here.

The Germans entirely devastated the necropolis, probably in the spring of 1940. The material was used to pave the pavement around the Evangelical Church (now St. Anthony of Padua Church) and make kerbstones in Stacha Wichury Street (Polish: ul. Stacha Wichury). The fence has probably been demolished, as it still appears on plans from 1933.

In the 1980s, during repairs to the pavement around the church, some matzevot were unearthed, most likely taken to a landfill site in Włościejewice. By chance, only one fragment of the gravestone has survived. Members of the Our Commune Association secured further gravestones in March 2019, during repair work on the pavement around the church. They saved 115 fragments. Work is currently underway to commemorate the necropolis and build a lapidarium in the cemetery. An information board was put up in February/March 2020.

References

• Z. Guldon, J. Wijaczka, Osadnictwo żydowskie w województwach poznańskim i kaliskim w XVI-XVII wieku, "Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego" 1992, no. 2-3.
• Heppner, A. Herzberg, Aus Verganheit und Gegenwart der Juden und der jüdischen Gemeinden in den Posener Landen, Koschmin – Bromberg 1904–1909. 1018–1020.

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.