The Jewish community started to develop intensively after the town's incorporation in 1547, and especially after the privilege granted by its owner, Andrzej Leszczyński, on 10 March 1626. In 1656, 400 Jewish families lived in the town - about 4,000 people. During the Polish-Swedish War (1655-1660), Stefan Czarniecki’s army murdered as many as 300 of them, and another 100 families fled to the Reich.

The community quickly revived - in 1676, there were already 623 Jews (19.6% of the total population). Growth continued despite subsequent natural disasters and destruction of the Jewish quarter, including fires on 11 August 1767 and 2 June 1790. (in the latter, 196 Jewish houses were burnt down). In 1765, there were 4,724 Jews in Leszno, in 1770 - 3,600, in 1775 - 2,547, in 1779 - 2,456.

In a short time, the municipality became one of the largest in the Republic. In the 18th century, the Jews of Leszno, after the financial collapse of the Jewish Community Co-operative in Poznań, took control of the lands of Greater Poland. From 1714 to 1764, the Jewish Community Co-operative of Leszno represented the Jews of Wielkopolska in the Sejm of Four Lands. Development was facilitated by a position in regional and supra-regional trade. Jews from Leszno were regular visitors at fairs in Leipzig, Frankfurt, Berlin, Gdansk, Königsberg, St. Petersburg, Jarosław, Brody. They maintained regular contacts with Turkey, Persia and Russia. Along with economic success, culture, art and science were developed. In 1767, there were seven yeshivas in operation. One of them, the so-called rabbinical school, was highly respected in Europe. Hundreds of people from Poland, Moravia, Bohemia and Prussia studied there. In 1798, there were 53 students (bachurim). Rabbis from Leszno later held rabbinates in essential European communities in France, the Netherlands, England, Germany or Italy. Among the most famous rabbis of the 18th-19th centuries were Mordechai Hirsh, Abraham Abush Lissa, David Tevele, Yakov Lorbeerbaum, Akiva Eiger, Rafael Kosz and Ludwig Kalisch. In the middle of the 19th century, there were still over 20 houses of prayer and 18 Jewish bookshops in Leszno.

In 1792, the reconstruction of the Jewish quarter began, in the shape that survived until the 20th century. Interestingly, the quarter was formally liquidated, because they could already live in the whole Leszno area. Many people, especially the better off and those in favour of modernisation, took advantage of this opportunity.

Despite its size, the community's importance began to decline in the 19th century due to demographic changes. In 1789, 4,500 Jews lived in Leszno, in 1793 - 2,991 (43.9% of the total population), in 1800 - 3,677 (40%), in 1833 - 3,960, in 1840 - 3,466 (39.2%), in 1858 - 2,578 (27%), in 1861 - 2,370 (25.7%), in 1871 - 1,889 (18%), in 1895 - 1,206 (8.9%), in 1903 - 1,210 (8,5%). At the same time, the municipality was heavily in debt; in 1842, the debt reached 72,230 thalers. In order to pay off the debts, one of its members, Dawid Mankiewicz, bought at auction the entire infrastructure, which consisted of the synagogue, the firehouse, the kahal house, the ritual baths, the hospital, the trade butcher’s shops, the pre-burial house, the gravedigger’s house and the cemetery, and returned it to the community.

Throughout the 19th century, Haskalah supporters grew in strength. In 1842, 416 Jews held naturalisation patents, and 523 toleration patents. Many young Talmudists moved away from formal studies in the Ashkenazi tradition to a synthetic approach to Judaism, blending the old with the new. Those less religious were eager to send their sons to the secondary school in Leszno. In 1830, Jews constituted 5% of the total number of pupils, at the end of the 1840s - over 30% - more than 30%. In 1848, a Jewish school for girls and boys was established, surviving until 1921. At first, it had about 450 children (6 teachers), in 1861 - 291, in 1920 - 39 (1).

However, the influence of religious traditionalists remained significant until the 1860s-70s. As late as 1842, there were still two beit-ha-midrashim, and sermons in German were given in the synagogue only twice a year. From about 1870, there was a yeshiva where Rabbi Imanuel Deitsch taught from 1898 to 1900, followed by Samuel Baeck and Siegfried Gelles.

Jewish associations were active in the community, firstly confraternities and guilds with their own houses of prayer, and later secular associations, often of self-help and charitable nature. These confraternities were framed in the 19th century as associations: Chevra Kadisha, Metahare Hamessim (from 1787), Nos’e Hamittoh (from 1787), Kabronim (from the 1870s). Over time, the following organisations were added to this list. Pension Fund (Alter-Versorgungsanstalt), Society for the Emolument of Israeli Students (Verein zur Bekleidung israelitischer Schüler), Society for the Emolument of Girls (Mädchen-Bekleidungs-Verein), The Society for the Supply of Wood and Coal (Holz und Kohlenvert Verein), the Sachs Foundation for Teacher Training (Sachs'sche Stiftung zur Heranbildung von Lehrern), Harmonia, the Society for Jewish History and Literature (Verein für jüdische Geschichte und Literatur).

Although, after 1945, many buildings in the Jewish quarter (in Narutowicza Street (Polish: ul. Narutowicza)) were demolished, traces of the Jewish splendour in Leszno can still be found. The new synagogue was built between 1796 and 1799, renovated in 1867 and 1891, and thoroughly rebuilt in 1904-1905. The building survived despite its devastation during World War II and the Polish People’s Republic period. There are also buildings of the former house of prayer and yeshiva at 4 Średnia Street (Polish: ul. Średnia 4) (from around 1750), Jewish Common School (ul. Krasińskiego 22 (Polish: ul. Krasińskiego 22)), ritual slaughterhouse (ul. Narutowicza 47 (Polish: ul. Narutowicza 47)), Wollheim Foundation building (ul. Krasińskiego 11 (Polish: ul. Krasińskiego 11)), where a hospital, a shelter, an old people’s home and the headquarters of the “Bnei Brith” operated, the Sachs Foundation building (5 Narutowicza Street), the matzah bakery building in Łaziebna Street (Polish: ul. Łaziebna), and the post-factory buildings of Jewish entrepreneurs at 36 Narutowicza Street or 1 Skarbowa Street (Polish: ul. Skarbowa). The Jewish cemetery has also survived.

The incorporation of Leszno into Poland led to mass emigration of local Jews to Germany and stagnated the community. In 1920, 505 Jews lived in the town (2.9%), in 1928 - only 161 (1.3%), and in 1938 - 184 (1%) - 184 (1%). There were no funds for activities, and in 1932 the shrinking commune was burdened with additional costs after 11 liquidated communes enlarged its borders from the districts of Leszno, Kościan, Rawicz and Gostyn. Among other things, the organ from the synagogue was sold. The Society for Jewish History and Literature was the only one to continue its activities, and in 1934 the local charitable brotherhood Gemilut Chesed was founded. The school was abolished in 1921, and its pupils continued their education in the Evangelical school and later in the common schools.

After the outbreak of war in 1939, some of Leszno’s Jews fled the town into the depths of Poland, while others (172?) The Germans deported him in December 1939 to Sokołów Podlaski, Sarnaki and Tomaszów Mazowiecki. During the German occupation, a labour camp for Jews (Judenlager) operated from April 1941 to 28 August 1943. Its prisoners were brought from the Łódź Ghetto; they worked on behalf of the German Reichsbahn. The camp was located on what is now Narutowicza Street.

The Description

The Jewish cemetery in Leszno was established in 1626 at the present address of 14 Jana Pawła II Street (Polish: ul. Jana Pawła II 14). Its area was 2.7 hectares, and its original shape resembled an inequilateral trapezium. In the 19th century, it was adjacent to the military barracks. It was destroyed during World War II by the Germans, and the broken tombstones were used to pave local roads. In the 1970s, blocks of flats and a car park (today’s Grunwaldzka and Włodarczaka streets (Polish: ul. Grunwaldzka and Włodarczaka) were built on an area of over 2 ha. In 1993, the District Museum undertook conservation work on the remaining part of the cemetery, on an equilateral rhombus plan with an area of 0.5 ha. They collected about 350-400 fragments of matzevot (352 from Leszno, 15 from Borek Wielkopolski, 2 from Rydzyna), which were placed by the surviving pre-burial house from the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1993 and 2004, the house housed the Department of Jewish Studies exhibition, which was later moved to the synagogue in 31 Narutowicza Street. Some of the most valuable matzevot are on display. Currently, in the old pre-burial house, there is a branch of the Municipal Public Library in Leszno. The oldest contemporary gravestone dates from 1700 to 1939. Before the cemetery’s destruction, the oldest gravestones were from the 17th century. The cemetery area was cleaned up (green areas) and fenced with wrought metal elements on a brick foundation with posts. In 1992, it was entered in the register of monuments (787/Wlkp/A). Outside the necropolis, there is also a gravedigger’s house from the beginning of the 20th century, and the present address is 4 Estkowskiego Street (Polish: ul. Estkowskiego 4), also entered in the register of monuments.

References

• D. Czwojdrak, Z dziejów ludności żydowskiej w południowo-zachodniej Wielkopolsce, Grabonóg 2004;
• Z. Guldon, J. Wijaczka, Ludność żydowska w Wielkopolsce w drugiej połowie XVII wieku, [in:] Żydzi w Wielkopolsce na przestrzeni dziejów, Poznań 1995;
• 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.
• S. Kemlein, Żydzi w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim 1815-1848, Poznań 2001;
• L. Lewin, Geschichte der Juden in Lissa, Pinne 1904.
• M. Maćkowiak, Żydzi w Lesznie, Leszno 2006.

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